Following consultation, the extended Part 2A regime including radioactivity came into force on 4 August 2006 (this was extended to include nuclear licensed sites in 2007). The regime also implements the requirements of articles 48 and 53 (concerned with ‘intervention’) of Council Directive 96/29/Euratom (BSS Directive). This lays down the basic safety standards to protect the health of workers and the general public against the dangers from ionising radiation.
The extended regime provides a system to identify and remediate land, where contamination is causing lasting exposure to radiation of human beings and where ‘intervention’ is liable to be justified.
The Industry profile series of documents provides background information on many of the activities which have given rise to land contamination, and on factors which may help identify sources of contamination. This is the industry profile specifically for land uses that may be subject to radiological contamination:
The Radioactively Contaminated Land Exposure Assessment (RCLEA) is the recommended model for radiation exposure assessments in connection with the Part 2A regime. It is based on the Contaminated Land Exposure Assessment (CLEA) methodology for non-radioactive contaminated land.
The RCLEA can be used to carry out initial screening assessments or as the sole modelling tool to determine land as radioactively contaminated, provided all the conditions in the statutory guidance are met. More information can be found on the Environment Agency: Radioactive contaminated land exposure assessment web page.