The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority

Introduction

This Guide is intended to explain the nature of the different types of information available via the Radioactive Waste Management Bibliography.

Much of the information generated by Nirex from the research programmes related to the management of radioactive wastes is presented as reports and other documents. There is a wide range of such documents, many of which have been subjected to high levels of review and scrutiny and released into the public domain. Five categories of documents have been defined based on the way in which they have been generated and reviewed. The five categories of documents are:

• Reports and Documents Reports and documents that have been through a formally documented review and approval procedure by Nirex and then released into the public domain.
• External Publications Documents submitted for external publication by Nirex or its contractors. These are subject to peer review by the editorial staff of the publication concerned.
• Contractors' Reports to Nirex Reports that have been prepared by contractors under their formally documented quality assurance procedures, but which have not been formally reviewed or approved for use by Nirex.
• Nirex Study Papers Study papers that have been prepared by Nirex under documented quality assurance procedures.
• Discussion Papers and Documents Discussion papers or documents describing work in progress, produced by either Nirex or its contractors.

Such documents have not been subjected to documented review and approval procedures.

Bibliography of Publications (Categories A, B and C)

The Bibliography of Publications, listing our reports and papers to journals and conferences covered by Categories A and B, will be updated continually and will be made available online. Contractors' reports commissioned since mid-1999, covered by Category C, will be treated in a similar way, as described below. The Bibliography of Publications will also be published at least annually as a report.

The Bibliography of Publications lists reports coming within several numbered series. These series are described below.

Nirex Reports (Numbered Series)

These reports cover a wide range of subjects and were produced largely during the period 1982 to 1994. They are identified as 'Nirex Report nnn', where 'nnn' is the report number. Apart from the reports in this series that have been released by Nirex into the public domain, the listing also identifies as "Number not used" those report numbers that our records show were never allocated to reports, those numbers that were allocated to reports that were planned but never produced (for which a brief explanation is given) and those numbers that were allocated to reports that contained third-party commercially-sensitive information as described in our Code of Practice on Access to Information. Nirex aims, as far as possible, to narrow down the number of reports whose release is constrained by commercial confidentiality. Reports in this last category are under discussion with waste producers regarding their continued status as commercial-in-confidence documents, denoted by "Potentially commercial-in-confidence. Currently in discussion with waste producer(s)".

A small number of reports refer to sites other than Sellafield and Dounreay. Nirex's current position with regard to revealing information on such sites was outlined by Mr John Battle MP, on 10 June 1997, in response to a Parliamentary Question from Mr. Dale Campbell-Savours MP , asking for a site to be identified. "The Company has no plans to commence investigations at sites there or elsewhere. Revealing the location of potential sites in these circumstances could unnecessarily cause anxiety to people nearby." These reports are accordingly shown as "Restricted".

Finally, in preparing this Bibliography of Publications, Nirex has conducted an extensive search through the paper/electronic records to establish the exact position with respect to the allocation of report numbers. There are forty report numbers for which we have been unable to establish from the available records whether the report number was allocated or whether a report was written (since we have been unable to identify a title or locate a copy of a report having that number). These report numbers are denoted by "No record of being used.". If further information about these report numbers should come to light, this will be published as part of our ongoing commitment to make information available.

Nirex Science Reports (S/ Series)

The S/ series of reports have been produced since 1994 and are identified by a number in the series S/yy/nnn, where yy is the year of issue, e.g. 96 for a report produced in 1996, and nnn is a sequential number. All the reports in this series are public domain documents and therefore listed in the Bibliography. The majority of the S/ series reports are thematic summaries, although some detailed reports have been included in this series. The thematic summary reports provide references to the detailed reports that underpin them.

Nirex Science Reports (SA/series)

The SA/ series of reports have also been produced since 1994 and are identified by a number in the series SA/yy/nnn, where yy is the year of issue, e.g. 96 for a report produced in 1996, and nnn is a sequential number. All the reports in this series are public domain documents and therefore listed in the Bibliography. The majority of the reports in the SA/ series contain detailed results. However, there are some thematic summary reports in this series that generally contain sets of drawings summarising detailed results.

Nirex Safety Studies (NSS) Reports

Reports in this series (NSS/ reports) describe the results of research and safety assessment work undertaken mainly in the period 1986 to 1995. NSS/R reports describe the results of research undertaken as part of the Nirex Safety Assessment Research Programme. This is a programme of scientific research in support of the disposal of solid intermediate-level and certain low-level radioactive wastes in an underground repository. Typically the reports are 25 to 50 pages in length and present detailed results addressed to specialist scientific readers. The complete sequence of numbers, between NSS/R101 and NSS/R399, is accounted for in the Bibliography. Some numbers were allocated to reports that were never produced, generally because the information was incorporated into another report or publication. Some reports have been issued as contractor-approved reports rather than being progressed through to NSS/R status which involves a further review stage. Some reports are in draft and are still to be completed for publication either as NSS/R or contractor-approved reports. The final published form of each report is given in the Bibliography.

NSS/G reports are thematic summary reports that drew together the information contained in NSS/R reports and identified outstanding issues requiring new or further research. (Certain of the S/ series Nirex Science Reports have been developed to report this thematic summary information from 1995.) The sequence of numbers between NSS/G100 and NSS/G120 is complete. All NSS/G reports are listed in the Bibliography.

NSS/A reports present the results of assessment studies. From 1992 the results of assessment studies which had been subject to review and approval were reported in Nirex Reports and subsequently S/ series reports that are listed in the Bibliography.

NSS/B reports contain detailed information supporting assessment methodology and, in some cases, assessment calculations, and were classified as Commercial-in-Confidence. A number of these reports contain details of computer software or the trial applications of such software; this information is of commercial value and is not intended for publication. Such NSS/B reports accordingly will continue to be shown as Commercial-in-Confidence. Nirex would be willing to release such information on request for the specific purpose of implementing national radioactive waste management policy and has made such information available to the regulatory authorities and their contractors, for example. Some numbers were allocated to reports that were never produced, generally because the information was incorporated into another report or publication, and some reports have been issued as Contractor Reports to Nirex, without being formally reviewed or approved for use by Nirex. The publication status of each report will be given in the Bibliography.

Nirex Reports (N/ and NA/ Series)

Reports in this series have only been produced since late 1998. They are equivalent to the Nirex Science Reports produced up to end 1998, except that they are intended to cover a broader range of topics than science. All such reports are listed in the Bibliography.

Contractors' Reports to Nirex (Category C)

Generally, between mid-1987 and mid-1999, reports prepared by contractors were reviewed and approved for use by Nirex and so became Nirex reports. This was to make clear that Nirex was satisfied with the procedures under which the report was prepared and that its contents had been subject to a documented review and approval procedure where the review procedure often involved third-party experts who were independent of the preparation of the report. However, it was sometimes not an efficient use of resources to go through this review and approval procedure by Nirex, for example if the contractor was reporting a series of measurements which had been carried out under documented quality assurance procedures or if a report containing details of a contractor's working methods was required as a reference to support its use in a Nirex report. Therefore Nirex reports may rely on certain contractors' reports of this type which will be clearly referenced. All reports referenced in this way will be supplied on request and, more generally, most contractors' reports can be supplied on request in accordance with our Code of Practice on Access to Information.

Since mid-1999, Nirex has accelerated the process of reporting the results of work carried out by contractors by removing the final stage of its own documented review and approval procedure to create a Nirex report. Whilst Nirex remains responsible for specifying the work and ensuring it is carried out with appropriate quality assurance, consistent with the international standard ISO 9001, the results are presented as Contractors' Reports. All contractors' reports produced since the introduction of this procedure will be listed in the Bibliography.

This procedure is similar to that used for reporting results of the research programme until mid-1987. The contractors' reports produced in that earlier period will also be listed in the bibliography.

Generally, it is intended that the listing of contractors' reports will also include any earlier reports that were significant in the past development of the Nirex programme and were not published as Nirex reports.

Nirex Study Papers (Category D)

Nirex often finds it useful to collect information it holds into a study paper to provide an input to its research and assessment programme or to its work on matters that are subject to consultation. It is important that such information is appropriate for its intended use so study papers are prepared under documented quality assurance procedures. Those Nirex reports which rely on inputs in the form of such study papers will reference them clearly. All study papers referenced in this way will be supplied on request and, more generally, most study papers can be supplied on request in accordance with our Code of Practice on Access to Information.

In 2002, it was decided that all study papers will be prepared as Nirex Technical Notes. All study papers supporting Nirex inputs to recent consultations are in the form of Nirex Technical Notes and are listed in the Bibliography. Also listed are earlier Nirex Technical Notes which contain information that is not available or referenced in reports or publications.

Discussion Papers and Documents (Category E)

In undertaking research and assessment programmes, Nirex and its contractors find it useful to discuss ideas and progress which contribute to the completion of a package of work. All such discussions are taken into account when the work package is reported, usually in a document which comes into Categories A and B above and which would be listed in the Bibliography of Publications.

These discussions, and the information required to support them, are typically recorded in numbered series of documents to allow efficient referencing by those involved in the discussions. The numbering system is agreed by the organisation responsible for the work package and the relevant discussions; typically it is started by an acronym for the relevant area of work or the associated meetings. An example is the DSAT-series of documents, which was established by the contractor, AEA Technology - formerly UKAEA, responsible for managing the Nirex Disposal Safety Assessment Team (DSAT). A document in the DSAT-series is identified by a number in the series DSAT (yy) nnn, where yy is the year of issue, e.g. 96 for a document produced in 1996, and nnn is the sequential number. Nirex has encouraged the application of similar numbering systems to all such series of discussion documents. Typically the sequence of report numbers is not continuous as some numbers were not allocated to documents that were produced.

By their nature, documents in this category contain information which is not verified by being subject to a formal review and approval procedure. Historically, many contractors have reflected this position by classifying such documents as "Commercial-in-Confidence" or similar. Nevertheless most of these documents can be supplied upon request in accordance with our Code of Practice on Access to Information.

Digital Information

A large proportion of the data obtained by Nirex from the geological and hydrogeological investigations that have been carried out at specific sites has been collected and stored in digital form. The data from such activities as regional geological surveys and wireline geophysical surveys in boreholes are retained as digital data held on magnetic tapes and on other media.

The results of the various geological and hydrogeological surveys and tests have been analysed and interpreted. A large proportion of the data sets derived from this process of interpretation is also held in digital form in a series of databases. The major such database is the Nirex Digital Geoscience Database. This contains both numerical and spatial data, the latter held primarily as a series of maps and drawings. An overview of the Nirex Digital Geoscience Database, including its design and operation and the nature of data held, is contained in Nirex Science Report S/96/001. Other digital databases hold the results of the monitoring of groundwater pressures and the hydrochemical analyses of groundwater samples.

Since the cessation of site investigations, the digital data sets have largely been archived. Nevertheless, Nirex can supply data in digital form from existing databases and from magnetic media archives upon request in accordance with our Code of Practice on Access to Information. Since retrieval of the digital data can be a complex process potential users of digital data are invited to discuss their requirements with Nirex before data are formally requested.

Nirex is committed to making reports available in digital form. This will be a managed process, starting with the most recent reports and working back in time to create digital versions which will be made available 0n the Company's Web Site.