Application of the Data Quality Objective Process to the Partial De-Licensing at Oldbury Nuclear Power Station

Early in 2011 Oldbury Nuclear Power station in South West England applied to the Office of Nuclear Regulation (ONR) to de-license an area of over 30 hectares of licensed land. This is the largest area of licensed land in the UK to undergo this procedure. As part of the process the site prepared a safety case to support the submission to the ONR. Also there has been a requirement to do sampling and analysis to characterise the land and show that any radioactive contamination is below the criterion for de-licensing. This has been achieved through the successful application of the Data Quality Objective (DQO) process which enabled both site and regulators to agree on the quantity of samples and the degree of analysis. The ONR has now issued the variation to Oldbury in July 2011 de-licensing approximately 32 hectares of land from regulatory control. This Paper outlines the process including the decisions and criteria that have been applied to the Sampling and Analysis at Oldbury and the Treatment and Interpretation of the data.