Sellafield Limited applied to the Environment Agency to vary its radioactive substances activity permit in July 2023.

The radioactive substances activity permit controls receipt and disposal of radioactive waste and imposes conditions and limits on radioactive discharges to the environment.

We asked for your comments during a consultation on the application from 7 August to 3 September 2023.

When we consulted, we explained that we could not take account of anything outside the scope of the Environmental Permitting Regulations. For example, Government policy and Nuclear Decommissioning Authority strategies impacting on Sellafield operations.

During the consultations we shared information and explained that, once we had assessed all the information and responses received during the consultation, we would produce a decision document for the permit variation. We emphasised that we would not make any final decisions until we had considered all relevant responses to the consultation.

We received 64 responses from organisations and members of the public.

All responses to our consultation (if the respondent gave permission) are published on this page.

Information about which organisations responded and how each response has been considered is included in our final decision document.

We would like to thank everyone who responded to the consultations.

We have assessed the permit application, reviewed the evidence, and carefully considered the responses we received from consultation.

Our final decision is that we should grant the permit variation the operator has requested. We have added new plant notification levels and conditions in the permit to protect people and the environment.

The final permit and decision document are published below.