Australian Radioactive Waste Agency

Australians benefit enormously from nuclear medicine and research activities. Around 2 in 3 Australians will use nuclear medicine in their lifetime. With these benefits comes a responsibility to safely manage radioactive waste.

Currently, Australia’s radioactive waste is stored in more than 100 locations around the country.

The Australian Radioactive Waste Agency (ARWA) is leading the process to:

• responsibly manage our nation’s radioactive waste
• deliver a single, safe and purpose-built facility

Read more about what we do and how we’re organised.

Managing radioactive waste

The Australian Radioactive Waste Management Framework sets out our principles, responsibilities and goals for effectively managing radioactive waste throughout its life cycle.

This work includes:

• enabling Australia to meet international obligations under the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and Safety of Radioactive Waste Management
• working with the independent regulator of Australian radioactive material, the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency, to ensure safety

Establishing a national radioactive waste management facility

We’re establishing the National Radioactive Waste Management Facility (NRWMF) in line with the National Radioactive Waste Management Act 2012.

The facility will:

• permanently dispose of low-level radioactive waste
• temporarily store intermediate-level waste

In February 2020, the government identified Napandee, near Kimba in South Australia, as the preferred site to host the facility. The National Radioactive Waste Management Amendment (Site Specification, Community Fund and Other Measures) Bill 2020 confirms this commitment.

We’ll lead a separate process to site a facility to permanently dispose of Australia’s intermediate-level waste.

Facility concept design

See a description of the concept design.

Delivering community benefits

The facility will provide a new industry for Kimba with:

• job opportunities during construction and ongoing
• improved infrastructure, including water, power, communications, transport and waste
• increased local investment

Kimba will receive a Community Development Package of up to $31 million. This package includes:

• $20 million community fund to provide long-term support for the region
• $8 million of grants to strengthen the economic and skills base of the host community
• $3 million from the government’s Indigenous Advancement Strategy will support Indigenous opportunity.

Communities considered during the site selection process will receive $2 million in grant funding this year through a Community Benefit Program.

Read more

• View news and media
• Read reports, independent assessments and community information
• Read about waste management principles on ANSTO’s website

Connect with us

Subscribe to our newsletter.

Contact us

• Email arwa [at] industry.gov.au
• Phone 13 28 46
• Write to us at: Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources; Australian Radioactive Waste Agency, GPO Box 2013, Canberra ACT 2601

See also

The site selection process for the facility involved community consultation and technical assessment over 4 years.

• See previous work by the National Radioactive Waste Management Facility Taskforce to select a site for the facility.
• Earlier work to nominate a site can be found on the Australia Government web archive. We’re aware there are discrepancies with data capture of some documents in the archive. If you’re having difficulty accessing any documents, please contact us.