The data in this report does not contain a list of all radioactive waste in Australia. In line with government legislation, it is voluntary for radioactive waste holders to report their waste information with us.
ARWA has received inventory data on a voluntary basis unless otherwise noted. This includes information from sources like Australia’s Joint Convention reporting.
This is the best information available to ARWA currently.
When we collect data for the inventory, we ask for information including:
- waste types
- volumes
- activity levels
- details about waste origins and non-radiological properties.
What we did differently this year
For the 2021 report, we contacted organisations with small inventories through the relevant regulators to capture information about the types of waste they held. This broadened understanding about Australia’s radioactive waste management. ARWA captured more information about the types of waste stored by:
- schools
- universities
- hospitals
- research institutions
- industry.
We did not repeat this approach for the 2024 update. For this report, we have only collected data from Commonwealth waste holders and state and territory regulators. There are 2 main reasons for this:
- It is unlikely that such organisations’ scope and amount of waste inventory have changed significantly since the 2021 update.
- Reporting can be difficult for groups with limited resources in radiation protection or radioactive waste management.
In 2021, the report included some waste streams from smaller and non-government waste holders. In 2024, the data does not include these waste holders. However, it includes additional data from state and territory governments not collected in 2021.
How we present the data
In this report:
- units for activity levels are generally in MBq (mega-becquerel, or millions of becquerels) so that relatively small numbers remain visible. We use larger units for the activity breakdown by radionuclide and explain them in the relevant section.
- volumes are in cubic metre units (1 cubic metre = 1,000 litres).
- volumes are the estimates we received from waste holders and do not include volume uncertainties.
- all numbers are approximate and not exact values.
Who we requested data from
ARWA requested information from the major current and future Commonwealth radioactive waste holders in Australia. These waste holders included:
- the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO)
- the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)
- Department of Defence
- the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA)
- the Australian Submarine Agency (ASA).
ARWA also requested information from:
- other government agencies holding much smaller amounts of radioactive waste
- the relevant radiation protection regulators of each state and territory government.
Except for major waste holders (ANSTO, CSIRO, Defence, ARPANSA, and ASA), we group organisations in the following categories:
- state or territory government and regulators
- other Commonwealth government.
Commonwealth waste holders
The inventory information we collected from all major Commonwealth waste holders varied in its level of detail.
Most Commonwealth waste holders holding smaller amounts of waste also provided inventory information to ARWA. This includes the:
- Bureau of Meteorology
- National Measurement Institute
- Australian Institute of Marine Science.
State and territory regulator waste holders
Half of the state and territory regulators provided information on radioactive waste stored in their own facilities.
For the other states and territories, ARWA used information from Australia’s latest report to the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel and Radioactive Waste Management (the Joint Convention). ARPANSA collects this information and reports it to the Joint Convention on behalf of Australia.
Our inventory report aggregates information across all states and territories.
Submissions and governance
ARWA gives waste holders a detailed inventory template to help them collect and submit their data. Some submissions we received didn’t use our template or indicated different waste categories to the ones we use. In these cases, we categorised each waste stream based on its:
- key radionuclides
- total activity (if available)
- physical properties.
We will continue working with organisations to improve data collection and increase use of and understanding about how to use the template. This will improve the availability of key information in future updates.