Commentary on Sections Chapter 1: Nuclear Decommissioning Section 37: General interpretation of Chapter 1 of Part 1
151.Subsection (1) defines terms used in this Part of the Act. The definitions of “cleaning up” and “decommissioning” are drawn very broadly to include removing any substance or material (i.e. not just hazardous material) that needs to be removed in order to make the site or installation suitable for other purposes. What the other purpose should be for a particular site will be determined by the objectives for it set out in the strategy. Hazardous material is defined to include “nuclear matter” within the meaning of the Nuclear Installations Act 1965, “radioactive waste” within the meaning of the Radioactive Substances Act 1993 (see subsection (7)) and things that have been contaminated as a result of nuclear activities, as defined in section 36. It should be noted that the definition of “treat” in relation to hazardous material includes both the manufacture of nuclear fuel and the reprocessing of spent fuel. It is also worth noting that for the purposes of the Act a “facility” includes any, or all, of an installation, an undertaking or a business, and any vehicles or other property used for the purposes of an undertaking or business. Subsections (3) and (4) define a publicly owned company.
	“Nuclear material” is defined in section 26 of the Nuclear Installations Act 1965 (c.57) to mean—(a)“(a) any fissile material in the form of uranium metal, alloy or chemical compound (including natural uranium), or of plutonium metal, alloy or chemical compound, and any other fissile material which may be prescribed [by regulations made by the Secretary of State]; and(b)any radioactive material produced in, or made radioactive by exposure to the radiation incidental to, the process of producing or utilising any such fissile material as [mentioned in paragraph (a)];”.(c)The power to except types of matter from the definition in the Nuclear Installations Act 1965 is disregarded by section 37(7).
	“Radioactive waste” is defined in section 2 of the Radioactive Substances Act 1993 (c.12) to mean “waste which consists wholly or partly of—(a)a substance or article which, if it were not waste, would be radioactive material; or(b)a substance or article which has been contaminated in the course of the production, keeping or use of radioactive material, or by contact with or proximity to other waste falling within paragraph (a) or this paragraph.”.
	“Radioactive material” is defined in section 1 of the Radioactive Substances Act 1993 to mean (broadly) anything which is not waste but which is a substance possessing a degree of radioactivity as set out in Schedule 1 to that Act, or a substance which is radioactive—(a)due to a process of nuclear fission (or other process of subjecting a substance to bombardment by neutrons or to ionising radiations);(b)in consequence of the disposal of radioactive waste; or(c)by way of contamination in the course of the application of a process to some other substance.