We have discussed previously that a community-based, asset-based approach is required to achieve any sense of how social sustainability can be defined in a community setting within the context of energy developments. Our approach aims to initiate a lasting change within 'energy' communities through building social capital; focusing on community assets not deficits to define their social priorities. Through deliberation, we develop an understanding of social sustainability so that a community is well placed to enter discussions with government and industry regarding large energy developments that will directly affect them.We review the 2015 Generic Design Assessment (GDA) Public Dialogue Pilot process for potential new nuclear reactors in the UK. We examine the aims of the dialogue, giving particular attention to a comparison between the national sampling of citizens for the GDA and the local community-based, deliberative approach we have proposed previously. We find an ongoing tension between 'national' engagement processes (such as the GDA Public Dialogue Pilot process) and the specific requirements of those energy communities that live adjacent or close to energy infrastructure, manifested here by a conflict between the requirements of the convenor and those of participants regarding priority issues for discussion. We also reveal a paradox; despite participant Society for Radiological Protection

Managing the removal of Radioactive Materials found in public locations. In January 2006 the Environment Agency for England and Wales requested assistance in preparing a project to plan, collect and safely dispose of radium painted aluminium aircraft hatches, discovered in 3 separate business premises in the UK. These World-War Two aircraft hatches had been marked with radium “luminous” paint, to guide crew in the dark to the escape exits if they needed to bale out. The hatches had been stored since the early 1960s in one location, with some of the inventory being moved two other locations in 2003/2004. The North West Region of the Environment Agency appointed a consortium of Enviros, Safeguard International and Aurora Health Physics to undertake the work, and they funded it from the sealed sources disposal budget. The paper will set out how the project was complicated by an assortment of “real world” problems; preliminary estimates of both the activity per hatch and the number of hatches established the potential for a significant quantity of radium to be disposed of safely. The total number of hatches was not known for sure at the start of the work. Access to retrieve the majority of the frames was hazardous due to the poor structural condition of the building roof. Other difficulties included constrained access under a railway line, and bird-related biohazards. The sites involved in the collections were not intended to house radioactive materials, so physical security was another important issue. Some of the hatches were known to be in poor condition, with a very high probability of radium contamination being spread to the surrounding areas. The hatches had to be removed from the sites before the full extent of contamination of other materials could be established. As it was difficult to identify a disposal route in the UK at the time for the estimated inventory, a novel metal recycling option, using a facility in the USA, was proposed as a solution. This was a new approach for dealing with such radioactive materials in the UK. The hatches were successfully recovered, sectioned appropriately and packaged for transport by road and air to the USA for metal recycling in June 2007. Subsequently approximately 0.75 tonnes of other contaminated materials were finally removed from the premises later in the year for authorised waste disposal in the UK.

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