Radiation Protection Today Winter 2021 | Page 6

Doing Safety

Sustainably

Kathryn Ambrose works as a Sustainability Manager for Sellafield Ltd . She was the recipient of the 2021 SRP Young Professionals ' Award ( YPA ) for her work highlighting the role of Sustainability in the Safety Profession and will represent the UK in the YPA competition which will be held during the European IRPA Congress in Budapest in 2022 .
S
P
R
RISING GENERATIONS GROUP
Over the decades in which the Sellafield nuclear site has been in operation , views of radiological safety have varied . The history is entangled with the politics of the day , and spans being the birthplace of commercial nuclear energy in the 1950s and a lucrative deal for global spent nuclear fuel reprocessing in the 1980s . The move of
Sellafield Ltd back into Government ownership in 2016 heralded a new focus , with emphasis on the need to progress remediation and consider sustainability issues in addition to safety .
Governments and organisations are increasingly thinking about their legacy by incorporating sustainability into how they operate . UK legislation now governs carbon net-zero transition and delivering social value . Sustainability can feel like a buzzword , the latest fad that will soon fade away . However , the topic is more familiar to the radiation protection profession than it may initially seem , as it covers Environmental , Social and Governance ( ESG ) topics .
The most widely accepted definition is that sustainability focuses on meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs . An organisation cannot be sustainable without protecting the environment and the health , safety , and wellbeing of workers and the public . This is highlighted with the United
6 Radiation Protection Today www . srp-rpt . uk