The volumes of waste going to disposal at the UK’s low-level radioactive waste repository site in Cumbria, northwest England, have been driven down greatly by applying a “waste hierarchy” policy that saved nearly £60m (€71m, $77m).

Nuclear Waste Services (NWS), the government body responsible for radioactive waste management in the UK, said that by using the policy it is diverting 98% of waste from disposal at the repository.

The hierarchy policy helps to identify ways to avoid creating waste, to better characterise materials, identify new opportunities to re-use or recycle materials, and physically reduce the volume of the remaining waste.