Engineering development and environmental law

The legal regulation of processes that affect the environment has been influenced by engineering development and vice versa. Three specific aspects of environmental law are identified where engineering development, primarily in the field of nuclear energy, has led to the implementation of formal regulation through environmental law. Firstly, the author deals with the decision making process to determine whether a project should proceed and how it should be developed, i.e. the feasibility study. Secondly, the author discusses the licensing of processes that are potential environmental polluters. The third discussed area is the concept of optimisation-achieving the lowest reasonably practicable release or exposure to a hazardous substance.