Recommendation Group 6
Recommendation Group 6
REFLECTIONS ON THE INFLUENCE OF THE LOCAL ACTORS ON THE NATIONAL NUCLEAR WASTE MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK
REFLECTIONS ON THE INFLUENCE OF THE LOCAL ACTORS ON THE NATIONAL NUCLEAR WASTE MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK
Searching for the location of risky or unpleasant objects is becoming increasingly difficult task. Slovenia is for the number of years now in the process of search for the location of the low and intermediate waste (LILW) repository. Social acceptability of this facility is currently the main problem in this search. Efforts in this direction are presented in all its diversity, with weaknesses and successes, addressing also the context of the whole process, but especially considering different aspects of public participation.
The development of radioactive waste repositories involves consideration of how the waste and the
engineered barrier systems will evolve, as well as the interactions between these and, often relatively
complex, natural systems. The timescales that must be considered are much longer than the timescales
that can be studied in the laboratory or during site characterisation. These and other factors can lead to
various types of uncertainty (on scenarios, models and parameters) in the assessment of long-term,
To solve the still open question of high-level radioactive waste disposal, the countries having made the greatest progress in this
field usually choose to carry out comparing selection procedures including broad involvement of the public. This is a central
result of the “RepoSafe”symposium which took place from November 6 to 9, 2007, in Braunschweig. Within the scope of
this symposium, internationally leading experts, invited by the Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS) and Gesellschaft
The 7th Forum on Stakeholder Confidence (FSC) National Workshop and Community Visit was held on 7-9 April 2009 in Bar-le-Duc, France. It was organized with teh assistance of the CLIS (the Local Information and Oversight Committee) and the financial and logistical support of Andra, France's National Agency for the Management of Radioactive Waste.
As outlined in the overall program for high-level waste (HLW) management in Japan, defined by the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), HWL separated from spent nuclear fuel during reprocessing will be immobilized in a glass matrix and stored for a period of 30 to 50 years to allow cooling; it will then be disposed of in a stable deep geological formation.
The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (NWPA) established a program to deal comprehensively with the waste byproducts of nuclear power generation, as well as defense-related radioactive wastes, if appropriate. Under this program, the federal Department of Energy (DOE) must locate and develop a site for disposal of high-level radioactive wastes in a geologic setting capable of isolating them from adverse public and environmental exposure for at least 10,000 and up to 100,000 years.
The structure of the Fourth National Report complies with the Guidelines Regarding the
Form and Structure of National Reports (INFCIRC/604/Rev.1).
Section A describes the scope of the nuclear activity developed in Argentina since 1950
as well as the legal and regulatory framework. It also makes reference to the Strategic
Plan for Radioactive Waste Management (Strategic Plan), which refers to the safety of
Spent Fuel Management and Radioactive Waste Management.
The primary objective of government policy, and of NUMO in implementing this policy, is to
ensure that a repository for Japan’s high-level radioactive waste is located so as to provide
secure isolation of the waste and adequate safety for present and future generations. This
means that the site has to be chosen carefully, taking full account of all its characteristics. In
order to address these characteristics in an orderly and structured manner, we have established
The effective termination of the Yucca Mountain program by the U.S. Administration in 2009 has further delayed the construction and operation of a permanent disposal facility for used fuel and high level radioactive waste (HLW) in the United States. In concert with this decision, the President directed the Energy Secretary to establish the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future to review and provide recommendations on options for managing used fuel and HLW.
Solving the United States' high level nuclear waste<br/>disposal dilemma is vital to our energy independence and<br/>economic growth. The issue has been stalled for decades and<br/>presently faces enormous political obstacles despite renewed<br/>government effort to achieve a solution.
Radioactive waste is produced from a wide range of human activities. The wastes arising from the nuclear fuel cycle occur as a wide range of materials and in many different physical and chemical forms, contaminated with varying activities of radionuclides. Their common feature is the potential hazard associated with their radioactivity and the need to manage them in such a way as to protect the human environment. The safe disposal of radioactive waste is a key reequirement of the nuclear industry worldwide.
News item from NEI summarizing siting process for nuclear waste repositories in Sweden, Finland and France.
Approximately 54,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel are stored at operating nuclear power
plants and several decommissioned power plants throughout the country. Spent fuel
storage at these sites was never intended to be permanent. The current Federal plan is to
place the fuel in a repository for permanent disposal in Nevada at Yucca Mountain.
Recently, appropriations committees in Congress suggested building one or more Federal
sites for consolidated interim storage of spent fuel. Several reasons were identified. The
Yucca Mountain—that barren rise in the desert ninety miles from Las Vegas—is the nation‘s only site identified for the potential location of the first ge ological repository for commercially-generated HLNW and SNF. Many assume
that Yucca Mountain has geologic and climatic qualities that make it uniquely
suitable to isolate the thousands of metric tons of the world‘s most lethal, long lived waste currently accumulating at 104 operating nuclear power plants across the United States.
Unfortunately, Yucca Mountain is an exceptionally bad site,
The voluntary siting process for the Monitored Retrievable Storage (MRS) facility set forth in the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act (NWPAA) of 1987 provides a potential host community a unique opportunity to improve its present situation and to gain greater control over its future.
U.S. efforts to site and construct a deep geologic repository for used fuel and high level radioactive waste (HLW) proceeded in fits and starts over a three decade period from the late 1950s until 1982, when the U.S. Congress enacted the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA). This legislation codified a national approach for developing a deep geologic repository. Amendment of the NWPA in 1987 resulted in a number of dramatic changes in direction for the U.S. program, most notably the selection of Yucca Mountain as the only site of the three remaining candidates for continued investigation.
The effective termination of the Yucca Mountain program by the U.S. Administration in 2009 has left the U.S. program for management of used fuel and high level radioactive waste (HLW) in a state of uncertainty.
The West Cumbria Managing Radioactive Waste Safely (MRWS) Partnership was set up
to consider the issues that would be involved in taking part in a search to see if there is
anywhere in the Allerdale and/or Copeland areas suitable for a repository for higher activity
radioactive waste.
Over the last three years we have looked at reports and literature, heard from experts in the
field, commissioned independent research and invited reviews by independent experts.
We have placed a high priority on public and stakeholder engagement (PSE), carrying out
Nuclear waste disposal in the USA is a difficult policy issue infused with
science, technology, and politics. This issue provides an example of the co-production
of scientific knowledge and politics through public policy. The proponents of a
repository site at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, argue that their decision to go ahead
with the site is based on ‘sound science’, but the science they use to uphold their
decision is influenced by politics. In turn, the politics of site selection has been altered
Beginning with the role of "stakeholders" - those whose interests are, knowingly or unknowingly, affected - in the siting of noxious facilities, this paper seeks to develop principles for acceptable and democratically arrived at polices related to problems associated with advances in and products of science and technology. Although widely regarded as a necessary condition for success, the principles underpinning stakeholder involvement, such as representativeness, are often violated in practice.
The aim of the Forum’s first workshop was to establish contacts amongst Forum participants and
to lay the basis of its future programme and methods of work. In order to give guidance to the FSC
and, at the same time, to give this initiative high-level input and visibility, the workshop was preceded
by a half-day inaugural event. Members of the NEA Radioactive Waste Management Committee and
invited speakers provided their perspectives in the area of stakeholder confidence. Over the following