Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) Brochure
Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) Brochure
JAEA Brochure
JAEA Brochure
Nuclear facilities in Japan are as listed in the following table, the details of which are described in Section D.
The European Atomic Energy Community (“Euratom”) is a regional organisation, as referred to in Article 39(4) of the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management. It became a party to the Convention on 2 January 2006. This report is submitted in compliance with Articles 30 and 32 of the Convention for the Second Review Meeting of the Contracting Parties, to be held in Vienna from 15 to 26 May 2006.
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.
The constraints set by the Japanese HLW disposal programme – particularly associated with
the decision to initiate siting by an open call for volunteers to host a geological repository –
pose particular challenges for repository project management. In order to maintain the
flexibility required to respond to the conditions found at volunteer sites, NUMO has not
published reference designs or site characterisation plans, as is normal for programmes
progressing by site nomination. Instead, we have developed a methodology – the NUMO
Nuclear facilities in Japan are listed in Table A1-1, the details of which are described in Section D.<br/>The overview of spent fuel management and radioactive waste management and the current<br/>status of the preparation of radioactive waste disposal regulation system are shown in Table<br/>A1-2 and Table A1-3 respectively.
Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management, National Report of Japan for the Third Review Meeting - Annexes
History shows that the search for sites for radioactive waste management facilities has been marred by conflicts and delays. Affected communities have often objected that their concerns and interests were not addressed. In response, institutions have progressively turned away from the traditional “decide, announce and defend” model, and are learning to “engage, interact and co-operate”. This shift has fostered the emergence of partnerships between the proponent of the facility and the potential host community, as shown in a recent NEA study.
On 10 March 1999, The Netherlands signed the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management, which was subsequently formally ratified on 26 April 2000 and entered into force on 18 June 2001. The Joint Convention obliges each contracting party to apply widely recognized principles and tools in order to achieve and maintain high standards of safety during management of spent fuel and radioactive waste.
Over the past forty years, the development of the technology needed to isolate radioactive waste in underground rock systems has been found to be a formidable problem. This is especially the case in connection with high-level waste (HLW) after its removal from operations in nuclear power plants. There is also the additional problem of isolating low- and intermediate-level waste (LILW).
The first worldwide review of geological problems in radioactive waste isolation was published by the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) in 1991 (Witherspoon, 1991). This review was a compilation of reports that had been submitted to a workshop held in conjunction with the 28th International Geological Congress that took place July 9Ð19, 1989, in Washington, D.C.
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 designed and located so as to provide secure isolation of the waste and adequate safety for present and future generations. This requires that the site of a repository has to be chosen carefully and an associated repository concept is selected which is appropriate for its specific geological and environmental conditions. At NUMO, we have chosen to implement a volunteering approach to siting.
During the 1990s, nuclear waste programmes in nearly every concerned country met many difficulties. Nuclear waste management was seen as a technical issue, and the local communities were only involved in the last stage of the decision-making process when almost all components of the decision were already fixed. The management of high level radioactive waste is now recognised as a complex decision-making process entailing technical, ethical, social, political and economic dimensions where no solution can be reached solely on the basis of technical considerations.
This report aims to clarify the dynamics of socio-technical challenges in the implementation of geological disposal (GD) for High Level Waste (HLW) and Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF). Drawing on the 14 country reports produced within InSOTEC’s WP1 the synthesis focuses on socio-technical challenges that appear across national contexts. The synthesis report elucidates issues made visible through bringing together the analyses of different national contexts.
Many nations and international agencies are working to develop improved technology and industrial capability for nuclear fuel cycle and waste management operations. The effort in some countries is limited to research in university laboratories on treating low-level waste from reactor plant operations.
The National Report on Fulfilment of the Obligations of the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management is prepared in ful- filment of Slovenia‘s obligation as a Contracting Party to this Convention.
The National Report on Fulfilment of the Obligations of the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management is prepared in fulfilment of Slovenia's obligation as a Contracting Party to this Convention.
Answers to questions raised by other contracting parties under the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management were prepared by the Slovenian Nuclear Safety Administration, the Kr_ko NPP, the Agency for Radwaste Management and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Spatial Planning.