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
Second Review Meeting, Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management, written questions submitted to Luxembourg
Luxembourg has signed the Joint Convention on 1st October 1997 and is a Party thereof since 19 November 2001. The Convention entered into force on 21 June 2001. Luxembourg has no nuclear power plant, no other fuel-cycle facility, no research reactor and no other facility generating radioactive substances. Thus many requirements of the Joint Convention do not apply to Luxembourg. It further has no spent nuclear fuel and no high level radioactive waste on its territory.
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.
Luxembourg has signed the Joint Convention on 1st October 1997 and is a Party thereof since 19 November 2001. The Convention entered into force on 21 June 2001. Luxembourg has no nuclear power plant, no other fuel-cycle facility, no research reactor and no other facility generating radioactive substances. Thus many requirements of the Joint Convention do not apply to Luxembourg. It further has no spent nuclear fuel and no high level radioactive waste on its territory.
Historically, electricity generated in Switzerland came exclusively from hydropower without any recourse to fossil fuels, the latter not being available as a natural resource in the country. In the mid 1950's, an interest in the relatively new nuclear energy technology was manifested to cover an increasing electricity demand. In accordance with the general policy concerning the production of electricity, the promotion and use of nuclear energy was left to the initiative of the private sector.
The first world wide review of the geological problems in radioactive waste isolation was published by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in 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 9-19,1989 in Washington, D.C.
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.
Second Review Meeting, Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management, Answers to the Questions of Contracting Parties on the National Report submitted by Luxembourg
The Swiss Federal Nuclear Safety Inspectorate (ENSI) is the regulatory authority for nuclear safety and security of the nuclear installations in Switzerland. ENSI issues guidelines either in its capacity as regulatory authority or based on a mandate in an ordinance. Guidelines are support documents that formalise the implementation of legal requirements and facilitate uniformity of implementation practices. They further concretise the state-of-the-art in science and technology.
The year 2011 was the year that marked the global nuclear industry and influenced the attitudes and activities of many professional, scientific and commercial organizations and spurred public interest in this branch of industry. Probably the whole world reacted to the natural disaster that struck Japan and damaged the nuclear power plant at Fukushima, Slovakia not excluded.
The conceptual part of the sectoral plan for deep geological repositories defines the goals of the federal government in this area and the procedures and criteria to be applied in selecting sites for deep geological repositories for all categories of waste in Switzerland. The focus of the site selection process is on safetybased criteria, with land use and socio-economic aspects playing a secondary role.
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.
Council Directive 2011/70/EURATOM of 19 July 2011 establishing a Community framework for the responsible and safe management of spent fuel and radioactive waste
Worldwide activities related to the storage of spent (irradiated) nuclear power reactor fuel and highly-radioactive, long-lived wastes are summarized, with a review of the storage programs and plans of 26 nations. The focus of the report is on the application of dry storage techniques to spent fuel, although dry storage of long-lived wastes is also reviewed.