News item from NEI summarizing siting process for nuclear waste repositories in Sweden, Finland and France.

Russia and Norway have signed contracts worth 100 million rubles ($2.9 million) to develop a system to deal with radioactive waste at the Andreeva Bay storage facility near Murmansk, the Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom said Tuesday.

On 29 September 1997 the Join Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management was open for signature at the headquarters of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. Brazil signed the Convention on October 11th, 1997 and ratified it by the Legislative Decree n. 1.019 of November 14th, 2005. Brazil deposited the instrument of ratification with the Depositary on 17 February 2006. The Convention objectives are to achieve and maintain a high level of nuclear safety worldwide in spent fuel and radioactive waste management.

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

The context of long-term radioactive waste management is being shaped
by changes in modern society. Values such as health, environmental protection
and safety are increasingly important, as are trends towards improved forms of
participatory democracy that demand new forms of risk governance in dealing
with hazardous activities. These changes in turn necessitate new forms of
dialogue and decision-making processes that include a large number of
stakeholders. The new dynamic of dialogue and decision-making process has

This report was prepared in the context of Work Package 3 of the InSOTEC project. The overall objective of this work package (WP) is to take a closer look at arenas where socio-technical combinations on radioactive waste management (RWM) are formed. The attempt is to illustrate the interconnections between the sources of different types of information and knowledge development with the various stakeholders having access to that information.

The objective of the RISCOM II project is to share the knowledge of the context of radioactive waste management in various European countries and to see to what extent it is possible to apply more widely the RISCOM Model (Andersson et al., 1998) in order to improve the acceptability of radioactive waste management. Thus, the project aims to promote the development of processes involving transparency, as well as means involving greater participation of the public.

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.

France isn’t only a country known for its cheese… it’s also a country of nuclear power. With its 58 nuclear reactors (63,000 megawatts), producing 79% of the country’s electricity, France is arguably the world’s leader in the production of nuclear energy. It is estimated that the relative contribution of nuclear energy to power production in France will decline to 70% in 2020 - the main reason for this being governmental investments into renewable energies.

Frances Planning Act for Radioactive Materials and Waste

Work Package 3 (WP 3) set out to provide practical recommendations for the design and implementation of a “robust” decision-making process (DMP) in radioactive waste governance/governance of radioactive waste management (RWG).

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.

After 15 years of investigations conducted in France pursuant to the first research law on radioactive waste voted in 1991, reversible deep geological disposal has been recognised by the Planning Act No. 2006-739 Concerning the Sustainable Development of Radioactive Materials and Waste of 28 June 2006 as the reference solution for the longterm management of high-level and intermediate-level long-lived radioactive waste.

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

The Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management, hereinafter referred to as the “Joint Convention”, is the result of international discussions that followed the adoption of the Convention on Nuclear Safety, in 1994. France signed the Joint Convention at the General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) held on 29 September 1997, the very first day the Joint Convention was opened for signature. She approved it on 22 February 2000 and filed the corresponding instruments with the IAEA on 27 April 2000.

Report prepared by ANDRA, the French National Radioactive Waste Management Agency, for preparing for public debate in 2013.

Press release from ANDRA, the French National Agency for Radioactive Waste Management, regarding the changes it will make in the siting process as a result of public debate on the Cigéo Project, disposal of radioactive waste in a deep geologic repository.

Text of the French Nuclear Safety and Transparency Act of 2006, translated into English.

A summary of ANDRA's research into disposal of radioactive waste in a deep geologic repository, examining both clay and granite.