This paper summarises the history of RWM in Hungary, with a special attention to changing decision making approaches, social conflicts, and socio-technical challenges. First the institutional background of RWM is outlined. Next, efforts to build facilities for the management of low- and intermediatelevel waste (L/ILRW) and high-level waste (HLW) are summarized. This is followed by the short description of remaining socio-technical challenges. Finally, changes in decision-making approaches and tools are analysed.

In Hungary the use of atomic energy is governed by law (Act CXVI of 1996 on atomic energy, hereafter Atomic Act). In accordance with this Act, the control and supervision of the safety of applications is in the hand of the Government. The legal frame divides the basic regulatory tasks between the director-general of the Hungarian Atomic Energy Authority (HAEA) and the minister in charge of health.

Joint Convention Answers on Questions to Hungary in 2009

Joint Convention Questions Posted to Hungary in 2006

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.

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.

The Republic of Hungary was among the first to sign the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management (hereafter Convention), established under the auspices of the International Atomic Energy Agency, on 29 September 1997, and ratified it on 2 June 1998. The Convention was promulgated in Act LXXVI of 2001. In order to fulfill the obligations of Article 32 of the Convention the present National Report has been prepared and submitted.

The Republic of Hungary was among the first to sign the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management (hereafter Convention), established under the auspices of the International Atomic Energy Agency, on 29th September 1997, and ratified it on 2nd June 1998. The Convention was promulgated in Act LXXVI of 2001. In order to fulfil the obligations of Article 32 of the Convention the present National Report has been prepared and submitted.

The Republic of Hungary was among the first to sign the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management (hereafter Convention), established under the auspices of the International Atomic Energy Agency, on 29 September 1997, and ratified it on 2 June 1998. The Convention was promulgated by Act LXXVI of 2001 [I.11].

The Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management (hereafter Convention) was promulgated by Act LXXVI of 2001 [I.11]. (Hereafter the references to legal instruments listed in Annex 4 are used by numbering in brackets.) In order to fulfill the obligations of Article 32 of the Convention the present National Report has been prepared and submitted.

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.