The Blue Ribbon Commission on America_s Nuclear Future (BRC) was formed by the Secretary<br>of Energy at the request of the President to conduct a comprehensive review of policies for<br>managing the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle and recommend a new strate

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.

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.

The purpose of this study is to assist decision makers in evaluating the centralized interim<br>storage option. We explore the economics of centralized interim storage under a wide variety of<br>circumstances. We look at how a commitment to move forward with centralized interim storage<br>today could evolve over time. And, we evaluate the costs of reversing a commitment toward<br>centralized storage if it turns out that such a decision is later considered a mistake.

These proposed guidelines are recommendations that have emerged from the European Union Research Project ARGONA (Arenas for Risk Governance), Contract no.: FP6-036413

The principal factors that affected the scope of scientific investigations at Yucca Mountain over the last 20 years included both regulatory and technical aspects. Examples of regulatory factors include the regulations themselves as well as the associated quality assurance requirements. Examples of technical factors include the repository and waste package designs, new information that affected the post-closure safety basis, and technical reviews from peers, stakeholders and the regulators.

The goal of radioactive waste management in Sweden is to dispose of all radioactive waste products generated at the Swedish nuclear power plants in a safe manner. Furthermore, all other radioactive waste that arises in Sweden shall be safely disposed of. The Act on Nuclear Activities /1-1/ requires that the owners of the Swedish nuclear power plants adopt the measures that are needed to achieve this goal. The owners of the Swedish nuclear power plants have commissioned the Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company (SKB) to implement the measures that are needed.

The preceding RD&D-Programme from 1998 was supplemented in December 2000 by an integrated account of method, site selection and programme prior to the site<br/>investigation phase. Since the latter account lies close in time, SKB has chosen to<br/>concentrate RD&D-Programme 2001 on research and technology development. Viewpoints<br/>offered on previous RD&D-programmes and comments from the review of the<br/>SR 97 safety assessment comprise important input for RD&D-Programme 2001.

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.
This report was prepared by the Slovenian Nuclear Safety Administration. Contributions to the report were made by the Krško NPP, the Jožef Stefan Institute, the Agency for Radwaste Management, the Žirovski Vrh Uranium Mine and the Slovenian Radiation Protection Administration.