1. Recognizing the importance of the safe management of spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste, the international community agreed upon the necessity of adopting a convention with the objective of achieving and maintaining a high level of safety worldwide in spent fuel and radioactive waste management: this was the origin of the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management (the “Joint Convention”), which was adopted on 5 September 1997 and entered into force on 18 June 2001. 2.

On 8 December 1997 Belgium signed the Joint Convention. The Belgian legislator has expressed its consent with the obligations resulting from the Convention by the Law of 2 August 2002. The ratification followed on 5 September 2002. The Convention became effective on 4 December 2002, i.e. 90 days following ratification. Belgium belongs to the group of Contracting Parties having at least one operational nuclear power plant on their territory.

This report describes the history, recent developments and the current situation of the management of highly radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel in the Czech Republic, with a particular focus on the development of geological disposal for this kind of waste. Special attention is given to the interplay of social and technical aspects of the process. The first chapter gives an overview of the state of affairs and sketches out the trajectories leading to it.

This report is part of the research project International Socio-Technical Challenges for Implementing Geological Disposal: InSOTEC (see www.insotec.eu), funded by the European Commission under the Seventh Framework Programme.<br/>This report is a contribution to Work Package 1 of the project, which aims to identify the most significant socio-technical challenges related to geological disposal of radioactive waste. To achieve this objective, a comparative analysis of 14 national programmes will be performed.

This research report is part of the research programme International Socio-Technical Challenges for Implementing Geological Disposal (InSOTEC; see www.insotec.eu). The research programme is funded by the Seventh Framework Programme Theme [Fission-2010-1.1.2] [Research activities in support of implementation of geological disposal] (Grant agreement no: 269906).

There are currently nine power reactors in operation in Germany. These are exclusively light-water reactors (seven pressurised water reactors and two boiling water reactors whose fuel assemblies are composed of low-enriched uranium oxide or uranium/plutonium mixed oxide (MOX)).

On 29 December 2009, the Spanish government launched a site selection process to host a centralised interim storage facility for spent fuel and high-level radioactive waste. It was an unprecedented call for voluntarism among Spanish municipalities to site a controversial facility. Two nuclear municipalities, amongst a total of thirteen municipalities from five different regions, presented their candidatures to host the facility in their territories. For two years the government did not make a decision.

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.