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

Beginning with the role of "stakeholders" - those whose interests are, knowingly or unknowingly, affected - in the siting of noxious facilities, this paper seeks to develop principles for acceptable and democratically arrived at polices related to problems associated with advances in and products of science and technology. Although widely regarded as a necessary condition for success, the principles underpinning stakeholder involvement, such as representativeness, are often violated in practice.

With the first 100 days of the Obama Administration behind us, the Institute for 21st Century Energy presents
this nuclear waste policy document that recounts the history of the country’s nuclear waste policy, discusses
the mechanics of the issue, and off ers specifi c recommendations to the Obama Administration and the
U.S. Congress.
Two weeks aft er the 2008 presidential election, the Institute released dozens of energy policy recommendations for
the incoming administration and 111th Congress. Ten recommendations focused on committing to and expanding

The development of radioactive waste repositories involves consideration of how the waste and the
engineered barrier systems will evolve, as well as the interactions between these and, often relatively
complex, natural systems. The timescales that must be considered are much longer than the timescales
that can be studied in the laboratory or during site characterisation. These and other factors can lead to
various types of uncertainty (on scenarios, models and parameters) in the assessment of long-term,

The scientific, technical, and sociopolitical challenges of finding a secure site for a geological repository for radioactive wastes have created a long and stony path for many countries. Japan carried out many years of research and development before taking its first steps in site selection.

The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (NWPA) established a program to deal comprehensively with the waste byproducts of nuclear power generation, as well as defense-related radioactive wastes, if appropriate. Under this program, the federal Department of Energy (DOE) must locate and develop a site for disposal of high-level radioactive wastes in a geologic setting capable of isolating them from adverse public and environmental exposure for at least 10,000 and up to 100,000 years.

As outlined in the overall program for high-level waste (HLW) management in Japan, defined by the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), HWL separated from spent nuclear fuel during reprocessing will be immobilized in a glass matrix and stored for a period of 30 to 50 years to allow cooling; it will then be disposed of in a stable deep geological formation.

The primary objective of government policy, and of NUMO in implementing this policy, is to
ensure that a repository for Japan’s high-level radioactive waste is located so as to provide
secure isolation of the waste and adequate safety for present and future generations. This
means that the site has to be chosen carefully, taking full account of all its characteristics. In
order to address these characteristics in an orderly and structured manner, we have established

U.S. efforts to site and construct a deep geologic repository for used fuel and high level radioactive waste (HLW) proceeded sporadically over a three-decade period from the late 1950s until 1982, when the U.S. Congress enacted the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA) codifying a national approach for developing a deep geologic repository. Amendment of the NWPA in 1987 resulted in a number of dramatic changes in direction for the U.S. program, most notably the selection of Yucca Mountain as the only site of the three remaining candidates for continued investigation.

The effective termination of the Yucca Mountain program by the U.S. Administration in 2009 has further delayed the construction and operation of a permanent disposal facility for used fuel and high level radioactive waste (HLW) in the United States. In concert with this decision, the President directed the Energy Secretary to establish the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future to review and provide recommendations on options for managing used fuel and HLW.