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 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.

After more than 20 years of carefully planned and reviewed scientific field work by the<br/>U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Geological Survey, and numerous other<br/>organizations, Secretary of Energy Abraham concluded in January that the Yucca<br/>Mountain site is suitable, within the meaning of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, for<br/>development as a permanent nuclear waste and spent fuel repository.

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 report begins with a consideration of the factors which have led to a growth in the use of dialogue processes, a clarification of key concepts and a classification of dialogue processes. A description of recent and current activities in Europe and North America is followed by discussion of the relationship of processes and contexts. This then leads to an identification of the key aims and evaluation criteria which will be used in the design of dialogue processes to be conducted in subsequent phases of the project.

This report analyzes public participation as a key component of this openness, one that provides a means of garnering acceptance of, or reducing public opposition to, DOE&#39;s radioactive waste management activities, including facility siting and transportation.

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.