Current U.S. nuclear waste law and policy is bankrupt. The 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA) set a 1998 deadline for opening a deep geologic repository to receive spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and high-level waste (HLW) from reprocessing. In 1987, Congress amended the Act to designate Yucca Mountain in Nevada as the only potential site, and severely restricted the development of any federal facility for consolidated storage of nuclear waste. Nevada’s unrelenting opposition to the Yucca repository eventually succeeded with the election of Barack Obama as President.

The European project COWAM in Practice (CIP) was aimed to lead for three years (2007-2009) a process of monitoring, analyzing and evaluating the governance linked with radioactive waste management. This project, in cooperation with a research group and stakeholders, was conducted in parallel in 5 European countries (Spain, France, United Kingdom, Romania, Slovenia).

This research brief is addressing the governance issues associated with the practical implementation of long-term environmental surveillance systems on the one hand, and the health impact assessment related to radioactive waste disposal installations on the other hand. Based on feedback experiences associated with the surveillance of nuclear installations, the analysis is focused on governance stakes (how to involve local stakeholders, which information is meaningful, how to transfer the surveillance system between generations...) according to the expectations of the local stakeholders.

This research brief presents the economic development associated with the laboratory for a deep geological repository for high activity radioactive waste situated in the municipality of Bure. It has been described in the framework of the first topic in the project COWAM In Practice (CIP), i.e. the sustainable territorial development associated with radioactive waste management.

The primary task of the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM) is to provide independent scrutiny of the Government’s and Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s proposal, plans and programmes to deliver geological disposal, together with robust interim storage, as the long-term<br/>management option for the UK’s higher activity wastes. In June 2007 the Scottish Executive announced a policy of near-surface, near-site long-term storage rather than geological disposal.

Based on the review of experiences in SEA and EIA in the Czech Republic summarized in Deliverable No.3 and the testing of novel participatory and dialogue approaches summarized in Deliverables No.7, 11 and 12 in this report a model for the siting process specifically in the Czech Republic, that takes into account the need for transparency and interaction with the public, within the framework of legal requirements is outlined. Lessons learnt are summarised and a road map specified.

The creation of high-activity, long-lived radioactive waste is an inevitable consequence of generating electricity in nuclear power plants. It also is an inevitable consequence of engaging in a set of activities associated with national defense, ranging from propelling nuclear submarines to producing the fissionable materials needed to construct nuclear weapons. Early in the nuclear era, the very-longterm management and the ultimate disposition of those wastes was not a high priority.

This is one of three CoRWM reports to Government in 2009. The reports are about: <br><br>_ interim storage of higher activity wastes (including waste conditioning, packaging and transport, and the management of materials that may be declared to be wastes) <br>_ the implementation of geological disposal of higher activity wastes (this report) <br>_ research and development for interim storage and geological disposal. <br><br>The reports cover the three strands of the Government_s Managing Radioactive Waste Safely programme.