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Safety of Spent Fuel and Radioactive Waste Management
First Review Meeting of the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management Opens at IAEA 3 November
Staff Report
31 October 2003
Panelists at the Peer Review Meeting of the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management. (Credit: D. Calma/IAEA)
- Story Resources
- Joint Convention Briefing
- Opening Address
- Summary Report
- Convention Text, Status [pdf]
- Convention Background
The Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management aims to achieve and maintain a high level of safety worldwide. The mechanism for achieving this is through the “peer review” of national programmes for spent fuel and radioactive waste management.
Beginning 3 November, Contracting Parties to the Joint Convention are meeting at the IAEA for two weeks for the first peer review meeting. Each Party will present its own national report and it will answer questions on it from other Parties. The national report is expected to explain how the country is complying with, or planning to comply with, the 25 technical Articles of the Convention. The outcome of the discussions will be recorded in a publicly available summary report agreed upon by the 32 Contracting Parties.
The national reports and associated discussions will address many of the topical issues in spent fuel and radioactive waste management, including the siting of waste repositories, the determination of their safety, and the long term control of such facilities; the limitation and control of radioactive discharges to the environment; preparation for emergencies; facility decommissioning; the safety of aging facilities, the transboundary movement of waste; and the management of disused sealed sources.
The 32 Contracting Parties to date are : Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Republic of Korea, Latvia, Luxembourg, Morocco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom, and United States. Additionally, Japan has ratified the Joint Convention and will become a Contracting Party later in November.
The review meeting's summary report will provide a first "snapshot" of the state of the safety of spent fuel management and radioactive waste management in States party to the Convention," IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei said at the Agency's General Conference of Member States in September. He noted, however, that many States are not yet Contracting Parties, and in that sense this snapshot will be far from global. All States, including those with no nuclear power plants or research reactors, have radioactive waste that must be managed safely, and he urged all States to adhere to the Joint Convention.