Waste Technology Section
Radioactive Waste Management Information Systems
Net Enabled Waste Management Database (NEWMDB)
Responsible Officer : John KINKER
In this activity, the Agency developed and launched the Net Enabled Waste Management Database (NEWMDB). The NEWMDB contains information on national radioactive waste management programmes, radioactive waste inventories, radioactive waste disposal, relevant laws and regulations, waste management policies, and plans and activities.
The first NEWMDB data collection cycle was conducted in March 2002 (for year 2000 data). Subsequent collections have been performed annually from 2003 onward.
The principal objectives of the NEWMDB are to:
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improve access to relevant waste management data;
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provide a system for maintaining corporate memory of such information;
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provide readily accessible reference material to both the Member States and the Agency's Technical Assistance programme, Waste Management Technical Review and Assessment Program (WATRP), and other programmes;
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provide a means to research and assess the development and implementation of national systems for radioactive waste management in Agency Member States; and
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provide a tool to Member States that supports the reporting requirements of the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management (Joint Convention).
The NEWMDB database is accessible via the following web page:
Information Available through the NEWMDB
The NEWMDB provides several means of accessing data on radioactive waste management in Agency Member States:
- Member State Profile Reports: these reports (and all data for that matter) are available to the public cost free. To obtain reports, access the NEWMDB web page cited above and click on the Reports Tab. The reports “Radioactive Waste Management Profiles” Numbers 1 through 9 – are compilations of the data from the Net-Enabled Waste Management Database. These are in Adobe Acrobat .pdf format.
- Direct Data Access: Public Users may directly access waste inventory data by accessing the NEWMDB web page and following the Public Tab. Login is required, but only an e-mail address in needed to login. From there, access the either the Reports tab, or the Tools tab, as described below, to download or browse Member State waste inventory, policy, laws and regulations, and infrastructre information.
- Reading Room Feature: This feature was added to the NEWMDB in March 2004 to serve as a "portal" to
additional information about radioactive waste management in Member States. Each Member State that participates
in the NEWMDB has its own Reading Room.
Likewise, information posted in the Agency's Reading Room is controlled by the NEWMDB Programme Officer. The information posted in the Agency's Reading Room provides a portal to Agency activities in the field of radioactive waste management. While the information posted is accessible via other Agency resources, such as the On Line Publications Database, the Agency's Reading Room pulls this information together to facilitate access. - Tools - Queries Feature: These tools allow Public Users to extract information from the NEWMDB based on specified reporting parameters.
The following link provides instructions for accessing and viewing the latest NEWMDB reports (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader 4.0 or later):
http://www-newmdb.iaea.org/help/instructions2003.pdf
The Agency has conducted and continues to conduct workshops related to the NEWMDB.