ARTEMIS REVIEWS | WASTE MANAGEMENT


Above: The ARTEMIS team highlighted Slokavia’s progress in decommissioning the V1 Bohunice power plant, which is scheduled for completion by 2027


A mission to Romania last year advised improvements


along similar lines. The mission said the Government should make appropriate funding available for the nuclear safety regulator, to build and strengthen the capacity to implement a national strategy for radioactive waste management. Romania’s waste management strategy should take account of the links between the different steps of radioactive waste management and the impact of the anticipated disposal options. It should move forward with involving interested parties, in particular communities that may host the deep geological disposal site, to ensure that they are properly engaged in the site selection process. In Germany, an ARTEMIS mission was invited in 2022 to


follow up an earlier mission in 2019 that made a dozen recommendations for improvement. Germany does not have a receiving radioactive waste


disposal facility and a nationwide search has begun to identify a high level waste disposal site. The 2019 ARTEMIS team noted it would be a “significant challenge” to complete the site selection process for such a high-level waste site by 2031, as planned, in order to facilitate plans to license, construct and begin to operate this facility by around 2050. In 2019 the IAEA team recommended that the government should improve the process for monitoring progress in that programme. It suggested the responsible bodies and safety organisations should consider making public the approach to applying site selection criteria and the cost assessment for the programme, and for waste retrieval from interim storage, should be re-examined. Last year’s follow up team found that Germany has


successfully implemented many recommended actions from


the 2019 mission. Nonetheless, it suggested further work on: ● Updating the cost assessment for the national waste management programme, based on a consistent approach across all activities, including waste retrieval from Asse II mine.


● Analysing risk and uncertainty when updating the cost assessment for public sector components of the waste and spent fuel management programme.


● Assessing whether the geosphere requirements for non-heat generating waste are different from those for high level waste and, if they are, taking them into account in the application of disposal facility siting criteria.


● Making greater use of the radioactive waste inventory to monitor changes in the inventory over time and demonstrate waste minimization.


Gerrit Niehaus, Director General for Nuclear Safety and Radiation Safety at BMUV – Germany’s Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety – said: “We are happy that we were able to demonstrate that we made progress, that most of the 2019 findings could be closed and that no new ones were identified. The findings that remain open will be used to guide us on our way to further improve the safe management of radioactive waste in Germany, our national programme and our communication.” The ARTEMIS programme’s final report for 2022 was on a


country where – uniquely – a geological disposal facility for spent fuel exists. This was Finland’s Onkalo repository at the Olkiluoto site, scheduled to be completely operational around 2025. The team observed the ongoing preparations that will lead to a fully operational geological disposal facility at the site. The review team noted Finland’s clear strategy to meet its


climate change goals which includes the safe management of radioactive waste in a manner that will protect the environment and future generations. Despite Finland’s progress the ARTEMIS team had recommendations and suggestions that reconfirm the


programme’s themes, including: ● Improving consistency of legislation, to reduce the complexity of regulation and management of radioactive waste as a whole.


● Continuously evaluating the suitability of the current policy and strategy for radioactive waste and spent fuel management against the anticipated future demands of the Finnish Climate and Energy Strategy.


www.neimagazine.com | June 2023 | 33


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