Special report: Management of spent fuel and radioactive waste

Management of spent fuel and radioactive waste. State of affair, a worldwide overview
special report published by WISE

Since the beginning of nuclear power the producing countries claim that "there will be a solution for nuclear waste soon", that "it is not a technical but a social and political problem". This global overview of the state of affairs in 34 countries clearly shows that none of them have a final disposal facility, be it in deep geological formations or (near) surface. A very large majority of those countries are not even close. Some postpone the need for final disposal by long term interim storage of up to 100 years; and other countries use (the future option of) reprocessing as an alibi for postponing a decision. Almost without exception all radioactive waste management programs state that "this generation must solve its own problems and not lay the burden of solving the waste problem on the next generations". But those same programs propose, again almost without exception, to postpone a decision on final disposal and/or reprocessing into the far-future, and consider interim storage.

Fact is that the problem of final disposal of high-level radioactive waste and/or spent fuel has not been solved, more than half a century after the first commercial nuclear power plants entered into operation and used fuel was unloaded from the reactors.

A special report of the WISE /NIRS Nuclear Monitor, 40 pages, May 2012 All countries (34) who have (had) a commercial nuclear power program.
 * overview of content and the introduction
 * complete report

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