Table of Contents

  • The objective of this study is to provide an overview of the current management of radioactive and hazardous wastes. Its intended audience is policy makers and interested stakeholders.

  • In OECD countries, both radioactive and hazardous wastes (a term used in this report for potentially dangerous non-radioactive wastes) are strongly regulated and safely managed. The principles applied to the management of both waste types are essentially the same.

  • Each year society produces 8 000-10 000 Mt of waste worldwide (excluding overburden from mining and mineral extraction wastes, which are not usually counted as a waste). Of this about 400 Mt is hazardous waste and about 0.4 Mt is radioactive waste, which is mainly currently being generated by the world’s nuclear power plants and their fuel cycle support facilities.

  • Radioactive waste disposal, and in particular the inability of the nuclear energy community to establish any repository for high-level waste and spent fuel (HLW/SF) is one of the factors that significantly influence public and political acceptability of this energy technology. In many quarters the safe handling and disposal of radioactive waste is regarded as somehow uniquely difficult. The objective of this study is to consider radioactive waste in the wider context of the conventional hazardous waste disposal issues of a modern industrial society and in this way to allow a more balanced perspective of the issues involved. A second theme then also explores the waste issues associated with the probable future major low carbon release alternative electricity generating technology, coal fired generation equipped with carbon capture and storage.

  • Detailed discussions on radioactive and hazardous wastes and their management strategies are presented in Appendices 1 and 2. The purpose of this chapter is to summarise the issues considered in those appendices, drawing comparisons between management strategies for the two waste types.

  • This chapter addresses the second of the themes considered in this report. This is regarded as an important consideration in that society’s need for electricity has to be satisfied. There is a choice to be made with respect to the balance of technologies that meet this need whilst recognising the constraints imposed by the need to avoid climate change. As will be seen in Chapter 4 and Appendix 4, radioactive waste disposal is a key factor in the public’s antipathy to nuclear energy. Diminishing the role of one technology because of a disadvantage (in the case of nuclear energy, the need to manage radioactive waste) without considering the equivalent disadvantages of any replacement will not lead to a rational decision. There are, of course, many other factors than just waste issues in making such a technology choice, but here waste is the focus. In practice, meeting the necessary CO2 reduction targets identified by organisations such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will be extremely challenging and both CCS and nuclear energy are likely to be needed in significant quantities.

  • Any perspective on the management of radioactive and hazardous wastes (the first theme of this study) or comparisons between wastes arising from different forms of electricity generation (the second theme of this study) cannot be complete without consideration of public attitudes and perceptions of risk. This matter is summarised in this chapter and considered in detail in Appendix 4.

  • As explained in Chapter 1, the purpose of this NEA study is to offer policy makers a perspective on the management of radioactive waste. The study has two themes...