NEA releases a report on "Management and Disposal of High-Level Radioactive Waste: Global Progress and Solutions"

Radioactive waste results from many different activities in health care, industry, research, and power production. All such waste must be managed safely, with the protection of human health and the environment as the highest priority. After decades of research, the international scientific community is now confident that placing high level radioactive waste in deep geological repositories (DGRs) is both safe and effective.

The government of each country has the absolute right and responsibility to implement the energy and environmental policies it believes are best. In the case of the disposal of radioactive waste, it is paramount that these debates should be informed by objective facts.

The present report is a policy-level compendium of the current status of knowledge, technological developments, safety standards, rules and requirements applicable to evaluating the feasibility of DGRs. It summarises how the international scientific community has intensively collaborated to bring sound arguments and evidence into the debate that SNF/HLW will not cause harm to either humans or the environment. It also documents how deep geological repositories are moving forward in several countries after the case for their feasibility was accepted by scientific and regulatory authorities and other stakeholders -- including through public consultations. There is now confidence, based on science, in humankind’s ability to safely manage and dispose of SNF/HLW. 

The report is available online at: http://www.oecd-nea.org/rwm/pubs/2020/7532-dgr-geological-disposal-radioactive-waste.pdf