Euradwaste '08 - EU Bookshop - Europa

Europe's nuclear industries, therefore the Euratom Treaty covers everything that was then considered
important – nuclear safeguards, radiation protection, supply of fissile material, and also research.
The inclusion of research has meant that all EU support for R&D in applied nuclear science
and technology (including radioactive waste, reactor systems – fusion as well as fission, etc.) comes
under a separate legal basis from the rest of EU research, and is covered by its own legally distinct
FP. These Euratom FPs have traditionally been run in parallel with the “non-nuclear” FPs and are
implemented in a similar fashion using the same type of funding instruments, at least as far as research
in nuclear fission and radiation protection is concerned.
Back in the early 80s, during the first FPs, the Euratom Programme accounted for something like
25% of the total EU research spending. Today, this percentage is much less – in FP7, the nuclear
(Euratom) component is some €2.75 billion (over 5 years) compared with some €50.52 billion (over
7 year) for the non-nuclear FP covering the whole of non-Euratom research. The majority of the
Euratom FP7 research budget will be spent on the fusion programme – approx. €2 billion – the rest
is split between the nuclear activities of the EC's own Joint Research Centre (€517 million) and the
programme in fission and radiation protection (€287 million). One of the priority areas of the latter
is, and has been ever since the first FP, radioactive waste management (RWM). Research on geological
disposal of high-level / long-lived waste has always been a part of this effort, though since
FP4 P&T has also been extensively investigated. In the early Euratom programmes, funding was
also available for research on low-level waste management and decommissioning activities, though
these are now considered to have reached a high level of industrial maturity and further such support
at the EU level is no longer necessary.
The research on P&T is examining the potential to reduce the amounts of some of the longest-lived
radionuclides in the most radiotoxic wastes. This involves chemical separation of key radionuclides
followed by nuclear transmutation, either in a sub-critical nuclear reactor coupled to a particle accelerator
or in a critical power reactor. This is a long-term research programme, which is increasingly
being linked with research on advanced reactor systems and associated fuel cycles as part of
the development of the next generation of more sustainable nuclear reactors. Indeed, such research
is fully within the scope of the Sustainable Nuclear Energy Technology Platform (SNE-TP, see Section
2.3) launched in September 2007 and is covered by the strategic research agenda of this platform.
However, it is clear that no matter what the efficiency and effectiveness of these separation
and transmutation processes, there will always be some ultimate waste that must be disposed of by
geological disposal.
2. Supporting Research in RWM
Work in geological disposal initially concentrated on more fundamental aspects of the physical,
chemical and geological processes affecting deep disposal. Projects tended to be smaller and there
was less emphasis on technology and engineering. With the construction of dedicated underground
research laboratories (URLs) in the various national host rock environments, research projects have
become more focussed on the specific conditions prevailing underground, the engineered barriers,
the required engineering systems and associated demonstration experiments and the overall performance
assessment. Since there are only relatively few URLs in Europe, they have naturally become
magnets for all EU research in host rock conditions, which in turn has resulted in enhanced
co-operation between research teams and waste agencies in different EU Member States. The research
often involves large and costly experiments, again encouraging interested research teams to
combine efforts in order to reduce costs. The key role played by URLs means that they are also
important focal points for Euratom FP funding. Until the end of FP5, a total of c. €200M was dedicated
to geological disposal research through successive FPs. In FP6, a further €90M was commit-
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