Euradwaste '08 - EU Bookshop - Europa

General introduction and objectives
SOCIO-POLITICAL AND STRATEGIC ISSUES
The first day of the 2008 Euradwaste conference is devoted to national and European policy in the
area radioactive waste management (RWM). A series of sessions involving keynote speakers, panellists
and debates with participants will help to gain a better insight into success stories, obstacles
and means to overcome them.
At both national and EU level, energy is high on today’s political agenda. The “20-20-20” targets
agreed by political leaders at the European Spring Council Summit in 2007 will be crucial in the
development of a low-carbon economy in Europe. The role of nuclear energy in fighting climate
change, reducing dependence on foreign energy imports, and maintaining competitiveness has been
clearly recognised, but so has the need to maintain a high level of nuclear safety and to continue to
make progress in the management of high-level radioactive waste and spent fuel. That is why the
European Council requested the creation of a high-level group on nuclear safety and waste management
and a European nuclear energy forum, both of which have since been established by the
European Commission and both of which treat radioactive waste management as a key issue with
important repercussions for the present and future use of nuclear energy.
While the management of low- and intermediate-level short-lived waste is today a mature industrial
practice, the situation regarding the most hazardous waste category, namely high-level long-lived
waste, is characterised by ongoing R&D programmes in several Member States. A few of these are
quite advanced, but at the same time many are stalled and “wait-and-see” approaches were adopted
in other Member States. After some 30 years of research it is now internationally accepted by the
scientific and technical community that geological disposal is the only appropriate and feasible solution
for long-term management of such waste, though the number of active national programmes
implementing this solution can be counted on the fingers of one hand, and even in these cases actual
disposal operations will not begin until 2020 at the earliest. The reasons for such low take-up are
essentially socio-political, related to public and political acceptance, though logistical and economic
reasons such as the relative ease of temporary storage and the cost penalty of being one of the first
also undoubtedly play a role. Nevertheless, successful implementation of such programmes in the
leading countries will boost confidence and uptake in others.
The four sessions of the first day of the conference are dedicated to a closer look at all such issues:
why some countries are well on their way to constructing geological repositories and why others lag
behind; whether economics plays an important role and if there are solutions to reducing financial
burdens; how risks and uncertainties can be communicated in ways which build trust; and what role
the European Union should play.
Each session has been designed to provide a broad insight into the topic addressed and is introduced
by a keynote speech, followed by a panel debate involving representatives from a number of European
Member States at various stages of implementation and invited experts with technical, regulatory,
and policy backgrounds.
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