Euradwaste '08 - EU Bookshop - Europa

after extensive interactions have taken place, involving interested communities within the country.
Potential host countries can withdraw from the siting process at any time up to the point where a
final commitment is needed. Shared regional waste management facilities will have to meet the
highest standards of environmental safety. This will be assured by the national regulatory agencies
in the partner countries working closely together. The high profile and level of interest worldwide
in the project indicate that it would be valuable to involve the IAEA and the European High Level
Expert Group, in a wide overview and regulatory capacity.
3. Development of a practical implementation strategy
Over the last four years, the SAPIERR II project has investigated what would be needed to make a
regional approach viable and to identify the benefits that would accrue to partner countries – as well
as realistically acknowledging the challenges faced by repository implementers (see [1] for description
of the work and related reports). The final stage of this preparatory work is to explore with the
governments of potential partner countries their attitudes to, and possible interest in, launching a
new initiative. Based on the organisational, legal, societal economic, safety and security issues carried
out within the SAPIERR II project, a staged, adaptive implementation strategy and organisational
structures for an European Repository Development Organisation (ERDO) is being proposed.
The first step in the strategy is the establishment of a working group of interested countries.
3.1 The ERDO Working Group
The working group will be charged with the task of setting up a not-for-profit ERDO that would,
over the next ten to fifteen years, prepare for a follow on organisation that would implement shared
geological repositories in Europe. Policy-makers in potentially interested European countries have
been invited to participate in the working group. Representatives of the SAPIERR project have
been explaining the technical, economic and societal aspects of shared waste management facilities
to potentially interested countries. This activity will continue until the end of 2008, but already sufficient
support has been gained for establishing a working group in 2009 to define the form, structure
and organisation of the ERDO.
3.2 The ERDO/ERO
If shared repositories are to become a reality, a dedicated organisation will be required that can
work towards the goal on the extended timescales that national disposal programmes have shown to
be necessary. A multinational organisation faces much wider challenges than does a national waste
management body, not least because of the extended range of stakeholders. The figure below gives
an impression of the multiple stakeholders to be managed.
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