All EU countries generate some radioactive waste, and 17 of them also manage spent fuel. Most of it comes from nuclear power plants (including decommissioning of these plants), with smaller quantities from radioactive material used in research, medicine and agriculture.
Responsibility for managing waste and spent fuel
The Radioactive Waste Directive (2011/70/Euratom) ensures the safe and responsible management of radioactive waste and spent fuel in Europe. It states that individual EU countries are responsible for the policies and programmes on this matter and should reflect their scientific and technological history. National programmes and practices are not only based on scientific and technical considerations but also cover institutional, socio-political and economic aspects.
Most EU countries have set up dedicated organisations to manage radioactive waste – supervised by the national regulatory authority. The management of certain types of radioactive waste has reached a mature stage of industrial development, but disposal facilities for high-level radioactive waste are still being set up.
More information is available from the national waste management organisations, the regulatory authorities and national reports provided under the Radioactive Waste Directive.
Management of spent fuel
Spent fuel is defined in the Radioactive Waste Directive as nuclear fuel that has been irradiated in and permanently removed from a reactor core. It is a mixture of plutonium, uranium and waste materials and is no longer usable as fuel.
Individual EU countries take different approaches to the long-term management of spent fuel, but all involve a period of interim storage at the nuclear power plant or research reactor site following the removal from the reactor. ‘Management’ means the handling, storage, reprocessing or disposal of spent fuel, but not off-site transportation. Transportation and shipment are different actions regulated by the Directive on Shipments of Radioactive Waste and Spent Fuel (2006/117/Euratom).
Spent fuel can either be reprocessed or disposed of as radioactive waste. In either case, it is extremely radioactive and generates a large amount of heat, so must be carefully managed. There are currently two broad strategies used for managing spent fuel:
- the ‘open cycle’ or ‘once through’ or ‘direct disposal’ strategy in which spent fuel is considered as waste
- the ‘closed cycle’ or ‘reprocessing’ (including the ‘partially closed cycle’) strategy, in which the spent fuel is considered to provide a potential future energy resource.
In the ‘open cycle’, spent fuel is stored for several decades to allow it to cool and to optimise the operation of the deep geological disposal facility. In the ‘closed cycle’, the spent fuel is reprocessed to recover valuable fissile materials (uranium and plutonium). The spent fuel might go through one or more cycles of reprocessing.
You can find more information on individual EU countries’ policies on the European Commission Energy webpage dedicated to radioactive waste and spent fuel
ENSREG has a working group dedicated to safe management of radioactive waste and spent fuel. Find more information on the group here.