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Europe’s nuclear waste remains an unsolved and highly dangerous problem – EU Assessment Report

Nuclear waste from nuclear power plants remains an unsolved and highly dangerous problem, as spent fuel must remain isolated from the environment for a million years. In an attempt to solve the nuclear waste problem, an EU-wide regulation was introduced in 2011, the “Council Directive 2011/70/Euratom establishing a Community framework for the responsible and safe management of spent fuel and radioactive waste”.

This Directive tried to force EU member states to address the issue seriously, after this had been neglected for decades – thus immediately proving that nuclear waste has never been effectively dealt with.

The national waste management policies of the EU member states are still inadequate in many respects. The European Commission concluded in its latest report in 2019 that more needs to be done; this is also reflected in the high number of infringement proceedings.

In the Assessment Report, we not only address shortcomings in transparency and participation, but also problems in the inventory data, unsolved issues in the multinational repository search, incomprehensible
cost estimates and lack of financing. The Onkalo repository under construction in Finland is often presented as a game changer by the nuclear lobby, although the safety of the technology used is questionable due to new findings.

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January 24, 2022 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | EUROPE, wastes