WENRA countries have continued their efforts to update national regulations regarding the previously released set of reference levels for waste and spent fuel storage. 

In a three year period after their publication in 2011(waste and spent fuel report, Ver. 2.1) efforts were undertaken in every WENRA member country to update national regulations in order to cover those reference levels where required actions had been identified in a previous benchmarking process. Country specific fact sheets and status tables have been added in the final version of the report as well as a comprehensive description of the whole procedure. With the publication of this final report version (V2.2) the Working Group on Waste and Decommissioning (WGWD) has completed its work on establishing and implementing a harmonized basis for the safety of waste and spent fuel storage in all WENRA member countries. WENRA directors in their 2014 spring meeting approved the conclusions as documented in the final report.

Stefan Theis, chairman of WGWD, states that “Every country has taken adequate and necessary measures and those few countries with some delays in implementation have prepared the finalization of their action plans as far as possible. The whole exercise has been very time consuming but today’s situation can be characterized as a well understood balance between harmonized basic and additional country specific requirements. The storage of waste and spent fuel will remain an important issue of nuclear safety even after eventual phase out scenarios.”

Download: WGWD Storage Report