Responsible management enables waste to be kept out of the environment long enough for its activity to diminish by natural decay to a low enough level. The principles for the management of radioactive waste are similar to those for the management of industrial and household waste. They include different aspects such as the reduction of volume, sorting, recovery etc., taking into account the specific nature of the processed materials.
As far as low and medium-level waste is concerned, ONDRAF organises the collection of waste from most producers. An inventory of this waste is established and it is transported to the Belgoprocess processing and conditioning facilities in Dessel. Some producers have facilities that enable them to process a part of their waste themselves. This is the case with Electrabel. From the middle of the next decade, this waste should be stored on the territory of the municipality of Dessel in Campine. The Council of Ministers of 23 June 2006 gave its agreement to the launching of the concrete design phase of an integrated plan for surface storage of category A waste at Dessel.
The STOLA plan for surface storage
1. The drums of conditioned waste are first placed in a casing of concrete; cement mortar is poured into the casing in order to fill the spaces between the drums. This forms a solid block, which facilitates the transportation of the waste to the storage facility. This block is also the first barrier between the waste and the biosphere.
2. The second barrier is composed of concrete modules into which the blocks are placed.
3. The third barrier consists of several layers of natural or artificial materials covering the concrete modules. A layer of vegetation gives the site a natural appearance.
4. Finally, the storage facility has control galleries, allowing to constantly monitor the efficient operation of the facility and adapt it if necessary.
As for the highly radioactive waste (chiefly the fuel), this is vitrified when the spent fuel has been recycled or directly disposed of. In both cases, scientific programmes, which are conducted in close international cooperation, all follow the same approach, which is to build infrastructures for final storage in deep, stable geological strata. Such strata have proved their isolation capacity for millions of years or have proved capable of very efficiently limiting the possible release of radionuclides into the biosphere. It is important to point out that the final storage decision can only take place after a period of sufficient 'cooling' of the highly radioactive waste (50 years).
Finland has opted for the solution of excavated underground storage in a layer of crystalline rock at about 500 m deep, on the Olkiluoto site; the construction of the access gallery and of the test laboratory began in 2004 for operational start-up in 2020. In France, a difficulty was overcome with the new Act of 28 June 2006, which maps out the future stages (the choice of a storage site with deep geological layers must be made for 2015 and the site is scheduled to open in 2025).
In Belgium, ONDRAF is considering the construction of a new final storage infrastructure, which has excellent radioelement retaining characteristics and offers effective long-term protection. In the meantime, the category C waste is stored at the Belgoprocess site in Dessel, in a building that has been specifically built for that purpose. For more information, consult http://www.nirond.be/
In any case, both the current and future costs of nuclear waste have been factored into the cost per kWh derived from nuclear power for many years.
