International Conference on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management, Decommissioning, Environmental Protection and Remediation: Ensuring Safety and Enabling Sustainability

Gap analysis and implementation of international projects in countries developing nuclear and radiological waste management capacities

Not scheduled

20m

M-Building (IAEA Headquarters, Vienna)

ORAL Track 7 - Regional and international cooperation for ensuring safety and enabling sustainability

Speaker

Dr Jagos Raicevic (Vinca Institute of Nuclear Sciences)

Description

The international aid is often the only option for countries developing nuclear capacities, including to apply modern methods in the field of radioactive waste management (WM). The fact that almost all radioactive and nuclear waste from the former Yugoslavia is located in Serbia, was recognized by the European Commission (EC) and the IAEA, which supported the strengthening of capacities in the field of radiation safety and security in Serbia with several cooperation projects.
The task of the contracts signed under the European IPA 2008 project, was decommissioning the old storage facility in Serbia, meaning the proper processing and conditioning of rad-waste, and further storage in the brand new storage facility built by the Serbian Government. One of the most important condition for the successful completion of the work was the operational license for the Waste Processing Facility (WPF). However – this facility is not operational, even eight years after signing the contract. The initial decision with respect to WPF, supported at the time by IAEA experts and domestic decision-makers – was to rearrange the existing facility initially built for another purposes, to cover the present needs. Nonetheless, the project is somehow "frozen" since the early beginning; and there is no any sign that its status will change soon.
It is important to note that same is observed in another ongoing EC project signed in 2019, which in a great extent depends on the rearrangement and licensing of the WPF. Very likely one could expect again delays and extensions, without a clear vision when the work might be completed. And clearly – this is certainly neither resulting in safe improvements nor a sustainable situation.
The author believes that this situation could have been avoided, by using a proper gap analysis which would easily recognize the reasons that hindered the implementation of the projects supervised and supported by the IAEA. Such an analysis should be performed by the IAEA experts, with assistance of the European contractors (for abovementioned projects) and Serbian authorities. The results should indicate acceptable solutions to Serbian authorities and accelerate the implementation of the EC/IAEA projects in Serbia. Such an approach could also help to other MS with similar issues in the predisposal nuclear and radiological waste.