AT THE EUROPEAN LEVEL The European Euratom Directive on the management of radioactive waste (2011) contributes to reinforcing safety within the European Union, by making the Member States more accountable for the management of their radioactive waste. AT THE INTERNATIONAL LEVEL The International Atomic Agency’s (IAEA*) Joint Convention on the Safety of radioactive waste management is a legally binding international instrument, which entered into force on 18 June 2001, and which addresses the global safety of radioactive waste management. The contracting countries (including France) undertake to apply strict safety provisions, and to periodically draw up a national report on these provisions. The National Radioactive Materials and Waste Management Plan (PNGMDR) The main objectives of the PNGMDR are: ∙ to draw up the inventory of the existing radioactive waste management methods and the chosen technical solutions; ∙ to identify the foreseeable need for storage or disposal facilities and to clarify the capacity required for these facilities, as well as the storage durations; ∙ to set the general objectives to be attained, the main deadlines and the schedules enabling these deadlines to be met; ∙ to set the objectives to be attained for radioactive waste for which a final management solution has not yet been determined; ∙ to organise research and studies into the management of radioactive waste, by setting deadlines for the implementation of new management solutions, the creation of facilities or the modification of existing facilities. The drafting of the 5th edition of the PNGMDR (2022-2026) was for the first time preceded by a public debate in 2019. On 21 February 2020, the Ministry in charge of energy and ASN published a joint decision further to this public debate, which set out the broad guidelines of the Plan. It in particular emphasised the continued creation of management routes for waste for which these were not yet available (LLW-LL and HLW-ILW/LL waste), as well as optimisation of the existing routes, in particular that for very low-level waste (VLL), which will be required to manage waste from the decommissioning of the nuclear installations. Radioactive waste • 5
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