Radioactive Waste: Meeting the Challenge - Science and Technology for Safe and Sustainable Solutions, 23 September 2014, Vienna, Austria

It is a well-established tradition at the IAEA to hold a Scientific Forum every year during the General Conference, devoted to a specific technical area of the Agency's work. In the last few years, we have focussed on nuclear techniques related to cancer, food, water, and the protection of the environment. It has been 14 years since the Scientific Forum last considered the management of radioactive waste. I thought it important to return to this subject because the peaceful use of nuclear science and technology has grown steadily in that time, as has the amount of radioactive material that needs to be managed safely. There is a widespread misperception about radioactive waste, which is that solutions for managing it safely and effectively simply do not exist. That is not correct. Well-established technologies do exist to address this issue. As I told the General Conference yesterday, radioactive waste is an issue for all countries, not just those which have nuclear power programmes. Radioactive sources are used to sterilize food and medical instruments, to diagnose and treat cancer patients, to develop crops that better resist disease, as well as in a wide range of industrial applications. Research reactors have uses that include production of radioisotopes for medical procedures. Many countries offer fuel cycle services, ranging from uranium mining to nuclear fuel fabrication and spent fuel reprocessing. As with other industrial and technological processes, all of these activities produce waste. Waste may be radioactive for just a few hours, or a few days, or for hundreds of thousands of years. To ensure that waste poses no risk to people or the environment, now and in the future, all countries using nuclear technologies have the responsibility to manage it safely