On this website Laka Foundation has tried to compile information on the maganement of spent fuel and high level radioactive waste in all countries with a nuclear power programme. Although a lot of the information is available on the internet meanwhile, it is scattered and not easy to find.

This website aims to become an easy access tool to information on the worldwide management of radioactive waste. At the same time it tries to include sources for further research.

Although we briefly describe the storage and disposal of low and intermediate level waste, the focus is clearly on spent (or ‘used’) fuel from nuclear power plants. Waste from uranium mining is not even mentioned. It is also not about fuel from research reactors, which is mostly returned to the country of origin. Which, by the way, does not solve the problem. Sometimes, maganement of research reactor fuel is taken into account, especially concerning emerging nuclear states, to show their committment with the high-level waste issue.

This is of course only a brief overview of the state of affairs; some important historic developments are covered.

We have included many references, which should make it easier to search for more information. On many occasions we did not include the url’s of the references, because they tend to change frequently (and not much so annoying as dead links). Instead, we described the source as best as we could. Therefore it should be relatively easy to find it on the internet when the description is copied in a search engine. Of course, not all information used is available online. If there are questions about a reference (or something else), please do not hesitate to contact us.

Startingpoint of some of the country-reports is the publication: Management of spent fuel and radioactive waste. State of Affairs – A world wide overview. Published as Nuclear Monitor in May, 2012. It was researched and written by Herman Damveld and Dirk Bannink.

Additional research and rewriting: Dirk Bannink

Herman Damveld
is since 1976 an independent researcher and publicist on energy and has written hundreds of articles and a number of books about nuclear energy and the storage of nuclear waste.

Dirk Bannink
Works at Laka Foundation. Founder of Laka Foundation, documentation and research center on nuclear energy, in 1979. Published numerous articles and reports on nuclear energy and the anti-nuclear movement. Was editor and editor-in-chief of the WISE/NIRS Nuclear Monitor between 1990-2012.