8th Review Conference of the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel and Radioactive Waste Management

The 8th Review Conference of the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel and Radioactive Waste Management is taking place at the IAEA from 17 to 28 March 2025. Over 1000 delegates from 77 contracting countries are meeting to discuss and evaluate the state of application of the obligations arising from the Convention.
The objective of the Convention is to promote the achievement and maintenance of a high level of safety in the management of spent fuel and radioactive waste, through the strengthening of national measures and international cooperation. And precisely in consideration of this objective, the Director General of the IAEA has underlined how the topics covered by the Convention are strictly related to the particular international moment linked to the growing interest in the use of Modular Reactors (SMR) for the production of energy from nuclear power: the demonstration that radioactive waste and irradiated fuel can be managed safely is the necessary condition to guarantee the future development of nuclear energy.
The work of the Conference was started by the Vice President of the Review Conference of the Convention, the Frenchman Jean-Luc Lachaume, and by the Director General of the IAEA, Rafael Mariano Grossi.
At the opening of the work, the Director General of the IAEA Grossi, underlined the importance of the Conference which this year intends to highlight the management of the aging of both radioactive waste and the structures of the installations, in particular of temporary storage facilities for which, due to delays in the construction of the disposal plants, it is necessary to extend the operational life.
Another important topic covered in this Review Conference is that relating to the specialized human resources necessary to implement the management strategies of radioactive waste and irradiated fuel.
The Convention requires the States Parties to prepare reports every three years on the status of implementation of the obligations undertaken with the ratification of the Convention itself, submitting these reports to a peer review mechanism that takes place in specific conferences, also every three years, organized at the IAEA.
The Director of ISIN, Francesco Campanella, presented the Italian Report, illustrating the aspects of policy and strategy for the management of irradiated fuel and radioactive waste, presenting the main regulatory innovations introduced in national legislation, focusing on the new waste tracking system "Strims" that came into force at the beginning of 2022. During the presentation, the path for the location of the National Repository was also outlined, with the publication, in recent months, of the CNAI for the Strategic Environmental Assessment process; the status of the activities for securing previous waste and the dismantling of nuclear installations was also taken stock of. Another topic that was addressed was the issue of completing the activities for transferring the fuel to France for reprocessing. The event was also an opportunity to illustrate the recent strengthening of the resources of the Italian Nuclear Safety Authority.
Another important aspect that will be discussed during the Conference is the situation of the war in Ukraine, which will find an important opportunity for further study in Vienna given the presence of the Russian and Ukrainian delegations.
On the sidelines of the meeting, a meeting took place between the director of ISIN and the Ambassador of the Italian Representation in Vienna, Debora Lepre, useful for strengthening a synergy within the IAEA, which could be particularly profitable in this particular historical moment that Italy is going through in relation to the theme of future energy policies.