Czech Republic, Slovak Republic and Poland: experience of radioactive waste (RAW) management and contaminated site clean-up

Abstract: The chapter describes radioactive waste (RAW) issues in the Czech Republic, Slovak Republic and Poland. The situation in the Czech and Slovak Republics is different from Poland. Poland has run only experimental reactors, while the Czech and Slovak Republic have operated nuclear power plants (NPPs) since the 1970s. The Czech and Slovak nuclear programmes were based on the assumption of returning reactor spent fuel (SF) assemblies to the Soviet Union without any commitment concerning SF destiny. After the decision of the Russian Federation to cancel ‘free of charge’ returning to the Russian Federation, both countries started to develop their own concept concerning SF disposal. The main problem for Poland is that their repository at Rozan for RAW from industry, medicine and research is almost full and it necessitates finding a new facility for accepting waste by 2020.