HARmonised PracticEs, Regulations and Standards in waste management and decommissioning

Euratom Council Directives and IAEA Safety Standards provide the basis for the underlying legal and regulatory framework in radioactive waste management and decommissioning. However, the implementation of international safety standards and European Union (EU) directives can vary from one country to another as they are adapted to local considerations and national policies. These national differences can create difficulties in interpreting and comparing waste management practices between Member States (MS) and establishing consistent and coherent waste management policies and implementation strategies at the European scale. Moreover, this lack of commonality may contribute to sub-optimal waste management outcomes in terms of safety, economics, sustainability and innovation as well as public acceptance. A greater convergence and harmonisation of national standards would allow for increased international cooperation among all relevant actors in nuclear decommissioning and radioactive waste management and could lead to expanded international market opportunities and more rapid adoption of advanced and/or emerging technologies. Alignment and harmonisation based on EU standards would also be advantageous towards enabling more robust comparisons of the efficiency, suitability and limits of available techniques being used in similar conditions. The 3-year Euratom project HARPERS aims to establish and clarify the benefits and added value of more aligned and harmonised regulations, practices and standards in decommissioning and radioactive waste management, including possibilities for shared processing, storage and disposal facilities between MS. The HARPERS project aims to reinforce the activities of the EJP EURAD, EURATOM PREDIS and SHARE projects. HARPERS will also connect with the wider European Community through, e.g., SNETP, NEA, DigiDECOM, IGDTP, IAEA, ENSREG, ERDO, and will encourage interaction between different national programmes.