Australia: Draft proposals to build an international high level waste repository were formally submitted in March 1999 to the federal government. The latest developments were announced by the chairman of Pangea Resources Australia.

He outlined three key elements of his company's proposed strategy:

• Technical: demonstrate the safety of the proposal,
• Economical: the project would be 'profitable' but not 'profit-driven',
• Political and public acceptance.

Pangea's business plan is based on taking 75 000 tons of spent fuel and/or reprocessed HLW. The company claims the repository could also be used for disposal of weapons-related nuclear materials resulting from disarmament.

In the past, the Australian government has said that accepting radioactive waste from other countries was not in line with its policy objectives.

France: Following the announcement, a 500 m deep borehole will be constructed by the end of 1999. Laboratory experiments should then follow, including interactions between waste and host rock in conditions that mimic real repository conditions. Finally, laboratory studies will define appropriate disposal methods to comply with the principle of reversibility.

Germany: The government and the utilities are negotiating in consensus talks the modalities of phasing out nuclear power including the operational life of reactors, as well as concepts for spent fuel management and waste disposal. The government expects the results to be available from mid 1999. The outcome is not foreseeable. The government announced it will phase out nuclear power by legal action if consensus is not reached.

Taiwan: In January 1999, a spokesman for the Atomic Energy Council (AEC) announced that the Taiwanese power utility, Taipower, was in the 'final stage' of proposing a suitable domestic site for final disposal of LLW. The next stage should be the start of geological and environmental investigations at the chosen site, probably before the end of June 1999. Taiwan Lan-Yu island storage site was closed in 1996 when it reached capacity, after 14 years in operation. Following this closure, Taipower drafted a volunteer site selection programme, offering compensation to districts willing to host a final disposal site.

Taipower formerly followed a 'dual-track' approach to the problem of LLW disposal, considering 'extra-territorial' disposal alongside domestic options. This approach conducted to various announcements concerning shipments for permanent disposal to North Korea or Russia. These projects have been put on hold for the time being.

Japan: The Power Reactor & Nuclear Fuel Development Corp. (PNC), reorganised into Japan Nuclear Cycle Institute (JNC), was given approval in October 1998, to pursue five new R&D projects that have received funding this year.

Two of the projects are concerned with radioactive waste:

• A 20 year, non-hot, deep underground laboratory for experiments and research on HLW disposal and storage technology at Horonobe on Hokkaido island, northern Japan. The project will cost 31 billion yen for facilities; 3.5 billion yen/year for research, and 3 billion yen for peripheral facilities.
• A five-year, 2.07 billion yen project will be conducted at the Environmental Technology Centre at Tokai to develop advanced waste treatment technologies in order to replace bitumisation and plasticisation.

In the meantime, JNC is preparing a progress report that should be submitted to the government for assessment by 2000. The report aims at 'demonstrating more rigorously and transparently the feasibility of the specified disposal concept'. Once the report has been submitted to the government, the next step would be the creation of a new organisation responsible for HLW management. The operational start of an actual repository is currently scheduled between 2030 and the 2040's

Lithuania: A three-year programme has been set up in order to undertake modern management of LILW. The programme is to start early 1999. Eleven projects have been identified by an international review group. Among the most urgent ones are: minimisation of waste production at the Ignalina nuclear power plant: reconditioning of waste stored at the Maisiagala facility near Vilnius and transporting it to Ignalina, and assessing the safety of current storage at Ignalina. Minimisation of waste is a key project: 700 m³ of LILW are produced annually at Ignalina, whereas Western plants produce about 100 m³/year. Lithuania received assistance from the Swedish company, SKB, on these projects.

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