The civilian use of nuclear energy has become increasingly subject to very careful and detailed international agreements and supervision, which particularly apply to the management of radioactive waste generated in these activities. This is not a result of a particularly dynamic development of the field nor of a significant increase in the amount of RW, but rather a large increase in the sensitivity of public opinion and the perception of risks associated with these activities and the waste they generate.
The system of establishing international rules, based on legally binding conventions, the recommendations of reputable professional organisations and the promotion of good practice, has reached high standards in this field as in few other sectors, and has made a great contribution to the preservation of and prospects for civilian radionuclide applications. The most important act for the treatment of radioactive waste is the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management of 1997 (Act on the Ratification of the Joint Convention Official Gazette “Narodne novine” - “International Treaties” no. 3/99). Croatia, like other signatory countries, submits regular reports (and participates in the meetings at which these are discussed) on the progress of the implementation of the Convention. The reports describe (among other things) the development of plans for the management of RW and SNF from the Krško NPP (independently or together with the Republic of Slovenia), and the preamble of the Convention includes a provision that allows - exceptionally from the general principle of managing NW in the country of origin – that the total waste from the Krško NPP be managed of in Croatia:
“In certain circumstances, safe and efficient management of spent fuel and radioactive waste might be fostered through agreements among Contracting Parties to use facilities in one of them for the benefit of the other Parties, particularly where waste originates from joint projects.”
In preparing the Convention, Croatia argued that the disposal of RW and SNF in the territory of another country could be justified by economic, and not only security reasons. Later, in the Bilateral Agreement on the Krško NPP, it was also required that waste disposal be planned in a safe, but also economically efficient way.
The Joint Convention generally strengthens and clarifies the well-known recommendations of international conferences and reputable expert organisations, in order to give them legally binding force. Among them, in the preamble, the most relevant recommendations formulated by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA):
The IAEA has focused its security and protection standardization mission in particular on developing and transition countries, in particular through professional development and technical cooperation projects. It also pays special attention to the specific Slovenian-Croatian case of co-ownership of the Krško NPP and, through technical cooperation projects, provides constant support to the planning of the decommissioning of the Krško NPP and the management of its radioactive waste.
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