THIS WRITTEN SUBMISSION IS FOR THE PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE

INTERNAL COMPONENT OF THE COURSE

Nuclear Energy
Nuclear Waste: - An international Problem and its solution

COURSE TITLE: ENERGY LAW

COURSE CODE: BBL919
PROGRAM: BBALLB (HONS.)

Submitted by
Harsh Gupta
14GSOL103014
1410103026

Submitted to
Mr. Victor Nayak
Assistant Professor
School of Law, Galgotias University
 TABLE OF CONTENT

Title Page no.

Introduction 3

Literature review

 Article 1 4

 Article 2 4-5

 Article 3 5
6
 Article 4
7
 Article 5

Remarks and suggestion 8

2
 INTRODUCTION

We all are well aware that generating electrical energy from nuclear fission is a new we can rely
on as it is somewhat environment friendly in certain situation. Nuclear fission is done in the
element known as Uranium which is fixed in Cell known as “Fuel Cell” these fuel cell when get
chemical reacted during the process of fission generates heats which increases the temperature of
water outside it and which creates steam.

This process looks simple but one uranium cell when properly used is that much radioactive that
a normal being can be killed by living in its environment. One uranium cell normally takes around
25000 year to neutralize itself. Due to this reason the treatment of such a nuclear waste is a great
concern as it is the lifeline to normal life. There have been various ways adopted by various country
to tackle this situation but they all are temporary one. It is not an individual problem, it is problem
for a world at large and they all should go hand in hand to tackle such situation.

For this purpose 32 countries join hand in hand by enacting “The joint convention on the safety of
spent fuel management and on the safety of radioactive waste management” it has various article
that we will discuss at the later stage. With the help of international treaties various organization
like OECD Nuclear energy agency (NEA) was made to regulate and to monitor all problems
relating to the nuclear matter. In this particular paper we will try to understand various legal aspect
relating to nuclear management and its management.

3
 LITERATURE REVIEW

1. Article :- Nuclear Energy Agency Organization for Economic Co-Operation and

Development, “NUCLEAR WASTE BULLETIN”, No. 14 – 2000 Edition, Available At
https://www.oecd-nea.org/rwm/bulletin/bulletin14.pdf.
 The OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) was established on 1st February 1958 under
the name of the OEEC European Nuclear Energy Agency. The NEA Nuclear Waste
Bulletin is prepared by the Radiation Protection and Radioactive Waste Management
Division of the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency in order to provide a means of
communication amongst the various technical and policy groups within the radioactive
waste management community. The mission of the NEA is to assist its Member countries
in maintaining and further developing, through international cooperation, the scientific,
technological and legal bases required for a safe, environmentally friendly and economical
use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, as well as to provide authoritative assessments
and to forge common understandings on key issues, as input to government decisions on
nuclear energy policy and to broader OECD policy analyses in areas such as energy and
sustainable development.
It summaries and provide us with the insights of various countries related to its nuclear
safety legislations. Nuclear as source of power is taking a great step towards the mixture
of new technology. As such generating power from nuclear is much safer and
environmental friendly if used with proper precautions and measures. Ranging from
countries to various organization dealing with legal procedures.

2. Article :- Miss.Mayuri Jadhav, Miss.Nita Chavan, Mr. Anil Ranveer , "RADIOACTIVE

WASTE MANAGEMENT", IJIERT - International Journal of Innovations in Engineering
Research and Technology, Volume 2 Issue 5 (May- 2015), ISSN : 2394-3696, available at
https://www.ijiert.org/paper-details?paper_id=140185.
 It talks about the waste and its impact and its classification. As per the paper there are
basically two types of waste i.e. low and high level having different level of radiation as
per the procedure. The waste we are taking about is the residue of uranium which is used
as a fuel cell in a nuclear power generation plant. Since it harms the environment if not

4
 properly secured, it has become the international problem for which various authority like
nuclear regulatory commission, OECD, INEA, Department of energy (DOE) etc. were
formed to regulate and monitor the procedure in different scenario. Different type of
mixture of uranium and plutonium creates different composition which has a different
living time ranging into thousands of years. In November, the Agency launched a four year
project entitled „Modeling and Data for Radiological Impact Assessments‟ (MODARIA)
to strengthen of former uranium production sites, primarily in Central Asia but in other
regions as well. Various ways were adopt to deal with such disposal of radioactive material
in for of canisters and other storage material. It is reused to its max for better output keeping
in mind the coming future and environment challenges a serious step towards its better
treatment is a question that needs to be answered in more continent way.

3. Article :- Robin, Isabelle, Wetherall, Anthon, “LEGAL ASPECTS OF RADIOACTIVE

WASTE MANAGEMENT: RELEVANT INTERNATIONAL LEGAL INSTRUMENTS” ,
IAEA Bulletin 55-3-September 2014, available at
https://www.iaea.org/sites/default/files/55304672425.pdf
 This paper discuss about various legal aspects governing nuclear waste treatment and legal
points and procedure. As per this paper there are various legal legislature and authorities
like:-
 The 1997 Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety
of Radioactive Waste Management (Joint Convention).
 1994 convention on nuclear safety.
 Non-binding 2003 IAEA code of conduct on the safety and security of Radioactive
Sources.
 1980 convention on the physical protection of nuclear material (CPPNM).
 1963 Vienna Convention on civil liability for nuclear damage.
Different legal statue covers different aspect there are one and other legal provision for
different steps and area. The legal aspects of radioactive waste management can be found in a
wide variety of legally binding and non-binding international instruments. This overview
focuses on the most relevant ones, in particular those on nuclear safety, security, safeguards

5
 and civil liability for nuclear damage. Various treaties are also signed by various country to
protect the environment by giving a helping hand.

4. Article :- Wolfram Tonhauser and Odette Jankowitsch-Prevor, “THE JOINT CONVENTION

ON THE SAFETY OF SPENT FUEL MANAGEMENT AND ON THE SAFTEY OF
RADIOACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMNT”, OECD bulletin 2006, page no. 201, Available at
https://www.oecd-nea.org/law/chernobyl/TONHAUSER_JANKOWITSCH.pdf
 It summaries the basic convention to regulate and to monitor rules and regulation related
to nuclear waste. The legal aspects of radioactive waste management can be found in a
wide variety of legally binding and non-binding international instruments. This overview
focuses on the most relevant ones, in particular those on nuclear safety, security, safeguards
and civil liability for nuclear damage. There is a preamble along with chapter 1 on
“objectives, definition and scope of application” which sets out the two distinct subjects.
Chapter 2-3 contains parallel sets of requirements governing the “safety of spent fuel
management “ and the “safety of radioactive waste management” .Chapter 4 “general
safety provision” contains those requirements which apply both to safety of spent fuel
management and to the safety of radioactive waste management. Chapter 5 covers the
transboundary movement of spent fuel and radioactive waste and separately, legal
commitments concerning disused sealed sources. Last chapter’s covers “meetings of the
contracting parties” and “final clauses” again join both spent fuel and radioactive waste
management. While the adoption of the joint convention no doubt constitutes a major leap
in codifying nuclear safety norms, many steps are still required to give this instrument its
full potential.

5. Article:- International atomic energy agency information circular, “THE JOINT

CONVENTION ON THE SAFETY OF SPENT FUEL MANAGEMENT AND ON THE
SAFTEY OF RADIOACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMNT”, INFCIRC/546 24 December 1997,
available at https://www.iaea.org/sites/default/files/infcirc546.pdf
 The Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of
Radioactive Waste Management was adopted on 5 September 1997 by a Diplomatic
Conference convened by the International Atomic Energy Agency at its headquarters from

6
1 to 5 September 1997. The Joint Convention was opened for signature at Vienna on 29
September 1997 during the forty-first session of the General Conference of the
International Atomic Energy Agency and will remain open for signature until its entry into
force. Preamble of the convention talks about the types of radioactive generated by uranium
during the process of fission in the nuclear reactor. A chemical mixture together known as
fuel cell. It talks about the safety of such cells and management of such waste. It is the
original enactment having 7 chapters discussing about the various measure to increase the
safeguard and to monitor the same.

7
 REMARKS/SUGGESTION
There are various new technological solution related to disposal of nuclear fuel that are not
discussed in the strict sense. We have some real life example relating to explosion of nuclear
reactor due to earthquake in japan and other manmade disaster by miss-management, they are not
discussed as they provide us with the real data as they have serious affect over the environment of
their country and nearby country.
International authority dealing with nuclear energy has made an area where they can dispose of
the nuclear waste. They have decided an area nearby Finland as it is most safe place in terms of
earthquake. They are deciding it while keeping in mind that a nuclear cell needs around 6500-7000
years to nullify a uranium cell. There are no such law discussed relating to extraction of uranium
as it is again a radioactive material which can be seen while extracting it.
The best step taken by the authority which can be seen by our eyes is the implementation of an
international law. As every country generating nuclear energy is following the same standards. In
India we generate more than 20% electricity through our 4 nuclear power station out of which
Tarapur plant is the biggest generating aroun1400mw of electricity. It has taken various
technological steps to evaluate and to control the environment loss relating to their plant. We are
dealing with a new technology that is an unnatural and created by mans. It can be seen that it
creates new opportunity for better world, but at what cost we have to analyze that. Otherwise a
wise step can lead to great loss to coming era.