Radioactive waste management program has been approved

On 3 February, the government approved a program for the development of decommissioning of nuclear power facilities and radioactive waste management for 2021–2030, which sets out strategic guidelines for the management of radioactive waste.

"Our goal is to properly dispose of all radioactive waste existing and to be generated in Lithuania, thus protecting people and the environment from the harmful effects of ionizing radiation and not imposing an unreasonable burden on future generations," says Deputy Minister of Energy Albinas Zananavičius.

The aim of the program is to ensure that radioactive waste is safely disposed of after the decommissioning of the Ignalina NPP. The program sets out the qualitative changes that the state aims to achieve in the next decade, the measures necessary to achieve them, the meanings of their result indicators and the projections of the expected funds. The program has been prepared in accordance with the new strategic planning documents and the results of the complex problem-cause analysis in the field of nuclear energy and radioactive waste management.

At present, both RBMK-1500 reactors of INPP have been shut down and preparations for their dismantling are underway. Part of the radioactive waste was generated at the INPP during its operation, the other part of the radioactive waste is still generated during its decommissioning. During the entire decommissioning period of the power plant from 2010, almost 64 thousand tons of equipment and concrete waste were dismantled already. By the end of decommissioning in 2038, 108 thousand tons of equipment remained to be dismantled.

The planned date for final decommissioning of INPP is 2038. The radioactive waste is expected to be disposed of in a short-lived very low-level radioactive waste repository and a short-lived low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste repository and spent nuclear fuel together with long-lived radioactive waste will be disposed of in a deep geological repository.

The financial projections in the program are divided into three periods during which the program measures will be implemented: the planned need for the period of 2021–2030 is EUR 1 002 million, for the 2031–2038 - EUR 922 million, and for the 2039–2138 - about EUR 3.4 billion. The measures of the program will be financed from the Ignalina Program (EU support), the International Ignalina Decommissioning Support Fund, Lithuanian state budget and SE INPP. 

Information of the Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Lithuania