Management of spent fuel from nuclear power reactors. Proceedings of an international conference, Vienna, 19-22 June 2006 (Book + CD-ROM) STI/PUB/1295

National strategies for the management of spent fuel vary, ranging from reprocessing to direct disposai. This is indicative of the fact that spent fuel is differently regarded by countries - as a resource by some and as a waste by others. At the moment most spent fuel is in storage at nuclear power plant sites, at a few centralized storage sites and at reprocessing facilities. The next steps towards the disposition of spent fuel are either reuse, through reprocessing, or disposal in geological repositories. Because progress on implementing these strategies is slow in most countries the amounts of spent fuel in storage are increasing. The management of spent fuel is, for strategic, economic, safety and security reasons, a key issue for the future of nuclear power and is an issue that many States have yet to decide upon. The International Atomic Energy Agency organized an international conference on Management of Spent Fuel from Nuclear Power Reactors to provide an opportunity for the exchange of information on the subject among Member States and to look for common approaches to the issues identified. This publication, which constitutes the record of the conference, includes the opening and closing speeches, the keynote papers, the summaries of the panel discussions and sessions, the Conference President's summary and an executive summary. A CD-ROM containing the unedited contributed papers to the conference can be found at the back.