Harmonised Practices, Regulations and Standards in waste management and decommissioning

The HORIZON-EURATOM project aims to establish and clarify the benefits and added value of more aligned and harmonised regulations and standards for prioritised topics related to decommissioning and initial phases of radioactive waste handling, including shared processing facilities between Member States (MS).

The project has a two-phase approach: first engaging with Stakeholders to assess needs and pros/cons for harmonisation and identify priority areas for deeper analysis (WP2). The second phase will pursue deeper engagement with Stakeholders to further assess the highest ranked priority areas in Work Packages (WP) focusing on (i) cross border services and cooperation (WP3), (ii) circular economy (WP4), and (iii) advanced technologies (WP5).
These WPs will review (inter)national practices, capture lessons learned, and assess opportunities. WP6 on Regulatory Framework will identify regulatory differences between MS and evaluate strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats associated with harmonisation, while quantifying the benefits of aligned regulations and proposing harmonisation methodologies.

The project will:

• Support coordination between Stakeholders
• Enhance existing commitments to facilitate sharing and exchange of knowledge and experience
• Develop strategies for shared treatment and storage facilities
• Cross border services and cooperation, and explore additional mechanisms to build capacity in MS
• Assess and clarify the benefits and any disadvantages of harmonisation
• Deliver S&T-based solutions and share best practices by engaging and supporting coordination between different actors through the TSOs and regulators
• Define conditions and opportunities of a high safety circular economy