Aanhef

Recognizing that the operation of nuclear reactors generates spent fuel and radioactive waste and that other applications of nuclear technologies also generate radioactive waste;

Recognizing that the same safety objectives apply both to spent fuel and radioactive waste management;

Reaffirming the importance to the international community of ensuring that sound practices are planned and implemented for the safety of spent fuel and radioactive waste management;

Recognizing the importance of informing the public on issues regarding the safety of spent fuel and radioactive waste management;

Desiring to promote an effective nuclear safety culture worldwide;

Reaffirming that the ultimate responsibility for ensuring the safety of spent fuel and radioactive waste management rests with the State;

Recognizing that the definition of a fuel cycle policy rests with the State, some States considering spent fuel as a valuable resource that may be reprocessed, others electing to dispose of it;

Recognizing that spent fuel and radioactive waste excluded from the present Convention because they are within military or defence programmes should be managed in accordance with the objectives stated in this Convention;

Affirming the importance of international co-operation in enhancing the safety of spent fuel and radioactive waste management through bilateral and multilateral mechanisms, and through this incentive Convention;

Mindful of the needs of developing countries, and in particular the least developed countries, and of States with economies in transition and of the need to facilitate existing mechanisms to assist in the fulfillment of their rights and obligations set out in this incentive Convention;

Convinced that radioactive waste should, as far as is compatible with the safety of the management of such material, be disposed of in the State in which it was generated, whilst recognizing that, 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;

Recognizing that any State has the right to ban import into its territory of foreign spent fuel and radioactive waste;

Keeping in mind the Convention on Nuclear Safety (1994), the Convention on Early Notification of a Nuclear Accident (1986), the Convention on Assistance in the Case of a Nuclear Accident or Radiological Emergency (1986), the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material (1980), the Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter as amended (1994) and other relevant international instruments;

Keeping in mind the principles contained in the interagency ‘International Basic Safety Standards for Protection against Ionizing Radiation and for the Safety of Radiation Sources’ (1996), in the IAEA Safety Fundamentals entitled ‘The Principles of Radioactive Waste Management’ (1995), and in the existing international standards relating to the safety of the transport of radioactive materials;

Recalling Chapter 22 of Agenda 21 by the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro adopted in 1992, which reaffirms the paramount importance of the safe and environmentally sound management of radioactive waste;

Recognizing the desirability of strengthening the international control system applying specifically to radioactive materials as referred to in Article 1(3) of the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal (1989);