Report of the Federal Republic of Germany for the Sixth Review Meeting in May 2018

On 30 August 2017 the German Cabinet adopted the sixth report by the Federal Republic of Germany on measures taken to implement the obligations under the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management. The report in English was submitted to the depositary of the Convention, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna on 20 October 2017. There are currently 76 Parties to the Convention (as at October 2017). Germany has been a Party since 13 October 1998. The aims of the Convention are:

• to achieve and maintain worldwide a high safety standard in facilities for the disposal of spent fuel from nuclear power plants and radioactive waste
• to establish and maintain for the long term effective measures to safeguard against possible hazards with radiological impacts in such disposal facilities.

The extent to which the Parties have achieved these goals is investigated every three years in the Review Meetings of the Parties. The Parties must submit written reports which are discussed and evaluated during the meetings. The Sixth Review Meeting will take place in Vienna from 21 May 2018; the First, Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth Review Meetings were also held in Vienna, in November 2003, May 2006, May 2009, May 2012, and May 2015 respectively.

Based on the national report to be submitted by each Contracting Party, Contracting Parties have the opportunity by means of questions, submitted in writing or oral, to question the national waste management policies (regulatory and administrative fundamentals, technical capacities and implementation of national policies in single projects) of the respective Contracting Party critically and – where necessary – encourage improvements.

According to the guidelines regarding the form and structure of national reports, Contracting Parties are encouraged to make public the national report as well as the questions and comments received from other Contracting Parties during the review process of the Convention, including the responses to these questions and comments, or summaries thereof, without naming the Contracting Parties that submitted the questions or comments.