U.S. Perspectives on the Joint Convention
- U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, Washington, DC, 20555 (United States)
- U.S. Department of State, Office of Nuclear Energy, Safety and Security, Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation, Washington, DC, 20520 (United States)
- U.S. Department of Energy, Environmental Health/Environmental Management, Washington, DC, 20585 (United States)
The Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management (Joint Convention) is an international convention, under the auspices of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). It is a companion to a suite of international conventions on nuclear safety and physical security, which serve to promote a global culture for the safe use of radioactive materials. Although the U.S. was the first nation to sign the Joint Convention on September 29, 1997, the ratification process was a challenging experience for the U.S., in the face of legislative priorities dominated by concerns for national security and threats from terrorism after September 11, 2001. Notwithstanding these prevailing circumstances, the U.S. ratified the Joint Convention in 2003, just prior to the First Review Meeting of the Contracting Parties, and participated fully therein. For the United States, participation as a Contracting Party provides many benefits. These range from working with other Parties to harmonize international approaches to achieve strong and effective nuclear safety programs on a global scale, to stimulating initiatives to improve safety systems within our own domestic programs, to learning about technical innovations by other Parties that can be useful to U.S. licensees, utilities, and industry in managing safety and its associated costs in our waste management activities. The Joint Convention process also provides opportunities to identify future areas of bilateral and multilateral technical and regulatory cooperation with other Parties, as well as an opportunity for U.S. vendors and suppliers to broaden their market to include foreign clients for safety improvement equipment and services. The Joint Convention is consistent with U.S. foreign policy considerations to support, as a priority, the strengthening of the worldwide safety culture in the use of nuclear energy. Because of its many benefits, we believe it is important to take a leadership role in promoting its ratification in the global setting, as well as in more focused regions. At the First Review Meeting of the Contracting Parties, delegations agreed it was highly desirable to have more member states become Contracting Parties. To that end, the United States proposed initiating a Regional Conference Initiative outreach. To launch the Initiative, the U.S. provided Extra-Budgetary contributions to fund conferences, in Africa, the Americans and Southeast Asia. We also provided an expert for each of the conferences to assist in advancing the message to non-member States, in particular developing nations. (authors)
- Research Organization:
- WM Symposia, Inc., PO Box 13023, Tucson, AZ, 85732-3023 (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 21210784
- Report Number(s):
- INIS-US-09-WM-06625; TRN: US09V1212081246
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Waste Management 2006 Symposium - WM'06 - Global Accomplishments in Environmental and Radioactive Waste Management: Education and Opportunity for the Next Generation of Waste Management Professionals, Tucson, AZ (United States), 26 Feb - 2 Mar 2006; Other Information: Country of input: France; 3 refs
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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