ONDRAF/NIRAS has been legally entrusted with two inventory missions:

	ONDRAF/NIRAS is responsible for establishing an inventory of all the radioactive waste on Belgian territory. This is known as the "Inventory of radioactive waste";
	The agency must also draw up an inventory of all the facilities and all the sites containing radioactive substances on Belgian territory. This is known as the "Inventory of Nuclear Liabilities".

Inventory of radioactive waste

In accordance with the provisions of the royal decree of 16 October 1991, ONDRAF/NIRAS's role is to keep constantly up to date a quantitative and qualitative inventory of all the radioactive waste on Belgian territory and all future waste, including excess fissile materials and waste that will be produced by nuclear facilities to be decommissioned. This is an essential condition for guaranteeing the safe management of radioactive waste, both over the short and long term. Indeed, amongst other things, an inventory of this type allows ONDRAF/NIRAS to lay out its processing/conditioning, temporary storage and disposal facilities.

The latest estimates of the quantities of radioactive waste to be managed in Belgium are calculated as far as 2070. These estimates are based on the assumption that each of the seven Belgian nuclear power plants for commercial use (4 in Doel and 3 in Tihange) will be operated for 40 years. This assumption takes into account the law of 31 January 2003 on the progressive withdrawal of nuclear energy for the purposes of industrial power generation (the official text is available in French on the Moniteur belge website - Belgian Official Journal).
ONDRAF/NIRAS is working on the assumption that at the end of each reactor's operating lifetime there will be a shutdown period of 5 to 10 years, in order to let the activity decrease in the reactors. It will then take around ten years to dismantle the core of each reactor and the surrounding structures and buildings. The waste produced by the dismantling of the seven Belgian nuclear power plants for commercial use, mainly category A waste, should therefore be generated between 2021 and 2040. Again according to ONDRAF's forecasts, the dismantling works will not be completed until 30 years later with the dismantling of building 136 (building for the storage of high-level vitrified waste on the Belgoprocess site).

According to the latest estimates, based on information available at 1st January 2001, the amount of conditioned waste that ONDRAF/NIRAS will have to manage between now and 2070 is estimated as follows:

These forecasts are likely to change in the future as they depend on numerous factors (release criteria (*), technologies, legal provisions) that are themselves liable to change with time.

At the end of 2004, a bit more than 13.150 m³ (source: Belgoprocess) of category A waste was stored on the Belgoprocess site. The volume of category A waste, which represents around 80% of the total expected volume of radioactive waste of all categories until 2070, is based on the forecasts established by waste producers. This volume consists of waste from routine production and waste generated by the dismantling of shut down nuclear facilities.

According to the latest estimates (dating from 1st January 2001) the volume of category A waste from routine production expected until 2070 will be around 18.700 m³; the volume of category A waste generated by dismantling operations is estimated at around 51.800 m³ (ONDRAF/NIRAS predicts that a significant proportion of the waste from dismantling will be of very low-level activity).

These forecasts are based on international release criteria (*) that anticipated (although not being completely identical) those that were published afterwards in the royal decree of 20 July 2001 establishing the scope of activities of the Agence Fédérale de Contrôle Nucléaire - Federal Agency for Nuclear Control (text available in French on the site of the AFCN/FANC). Predictions are more difficult to establish in the case of the later production and management of waste produced by dismantling operations as these are based on longer periods (around 50 years) than for waste from routine production.


8.900 m³ of category B waste
(low or medium-level long-lived waste)

At the end of 2004, a bit more than 3.900 m³ (source: Belgoprocess) of category B waste was stored on the Belgoprocess site. This waste mainly originated from the activities of the former pilot reprocessing plant Eurochemic.

According to ONDRAF/NIRAS's predictions (based on forecasts dating from 1st January 2001) the maximum volume of category B waste that will be added to the existing volume will be around 5.000 m³. This additional waste will come from the gradual repatriation of waste from the reprocessing of spent Belgian fuel by the French company COGEMA (around 100 m³), the cleaning up of nuclear liabilities and decommissioning activities.

Between 2.100 and 4.700 m³ of category C waste
(high-activity long-lived waste)

At the end of 2004, the stock of conditioned category C waste amounted to 244,4 m³ (source: Belgoprocess). It consisted of 195 m³ of vitrified waste from Eurochemic, 20 m³ of cemented waste from the operation of the Pamela facility and 29,4 m³ of vitrified waste from COGEMA.

In the event of reprocessing of all current and future spent fuel, the volume of category C waste which will be added to the 244,4 m³ already stored on the Belgoprocess site, will amount to around 1.860 m³.

Should the option of reprocessing be completely abandoned for all the spent fuel currently existing and yet to be produced as part of the Belgian nuclear programme, the additional category C waste will break down into 4.700 m³.

Inventory of Nuclear Liabilities

ONDRAF/NIRAS' mission was extended by law on 12 December 1997 (official text available on the site of the Moniteur belge - Belgian Official Journal). Under this new legislation, the agency is entrusted with the task of drawing up an inventory of all nuclear facilities and sites containing radioactive substances on Belgian territory. This mission is officially named the "Inventory of Nuclear Liabilities".

The Inventory of Nuclear Liabilities is a public interest undertaking. It will allow to better manage and guarantee in the long term the safety of the public and the environment in an ethical manner.


The Inventory of Nuclear Liabilities involves:

On 27 January 2003, for the first time, the report concerning the inventory outlines the situation concerning facilities and sites containing radioactive substances on Belgian territory. The inventory will allow the supervising Minister and the government to better understand the situation and prepare and define future policy. Based on the findings of this report, the supervising Minister and the government will be able to develop measures and/or practices to guarantee the availability of the necessary financial means for the safe management of radioactive substances and facilities and sites containing radioactive substances. The Press release and the Press file are only available in French or Dutch.

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(*) The release criteria are the criteria to be met before radioactive waste can be released, that is to say, when the associated risk is deemed to be sufficiently low. According to the new criteria taken into account for the 2003 inventory, greater quantities of waste should in future be considered, and therefore managed, as radioactive waste.

If you don't understand a term, please refer to our glossary.