Romania To Build Two Radioactive Waste Storage Facilities, By 2055

According to the plans of the National Agency for Radioactive Waste, or ANDRAD, the first facility will be built in southeastern Romanian locality Saligny, near the nuclear power plant in Cernavoda.

“The low-level radioactive waste resulting from the activities of the nuclear plant in Cernavoda will be stored in Saligny. The facility will be no more than five to ten meters underground,” ANDRAD officials told a press conference Thursday.

The second facility will be a challenge to Romania, as it must be built 500 meters underground to be able to store the high-level radioactive waste resulting from the fuel used in the Cernavoda reactors.

“We are now trying to establish the location of the second facility,” said ANDRAD PR manger Stela Diaconu.

Such storehouses can only be built inside certain rocks, such as volcanic rocks, granite, or salt.

“Luckily, Romania does not lack such rocks, thus we have plenty of locations to choose from,” Diaconu added.

Until then, Romania stores high-level radioactive waste in a water pool, to maintain it at a low temperature, and then deposits the waste near the nuclear plant in cement containment trenches.

This type of waste storage is not hazardous, as continuous measurements have shown the normal radiation level in the area was never exceeded, Diaconu added.