Radioactive Waste Shipment Ordinance (Radioaktive Abfälle Verbringungsverordung)

Icon law regulation book

The Radioactive Waste Shipment Ordinance 2009 contains provisions on the monitoring and control of transboundary shipments of radioactive waste and spent fuel elements for treatment or final disposal.

The Ordinance transposes the European Directive No 2006/117/Euratom into national law. Essentially, it regulates the procedures for authorising shipments of radioactive waste and spent fuel elements from, to and through Austrian territory. This affects shipments within the European Union (EU) as well as shipments where the country of origin and/or the country of destination is a third country.

As Nuclear Engineering Seibersdorf GmbH (NES) is only authorised to accept radioactive waste generated in Austria, shipments to the Austrian territory are only permitted if they involve waste from material previously exported from Austria for treatment. With regard to shipments of radioactive waste to other countries, the 2015 amendment (Federal Law Gazette II No. 22/2015), in accordance with the Waste Directive, sets out the conditions under which an export for final disposal to another country could in principle be authorised.

The scope of the Ordinance has been extended compared to the provisions applicable before to include the shipment of spent fuel elements. However, the transport of nuclear material intended for the purpose of energy generation remains generally prohibited in Austria under the Federal Constitutional Act for a Nuclear-Free Austria (Federal Law Gazette I No 149 /1999.