Radioactive waste from abroad can be imported to Slovakia again. As of the new year, the ban on the import of this waste, which was introduced in 2021, has been lifted. Parliament pushed through the amendment to the Environmental Act as part of the new Act on Critical Infrastructure. The new legislation is effective from January 1.
The ban on importing radioactive waste that was not produced in Slovakia for the purpose of incineration was removed from the Environmental Act. The presenters explained that the ban on the import of radioactive waste (RAW) from abroad for the purposes of processing in the Slovak Republic was introduced despite the fact that it is a normal business activity “which is not explicitly prohibited by any international or European legal act, provided that strict safety measures are observed”. According to them, this ban occurred unexpectedly after almost 20 years of such permitted and normally performed activity.
In Slovakia, only the Nuclear Decommissioning Company (JAVYS) deals with large-scale industrial processing of radioactive waste. In the past, according to the submitters, the explicit ban on the processing of foreign RAW had a fundamental negative impact on the management of JAVYS.
In the Radiation Protection Act, the strict ban on the import of RW for the purpose of processing is changed to a conditionally permitted import, as long as the conditions according to the Atomic Law are met and an optimization study for RW processing is approved. The scope of approving the optimization study is being expanded for the Public Health Office of the Slovak Republic.
