Abstract
The Euratom HARPERS (HARmonised PracticEs, Regulations and Standards in waste management and decommissioning) project aims to establish and clarify the benefits and added value of a more aligned practices, methodologies and approaches for prioritised topics related to decommissioning and initial phases of radioactive waste handling, including shared processing facilities between Member States (MS).
The HARPERS project has a two-phase approach: the first phase involves engaging with Stakeholders to assess needs and pros/cons for harmonisation and to identify priority areas for deeper analysis. The second phase will pursue deeper engagement with Stakeholders to further assess the highest ranked priority areas in the three technical Work Packages. In Phase 2 the industry and business impacts resulting from the project findings will be also evaluated.
Work Package 4 (WP4) of HARPERS project is focused on addressing the most important conditions and opportunities for promoting Circular Economy approaches when managing materials and waste arising from nuclear decommissioning across Europe.
For the prioritisation of needs and opportunities for Circular Economy considerations, a detailed list of topics (challenges/needs - related to alignment of practices and approaches) has been developed. Topics were clustered into 7 main categories and discussed with interested external stakeholders during dedicated on-line workshops conducted in January and February 2023.
Criteria for the prioritisation of topics, based on drivers relating to societal impacts, actor-specific impacts, scientific impacts and financial impacts, have been developed and discussed during the workshops too.
This work presents the preliminary outcomes of the two online workshops.
