International agreements and recommendationsThe most important international agreement on waste management is the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management which came into force in June 2001. The agreement can be read in full on the pages of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). It presents the principles to be complied with in safe and otherwise appropriate nuclear waste management. The efficacy of the Convention rests on regular review meetings, where each contracting party submits a national report on the measures taken to implement each of the obligations of the Convention. The first reporting meeting was held in November of 2003, the second took place in May 2006 and the third was held in May 2009. Finland presented its first, second and third Finnish national reports in the meeting. By agreement, it is forbidden, for example, to dump radioactive waste in the seas and to relocate it to Antarctica. The EU does not yet have any specific regulations concerning the technical implementation and safety of nuclear waste management. Consequently Finland's EU membership has not affected Finnish nuclear waste management practices or plans. There are several international organisations who formulate recommendations concerning the safety and technology of nuclear waste management. The following organisations are the most important: the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) and the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) of the OECD. Page updated 04/06/2009
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