Radioactive Waste Can Be Imported to Slovakia Again as of New Year

Bratislava, January 6 (TASR) - Radioactive waste can be imported into Slovakia again, as a ban on importing this kind of waste, introduced in 2021, has been lifted as of the new year. Parliament approved a respective change to the Environmental Act as part of a new law on critical infrastructure. The new legislation has taken effect as of January 1. A ban on importing radioactive waste for the purpose of incineration has been dropped from the Environmental Act. The submitters of the law explained that the ban on importing radioactive waste for the purposes of processing in Slovakia was introduced despite the fact that it is a standard business activity, "which isn't explicitly prohibited by any international or EU law, provided that strict safety measures are observed". According to them, this activity was banned unexpectedly after being permitted and carried out in a normal manner for almost 20 years. The Nuclear and Decommissioning Company (JAVYS) is the sole entity that deals with large-scale industrial processing of radioactive waste in Slovakia. The legislation-submitters claim that the explicit ban on processing foreign radioactive waste had a negative impact on JAVYS's performance in the past. ko/df