Radioactive Waste Management

China's approach to radioactive waste management puts safety first, which is an overriding consideration informing all disposal-related activities and efforts to minimize radioactive waste, so as to ensure safety not only for the current generation but also for future generations without creating an undue burden on the latter. 

The development of the nuclear industry has to be accompanied by strengthened radioactive waste management. Industrial facilities for disposal of low- and intermediate-level liquid radioactive waste have been built, where solid waste is conditioned, sorted, compressed, incinerated, and disposed of. New technological achievements have been made in the treatment of low-level organic liquid waste and vitrification of high-level liquid waste. Waste minimization measures are taken at nuclear power plants to keep the waste (conditioned) generated from a 1,000 MWe reactor at about 50 m3 annually. 

Low-level radioactive waste from nuclear power plants is disposed of in different regional disposal facilities. Three disposal sites have been built in the northwest of Gansu Province, Beilong of Guangdong Province and Feifengshan of Sichuan Province. In 2020, four low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste disposal sites were approved in Yangjiang (Guangdong Province), Fangchenggang (Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region), Xudapu (Liaoning Province) and Gansu Province, which accelerated the formation of a "regional+centralized" disposal pattern. China's plan for a high-level waste (HLW) repository calls for a three-step approach: site selection, underground laboratory research and testing, and repository construction. Site selection started in 1985, and Beishan in Gansu was preliminarily identified as the preferred location in 2011. The plan for building the first underground laboratory for geological disposal of HLW in Xinchang section of Beishan, Gansu Province was approved by the government in 2019. 

放射性廢物治理

中國放射性廢物管理堅持以安全為目標、以處置為核心的理念，實現放射性廢物最小化，確保當代和后代人的安全，不給后代留下不適當的負擔。

為適應核工業發展的需要，中國放射性廢物管理能力持續提升。建成了工業規模的中低放廢液處理裝置，形成了固體廢物整備、分揀、壓縮、焚燒和處置能力；低放有機廢液處理、高放廢液玻璃固化的技術攻關也取得新的突破。各核電站加強廢物最小化管理，每臺百萬千瓦級核電機組每年廢物包產生量預期值（整備后）僅約 50立方米。

中國實行核電站低放廢物區域處置政策，迄今已建成甘肅西北處置場、廣東北龍處置場、四川飛鳳山處置場三座處置場。 2020年，核準廣東陽江、廣西防城港、遼寧徐大堡和甘肅 4座中低放廢物處置場，“區域 +集中”的處置格局加快形成。按照“處置庫選址、地下實驗室研究和處置庫建設”的“三步走”研發戰略，中國從 1985年啟動高放廢物處置庫選址工作， 2011年確定甘肅北山為高放廢物處置首選預選區； 2019年，批準在甘肅北山新場場址建立首座高放廢物地質處置地下實驗室。