CYIL vol. 10 (2019)

CYIL 10 ȍ2019Ȏ HURDLING TOWARD THE PYRAMIDS OF THE NUCLEAR AGE: … decommissioning, the repository will be closed. Over the course of the following decades, the impact of the closed repository for environment will be subject of constant surveillance. We see that even the operation of the very first worldwide underground repository is matter of the next decades. When taking foreseen underground repositories in other States into regard, we must consider an even more distant future. In the Czech Republic, it is estimated that an underground repository will be commissioned into operation in 2065. Taking the financial costs necessary to construct underground repositories and the time span they take to dispose of spent nuclear fuel, the repositories were referred to as “pyramids of the nuclear age” by some authors. 10 Although still a matter of a rather distant future, the prospective applicability of international law vis-à-vis underground repositories has frequently been the subject of academic discussion. 11 Here, the issues of potential liability and compensation for damages rank among the most urgent. The fact that an underground repository will accommodate spent nuclear fuel (and potentially also other high-level radioactive waste) triggers discussions 12 as to what extent these international conventions, adopted in the field of nuclear liability and compensation applicable to various stages of the disposal of these substances in an underground repository. When looking at the entire problem from a broader perspective, we are actually discussing a single issue that indisputably belongs to the field of “legal futurism” or “legal futurology” and looks to deal with the application of law in the distant future. 13 11 See in particular (i) BISCHOF, W.‘Legal provisions concerning the handling and disposal of radioactive waste in international and national law’ in International Congress of the International Radiation Protection Association (IRPA 1980), 177-180. (ii) DAVENPORT, J.H. ‘Law of High-Level Nuclear Waste’’ (1988/1989) 53 Tennessee Law Review 481-526. (iii) HANCHER, L. ‘Radioactive Waste Disposal, an International Legal Perspective’ (1990) 3 Leiden Journal of International Law , 143-166. (iv) RILEY, P. Nuclear Waste: Law, Policy and Pragmatism (Ashgate 2004). (vi) MONTJOIE, M. Droit international et gestion des déchets radioactifs (L.G.D.J. 2011). (v) ODENDAHL, K. ‘Storage and disposal of radioactive waste: The search for a global solution’ in BLACK- BRANCH, J. L. and FLECK, D. (eds), Nuclear Non-Proliferation in International Law, Vol. III: Legal aspects of the Use of Nuclear Energy for Peaceful Purposes (IRPA 2016), 277-294. 12 See in particular (i) PELZER, N. ‘Regime of Liability and Compensation for Damage Arising out of Non- Retrievable Waste Disposal (Disposal into the Sea, under the Seabed or in Deep Geological Formations)’ in OECD (ed), Nuclear Third Party Liability and Insurance (OECD 1985) 332-47. (ii) OECD/NEA, ‘Problems Raised by the Application of the Convention on Nuclear Third Party Liability to Radioactive Waste Repositories’ (1995) 55 Nuclear Law Bulletin 17-27. (iii) Patrick REYNERS, ‘Civil Liability for Long-Term Damage Caused by the Disposal of Radioactive Waste’ in Norbert Pelzer (ed), Schnittpunkte nationalen und internationalen Atomrechts (Nomos Verlag 1997) 123-43; (iv) REYNERS, P. ‘The Nuclear Liability Conventions as Applied to Radioactive Waste Geological Repositories: The Test of Time’ in OECD (ed), Geological Repositories: Political and Technical Progress (OECD 2003) 123-43. (v) Suzanne KISSICH, Internationales Atomhaftungsrecht: Anwendungsbereich und Haftungsprinzipien (Nomos Recht 2014) 144-147. (vi) REYNERS, P. ‘Underground Nuclear Repositories and International Civil Liability: The Time Factor’ (2014) 17 Journal of Risk Research 133-43. (vii) HANDRLICA, J. ‘The Vienna Convention on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage and Nuclear Installations: Application problems revisited’ (2015) 6 Czech Yearbook of Public and Private International Law 149-160. (viii) HANDRLICA, J. ‘The Vienna Convention on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage and Radioactive Waste Management: Problems Revisited’ (2017) 8 Czech Yearbook of Public and Private International Law 386-402. 13 For more detailed information on “legal futurism” (or “legal futurology”) see (i) FUNK, D. A. ‘Legal Futurology: The Field and its Literature’ (1980) 73 Law Library Journal 625-627. (ii) WIDDISON, R. ‘Electronic Law Practice: An Exercise in Legal Futurology’ (1997) 60 Modern Law Review 143-156. (iii) TRACHTMAN, J. P. 10 GUILLEMIN, Claude. ‘Les déchets radioactifs, pyramides des temps modernes: Prévoir à l’horizon de 200.000 ans’ (1993) 177 Futuribles 25-33.

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