India Claims Safe Nuclear Waste Through Closed Fuel Cycle and IAEA-Compliant Practices

India follows a robust and internationally aligned system for nuclear waste management at all nuclear power plant sites. Low- and intermediate-level radioactive wastes generated during operation and maintenance are treated, compacted, immobilised in solid matrices such as cement, and safely disposed or stored onsite in specially engineered reinforced concrete structures.

The country has adopted a nearly closed nuclear fuel cycle, under which spent nuclear fuel is reprocessed to recover fissile materials for reuse in future reactors, significantly reducing the overall waste burden. High-level radioactive waste arising from reprocessing is immobilised through vitrification into inert glass and stored in Solid Storage Surveillance Facilities for interim storage, in line with global best practices and the guidelines of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Existing Near Surface Disposal Facilities have sufficient capacity to manage current waste generation. Continuous research and development is underway on advanced waste management technologies, including partitioning of long-lived radioactive elements, recovery of useful radioisotopes for societal applications, and reduction of waste volume.

Regular surveillance has confirmed the effectiveness of disposal systems, with no incidents of radioactive release or adverse impact on public health or the environment reported to date.

[ABS News Service/19.12.2025]

Parliament Question: Nuclear Waste Management

Nuclear wastes generated at the nuclear power stations during their operation and maintenance are low and intermediate activity level waste and are managed at the site itself. These wastes are treated, concentrated, compacted, immobilized in solid materials like cement and disposed/stored in specially constructed structures such as reinforced concrete trenches/tile holes, located at the site.

Further, nearly closed nuclear fuel cycle is being followed in India, where spent fuels from domestic sources are reprocessed to reduce the waste burden and recover the useful element for recycle/reuse. The fissile element recovered from reprocessing of spent fuel is recycled back as a fuel for future reactors. High-level radioactive waste generated during reprocessing is then immobilized into an inert glass matrix by vitrification and stored in Solid Storage Surveillance Facilities for interim storage at par with international practices as per the guidelines of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

A well-established nuclear waste management system is in place at all the nuclear power plant sites. India has adopted “nearly closed fuel cycle”, where spent nuclear fuel is regarded as a material of resource. The closed fuel cycle aims at reprocessing of spent fuel for recovery of fissile materials and utilization as fuel. This finally leads to a very small percentage of residual material present in spent nuclear fuel requiring their management as nuclear waste. The current capacities of Near Surface Disposal Facilities (NSDF) at existing sites are adequate to store the waste generated at Nuclear Power Plants.

Research and development are being done for new technologies for waste management on partitioning technologies for segregation of long-lived radioactive constituents including actinides, and extraction of useful radioisotopes for societal application as well as waste volume reduction.

The practice of storage and disposal of radioactive waste is at par with international practices following the guidelines of International Atomic Energy Agency. Till date, the surveillance of the disposal areas at different sites has confirmed high degree of effectiveness of the disposal system for the containment of disposed wastes. There has been no incident of release of radioactivity from such disposed wastes. No effect of radiation from disposed wastes on the public or the environment has been observed.