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135-542: The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal , usually known as the Basel Convention , is an international treaty that was designed to reduce the movements of hazardous waste between nations, and specifically to restrict the transfer of hazardous waste from developed to less developed countries . It does not address the movement of radioactive waste , controlled by

270-436: A preemptory norm ( jus cogens ) , such as permitting a war of aggression or crimes against humanity. A treaty is an official, express written agreement that states use to legally bind themselves. It is also the objective outcome of a ceremonial occasion that acknowledges the parties and their defined relationships. There is no prerequisite of academic accreditation or cross-professional contextual knowledge required to publish

405-491: A "country" under the specific definition, export of e-waste to non-terrestrial locations would not be covered. After the initial adoption of the convention, some least developed countries and environmental organizations argued that it did not go far enough. Many nations and NGOs argued for a total ban on shipment of all hazardous waste to developing countries. In particular, the original convention did not prohibit waste exports to any location except Antarctica but merely required

540-407: A "manifest violation" is required such that it would be "objectively evident to any State dealing with the matter". A strong presumption exists internationally that a head of state has acted within his proper authority. It seems that no treaty has ever actually been invalidated on this provision. Consent is also invalid if it was given by a representative acting outside their restricted powers during

675-511: A binding international agreement on several grounds. For example, the Japan–Korea treaties of 1905, 1907, and 1910 were protested by several governments as having been essentially forced upon Korea by Japan; they were confirmed as "already null and void " in the 1965 Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea . If an act or lack thereof is condemned under international law,

810-499: A change is sufficient if unforeseen, if it undermined the "essential basis" of consent by a party if it radically transforms the extent of obligations between the parties, and if the obligations are still to be performed. A party cannot base this claim on change brought about by its own breach of the treaty. This claim also cannot be used to invalidate treaties that established or redrew political boundaries. Cartels ("Cartells", "Cartelle" or "Kartell-Konventionen" in other languages) were

945-466: A characteristic such as being explosive, flammable, toxic, or corrosive. The other way that a waste may fall under the scope of the convention is if it is defined as or considered to be a hazardous waste under the laws of either the exporting country, the importing country, or any of the countries of transit. The definition of the term disposal is made in Article 2 al 4 and just refers to annex IV, which gives

1080-650: A charitable civil society non-governmental organization that works as a consumer watchdog for implementation of the Basel Convention. BAN's principal aims is fighting exportation of toxic waste , including plastic waste, from industrialized societies to developing countries . BAN is based in Seattle , Washington, United States, with a partner office in the Philippines . BAN works to curb trans-border trade in hazardous electronic waste, land dumping , incineration , and

1215-527: A currently uneconomic prospect. A summary of the amounts of radioactive waste and management approaches for most developed countries are presented and reviewed periodically as part of a joint convention of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). A quantity of radioactive waste typically consists of a number of radionuclides , which are unstable isotopes of elements that undergo decay and thereby emit ionizing radiation , which

1350-517: A developing organism such as a fetus is irradiated, it is possible a birth defect may be induced, but it is unlikely this defect will be in a gamete or a gamete-forming cell . The incidence of radiation-induced mutations in humans is small, as in most mammals, because of natural cellular-repair mechanisms, many just now coming to light. These mechanisms range from DNA, mRNA and protein repair, to internal lysosomic digestion of defective proteins, and even induced cell suicide—apoptosis Depending on

1485-695: A general dispute resolution mechanism, many treaties specify a process outside the convention for arbitrating disputes and alleged breaches. This may by a specially convened panel, by reference to an existing court or panel established for the purpose such as the International Court of Justice , the European Court of Justice or processes such as the Dispute Settlement Understanding of the World Trade Organization . Depending on

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1620-462: A general framework for the development of binding greenhouse gas emission limits, followed by the Kyoto Protocol contained the specific provisions and regulations later agreed upon. Treaties may be seen as "self-executing", in that merely becoming a party puts the treaty and all its obligations in action. Other treaties may be non-self-executing and require "implementing legislation"—a change in

1755-554: A general rule, short-lived waste (mainly non-fuel materials from reactors) is buried in shallow repositories, while long-lived waste (from fuel and fuel reprocessing) is deposited in geological repository. Regulations in the United States do not define this category of waste; the term is used in Europe and elsewhere. ILW makes up 6% of all radioactive waste volume in the UK. High-level waste (HLW)

1890-492: A half-life that can stretch to as long as 24,000 years. The amount of HLW worldwide is increasing by about 12,000 tonnes per year. A 1000- megawatt nuclear power plant produces about 27 tonnes of spent nuclear fuel (unreprocessed) every year. For comparison, the amount of ash produced by coal power plants in the United States is estimated at 130,000,000 t per year and fly ash is estimated to release 100 times more radiation than an equivalent nuclear power plant. In 2010, it

2025-503: A list of operations which are understood as disposal or recovery. Examples of disposal are broad, including recovery and recycling. Alternatively, to fall under the scope of the convention, it is sufficient for waste to be included in Annex II, which lists other wastes, such as household wastes and residue that comes from incinerating household waste. Radioactive waste that is covered under other international control systems and wastes from

2160-569: A notification and consent system known as "prior informed consent" or PIC. Further, many waste traders sought to exploit the good name of recycling and begin to justify all exports as moving to recycling destinations. Many believed a full ban was needed including exports for recycling. These concerns led to several regional waste trade bans, including the Bamako Convention . Lobbying at 1995 Basel conference by developing countries, Greenpeace and several European countries such as Denmark, led to

2295-496: A previous treaty or international agreement. A protocol can amend the previous treaty or add additional provisions. Parties to the earlier agreement are not required to adopt the protocol, and this is sometimes made explicit, especially where many parties to the first agreement do not support the protocol. A notable example is the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which established

2430-438: A range of applications, such as oil well logging. Substances containing natural radioactivity are known as NORM (naturally occurring radioactive material). After human processing that exposes or concentrates this natural radioactivity (such as mining bringing coal to the surface or burning it to produce concentrated ash), it becomes technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive material (TENORM). Much of this waste

2565-504: A reactor. At that point, the fuel has to be replaced in the reactor with fresh fuel, even though there is still a substantial quantity of uranium-235 and plutonium present. In the United States, this used fuel is usually "stored", while in other countries such as Russia, the United Kingdom, France, Japan, and India, the fuel is reprocessed to remove the fission products, and the fuel can then be re-used. The fission products removed from

2700-405: A result of the processing or consumption of coal, oil, and gas, and some minerals, as discussed below. Waste from the front end of the nuclear fuel cycle is usually alpha-emitting waste from the extraction of uranium. It often contains radium and its decay products. Uranium dioxide (UO 2 ) concentrate from mining is a thousand or so times as radioactive as the granite used in buildings. It

2835-426: A similar way, the alpha emitting actinides and radium are considered very harmful as they tend to have long biological half-lives and their radiation has a high relative biological effectiveness , making it far more damaging to tissues per amount of energy deposited. Because of such differences, the rules determining biological injury differ widely according to the radioisotope, time of exposure, and sometimes also

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2970-404: A single very long sentence formatted into multiple paragraphs for readability, in which each of the paragraphs begins with a gerund (desiring, recognizing, having, etc.). The High Contracting Parties—referred to as either the official title of the head of state (but not including the personal name), e.g. His Majesty The King of X or His Excellency The President of Y , or alternatively in

3105-464: A special kind of treaty within the international law of the 17th to 19th centuries. Their purpose was to regulate specific activities of common interest among contracting states that otherwise remained rivals in other areas. They were typically implemented on an administrative level . Similar to the cartels for duels and tournaments , these intergovernmental accords represented fairness agreements or gentlemen's agreements between states . In

3240-446: A stable state but rather to radioactive decay products within a decay chain before ultimately reaching a stable state. Exposure to radioactive waste may cause health impacts due to ionizing radiation exposure. In humans, a dose of 1 sievert carries a 5.5% risk of developing cancer, and regulatory agencies assume the risk is linearly proportional to dose even for low doses. Ionizing radiation can cause deletions in chromosomes. If

3375-501: A storage area, and the enrichment methods required have high capital costs. Pu-239 decays to U-235 which is suitable for weapons and which has a very long half-life (roughly 10 years). Thus plutonium may decay and leave uranium-235. However, modern reactors are only moderately enriched with U-235 relative to U-238, so the U-238 continues to serve as a denaturation agent for any U-235 produced by plutonium decay. One solution to this problem

3510-464: A treaty requires implementing legislation, a state may default on its obligations due to its legislature failing to pass the necessary domestic laws. The language of treaties, like that of any law or contract, must be interpreted when the wording does not seem clear, or it is not immediately apparent how it should be applied in a perhaps unforeseen circumstance. The Vienna Convention states that treaties are to be interpreted "in good faith" according to

3645-507: A treaty, the eschatocol (or closing protocol), is often signaled by language such as "in witness whereof" or "in faith whereof", followed by the words "DONE at", then the site(s) of the treaty's execution and the date(s) of its execution. The date is typically written in its most formal, non-numerical form; for example, the Charter of the United Nations reads "DONE at the city of San Francisco

3780-400: A treaty. However, since the late 19th century, most treaties have followed a fairly consistent format. A treaty typically begins with a preamble describing the "High Contracting Parties" and their shared objectives in executing the treaty, as well as summarizing any underlying events (such as the aftermath of a war in the case of a peace treaty ). Modern preambles are sometimes structured as

3915-432: A treaty. For example, within the United States, agreements between states are compacts and agreements between states and the federal government or between agencies of the government are memoranda of understanding . Another situation can occur when one party wishes to create an obligation under international law, but the other party does not. This factor has been at work with respect to discussions between North Korea and

4050-505: Is alpha particle -emitting matter from the decay chains of uranium and thorium. The main source of radiation in the human body is potassium -40 ( K ), typically 17 milligrams in the body at a time and 0.4 milligrams/day intake. Most rocks, especially granite , have a low level of radioactivity due to the potassium-40, thorium and uranium contained. Usually ranging from 1 millisievert (mSv) to 13 mSv annually depending on location, average radiation exposure from natural radioisotopes

4185-434: Is reactor-grade plutonium . In addition to plutonium-239 , which is highly suitable for building nuclear weapons, it contains large amounts of undesirable contaminants: plutonium-240 , plutonium-241 , and plutonium-238 . These isotopes are extremely difficult to separate, and more cost-effective ways of obtaining fissile material exist (e.g., uranium enrichment or dedicated plutonium production reactors). High-level waste

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4320-482: Is 2.0 mSv per person a year worldwide. This makes up the majority of typical total dosage (with mean annual exposure from other sources amounting to 0.6 mSv from medical tests averaged over the whole populace, 0.4 mSv from cosmic rays , 0.005 mSv from the legacy of past atmospheric nuclear testing, 0.005 mSv occupational exposure, 0.002 mSv from the Chernobyl disaster , and 0.0002 mSv from

4455-496: Is a fertile material that can undergo a neutron capture reaction and two beta minus decays, resulting in the production of fissile U-233 . The SNF of a cycle with thorium will contain U-233. Its radioactive decay will strongly influence the long-term activity curve of the SNF for around a million years. A comparison of the activity associated to U-233 for three different SNF types can be seen in

4590-406: Is a fissile material used in nuclear bombs, plus some material with much higher specific activities, such as Pu-238 or Po. In the past the neutron trigger for an atomic bomb tended to be beryllium and a high activity alpha emitter such as polonium ; an alternative to polonium is Pu-238 . For reasons of national security, details of the design of modern nuclear bombs are normally not released to

4725-424: Is a gamma emitter (increasing external-exposure to workers) and is an alpha emitter which can cause the generation of heat . The plutonium could be separated from the americium by several different processes; these would include pyrochemical processes and aqueous/organic solvent extraction . A truncated PUREX type extraction process would be one possible method of making the separation. Naturally occurring uranium

4860-483: Is a notable non-party to the convention and has a number of such agreements for allowing the shipping of hazardous wastes to Basel Party countries. The OECD Council also has its own control system that governs the transboundary movement of hazardous materials between OECD member countries. This allows, among other things, the OECD countries to continue trading in wastes with countries like the United States that have not ratified

4995-421: Is binding under international law. A treaty may also be known as an international agreement , protocol , covenant , convention , pact , or exchange of letters , among other terms. However, only documents that are legally binding on the parties are considered treaties under international law. Treaties vary in their obligations (the extent to which states are bound to the rules), precision (the extent to which

5130-611: Is full of highly radioactive fission products , most of which are relatively short-lived. This is a concern since if the waste is stored, perhaps in deep geological storage, over many years the fission products decay, decreasing the radioactivity of the waste and making the plutonium easier to access. The undesirable contaminant Pu-240 decays faster than the Pu-239, and thus the quality of the bomb material increases with time (although its quantity decreases during that time as well). Thus, some have argued, as time passes, these deep storage areas have

5265-516: Is generated from hospitals and industry, as well as the nuclear fuel cycle . Low-level wastes include paper, rags, tools, clothing, filters, and other materials which contain small amounts of mostly short-lived radioactivity. Materials that originate from any region of an Active Area are commonly designated as LLW as a precautionary measure even if there is only a remote possibility of being contaminated with radioactive materials. Such LLW typically exhibits no higher radioactivity than one would expect from

5400-477: Is harmful to humans and the environment. Different isotopes emit different types and levels of radiation, which last for different periods of time. The radioactivity of all radioactive waste weakens with time. All radionuclides contained in the waste have a half-life —the time it takes for half of the atoms to decay into another nuclide . Eventually, all radioactive waste decays into non-radioactive elements (i.e., stable nuclides ). Since radioactive decay follows

5535-560: Is highly radioactive and hot due to decay heat, thus requiring cooling and shielding. In nuclear reprocessing plants, about 96% of spent nuclear fuel is recycled back into uranium-based and mixed-oxide (MOX) fuels . The residual 4% is minor actinides and fission products , the latter of which are a mixture of stable and quickly decaying (most likely already having decayed in the spent fuel pool ) elements, medium lived fission products such as strontium-90 and caesium-137 and finally seven long-lived fission products with half lives in

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5670-429: Is important to distinguish the processing of uranium to make fuel from the reprocessing of used fuel. Used fuel contains the highly radioactive products of fission (see high-level waste below). Many of these are neutron absorbers, called neutron poisons in this context. These eventually build up to a level where they absorb so many neutrons that the chain reaction stops, even with the control rods completely removed from

5805-501: Is not a party to the treaty, export shipments of plastic waste from the United States are now "criminal traffic as soon as the ships get on the high seas," according to the Basel Action Network (BAN), and carriers of such shipments may face liability, because the transportation of plastic waste is prohibited in just about every other country. With the tightening of environmental laws (for example, RCRA ) in developed nations in

5940-591: Is not fissile because it contains 99.3% of U-238 and only 0.7% of U-235. Due to historic activities typically related to the radium industry, uranium mining, and military programs, numerous sites contain or are contaminated with radioactivity. In the United States alone, the Department of Energy (DOE) states there are "millions of gallons of radioactive waste" as well as "thousands of tons of spent nuclear fuel and material" and also "huge quantities of contaminated soil and water." Despite copious quantities of waste, in 2007,

6075-423: Is produced by nuclear reactors and the reprocessing of nuclear fuel. The exact definition of HLW differs internationally. After a nuclear fuel rod serves one fuel cycle and is removed from the core, it is considered HLW. Spent fuel rods contain mostly uranium with fission products and transuranic elements generated in the reactor core . Spent fuel is highly radioactive and often hot. HLW accounts for over 95% of

6210-520: Is refined from yellowcake (U 3 O 8 ), then converted to uranium hexafluoride gas (UF 6 ). As a gas, it undergoes enrichment to increase the U-235 content from 0.7% to about 4.4% (LEU). It is then turned into a hard ceramic oxide (UO 2 ) for assembly as reactor fuel elements. The main by-product of enrichment is depleted uranium (DU), principally the U-238 isotope, with a U-235 content of ~0.3%. It

6345-432: Is stored, either as UF 6 or as U 3 O 8 . Some is used in applications where its extremely high density makes it valuable such as anti-tank shells , and on at least one occasion even a sailboat keel . It is also used with plutonium for making mixed oxide fuel (MOX) and to dilute, or downblend , highly enriched uranium from weapons stockpiles which is now being redirected to become reactor fuel. The back-end of

6480-426: Is to recycle the plutonium and use it as a fuel e.g. in fast reactors . In pyrometallurgical fast reactors , the separated plutonium and uranium are contaminated by actinides and cannot be used for nuclear weapons. Waste from nuclear weapons decommissioning is unlikely to contain much beta or gamma activity other than tritium and americium . It is more likely to contain alpha-emitting actinides such as Pu-239 which

6615-707: The Cook Islands , the European Union , and the State of Palestine . The five UN member states that are not party to the treaty are East Timor , Fiji , Haiti , South Sudan , and United States. Waste falls under the scope of the convention if it is within the category of wastes listed in Annex I of the convention and it exhibits one of the hazardous characteristics contained in Annex III. In other words, it must both be listed and possess

6750-497: The International Atomic Energy Agency . The Basel Convention is also intended to minimize the rate and toxicity of wastes generated, to ensure their environmentally sound management as closely as possible to the source of generation, and to assist developing countries in environmentally sound management of the hazardous and other wastes they generate. The convention was opened for signature on 21 March 1989, and entered into force on 5 May 1992. As of June 2024, there are 191 parties to

6885-464: The International Court of Justice . This was done to prevent the practice of secret treaties , which proliferated in the 19th and 20th centuries and often precipitated or exacerbated conflict. Article 103 of the Charter also states that its members' obligations under the Charter outweigh any competing obligations under other treaties. After their adoption, treaties, as well as their amendments, must follow

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7020-469: The PUREX -process disposes of them as waste together with the fission products. The waste is subsequently converted into a glass-like ceramic for storage in a deep geological repository . The time radioactive waste must be stored depends on the type of waste and radioactive isotopes it contains. Short-term approaches to radioactive waste storage have been segregation and storage on the surface or near-surface of

7155-626: The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs provides that the treaty will terminate if, as a result of denunciations, the number of parties falls below 40. Many treaties expressly forbid withdrawal. Article 56 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties provides that where a treaty is silent over whether or not it can be denounced there is a rebuttable presumption that it cannot be unilaterally denounced unless: The possibility of withdrawal depends on

7290-475: The United Nations , for which they often provide a governing framework. Treaties serve as primary sources of international law and have codified or established most international legal principles since the early 20th century. In contrast with other sources of international law, such as customary international law , treaties are only binding on the parties that have signed and ratified them. Notwithstanding

7425-400: The Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties if the representative is the head of state, head of government or minister of foreign affairs , no special document is needed, as holding such high office is sufficient. The end of the preamble and the start of the actual agreement is often signaled by the words "have agreed as follows". After the preamble comes numbered articles, which contain

7560-461: The early modern era . The early 19th century saw developments in diplomacy, foreign policy, and international law reflected by the widespread use of treaties. The 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties codified these practices and established rules and guidelines for creating, amending, interpreting, and terminating treaties, and for resolving disputes and alleged breaches. Treaties are roughly analogous to contracts in that they establish

7695-404: The "ordinary meaning given to the terms of the treaty in their context and in the light of its object and purpose". International legal experts also often invoke the "principle of maximum effectiveness", which interprets treaty language as having the fullest force and effect possible to establish obligations between the parties. No one party to a treaty can impose its particular interpretation of

7830-426: The 1970s, disposal costs for hazardous waste rose dramatically. At the same time, the globalization of shipping made cross-border movement of waste easier, and many less developed countries were desperate for foreign currency. Consequently, the trade in hazardous waste, particularly to poorer countries, grew rapidly. In 1990, OECD countries exported around 1.8 million tons of hazardous waste. Although most of this waste

7965-499: The Basel Agreement focused on issues of electronic waste and the dismantling of ships . Increased trade in recyclable materials has led to an increase in a market for used products such as computers. This market is valued in billions of dollars. At issue is the distinction when used computers stop being a "commodity" and become a "waste". As of June 2023, there are 191 parties to the treaty, which includes 188 UN member states ,

8100-400: The Basel Convention to include plastic waste as a regulated material. The world's oceans are estimated to contain 100 million metric tons of plastic, with up to 90% of this quantity originating in land-based sources. The United States, which produces an annual 42 million metric tons of plastic waste, more than any other country in the world, opposed the amendment, but since it is not a party to

8235-506: The Basel Convention. Parties to the convention must honor import bans of other parties. Article 4 of the Basel Convention calls for an overall reduction of waste generation. By encouraging countries to keep wastes within their boundaries and as close as possible to its source of generation, the internal pressures should provide incentives for waste reduction and pollution prevention. Parties are generally prohibited from exporting covered wastes to, or importing covered waste from, non-parties to

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8370-454: The Convention. The Plastic Waste Amendments of the convention are now binding on 186 States. In addition to ensuring the trade in plastic waste is more transparent and better regulated, under the Basel Convention governments must take steps not only to ensure the environmentally sound management of plastic waste, but also to tackle plastic waste at its source. The Basel Action Network (BAN) is

8505-712: The DOE has successfully completed cleanup, or at least closure, of several sites. Radioactive medical waste tends to contain beta particle and gamma ray emitters. It can be divided into two main classes. In diagnostic nuclear medicine a number of short-lived gamma emitters such as technetium-99m are used. Many of these can be disposed of by leaving it to decay for a short time before disposal as normal waste. Other isotopes used in medicine, with half-lives in parentheses, include: Industrial source waste can contain alpha, beta , neutron or gamma emitters. Gamma emitters are used in radiography while neutron emitting sources are used in

8640-569: The DOE stated a goal of cleaning all presently contaminated sites successfully by 2025. The Fernald , Ohio site for example had "31 million pounds of uranium product", "2.5 billion pounds of waste", "2.75 million cubic yards of contaminated soil and debris", and a "223 acre portion of the underlying Great Miami Aquifer had uranium levels above drinking standards." The United States has at least 108 sites designated as areas that are contaminated and unusable, sometimes many thousands of acres. The DOE wishes to clean or mitigate many or all by 2025, using

8775-427: The Law of Treaties and customary international law , treaties are not required to follow any standard form. Nevertheless, all valid treaties must comply with the legal principle of pacta sunt servanda (Latin: "agreements must be kept"), under which parties are committed to perform their duties and honor their agreements in good faith . A treaty may also be invalidated, and thus rendered unenforceable, if it violates

8910-542: The MOX fuel results in a lower activity in region 3 of the figure at the bottom right, whereas for RGPu and WGPu the curve is maintained higher due to the presence of U-233 that has not fully decayed. Nuclear reprocessing can remove the actinides from the spent fuel so they can be used or destroyed (see Long-lived fission product § Actinides ). Since uranium and plutonium are nuclear weapons materials, there are proliferation concerns. Ordinarily (in spent nuclear fuel), plutonium

9045-408: The Pu-239; due to the relatively long half-life of these Pu isotopes, these wastes from radioactive decay of bomb core material would be very small, and in any case, far less dangerous (even in terms of simple radioactivity) than the Pu-239 itself. The beta decay of Pu-241 forms Am-241 ; the in-growth of americium is likely to be a greater problem than the decay of Pu-239 and Pu-240 as the americium

9180-1087: The Radioactive Waste Safety Standards (RADWASS), also plays a significant role. The proportion of various types of waste generated in the UK: Uranium tailings are waste by-product materials left over from the rough processing of uranium-bearing ore . They are not significantly radioactive. Mill tailings are sometimes referred to as 11(e)2 wastes , from the section of the US Atomic Energy Act of 1946 that defines them. Uranium mill tailings typically also contain chemically hazardous heavy metal such as lead and arsenic . Vast mounds of uranium mill tailings are left at many old mining sites, especially in Colorado , New Mexico , and Utah . Although mill tailings are not very radioactive, they have long half-lives. Mill tailings often contain radium, thorium and trace amounts of uranium. Low-level waste (LLW)

9315-583: The Swiss ("on the one part") and the EU and its member states ("on the other part"). The treaty establishes rights and obligations between the Swiss and the EU and the member states severally—it does not establish any rights and obligations amongst the EU and its member states. A multilateral treaty is concluded among several countries, establishing rights and obligations between each party and every other party. Multilateral treaties may be regional or may involve states across

9450-548: The United States is not a party to the treaty, export shipments of plastic waste from the United States are now "criminal traffic as soon as the ships get on the high seas," according to the Basel Action Network (BAN), and carriers of such shipments may face liability, because the Basel Convention as amended in May 2019 prohibits the transportation of plastic waste to just about every other country. The Basel Convention contains three main entries on plastic wastes in Annex II, VIII and IX of

9585-520: The United States over security guarantees and nuclear proliferation . The definition of the English word "treaty" varies depending on the legal and political context; in some jurisdictions, such as the United States, a treaty is specifically an international agreement that has been ratified, and thus made binding, per the procedures established under domestic law. While the Vienna Convention provides

9720-689: The United States, cartels governed humanitarian actions typically carried out by cartel ships were dispatched for missions, such as to carry communications or prisoners between belligerents . From the European history, a broader range of purposes is known. These "cartels" often reflected the cohesion of authoritarian ruling classes against their own unruly citizens. Generally, the European governments concluded - while curbing their mutual rivalries partially - cooperation agreements, which should apply generally or only in case of war: The measures against criminals and unruly citizens were to be conducted regardless of

9855-399: The above wastes, there are stringent requirements for notice, consent and tracking for movement of wastes across national boundaries. The convention places a general prohibition on the exportation or importation of wastes between parties and non-parties. The exception to this rule is where the waste is subject to another treaty that does not take away from the Basel Convention. The United States

9990-417: The act will not assume international legality even if approved by internal law. This means that in case of a conflict with domestic law, international law will always prevail. A party's consent to a treaty is invalid if it had been given by an agent or body without power to do so under that state's domestic laws . States are reluctant to inquire into the internal affairs and processes of other states, and so

10125-585: The adoption of an amendment to the convention in 1995 termed the Basel Ban Amendment to the Basel Convention. The amendment has been accepted by 86 countries and the European Union, but has not entered into force (as that requires ratification by three-fourths of the member states to the convention). On 6 September 2019, Croatia became the 97th country to ratify the amendment which will enter into force after 90 days on 5 December 2019. The amendment prohibits

10260-639: The ash content of 'dirty' coals. The more active ash minerals become concentrated in the fly ash precisely because they do not burn well. The radioactivity of fly ash is about the same as black shale and is less than phosphate rocks, but is more of a concern because a small amount of the fly ash ends up in the atmosphere where it can be inhaled. According to U.S. National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRP) reports, population exposure from 1000-MWe power plants amounts to 490 person-rem/year for coal power plants, 100 times as great as nuclear power plants (4.8 person-rem/year). The exposure from

10395-448: The back end of the fuel cycle is especially relevant when designing a complete waste management plan for SNF. When looking at long-term radioactive decay, the actinides in the SNF have a significant influence due to their characteristically long half-lives. Depending on what a nuclear reactor is fueled with, the actinide composition in the SNF will be different. An example of this effect is the use of nuclear fuels with thorium . Th-232

10530-405: The cargo in any port, the crew was believed to have dumped much of it at sea. Another incident was a 1988 case in which five ships transported 8,000 barrels of hazardous waste from Italy to the small Nigerian town of Koko in exchange for $ 100 monthly rent which was paid to a Nigerian for the use of his farmland. At its meeting that took place from 27 November to 1 December 2006, the parties of

10665-452: The complete nuclear fuel cycle from mining to waste disposal is 136 person-rem/year; the corresponding value for coal use from mining to waste disposal is "probably unknown". Residues from the oil and gas industry often contain radium and its decay products. The sulfate scale from an oil well can be radium rich, while the water, oil, and gas from a well often contain radon . The radon decays to form solid radioisotopes which form coatings on

10800-637: The content of the treaty itself. Invalidation is separate from withdrawal, suspension, or termination (addressed above), which all involve an alteration in the consent of the parties of a previously valid treaty rather than the invalidation of that consent in the first place. Radioactive waste Radioactive waste is broadly classified into 3 categories: low-level waste (LLW), such as paper, rags, tools, clothing, which contain small amounts of mostly short-lived radioactivity; intermediate-level waste (ILW), which contains higher amounts of radioactivity and requires some shielding; and high-level waste (HLW), which

10935-570: The convention [see Report of COP 9 of the Basel Convention]. The status of the amendment ratifications can be found on the Basel Secretariat's web page. The European Union fully implemented the Basel Ban in its Waste Shipment Regulation ( EWSR ), making it legally binding in all EU member states. Norway and Switzerland have similarly fully implemented the Basel Ban in their legislation. In

11070-399: The convention. The convention states that illegal hazardous waste traffic is criminal but contains no enforcement provisions. According to Article 12, parties are directed to adopt a protocol that establishes liability rules and procedures that are appropriate for damage that comes from the movement of hazardous waste across borders. The current consensus is that as space is not classed as

11205-409: The convention. In addition, Haiti and the United States have signed the convention but did not ratify it. Following a petition urging action on the issue signed by more than a million people around the world, most of the world's countries, but not the United States, agreed in May 2019 to an amendment of the Basel Convention to include plastic waste as regulated material. Although the United States

11340-409: The dates on which the respective parties ratified the treaty and on which it came into effect for each party. Bilateral treaties are concluded between two states or entities. It is possible for a bilateral treaty to have more than two parties; for example, each of the bilateral treaties between Switzerland and the European Union (EU) has seventeen parties: The parties are divided into two groups,

11475-425: The decay mode and the pharmacokinetics of an element (how the body processes it and how quickly), the threat due to exposure to a given activity of a radioisotope will differ. For instance, iodine-131 is a short-lived beta and gamma emitter, but because it concentrates in the thyroid gland, it is more able to cause injury than caesium -137 which, being water soluble , is rapidly excreted through urine. In

11610-418: The domestic law of a state party that will direct or enable it to fulfill treaty obligations. An example of a treaty requiring such legislation would be one mandating local prosecution by a party for particular crimes. The division between the two is often unclear and subject to disagreements within a government, since a non-self-executing treaty cannot be acted on without the proper change in domestic law; if

11745-604: The earth. Burial in a deep geological repository is a favored solution for long-term storage of high-level waste, while re-use and transmutation are favored solutions for reducing the HLW inventory. Boundaries to recycling of spent nuclear fuel are regulatory and economic as well as the issue of radioactive contamination if chemical separation processes cannot achieve a very high purity. Furthermore, elements may be present in both useful and troublesome isotopes, which would require costly and energy intensive isotope separation for their use –

11880-518: The entry-into force of the Ban Amendment is under debate: Amendments to the convention enter into force after ratification of "three-fourths of the Parties who accepted them" [Art. 17.5]; so far, the parties of the Basel Convention could not yet agree whether this would be three-fourths of the parties that were party to the Basel Convention when the ban was adopted, or three-fourths of the current parties of

12015-440: The export of hazardous waste from a list of developed (mostly OECD ) countries to developing countries. The Basel Ban applies to export for any reason, including recycling . An area of special concern for advocates of the amendment was the sale of ships for salvage, shipbreaking . The Ban Amendment was strenuously opposed by a number of industry groups as well as nations including Australia and Canada. The number of ratification for

12150-411: The figure on the top right. The burnt fuels are thorium with reactor-grade plutonium (RGPu), thorium with weapons-grade plutonium (WGPu), and Mixed oxide fuel (MOX, no thorium). For RGPu and WGPu, the initial amount of U-233 and its decay for around a million years can be seen. This has an effect on the total activity curve of the three fuel types. The initial absence of U-233 and its daughter products in

12285-407: The form of " Government of Z "—are enumerated, along with the full names and titles of their plenipotentiary representatives; a boilerplate clause describes how each party's representatives have communicated (or exchanged) their "full powers" (i.e., the official documents appointing them to act on behalf of their respective high contracting party) and found them in good or proper form. However, under

12420-567: The fuel are a concentrated form of high-level waste as are the chemicals used in the process. While most countries reprocess the fuel carrying out single plutonium cycles, India is planning multiple plutonium recycling schemes and Russia pursues closed cycle. The use of different fuels in nuclear reactors results in different spent nuclear fuel (SNF) composition, with varying activity curves. The most abundant material being U-238 with other uranium isotopes, other actinides, fission products and activation products. Long-lived radioactive waste from

12555-416: The half-life rule, the rate of decay is inversely proportional to the duration of decay. In other words, the radiation from a long-lived isotope like iodine-129 will be much less intense than that of a short-lived isotope like iodine-131 . The two tables show some of the major radioisotopes, their half-lives, and their radiation yield as a proportion of the yield of fission of uranium-235. The energy and

12690-411: The hundreds of thousands to millions of years. The minor actinides meanwhile are heavy elements other than uranium and plutonium which are created by neutron capture . Their half lives range from years to millions of years and as alpha emitters they are particularly radiotoxic. While there are proposed – and to a much lesser extent current – uses of all those elements, commercial scale reprocessing using

12825-412: The inside of pipework. In an oil processing plant, the area of the plant where propane is processed is often one of the more contaminated areas of the plant as radon has a similar boiling point to propane. Radioactive elements are an industrial problem in some oil wells where workers operating in direct contact with the crude oil and brine can be exposed to doses having negative health effects. Due to

12960-400: The legal obligation and its effects on the reserving state. These must be included at the time of signing or ratification, i.e., "a party cannot add a reservation after it has already joined a treaty". Article 19 of the Vienna Convention on the law of Treaties in 1969. Originally, international law was unaccepting of treaty reservations, rejecting them unless all parties to the treaty accepted

13095-404: The legal obligations of states, one party to the original treaty and one party to the amended treaty, the states will only be bound by the terms they both agreed upon. Treaties can also be amended informally by the treaty executive council when the changes are only procedural, technical change in customary international law can also amend a treaty, where state behavior evinces a new interpretation of

13230-434: The legal obligations under the treaty. Minor corrections to a treaty may be adopted by a procès-verbal ; but a procès-verbal is generally reserved for changes to rectify obvious errors in the text adopted, i.e., where the text adopted does not correctly reflect the intention of the parties adopting it. In international law and international relations, a protocol is generally a treaty or international agreement that supplements

13365-466: The light of the blockage concerning the entry into force of the Ban Amendment, Switzerland and Indonesia have launched a "Country-led Initiative" (CLI) to discuss in an informal manner a way forward to ensure that the trans boundary movements of hazardous wastes, especially to developing countries and countries with economies in the transition, do not lead to an unsound management of hazardous wastes. This discussion aims at identifying and finding solutions to

13500-445: The meaning in context, these judicial bodies may review the preparatory work from the negotiation and drafting of the treaty as well as the final, signed treaty itself. One significant part of treaty-making is that signing a treaty implies a recognition that the other side is a sovereign state and that the agreement being considered is enforceable under international law. Hence, nations can be very careful about terming an agreement to be

13635-434: The nationality and origin of the relevant persons. If necessary, national borders could be crossed by police forces of the respective neighboring country for capture and arrest . In the course of the 19th century, the term "cartel" (or "Cartell") gradually disappeared for intergovernmental agreements under international law. Instead, the term "convention" was used. An otherwise valid and agreed upon treaty may be rejected as

13770-565: The nature of the chemical compound which contains the radioisotope. No fission products have a half-life in the range of 100 a–210 ka ... ... nor beyond 15.7 Ma Radioactive waste comes from a number of sources. In countries with nuclear power plants, nuclear armament, or nuclear fuel treatment plants, the majority of waste originates from the nuclear fuel cycle and nuclear weapons reprocessing. Other sources include medical and industrial wastes, as well as naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) that can be concentrated as

13905-411: The negotiations, if the other parties to the treaty were notified of those restrictions prior to his or her signing. Articles 46–53 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties set out the only ways that treaties can be invalidated—considered unenforceable and void under international law. A treaty will be invalidated due to either the circumstances by which a state party joined the treaty or due to

14040-404: The normal operation of ships are not covered. Annex IX attempts to define wastes which are not considered hazardous wastes and which would be excluded from the scope of the Basel Convention. If these wastes however are contaminated with hazardous materials to an extent causing them to exhibit an Annex III characteristic, they are not excluded. In addition to conditions on the import and export of

14175-886: The north of Scotland is the Dounreay site which is prepared to withstand a 4m tsunami. [1] Some high-activity LLW requires shielding during handling and transport but most LLW is suitable for shallow land burial. To reduce its volume, it is often compacted or incinerated before disposal. Low-level waste is divided into four classes: class A , class B , class C , and Greater Than Class C ( GTCC ). Intermediate-level waste (ILW) contains higher amounts of radioactivity compared to low-level waste. It generally requires shielding, but not cooling. Intermediate-level wastes includes resins , chemical sludge and metal nuclear fuel cladding, as well as contaminated materials from reactor decommissioning. It may be solidified in concrete or bitumen or mixed with silica sand and vitrified for disposal. As

14310-573: The nuclear fuel cycle). TENORM is not regulated as restrictively as nuclear reactor waste, though there are no significant differences in the radiological risks of these materials. Coal contains a small amount of radioactive uranium, barium, thorium, and potassium, but, in the case of pure coal, this is significantly less than the average concentration of those elements in the Earth's crust . The surrounding strata, if shale or mudstone, often contain slightly more than average and this may also be reflected in

14445-491: The nuclear fuel cycle, mostly spent fuel rods , contains fission products that emit beta and gamma radiation, and actinides that emit alpha particles , such as uranium-234 (half-life 245 thousand years), neptunium-237 (2.144 million years), plutonium-238 (87.7 years) and americium-241 (432 years), and even sometimes some neutron emitters such as californium (half-life of 898 years for californium-251). These isotopes are formed in nuclear reactors . It

14580-588: The official legal procedures of the United Nations, as applied by the Office of Legal Affairs , including signature, ratification and entry into force . In function and effectiveness, the UN has been compared to the United States federal government under the Articles of Confederation . Reservations are essentially caveats to a state's acceptance of a treaty. Reservations are unilateral statements purporting to exclude or to modify

14715-440: The open literature. Some designs might contain a radioisotope thermoelectric generator using Pu-238 to provide a long-lasting source of electrical power for the electronics in the device. It is likely that the fissile material of an old nuclear bomb, which is due for refitting, will contain decay products of the plutonium isotopes used in it. These are likely to include U-236 from Pu-240 impurities plus some U-235 from decay of

14850-408: The option to accept those reservations, object to them, or object and oppose them. If the state accepts them (or fails to act at all), both the reserving state and the accepting state are relieved of the reserved legal obligation as concerns their legal obligations to each other (accepting the reservation does not change the accepting state's legal obligations as concerns other parties to the treaty). If

14985-402: The potential to become "plutonium mines", from which material for nuclear weapons can be acquired with relatively little difficulty. Critics of the latter idea have pointed out the difficulty of recovering useful material from sealed deep storage areas makes other methods preferable. Specifically, high radioactivity and heat (80 °C in surrounding rock) greatly increase the difficulty of mining

15120-456: The reasons why hazardous wastes are still brought to countries that are not able to treat them in a safe manner. It is hoped that the CLI will contribute to the realization of the objectives of the Ban Amendment. The Basel Convention's website informs about the progress of this initiative. In the wake of popular outcry, in May 2019 most of the world's countries, but not the United States, agreed to amend

15255-477: The recently developed method of geomelting , however the task can be difficult and it acknowledges that some may never be completely remediated. In just one of these 108 larger designations, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), there were for example at least "167 known contaminant release sites" in one of the three subdivisions of the 37,000-acre (150 km ) site. Some of the U.S. sites were smaller in nature, however, cleanup issues were simpler to address, and

15390-588: The relatively high concentration of these elements in the brine, its disposal is also a technological challenge. Since the 1980s, in the United States, the brine is however exempt from the dangerous waste regulations and can be disposed of regardless of radioactive or toxic substances content. Due to natural occurrence of radioactive elements such as thorium and radium in rare-earth ore , mining operations also result in production of waste and mineral deposits that are slightly radioactive. Classification of radioactive waste varies by country. The IAEA, which publishes

15525-409: The reserving state is a party to the treaty at all. There are three ways an existing treaty can be amended. First, a formal amendment requires State parties to the treaty to go through the ratification process all over again. The re- negotiation of treaty provisions can be long and protracted, and often some parties to the original treaty will not become parties to the amended treaty. When determining

15660-488: The rights and binding obligations of the parties. They vary significantly in form, substance, and complexity and govern a wide variety of matters, such as security, trade, environment, and human rights. Treaties may be bilateral (between two countries) or multilateral (involving more than two countries). They may also be used to establish international institutions, such as the International Criminal Court and

15795-515: The rules are unambiguous), and delegation (the extent to which third parties have authority to interpret, apply and make rules). Treaties are among the earliest manifestations of international relations ; the first known example is a border agreement between the Sumerian city-states of Lagash and Umma around 3100 BC. International agreements were used in some form by most major civilizations, and became increasingly common and more sophisticated during

15930-452: The same material disposed of in a non-active area, such as a normal office block. Example LLW includes wiping rags, mops, medical tubes, laboratory animal carcasses, and more. LLW makes up 94% of all radioactive waste volume in the UK. Most of it is disposed of in Cumbria , first in landfill style trenches, and now using grouted metal containers that are stacked in concrete vaults. A new site in

16065-456: The same reservations. However, in the interest of encouraging the largest number of states to join treaties, a more permissive rule regarding reservations has emerged. While some treaties still expressly forbid any reservations, they are now generally permitted to the extent that they are not inconsistent with the goals and purposes of the treaty. When a state limits its treaty obligations through reservations, other states party to that treaty have

16200-410: The state opposes, the parts of the treaty affected by the reservation drop out completely and no longer create any legal obligations on the reserving and accepting state, again only as concerns each other. Finally, if the state objects and opposes, there are no legal obligations under that treaty between those two state parties whatsoever. The objecting and opposing state essentially refuses to acknowledge

16335-416: The substance of the parties' actual agreement. Each article heading usually encompasses a paragraph. A long treaty may further group articles under chapter headings. Modern treaties, regardless of subject matter, usually contain articles governing where the final authentic copies of the treaty will be deposited and how any subsequent disputes as to their interpretation will be peacefully resolved. The end of

16470-679: The terms of the treaty and its travaux preparatory. It has, for example, been held that it is not possible to withdraw from the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights . When North Korea declared its intention to do this the Secretary-General of the United Nations, acting as registrar, said that original signatories of the ICCPR had not overlooked the possibility of explicitly providing for withdrawal, but rather had deliberately intended not to provide for it. Consequently, withdrawal

16605-637: The total radioactivity produced in the process of nuclear electricity generation but it contributes to less than 1% of volume of all radioactive waste produced in the UK. Overall, the 60-year-long nuclear program in the UK up until 2019 produced 2150 m of HLW. The radioactive waste from spent fuel rods consists primarily of cesium-137 and strontium-90, but it may also include plutonium, which can be considered transuranic waste. The half-lives of these radioactive elements can differ quite extremely. Some elements, such as cesium-137 and strontium-90 have half-lives of approximately 30 years. Meanwhile, plutonium has

16740-439: The treaty is automatically terminated if certain defined conditions are met. Some treaties are intended by the parties to be only temporarily binding and are set to expire on a given date. Other treaties may self-terminate if the treaty is meant to exist only under certain conditions. A party may claim that a treaty should be terminated, even absent an express provision, if there has been a fundamental change in circumstances. Such

16875-443: The treaty it did not have an opportunity to vote on it to try to block it. Information about, and visual images of, wildlife, such as seabirds , ingesting plastic, and scientific findings that nanoparticles do penetrate through the blood–brain barrier were reported to have fueled public sentiment for coordinated international legally binding action. Over a million people worldwide signed a petition demanding official action. Although

17010-593: The treaty itself. A treaty breach does not automatically suspend or terminate treaty relations, however. It depends on how the other parties regard the breach and how they resolve to respond to it. Sometimes treaties will provide for the seriousness of a breach to be determined by a tribunal or other independent arbiter. An advantage of such an arbiter is that it prevents a party from prematurely and perhaps wrongfully suspending or terminating its own obligations due to another's an alleged material breach. Treaties sometimes include provisions for self-termination, meaning that

17145-562: The treaty upon the other parties. Consent may be implied, however, if the other parties fail to explicitly disavow that initially unilateral interpretation, particularly if that state has acted upon its view of the treaty without complaint. Consent by all parties to the treaty to a particular interpretation has the legal effect of adding another clause to the treaty – this is commonly called an "authentic interpretation". International tribunals and arbiters are often called upon to resolve substantial disputes over treaty interpretations. To establish

17280-411: The treaty, such a process may result in financial penalties or other enforcement action. Treaties are not necessarily permanently binding upon the signatory parties. As obligations in international law are traditionally viewed as arising only from the consent of states, many treaties expressly allow a state to withdraw as long as it follows certain procedures of notification ("denunciation"). For example,

17415-447: The treaty. Multilateral treaties typically continue even after the withdrawal of one member, unless the terms of the treaty or mutual agreement causes its termination. If a party has materially violated or breached its treaty obligations, the other parties may invoke this breach as grounds for temporarily suspending their obligations to that party under the treaty. A material breach may also be invoked as grounds for permanently terminating

17550-456: The twenty-sixth day of June, one thousand nine hundred and forty-five". If applicable, a treaty will note that it is executed in multiple copies in different languages, with a stipulation that the versions in different languages are equally authentic. The signatures of the parties' representatives follow at the very end. When the text of a treaty is later reprinted, such as in a collection of treaties currently in effect, an editor will often append

17685-403: The type of the ionizing radiation emitted by a radioactive substance are also important factors in determining its threat to humans. The chemical properties of the radioactive element will determine how mobile the substance is and how likely it is to spread into the environment and contaminate humans. This is further complicated by the fact that many radioisotopes do not decay immediately to

17820-601: The use of prison labor . [REDACTED]  This article incorporates text from a free content work. Licensed under Cc BY-SA 3.0 IGO ( license statement/permission ). Text taken from Drowning in Plastics – Marine Litter and Plastic Waste Vital Graphics​ , United Nations Environment Programme. Treaty A treaty is a formal, legally binding written agreement concluded by sovereign states in international law . International organizations can also be party to an international treaty. A treaty

17955-569: The world. Treaties of "mutual guarantee" are international compacts, e.g., the Treaty of Locarno which guarantees each signatory against attack from another. The United Nations has extensive power to convene states to enact large-scale multilateral treaties and has experience doing so. Under the United Nations Charter , which is itself a treaty, treaties must be registered with the UN to be invoked before it, or enforced in its judiciary organ,

18090-434: Was not possible. In practice, states sometimes use their sovereignty to declare their withdrawal from and stop following the terms of a treaty even if this violates the terms of the treaty. Other parties may accept this outcome, may consider the state to be untrustworthy in future dealings, or may retaliate with sanctions or military action. Withdrawal by one party from a bilateral treaty is typically considered to terminate

18225-591: Was shipped to other developed countries, a number of high-profile incidents of hazardous waste-dumping led to calls for regulation. One of the incidents which led to the creation of the Basel Convention was the Khian Sea waste disposal incident , in which a ship carrying incinerator ash from the city of Philadelphia in the United States dumped half of its load on a beach in Haiti before being forced away. It sailed for many months, changing its name several times. Unable to unload

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