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.
放射性废物治理
中国放射性废物管理坚持以安全为目标、以处置为核心的理念，实现放射性废物最小化，确保当代和后代人的安全，不给后代留下不适当的负担。
为适应核工业发展的需要，中国放射性废物管理能力持续提升。建成了工业规模的中低放废液处理装置，形成了固体废物整备、分拣、压缩、焚烧和处置能力；低放有机废液处理、高放废液玻璃固化的技术攻关也取得新的突破。各核电站加强废物最小化管理，每台百万千瓦级核电机组每年废物包产生量预期值（整备后）仅约 50立方米。
中国实行核电站低放废物区域处置政策，迄今已建成甘肃西北处置场、广东北龙处置场、四川飞凤山处置场三座处置场。 2020年，核准广东阳江、广西防城港、辽宁徐大堡和甘肃 4座中低放废物处置场，“区域 +集中”的处置格局加快形成。按照“处置库选址、地下实验室研究和处置库建设”的“三步走”研发战略，中国从 1985年启动高放废物处置库选址工作， 2011年确定甘肃北山为高放废物处置首选预选区； 2019年，批准在甘肃北山新场场址建立首座高放废物地质处置地下实验室。
