Bridging the ecological–economic–social nexus: sustainability in radioactive waste management

Abstract

Safe deep geological disposal of radioactive waste is a socio-technical endeavour and connects to different aspects of sustainability. Compared to other long-term infrastructure projects it is unique in terms of time and scope. It affects long temporal dimensions, has an impact on diverse ecological and economic resources, and involves different stakeholder groups. Waste management organizations (WMOs) tasked with the implementation of radioactive waste disposal have to respect these sustainability aspects and meet the respective challenges. This paper provides an introduction to the concept of sustainability and a general overview of the ecological, economic and social challenges and related initial approaches and strategies for the WMOs of deep geological disposal of radioactive waste. With a literature review, sustainability programmes of selected European WMOs are analysed to identify which approaches are being implemented to tackle the various challenges. The various approaches and measures illustrate the broad scope of sustainability in the geological disposal of radioactive waste. Corresponding activities combining technical and non-technical aspects need to be regularly reviewed and adapted to current circumstances and requirements. Differences in the approaches can be explained by differences in the implementation in terms of procedure and time. It is concluded that there is no silver bullet.