Disposal of radioactive waste

Abstract

The aim of radioactive and non-radioactive waste management is to protect man and the environment from unacceptable risks. Protection criteria for both should therefore be based on similar considerations. From overall protection criteria, performance criteria for subsystems in waste management can be derived, for example for waste disposal. International developments in this field are summarized. A brief overview of radioactive waste sorts and disposal concepts is given. Currently being implemented are trench disposal and engineered near-surface facilities for low-level wastes. For low-and intermediate-level waste underground facilities are under construction. For high-level waste site selection and investigation is being carried out in several countries. In all countries with nuclear programmes, the predicted performance of waste disposal systems is being assessed in scenario and consequence analyses. The influences of variability and uncertainty of parameter values are increasingly being treated by probabilistic methods. Results of selected performance assessments show that radioactive waste disposal sites can be found and suitable repositories can be designed so that defined radioprotection limits are not exceeded.