Abstract
This Special Issue of the Energies Journal on Deep Borehole Disposal of Nuclear Waste has delivered a timely update on the science and technology of borehole disposal and the types of radioactive wastes it could potentially accommodate. The Special Issue papers discuss (i) circumstances under which a national waste management programme might wish to consider deep borehole disposal; (ii) a status report of deep borehole disposal options in Germany; (iii) the analysis of corrosion performance of engineered barrier systems; (iv) a review of the potential cementing systems suitable for deep borehole disposal; (v) the thermal evolution around heat-generating waste for a wide range of material properties and disposal configurations; (vi) a geochemical analysis of deep brines focussed on fluid-rock interactions; (vii) post-closure performance assessment calculations for deep borehole disposal of Cs/Sr capsules and an example safety case for (viii) horizontal and (ix) vertical deep borehole disposal of nuclear wastes.
Highlights
The management of radioactive wastes from medical, scientific and industrial uses of radio-isotopes and from energy production poses both technological and societal challenges
We summarise the main findings in this paper
The first paper assumes that deep borehole disposal can be implemented safely and effectively and is a realistic disposal option
Summary
The management of radioactive wastes from medical, scientific and industrial uses of radio-isotopes and from energy production poses both technological and societal challenges. Low-level and some intermediate-level radioactive wastes (LILW) might be safely disposed of in engineered near-surface repositories, but longer-lived intermediate-level waste (ILW), spent fuel from nuclear reactors (SF), high-level wastes from the reprocessing of SF (HLW) and long-lived spent sealed sources (SSS) are considerably more radioactive and have a higher content of long-lived radionuclides. These wastes require a higher degree of containment and isolation deep underground, typically in geological disposal facilities (GDF).
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