A reliable assessment of future costs for radioactive waste management (RWM) up to its disposal and adequate mechanisms for providing financial resources for these activities form fundamental prerequisites for responsible management of radioactive waste, in line with the requirements of the Council Directive 2011/70/Euratom of 19 July 2011. Although there are many technical documents dealing […]

Euratom Council Directives and IAEA Safety Standards provide the basis for the underlying legal and regulatory framework in radioactive waste management and decommissioning. However, the implementation of international safety standards and European Union (EU) directives can vary from one country to another as they are adapted to local considerations and national policies. These national differences […]

In September Nagra has reached a major milestone. 15 years after the re-start of the nationwide search process we have communicated our proposal for the site of the Swiss repository for radioactive waste. While a formal review is still to be done. The announcement has received supporting comments from cantonal stakeholderes as well as expert […]

OFFERR is a new European project whose aim is to set up a European User Facility Network, in nuclear science, and to establish an operational scheme facilitating access for R&D experts and students to key nuclear science infrastructure. The facility network will include more than 170 related facilities. The text of the call for application […]

On January 16th, Andra submitted the construction licence application (DAC) of Cigeo, the French project for the deep geological disposal facility for the most highly radioactive waste. This is a crucial step marking both a culmination and a new start for the project. First and foremost, it is the result of 30 years of progressive […]

In December 2018, a revised UK consent based GDF siting policy was finalised. In this talk, Dr Rob Winsley of Nuclear Waste Services’, will explain recent progress that has been made towards implementation of a UK geological disposal facility (GDF). The presentation will cover the UK nuclear context, the radioactive waste inventory that the facility […]

The IAEA actively supports the sustainable, safe, secure, reliable, and economic management of spent fuel by providing its Member States (MSs) with relevant technical information and guidance based on operational experiences, lessons learned and good practices regarding spent fuel management options (recycling and disposal), and by promoting the exchange of results and the sharing of […]

In this talk, Virginie Solans will present the role of Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) in a nuclear waste management context and explain how ANNs are reshaping conventional methods. ANNs are an example of machine learning, where typically large amounts of data are analysed. After a brief introduction to ANNs, she will provide examples of where […]

Based on the huge volume of raw and processed information (here grouped as “knowledge”) to be handled in a national geological disposal programme, it is no longer a question of whether advanced KMS will be introduced into radwaste management programmes or not – only whether such systems can be developed and implemented before total collapse […]

The Lunch&Learn session organized by CORI is summarizing main information relevant in the context of this workpackage. Aim is to introduce (i) the basic scientific facts and concepts underlying this research focused on Cement-Organics-Cement-Interactions, (ii) explain the relevance of CORI in view of enhancing Safety, and (iii) present selected technical highlights from this EURAD activity. […]

All analytical results of an analysis come (or should come) with an uncertainty. This uncertainty, the “plus/minus number”, is often just taken for granted by the user of the results, without much further thought. In this talk, we shall explore in more detail what is hidden (or not) behind the uncertainty number of a destructive […]

Speaker: Barbara Reichert Click here to watch the recording of this Lunch & Learn session. Click here to view all Lunch & Learn sessions.

Addressing uncertainties is an essential part of Safety Cases for geologic disposal facilities. An important instrument for doing so is sensitivity analysis (SA), by which the impact of input parameter uncertainties on the output(s) of model calculations is studied and evaluated. While some SA methods (such as linear and rank-based methods) are routinely applied in […]