Near Surface Disposal Facilities For Radioactive Waste

This Safety Guide provides recommendations on how to meet safety requirements on the disposal of radioactive waste. It is concerned with the disposal of solid radioactive waste by emplacement in designated facilities at or near the land surface. The Safety Guide provides guidance on the development, operation and closure of, and on the regulatory control of, near surface disposal facilities, which are suitable for the disposal of very low level waste and low level waste. The Safety Guide provides guidance on a range of disposal methods, including the emplacement of solid radioactive waste in earthen trenches, in above ground engineered structures, in engineered structures just below the ground surface and in rock caverns, silos and tunnels excavated at depths of up to a few tens of metres underground. It is intended for use primarily by those involved with policy development for, with the regulatory control of, and with the development and operation of near surface disposal facilities.

This publication deals with surveillance and monitoring activities for the purposes of demonstrating the safety of near surface radioactive waste disposal facilities. It covers all phases of facility development, from siting through construction and operation to closure. It identifies the activities over which surveillance needs to be exercised and the parameters to be monitored, and provides examples of such programmes for present-day facilities. It also addresses programmes that may be necessary for older facilities which were not built to present-day standards and for which surveillance and monitoring may have to be carried out to identify remedial measures to be taken.

Defines the site selection process and criteria for identifying suitable near surface disposal facilities. This guide provides guidelines for the siting process management and specifies the data needed to apply the relevant selection criteria. (Please note: this publication will be superseded by DS356)

This publication arises from the results of two projects to assist Member States in understanding and developing safety cases for near-surface radioactive waste disposal facilities. The objective of the publication is to give detailed information on the contents of safety cases for radioactive waste disposal and the types of arguments that may be included. It is written for technical experts preparing a safety case, and decision makers in the regulatory body and government. The publication outlines the key uses and aspects of the safety case, its evolution in parallel with that of the disposal facility, the key decision steps in the development of the waste disposal facility, the components of the safety case, their place in the Matrix of Arguments for a Safety Case (the MASC matrix), and a detailed description of the development of sample arguments that might be included in a safety case for each of two hypothetical radioactive waste disposal facilities.

This publication describes the application of the methodology developed in the ISAM co-ordinated research project for the purpose of deriving radioactivity limits for low and intermediate level waste in near surface disposal facilities and provides illustrative values that can be used for reference purposes, for example at the preliminary planning stage of a disposal facility development.

This Safety Guide provides recommendations and guidance on how to plan and perform monitoring and surveillance programmes for disposal facilities for radioactive waste. The Safety Guide considers monitoring and surveillance for near surface disposal facilities, for geological disposal facilities and for facilities for the disposal of waste from mining and from mineral processing. The publication provides recommendations on how to use results from the monitoring and surveillance of radioactive waste disposal facilities over their entire lifetime. It covers the different objectives of monitoring and surveillance for the different periods of the lifetime of disposal facilities, from the initiation of work on a candidate site to the period after closure of the disposal facility.

This comprehensive report discusses, in a generic sense, the scientific and technical basis for the disposal of low and intermediate level waste in near surface repositories. It is based on the experience of Member States with operational disposal facilities and on relevant national and international research and development studies. It focuses on basic principles, approaches, methodologies and technical criteria considered to be important for the design and safe operation of a near surface disposal facility, and for providing a convincing safety case that also covers the periods following repository closure and the end of institutional controls.

The safe management of radioactive wastes is of paramount importance in gaining both governmental and societal support for nuclear energy. The scope of this new textbook is to provide a comprehensive perspective on all types of radioactive wastes as to how they are created, classified, characterized, and disposed.Written to emphasize how geology and radionuclide chemistry impact waste management, this book is primarily designed for engineers who have little background in geology with low-level wastes, decommissioning wastes, high-level wastes and spent nuclear fuel.This textbook provides the most up-to-date information available on waste management in several countries. The content of this work includes transporting radioactive materials to disposal facilities. The textbook cites numerous case studies to illustrate past practices, current methodologies and to provide insights on how radioactive wastes may be managed in the future. An international perspective on waste management is also provided to help the readers better understand the diversity in approaches while highlighting what many countries have in common. Review questions for classroom use are provided at the end of each chapter.Related Link(s)