Deliverable D1: Environmental change analysis: Consolidation of the needs of the european waste management agencies and the regulator of the consortium. Modelling sequential biosphere systems under climate change for radioactive waste disposal (BIOCLIM)

Abstract

In many countries throughout the European Community (EC) there are national projects to address the safe management of radioactive wastes which arise from activities such as nuclear energy generation, medical treatments and industrial research programmes. Any long-lived intermediate level (ILW) and high-level (HLW) wastes so generated cannot be safely disposed to near-surface facilities with low-level and short-lived wastes. Therefore waste management agencies and government appointed regulatory bodies are considering either disposal or retrievable storage in deep geological formations. The fundamental purpose of such management options is to isolate the wastes over very long timescales and hence to protect humans and the surface environment from harmful radiological exposures.