UNDERSTANDING THE DIFFERENCES AMONGST NATIONAL REGULATORY CRITERIA FOR THE LONG-TERM SAFETY OF RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL

摘要

Since the granting of a licence for definitive disposal of long-lived waste and closure of a repository involves the ultimate absence of the element of active control, the design objective is passive safety without the requirement for further intervention. This represents a fundamental difference between the regulation of present-day activities and the regulation of disposal. This fundamental difference is reflected to a greater or lesser extent in the regulatory processes and criteria adopted in each country. The LTSC working group is continuing its investigations on this subject, with the next step being a workshop planned for late November 2006 in Paris. In addition to making the work done to date more widely and better known, it is hoped that points of agreement and points for further discussion will be identified during this workshop, so that a road map for future work may be proposed in support of regulators and policy makers who are currently charged with developing regulatory acceptance criteria for proposed repositories.