A Consideration of retrievability in geologic disposal of radioactive wastes

Sasaki, Noriaki

Geologic disposal cannot be implemented based only on the consensus of the engaged technical community, and needs the wide social agreement and confidence for it. This is now a common understanding in many countries. Under this kind of recognition, the concept of retrievability in geologic disposal of radioadive wastes has been rapidly interested inrecent years and has being discussed in several European countries. For example, EC has cooperated the concerted action on the retrievability of long-lived radioactive waste with the joining of nine countries, and the expert group on disposal concepts for radioactive waste (EKRA) set up by the Swiss government has presented its findings on the new concept of the long-lived radioactive waste management considering the retrievability. The OECD/NEA has also discussed on this issue and published the documents. There are some countries where the legislation requires the retrievability. This paper briefly summarizes the important findings and recommendations on the concept of retrievability, as the results of review of some interesting documents from European countries, for the purpose of reflecting to the research and development of geologic disposal in Japan.