One Step at a Time The Staged Development of Geologic Repositories for High-Level Radioactive Waste (2003) / Chapter Skim
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3. A Typical Geologic Repository Program
3. A Typical Geologic Repository Program
Pages 45-61
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. A geologic repository program is usually composed of the following phases2: (1 ~ selection of geologic disposal options; (2)
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3.1.2.3 Site characterization During site characterization the implementer investigates one or more sites to determine suitability with respect to safely and other screening criteria. Preliminary site investigations, including deep drilling or excavations, produce underground geologic data at the candidate site~s)
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Subsequently, both the United States and Finland decided to concentrate resources on underground exploration of single sites; Sweden still intends to perform underground characterization at two sites. In France, the current plan is to build two underground laboratories at potential sites in different types of host rocks, although problems are being encountered in the search for a second site in crystalline materials following the agreement with the Bure region to host an underground lab in clay.
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, only the United States has progressed to the site confirmation phase through sequential narrowing of the number of potential sites. With the 1987 amendment to the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, the U.S.
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This, however, does not imply that the final full-scale facilities above or below ground must be ready before shipments commence; successive parts of each may be constructed in parallel with operation. The surface facility is built to allow for inventory optimization, accommodating various alternatives for waste aging and blending that influence thermal operating modes.
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In many repository programs the implementer is also required to demonstrate retrieval capability, implying the need for at least some planning for substantial surface storage. The implementer may begin with pilot operations, after which underground emplacement rates are rapidly increased to full-scale implementation.
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The pilot stage is designed to provide improvement for the engineering and emplacement mode of the waste.5 In a pilot facility, tests can begin prelicensing with simulated radioactive waste packages and continue with hot radioactive waste packages once a license has been obtained to receive and emplace waste. The introduction of a pilot stage in a repository program is a relatively new idea for repository implementation, although it has already been proposed by SKB in Sweden (Lun~qvist, 2001~ and has been recommended by the EKRA group in Switzerland (EKRA, 2000~.
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Monitoring information can also be used to improve repository programs in other ~ocations. (continues on page 539 The updated safety case demonstrates that knowledge gained during the operational phase has confirmed expectations or resulted in system adaptations that have reaffirmed confidence in the long-term safely of the repository.
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When all parties are assured of repository performance and safely, government authorities decide when to cease monitoring activities. Passive institutional controls will be maintained as long as society demands it to minimize the possibility of human intrusion either intentional or accidental.
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Neither does it preclude it. 3.2 Institutional and societal context A geologic repository program unfolds in a broad societal and institutional context.
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In principle, a stakeholder is any individual, group, or organization that has a legitimate interest, called a "stake," in the outcome of a public policy decision. Hence, a stakeholder, in the context of a nuclear waste repository, potentially includes any person or organization with an interest in, or who is affected by, the decisions of the repository implementer.
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In many ways and in many places, the public implicitly trusts nuclear power technology. Public trust allows over ~ 00 plants in the United States and over 400 worldwide to operate.
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was a local board that had authority to close a large nuclear power plant in the local community. A key aspect of FinIand's 1987 legislation on nuclear waste was the introduction of the "decision-in-principle" concept to the decision-making process with the provision for "the absolute right of veto in the siting process" by candidate communities (Vira, 2001a)
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This provides a sobering reminder that political and institutional realities must be balanced against the search for optimal processes leading to societal consensus. This is also a reminder that the community nearest to the repository may be in favor of the project, while communities further afield do not support the repository.9 3.2.3 Public acceptance There is universal agreement that a sufficient level of public acceptance is indispensable to the success of any program to manage high-level nuclear wastes (NEA, 2002)
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There is growing recognition of the need to more actively engage stakeholders and the general public in making key decisions about nuclear waste management (NEA, 2002~. The first law of public involvement could be: ignoring the public in such decisions all but guarantees a policy failure.
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. It transforms the implementation of a repository program from a commitment to emplace waste by a fixed deadline to a more measured approach that has as its prime objective the desire to provide a solution defined by current generations that does not preclude future generations from choosing alternative solutions.
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The social context is historical; it has been and will continue to be path-dependent, so that both extrapolation from the past and causal predication will be unreliable for some time to come. Adaptive Staging not only affects the geologic repository but also has impacts on the entire radioactive waste management system, as described in the next chapter.
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