The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority

Experts from thirty-one countries have decided that the best way of dealing with radioactive waste is to bury it deep underground in special engineered facilities knows as a geological disposal facility (GDF). Many of them, like the UK, are using voluntarism and partnership as the best means of finding a site. These include: Belgium, Canada, Finland, France, Germany and Sweden.

In June 2009, the Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company, SKB, selected Forsmark as the site for their final repository for spent nuclear fuel.

Many of the countries in Europe which are looking to geological disposal as a solution have been working collaboratively since 2006 on what is called the PAMINA Project, which was set up by the European Commission.

Lucy Bailey and Matthew Wellstead from NDA's Radioactive Waste Management Directorate contributed to the final PAMINA workshop which took place in Hohenkammer, Germany at the end of September.

The workshop gave the representatives of the 27 organisations in attendance an opportunity to share information on ways of assessing the safety of deep geological disposal for long-lived radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel in different geologies.

The workshop covered seven broad themes, namely: the safety case approach; evolution of the disposal system; modelling strategy; treatment of uncertainties; probabilistic safety assessment and the communication of uncertainty. More detailed information on this work can be found on the PAMINA website.

Lucy Bailey, RWMD's Safety Case Group Manager said: "Government is leading the process of voluntarism and partnership that will lead to a site being selected in the UK. Meanwhile we are working on developing a generic safety case for a geological disposal facility that addresses a number of potential rock types. It was very interesting to attend the technical presentations at the PAMINA workshop which focussed on methods for assessing the safety of different disposal concepts related to specific geologies."

Lucy said as the workshop was attended by experts and interested parties from a broad range of disciplines, including national waste management organisations and regulators, it was a good opportunity to exchange views and experiences.

"It was extremely useful to hear the views of those from various backgrounds and to gain a fresh perspective on safety case work. It also gave us an opportunity to promote the work we are doing at RWMD to develop our generic safety case", she added.

Matthew Wellstead, RWMD's Mathematical Modelling Specialist, said: "The workshop discussions were also helpful in identifying areas where there is interest among all the countries involved in improving understanding."