Workshop 14
Radioactive Waste Management Monday, June 8th | Room 13
Convenors
- Christian Strand (Shearwater)
- Dr. Carlo Dietl (Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management (BASE))
- Dr. Christian Derer (Federal Company for Radioactive Waste Disposal (BGE))
- Ján Klištinec (Radioactive Waste Repository Authority, Czechia)
Organised by EAGE Technical Community on Radioactive Waste Storage
Description
Radioactive waste management presents both scientific and societal challenges. Owing to its radiological and chemotoxic hazards and its longevity, nuclear waste requires exceptionally careful handling and long-term planning. Deep geological disposal is currently believed to be the best long-term solution for safely dealing with the inventory of higher activity radioactive waste, and geoscience and engineering are central to designing safe deep geological repositories.
Around the world, countries are pursuing their own strategies for the safe disposal of nuclear waste. While several international initiatives aim to coordinate research and share knowledge, a dedicated platform within broader professional associations such as EAGE has so far been lacking.
We are therefore pleased to announce the creation of the Technical Community on Radioactive Waste Storage and Disposal. With our inaugural workshop, “Radioactive Waste Management,” we aim to mark this milestone by bringing together geoscientists and engineers working across all aspects of radioactive waste treatment.
The main objective of the workshop is knowledge- and experience-sharing amongst the involved stakeholders, with focus on the site selection and site characterisation for deep geological repositories for radioactive waste. This should foster a closer cooperation between waste management organisations, the wider industry, academic and research communities within the geoscience and engineering disciplines.
Sub-Topics that will be covered in the workshop:
- Site selection and characterisation of deep geological disposal of radioactive waste
- Monitoring technologies for underground repositories and storage sites
- Safety assessment, modelling, and performance evaluation of disposal systems
- Geological and engineered barriers, and their interaction
Participant Profile
Participants are welcome from all geoscience and engineering disciplines involved in nuclear waste storage and disposal, as well as in the decommissioning of nuclear facilities. The workshop will be particularly relevant for structural geologists, geochemists, mineralogists, and civil, electrical, mechanical engineers, numerical modelers and those involved with safety assessments.
We invite MSc students, PhD candidates, postdocs, and senior scientists from universities, research institutions, regulatory authorities, and industry working on any aspect of radioactive-waste management.
Workshop Programme
| Time | Activity |
|---|---|
| 09:00 | Welcome and Introduction |
| 09:30 | Talk by Rodney Garrard (Arch Insurance International)
- Nuclear’s Return Is Real — But the Credibility of the Entire System Depends on Waste Governance. |
| 09:55 | Talk by Matthias Riede (Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management, BASE, Germany):
- Breaking Boundaries: Unlocking Solutions for Nuclear Waste Through Collaborative Knowledge Exchange |
| 10:20 | Coffee Break |
| 10:35 | Talk by Dave McCarthy (British Geological Survey, UK).
- Geological Disposal of Radioactive Waste: the Role of a Geological Survey |
| 11:00 | Talk by Martin Wipf (Office for Waste, Water, Energy and Air, Section Deep Repository Radioactive Waste, Canton Zürich, Switzerland)
- Switzerland’s Science-Driven Approach to a Safe Geological Deep Repository |
| 11:25 | Talk by Josef Urík (INSET s.r.o., Czech Republic)
- Using geophysics as a tool in the site selection process |
| 11:50 | Lunch, networking and selected posters: |
| - Joseph Connolly & Simon Hunt (Jacobs): Fluid Flow through Faults and Fractures in Bristol Channel Basin: Geological Disposal, the Mercia Mudstone Group
- Chao Li (INTERA), et al.: Performance assessment modeling at the repository and component scale for the Swiss deep geological repository - Mohamed Hayek (INTERA), et al.: Adjoint-State Method for Sensitivity Analysis in Deep Geological Repository Modeling | |
| 13:20 | Talk by Markéta Dohnálková (Radioactive Waste Repository Authority, SÚRAO, Czech Republic)
- Final Site Selection of the Deep Geological Repository in the Czech Republic |
| 13:45 | Talk by Lee Hartley (WSP UK Ltd.)
- Building Confidence in Site Descriptions for Geological Disposal of Radioactive Waste |
| 14:10 | Discussion and wrap-up
Rodney Garrard (Arch Insurance International), Owen Mills (Jacobs), Markéta Dohnálková (SURAO) & Matthias Riede (BASE) |