Common Aspects of the PNC and Nagra Assessments of Deep Repositories for Vitrified HLW

The repository concepts developed by PNC and Nagra for the disposal of vitrified high-level waste show many common features; both concepts involve deep geological disposal, with massive engineered barriers of similar design. PNC and Nagra have recently published comprehensive performance assessments based on their repository concepts and these are compared in order to gain assurance that the conceptual and mathematical models employed are state-of-the-art and to build confidence in the datasets in the assessment results. The predicted performance of the engineered barriers is more favourable to safety in the case of the Nagra Assessment, whereas the opposite is true of the geological barriers. These differences in predicted performance can be traced to a small number of differences in model assumptions and data. It is concluded that the differences are consistent with the somewhat different requirements of the two assessments and that the comparison enhances confidence in both assessments.