How to cope with the hazards of nuclear fuel waste

Many countries are developing concepts for geological disposal to achieve a permanent method of managing nuclear fuel wastes. This paper reviews the hazardous characteristics of nuclear fuel waste and discusses, in a semi-quantitative manner, the containment and retardation potential of various engineered and natural barriers. A durable waste form would retain the vast majority of radionuclides for many tens of thousands of years. Of the small inventory of radionuclides released from the waste form, many with relatively short half-lives decay to non-hazardous levels before release from the engineered barriers. The geosphere also has considerable containment potential, depending on its geological and hydrogeological properties. Approaches to selecting suitable combinations of engineered and natural barriers are illustrated based on long-term performance assessment case studies carried out in the Canadian Nuclear Fuel Waste Management program.