Towards a German safety case. The ISEBEL project

The main objective of the R&D project ISIBEL was to carry out a systematic review of the situation for final disposal of HLW in salt formations based on the state of the art in science and technology. Based on this review a concept for a safety assessment which takes full account of the advantages of the final disposal of HLW in rock salt was developed and applied. The concept is based on the demonstration of the safe containment of the waste by demonstrating the integrity of the geological and geotechnical barriers. Complementarily an evaluation is carried out for those developments of the final repository for which an impairment of the integrity of the barrier system and thus a pathway for radionuclides cannot be excluded. A scheme has been developed which allows assessing the radionuclide releases from that part of the repository system that is considered to ensure the safe containment of the waste.