Full Description

Special Publication 561

This title is a work in progress. Selected articles are available online from the Lyell Collection.

Providing safe, permanent disposal of legacy and future higher activity radioactive waste is essential. Deep burial of waste in a Geological Disposal Facility (GDF) is the internationally recognized preferred way forward. Research activities provide key inputs to the implementation of waste disposal. Delivering a GDF requires input from a range of expertise, including geoscientific, environmental, social scientific and engineering disciplines to:

• develop an understanding of the surface, near-surface and deeper geology, including evolution from past to present;
• understand how the sub-surface environment may respond to GDF construction and waste emplacement; and
• understand how the disposal system (engineered barriers, host and surrounding geology, surface environment) may evolve on a timescale that could extend to one million years in the future.

This volume collates research output from site investigation, experimental and modelling studies, as undertaken by a range of international programmes. The papers reflect the breadth and depth of scientific activities contributing to waste disposal.