Deep geological disposal of nuclear waste

To give you a feel for deep geological disposal projects in the UK and internationally here are slide packs I used for presentations to:

Geo-Energy Conference, Aberdeen, May 2023

Birmingham Schools Science Network, Birmingham, November 2022 (full presentation here)

The Geological Society, London, February 2019 (full presentation here)

Delivering a geological disposal facility (GDF) is primarily a social challenge and nuclear waste organizations devote considerable effort to providing the public with high quality information on what a GDF looks like, what goes in it and how it is designed to protect people and the environment from harmful radioactivity for 100,000s years. Given the critical importance of selecting suitable geology in which to construct a GDF, Nuclear Waste Services produced a range of educational videos including ‘on location’ descriptions of host rock types, rock structure, faulting and folding.

Our free-to-download 2023 journal paper provides a peer reviewed overview of the science, engineering and policy challenges of selecting a site for deep geological disposal of the UK’s radioactive waste stockpile. It is based on this presentation given at a conference organized by the Yorkshire Geological Society, September 2021.

“In 2018 when I first visited Olkiluoto island – the site of the Finnish nuclear waste repository on the Baltic coast – I and my Nuclear Waste Services colleagues noted wryly that in the 1990s the UK and Finland were level pegging in the progress we were making on selecting a site for a geological disposal facility (GDF). Roll on 30 years and Posiva, the Finnish nuclear waste management organization, commences waste emplacement in the world’s first higher activity nuclear waste GDF this year; the UK is still on the starting blocks with no suitable geology nor willing host community yet identified.” Why is progress so slow in identifying a GDF site for the UK? I argue in this Viewpoint article written for The Geological Society’s Fellows’ magazine Geoscientist that UK government needs to abandon the process of voluntary community consent and prioritize technical considerations, particularly geology.

The ‘OPERA’ safety case 2018 is the best example I’ve seen of a publicly accessible generic safety case for a GDF, produced by COVRA (Centrale Organisatie Voor Radioactief Afval) the Netherlands nuclear waste disposal company. It outlines the origin and nature of the radioactive waste, and how a GDF will be designed and built to ensure that the waste will be sealed deep underground for 100s thousands years to protect humans and the environment from its harmful effects.

The photo here shows low-activity nuclear waste disposal operations at the ERAM repository constructed inside a Permian salt diapir at Morsleben, Germany.

Courtesy: Bundesgesellschaft für Endlagerung mbH