Geological
Problems in Radioactive Waste Isolation:
The Second World Wide Review
Edited by:
P.A. Witherspoon, LBNL
The
first world wide review of the geological problems in radioactive
waste isolation was published by Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory in 1991. This review was a compilation of reports
that had been submitted to a workshop held in conjunction with
the 28th International Geological Congress that took place July
9-19, 1989 in Washington, D.C. Reports from 15 countries were
presented at the workshop and four countries provided reports
after the workshop, so that material from 19 different countries
was included in the first review.
It was apparent
from the widespread interest in this first review that the problem
of providing a permanent and reliable method of isolating radioactive
waste from the biosphere is a topic of great concern among the
more advanced, as well as the developing, nations of the world.
This is especially the case in connection with high-level waste
(HLW) after its removal from nuclear power plants. The general
consensus is that an adequate isolation can be accomplished by
selecting an appropriate geologic setting and carefully designing
the underground system with its engineered barriers.
There is the
additional problem of isolating low- and intermediate level waste
(LILW). Significant quantities of LILW are generated from various
sources, and while they are not as long lived and do not pose
the same level of difficulty as HLW, they constitute another,
but important, problem for the nuclear industry.
Much new technology
is being developed to solve the problems of waste isolation, and
there is a continuing need to publish the results of new developments
for the benefit of the international nuclear community. Thus,
it was decided that after a five-year interval, it would be desirable
to gather material on the latest developments and publish another
review on the geological problems of radioactive waste isolation.
As shown in Table 1.1, this second review contains reports from
26 countries.
Click on a
country to download the chapter. Each chapter is saved as a (PDF)
file.
To read these
files, you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader 3.0. You may download
this free software from Adobe's
Website.
If you would
like a published copy of this report, please FAX or email your
name and address to:
Maryann Villavert
Nuclear Waste Program
Earth Sciences Division
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
FAX: (510) 486-6115
mvillavert@lbl.gov
