WNWR 2019 — 5. WASTE MANAGEMENT CONCEPTS
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The brief review of the more than 70-year history of nuclear waste management allows four conclusions to be drawn regarding program management and the success or failure of previous nuclear waste management projects: ••
No single deep underground waste disposal program worldwide has been successfully implemented to date.
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The complexity and risks of nuclear waste management have been massively underestimated.
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The history of nuclear waste management shows an ongoing shift in concepts and programs in terms of objectives, implementation, safety and planning of measures in the direction of more manageable long-term projects (governance and long-term stewardship).
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The history of nuclear waste management reveals that a purely scientific and technical handling of such programs is not able of meeting the challenges posed by such a high-risk program. Questions such as the governance of a project, co-construction of management and disposal policies and the role of the affected communities have been often neglected by governments in the past.
5.2 THE CONTEXT OF NUCLEAR WASTE MANAGEMENT Past experience suggests that five basic dimensions should be taken into account in the continuation and development of waste management programs: HISTORICAL FRAMEWORK: societies will have to live with both the radioactive legacy left behind so far and the legacy that is likely to remain. This task represents a particular social, technical, political and financial challenge for future generations. The predicted costs of US$490 billion estimated for the remediation of nuclear contaminated sites in the United States show the magnitude of the problem.182 Modern societies will not be able to avoid taking over the radioactive legacy and providing it with some far-sighted and safer solutions than today. Nevertheless, lessons should be learned from history in order not to repeat mistakes in the management of nuclear waste. This applies to the processes initiated in the search for, and implementation of, solutions and social control over them. It also implies that during the planning and implementation of programs, a safety culture is applied with a sincere commitment to best practices. SOCIAL FRAMEWORK CONDITIONS AND TIME REQUIREMENTS: The historical examples show that the time requirements for the implementation of waste disposal programs have been massively underestimated worldwide. Nuclear disposal and the planning and implementation of the strategies for deep geological disposal of nuclear waste under consideration today will extend over at least three further generations. If one considers the requirements for monitoring and long-term monitoring of the targeted “repositories”, one can also assume periods of five to ten generations (150 to 300 years). These long periods place special demands on the stability of societies and inevitably lead to considerations as to how the radioactive inventory already stored in extended interim storage facilities can be safely stored, managed and maintained over these periods. This also poses particular challenges to the quality of planning, specific long-term management and the technical design of such longer-term extended storage facilities. There may also be a need to establish extended underground storage facilities for longer storage periods. 182 Klaus 2019, pp. 201.
