Including Safeguards in the Radioactive Waste Planning Process

When States create or assess their radioactive-waste program, they must be able to examine the entirety of the process, from generation to disposal, for their entire inventory of actual and expected wastes. This integrated approach, ideally done prior to generation of radioactive wastes, will work to ensure a harmonized management approach that does not leave any wastes without a viable disposal pathway. One often-overlooked aspect of this process is the role of State safeguards obligations on wastes containing nuclear materials. For disposal in a non-safeguarded disposal site, the requirements to remove nuclear materials from the safeguards accountancy system may be more stringent than the associated safety case underlying the disposal site. This requires a degree of planning to ensure wastes can be dealt with according to all stakeholder requirements. However, this stringent requirement can be removed by planning to emplace the wastes in a safeguarded disposal site, which has a different set of requirements to be met. This paper aims to lay out the various pathways that States can use to dispose of waste materials containing nuclear materials, both in safeguarded and non-safeguarded disposal sites. The possible sample space includes wastes classified as exempt-level wastes destined for municipal landfills through to high level wastes requiring geologic isolation; this paper will examine the possible disposal options for each classification of waste. The important factors for each of the branches will be discussed including the physical form of the waste, the concentration of nuclear materials, and the status of safeguards measures applied to the wastes or the steps required to remove those measures. Each of the various pathways identified in this paper has benefits and drawbacks, each with associated economic, political, and scientific hurdles to overcome. Knowledge of the complete range of possible routes that can be employed by a State to safely, securely, and economically manage their waste will assist States to make informed choices for their inventories and start the appropriate consultations with stakeholders