Low-level waste disposal in highly populated areas
- NAGRA-Swiss National Cooperative for the Storage of Radioactive Waste, Baden (Switzerland)
Nuclear-generated electricity supplies almost 40% of the demand in Switzerland (the rest being hydro-power). Allowing for a certain reserve and assuming an operational life-time of 40 years for each reactor, and taking into account wastes from decommissioning and from medicine, industry and research, the total amount of low-level radioactive waste to be disposed of is about 175,000 m{sup 3}. Since there are no unpopulated areas in Switzerland, and since Swiss Federal Law specifies that the safety of disposal may not depend upon supervision of the repository, no shallow-land burial has been foreseen, even for short-lived low-level waste. Instead, geological disposal in a mined cavern system with access through a horizontal tunnel was selected as the best way of meeting the requirements and ensuring the necessary public acceptance.
- Research Organization:
- EG and G Idaho, Inc., Idaho Falls, ID (United States). National Low-Level Waste Management Program
- OSTI ID:
- 334059
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-890854--Vol.2; ON: DE98050436
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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