About this Research Topic

Background

This Research Topic presents the state of the art achieved after about 40 years of research in several selected thematic fields of radioactive waste management and disposal. Research in this area has a strong international and long-term orientation covering both basic and applied research. The European Commission has funded such research since the 1973 Declaration (Council of the European Communities, 1973). Recently the European Commission initiated a large step forward in research collaboration: Joint Programming, by which member state countries develop common visions, strategic research agendas and research and knowledge management roadmaps. The first EU Joint Programme on Radioactive Waste Management (EURAD) was established in 2019 and has operated for 5 years as a collaborative joint effort between 51 organisations (research entities, waste management organisations, and technical safety organisations) from 23 countries. A second EURAD programme is currently in the process of being established.

The scope of EURAD includes scientific and technical activities on radioactive waste management from cradle to grave in view of delivering safe, sustainable and publicly acceptable solutions for the management of radioactive waste across Europe now and in the future:

• Radioactive waste characterisation and processing (incl. treatment, conditioning and packaging);
• Interim storage of radioactive waste; and
• Disposal solutions – Mainly geological disposal of spent fuel, high‐level waste (HLW) and long‐lived intermediate-level waste (ILW).

For all Member States to take advantage of existing knowledge and know‐how, independent of the state of development of their national radioactive waste management programs, the current state of the art on R&D issues has been documented in a series of reports. By so doing a base is created for initiating new research work in selected fields and for identifying areas where sufficient knowledge has been generated over the years.

This Research Topic presents state-of-the-art reports in:
o modelling of couplings of thermal, hydrological, geomechanical and geochemical processes.
o the assessment of the chemical evolution of intermediate and high-level waste products and different kinds of barriers in a disposal cell sited in a range of geological formations.
o mechanistic understanding of gas migration mainly in clay-based materials.
o the influence of temperature on clay-based materials' behaviour.
o the role of organics (either naturally occurring or as introduced in the wastes) on radionuclide migration in cement-based environments.
o understanding the fundamentals of radionuclide mobility in a repository for radioactive waste.
o the mechanical behaviour of cement-based backfill materials commonly used for low-level waste / near-surface disposal.

The Topic Editors Prof Bernd Grambow and Dr Tara Beattie declare that they are affiliated with the project management of EURAD.

Keywords: EURAD, waste management, waste disposal, waste characterisation, waste processing, interim storage, disposal solutions, geological disposal

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