3. Safety and radiological protection objectives

3.1 Fundamental safety objective, time scales considered

Protecting the health of people and the environment is the fundamental safety objective assigned to radioactive waste repositories. To this end, a storage facility must be designed to perform the following three main functions:

• isolation of waste from external hazards: natural disturbances (climatic events, earthquakes, erosion) and human disturbances (intrusions);

• waste containment, aimed at preventing the release of radionuclides from storage;

• limiting water circulation in the repository, as water is the main route for transferring the radioactivity contained in the waste.

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