Safety and radiological protection objectives
Radioactive Waste – The Safety of Disposal Facilities

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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