Research

The non-proliferation of nuclear material and the long-term protection of people and the environment are central tasks of the nuclear regulatory framework. In the context of final storage, safeguards measures are necessary to reliably verify the integrity and inaccessibility of waste containing nuclear material. The project systematically records the current state of science and technology relating to safeguards monitoring techniques for final repositories, focusing on technologies that can be used to monitor final repositories. Based on this, the potential safety-related influences of these monitoring measures on the final repository system are qualitatively evaluated and assigned to the corresponding entries in FEP catalogs (features, events, processes). The aim is to develop a methodology with which safeguards monitoring measures can be integrated into long-term safety analysis procedures. The project will investigate which safety-related statements can be made in the individual steps of a safety analysis if the measures are methodically taken into account via FEP catalogs. Finally, the developed methodology will be applied to selected safeguards monitoring measures and to a documented final repository system in a specific host rock.

The safe disposal of high-level radioactive waste is a complex technical, social, and communicative task. A key question is how geological repositories can be marked over tens of thousands of years in such a way that future generations are effectively warned of the dangers and knowledge about the location, purpose, and risks is preserved. This challenge touches on scientific, technical, semiotic, legal, and sociocultural dimensions. Despite intensive international research, key questions remain unanswered: Which materials and designs are stable over geological time scales? How can comprehensibility be ensured despite cultural change? And how can marking systems be combined effectively with other forms of knowledge preservation? BOKU's contribution to the project lies in particular in the analysis of possible scenarios of human intrusion into repositories and in the systematic comparison and evaluation of different types of marking.

High-level radioactive waste remains an unresolved challenge that imposes long-term responsibilities on human societies. Among the various approaches proposed to quantify its hazard, radiotoxicity based on potential ingestion has been widely used as a metric for assessing waste safety and comparing management strategies. This work provides a concise historical overview of how radiotoxicity has been applied in nuclear waste assessment and critically examines the assumptions embedded in its presentation. By making these assumptions explicit, we aim to clarify how radiotoxicity metrics shape perceptions of safety.