Assessment of the long-term risk of a meteorite impact on a hypothetical Canadian nuclear fuel waste disposal vault deep in plutonic rock

Canada has conducted an extensive research program on the safe disposal of nuclear fuel waste. The program has focused on disposal of used fuel in durable containers in an engineered facility or ''vault'', 500 to 1,000 m deep in plutonic rock of the Canadian Shield. This paper describes an assessment of the long-term radiological risk to a critical group, resulting from a meteorite impact on a hypothetical reference disposal vault. The authors assume the critical group is a small rural community which, sometime after the impact, moves to the area contaminated by nuclear fuel waste exposed by the impact. The estimated risk is compared to a risk criterion established by Canada's nuclear regulatory agency