Development of safety criteria in Germany: aim, process and experiences

Presently, a new plan for the management of radioactive waste in Germany is under development. Amongst the important cornerstones of this plan are the development and implementation of a new siting procedure, known under the acronym AkEnd and a revision of the Safety Criteria for the disposal of radioactive waste in a mine which were issued in 1983 (BMI, 1.983). The revision is being carried out in order to account for the important developments in Germany and abroad in the fields of final radioactive waste disposal and repository performance assessment which have taken place over the last decades, to comply with the international state of the art in science and technology and to be consistent with the international development. On behalf of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU), GRS Koln drafted a proposal for the revision. The drafting process was supported by a body composed of experts from several German organisations and from abroad. The proposal was reviewed by the BMU advisory committees RSK (Reactor Safety Commission) and SSK (Commission on Radiological Protection). An updated draft which takes into account the committees' comments was submitted to the BMU and is currently considered in order to establish and issue updated Safety Criteria. In parallel, a supporting guideline with requirements and recommendations for the post-closure Safety Case is being developed by GRS Koln, again with the support of experts from several German organisations and from abroad. This development has had and will have further implications for the revision of the Safety Criteria. The proposals for revised criteria and for the guideline are based on national laws and regulations, especially the Atomic Energy Act (ATG, 2002) and the Radiation Protection Ordinance (StrlSchV 2001) as well as on recent international regulations and recommendations. Amongst the latter, the most recent NEA developments within the Integration Group for the Safety Case (IGSC) concerning the post-closure Safety Case for radioactive waste repositories, namely the drafting of the 'Safety Case Brochure', were of utmost importance. The criteria are exclusively related to radiation protection objectives and requirements specifying the damage precaution required by the Atomic Energy Act (ATG, 2002). The draft criteria require a multi-barrier system but place, in accordance with the AkEnd requirements, emphasis on the geologic barrier. This paper focuses on the choice of calculation end points for the required safety assessment and on how the uncertainties inevitably linked to such assessments have to be addressed. (author)