Radioactive waste and its impact on the environment

What impact will radioactive waste have on the environment and mankind ultimately? If category B waste and all or some of category C waste is disposed of in a deep geological facility, after an interim storage period which presents its own risks, scientists can now predict that its worst case impact will be minimal and localized. While they cannot strictly demonstrate the safety of disposal over the time scales in question, they can nevertheless vouch for sound, well-engineered design. They can furnish a whole host of convergent evidence to demonstrate that they really have thought of all the events that could affect radioactive packages disposed of in a given environment, separated from the biosphere by barriers with well-defined properties. (author)