Development of guidance documents in the EURAD and PREDIS projects

Particular emphasis is dedicated to Knowledge Management activities within the EURAD (European Joint Programme on Radioactive Waste Management) and PREDIS (Pre-disposal management of radioactive waste) projects to ensure the capture of existing knowledge, transfer of knowledge between Members States and management of the knowledge for future generations. The EURAD project has three work packages dedicated to knowledge management. One of them, the EURAD Guidance work package (WP12) is developing a comprehensive suite of specific guidance documents that can be used by Members States with radioactive waste management (RWM) programmes that are at an early stage of development but can be beneficial also to more advanced programmes. The PREDIS project does not have a specifically allocated work package for guidance development. Rather, such activities are integrated within deliverables produced as part of the Strategic Implementation and State of Knowledge actions of the Roadmap contributions on predisposal waste management. The EURAD guidance work is based on the existing PLANDIS guide on RD and D planning, developed by the Implementing Geological Disposal of Radioactive Waste Technology Platform (IGD-TP). The guidance documents complement other documents prepared in parallel knowledge management activities inside EURAD project: the State of Knowledge documents. The differentiation is that guidance documents explain in more detail how the process can be established and performed, including illustrative examples. The guides are self-standing documents and integrated with the EURAD Roadmap. The target end users of the guidance are primarily programme owners and managers (i.e., governments/administrations, Waste Management Organisations, Research Entities and Technical Support Organisations) responsible for planning and implementing the RWM programme and the supporting RD and D activities at a national level, even though they might also be of use and interest to other interested stakeholders, such as representatives of civil society. To produce a first list of prioritised topics for guidance documents with the aim to select a topic for a pilot guide, the Guidance WP has developed a screening process that includes review by experts and end users. Based on the priority list, the first pilot guide was developed with the title 'Cost Assessment and Financing Schemes of Radioactive Waste Management Programmes'. Experience gained during the selection of topics for the pilot guide and during its production are being incorporated into the procedure for identification of new topics for which guides will be developed. First, the degree of coverage of the EURAD Roadmap themes by suitable guide documents will be analysed by the WP 12 team. The analysis will be combined with feedback from experts verifying the needs for missing guides. Finally, the potential end user community representatives will be given the opportunity to comment on the prioritisation of selected guidance documents and make additional suggestions. The potential end users stay involved also during the production of the guides. This procedure aims to optimise the scarce expert resources in relation to the identified needs of guidance documents. This article explains the approach for selecting topics for guidance documents and the results obtained both in EURAD and PREDIS. (authors)