Characterization of nuclear waste packages and their environment

The characterization and qualification of nuclear waste forms, packages and their environment is part of the 1990-1994 shared-cost research programme on management of radioactive waste of the Commission of the European Communities. This field of investigation is aiming at developing the confinement properties of the first barriers of a repository to improve its safety. It includes two broad topics. First, the long-term behaviour of waste packages (waste matrix and container material) in the presence of the near-field is studied to determine the source term in an underground repository, which is defined as the flux of radionuclides released by a waste package up to a distance of a few metres from the package. Secondly, the definition of the acceptance criteria of the waste packages in the repository leads to the development of quality control procedures for the packages. The reported research work started in the middle of 1991 in different national laboratories supported by the European Community. This paper describes the main objectives of this activity and summarizes the most important results obtained so far. (authors). 1 ref