The regulatory perspective: role of regulatory review of the safety case and feedback to site investigation

Swiss Legislation requires for all types of radioactive waste the safe and permanent disposal in deep geological repositories within Switzerland by stipulating a step-by-step procedure for site selection and licensing of the disposal facilities. Each step requires safety considerations or safety analyses which are reviewed by the Swiss Federal Nuclear Safety Inspectorate. The principle steps of radioactive waste disposal include: (i) Demonstration of disposal feasibility for all types of radioactive waste in Switzerland. (ii) Site selection process in three phases to narrow down the number of suitable sites to one for realisation (Sectoral Plan for Geological Repositories). (iii) Construction, operation and closure of the repositories according to Swiss legislation in five steps (licence for geological investigations, general licence (decision-in-principle), construction licence, operation licence, closure order). Step (i) has been completed in 2006 when the Swiss Federal Council approved the demonstration of disposal feasibility for high level and long-lived intermediate level waste submitted by the implementer in 2002. Currently the Swiss waste disposal programme is starting the site selection procedure according to (ii). This paper describes the safety requirements, presents examples of regulatory reviews and elucidates its feedback to site investigation. (authors)