Switzerland plans to bury nuclear-waste problem

In Switzerland, those who generate nuclear waste are responsible for its management. To fulfill that responsibility, the Swiss nuclear power utilities and other nuclear-waste-producing industries formed the National Cooperative for the Disposal of Radioactive Waste in 1972, explain Ian McKinley and Charles McCombie of the cooperative. Switzerland plans two separate repositories: one for low-level, short-lived nuclear waste and another for high-level and long-lived wastes. Disposal methods for the high-level nuclear waste will combine deep-seated geologic rock formations, highly compacted clay, and artificial barriers of steel and glass. A 1985 nuclear-waste cooperative study suggests that this method may exceed safety guidelines. Rather than rely on each of the barriers individually, as other nations' disposal methods have done, the Swiss approach depends on the collective efficiency of the barriers