Recommendations: Procedure for the preparation of the initial safety report for the radioactive repository siting licensing process

The initial safety report is the first in the series of safety reports and serves the regional planning stage of the licensing process. It is followed by a preliminary safety report for the construction licensing procedure and a pre-operational safety report for the operation permit procedure. The following aspects should be covered by this first report: General information (basic information about the construction), Site description (region, site, its geography and demography, hydrology, geology and hydrogeology), Description and assessment of the project/design (addressing emergency situations, operation monitoring process, proposed operational limits and conditions, security issues), Health, safety and environmental issues (radionuclide inventory, mechanisms and pathways of radionuclide release into the environment, scenarios of normal development, alternative scenarios, uncertainty assessment, radiation protection - health and safety impact assessment), Proposal for the conception of a safe shut-down of the repository (stabilization of the site, decontamination, waste disposal, decommissioning), and Quality assurance assessment. The guidelines are completed with annexes (maps, drawings, figures, layouts, tables, ...) and documents section (protocols, other documents). (P.A.)