Organization of low-level waste management within ANDRA, France

Short-lived waste contains relatively small quantities of radioelements with half-lives of no more than 30 years, and only trace amounts of long-lived radioelements, if any. Cobalt-60, produced by the activation of structural steel in nuclear power plants, accounts for approximately half the radioactivity in waste managed by ADNRA, yet it has only a 5-year half-life. For this reason protection from radiation emitted by this type of waste is not difficult; and the waste will become harmless in less than 300 years. In terms of disposal safety, the guiding principle is simply to isolate the radioactive materials from the environment by disposing of only stabilized waste packages and protecting the packages from outside forces, especially water and human intrusion. Some countries, particularly those that have elected not to sort waste into long-lived and short lived categories, like Germany and Switzerland, plan to dispose of all waste in deep underground repositories. This approach is sometimes a matter of convenience, as is the case for countries like Sweden and Finland, which have built repositories in the Scandinavian granite shield at nuclear power plant sites. France, Spain, the United States, Great Britain, Japan, and others dispose of short-lived waste in near-surface disposal facilities. The safety of the disposal system depends on its three fundamental building blocks: the waste package, the disposal facility, and the site