Collaboration of the Dutch research program for radioactive waste disposal (OPERA) and TU Delft

Radioactive waste in the Netherlands is collected, treated and stored by COVRA (Centrale Organisatie Voor Radioactief Afval) in the interim storage facility for at least 100 a. After this period of long-term storage, geological disposal is foreseen. The policy is based on a step-wise decision process in which all decisions are taken to ensure safe disposal in a repository, but without excluding unforeseen alternative solutions that might develop in the future. OPERA is the Dutch acronym for research program into geological disposal of radioactive waste. It started in 2011 and is running for five years. The OPERA Research plan is developed by NRG in close collaboration with COVRA. Radioactive waste disposal in the Netherlands is at an early, conceptual phase. The aim of Opera is to develop a first preliminary safety case to structure the research necessary for the eventual deployment of a repository in the Netherlands. The OPERA research program aims at a close cooperation with the Belgian research program on radioactive waste disposal. The result of OPERA will be to detail a first roadmap for the long-term research on geological disposal of radioactive waste in the Netherlands, based initially on a re-evaluation of existing safety and feasibility studies conducted more than ten years ago, making use of present international and, wherever possible, national knowledge. This will be done by developing initial and conditional safety cases for generic GDFs in Zechstein rock salt and Boom Clay formations in the Netherlands. The goal in OPERA is to develop initial safety cases that are intended to mark the start of the research development process and to iterate these as knowledge grows to new developed insights. The safety case is conditional since plausible assumptions must later be confirmed in a safety case e.g. for site selection. Dutch, Belgian, German, English and French organizations participate in OPERA. These organizations can be found in the two documents with awarded research proposals available at www.covra.nl/downloads/o pera. Building up competences and knowledge on radioactive waste management and geological disposal is an important goal of OPERA. To this end OPERA collaborates with TU Delft to develop an academic curriculum for the chair Chemistry of the Nuclear Fuel Cycle in the Master of Science Engineering. Furthermore, the results obtained in OPERA will be presented at a Summer School which is planned to be organized at the end of the Program. TU Delft educates young specialists, bachelor and master students, by research projects on geological disposal at the new actinide laboratory (U and Th). For such purpose the knowledge transfer from other OPERA partners is also foreseen, including students internships and visits of the research facilities. Reactor Institute Delft (RID) is part of the Applied Sciences faculty of TU Delft and houses the Radiation Science and Technology (RST) department. RID operates the Hoger Onderwijs Reactor (HOR), a 2 MW pool- type research reactor in an academic setting. The reactor is used as a source of neutrons and positrons for research purposes, including those of OPERA. It also provides neutrons to a variety of facilities for radioisotope production and neutron activation analysis. OPERA is financed by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and the public limited liability company Elektriciteits-Produktiemaatschappij Zuid-Nederland (EPZ) and coordinated by COVRA.