Status of activities of the OECD nuclear energy agency related to the disposal of high-level radioactive waste

Under the OECD/NEA Radioactive Waste Management Committee (RWMC), three main categories of work are carried out in support of the disposal of high-level radioactive wastes: first, the preparation of recommendations on appropriate radiation protection objectives for disposal, particularly in the long term; second, the development of systems performance assessment methodologies; and third, the provision of reliable field data and in depth understandings of field processes relevant to radioactive waste disposal. This paper briefly describes recent achievements of the RWMC, and possible future trends in the development and implementation of safe disposal routes for high-level radioactive wastes. Particular emphasis is given to current activities within established NEA projects such as the Stripa Project, the International Sorption Information Retrieval System (ISIRS), the User's Group for Systems Variability Analysis Codes, and work on Long Term Objectives for Radioactive Waste Disposal