[en] The Waste Management Branch, Division of Engineering, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research, has developed a strategy for conducting research on issues of concern to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in its efforts to ensure safe disposal of low-level radioactive waste (LLW). The resulting LLW research program plan provides an integrated framework for planning the LLW research program to ensure that the program and its products are responsive and timely for use in NRC's LLW regulatory program. The plan discusses technical and scientific issues and uncertainties associated with the disposal of LLW, presents programmatic goals and objectives for resolving them, establishes a long-term strategy for conducting the confirmatory and investigative research needed to meet these goals and objectives, and includes schedules and milestones for completing the research. Areas identified for investigation include waste form and other material concerns, failure mechanisms and radionuclide releases, engineered barrier performance, site characterization and monitoring, and performance assessment. The plan proposes projects that (1) analyze and test actual LLW and solidified LLW under laboratory and field conditions to determine leach rates and radionuclide releases, (2) examine the short- and long-term performance of concrete-enhanced LLW burial structures and high-integrity containers, and (3) attempt to predict water movement and contaminant transport through low permeability saturated media and unsaturated porous media. 4 figs., 3 tabs