[en] Apatites are investigated as possible high performance radioactive waste matrices for specific actinides. In this paper, we have quantified the influence of the chemical composition of apatites on their fission-track annealing behaviour. We aimed to evaluate the capability of apatites to self-anneal high densities of radiation damages produced during disposal. The thermal annealing kinetics, at 280 deg. C, of induced fission tracks has been determined for six different apatite compositions. We show that the chemical composition of apatites is a critical parameter with respect to their annealing behaviour. A mathematical treatment of the data, based upon the methodology of optimum design of experiments, allowed the quantification of the role of substitution for two major elements, of the apatite structure (Ca, P), for chlorine and for the two groups of minor elements, actinides (U+Th) and lanthanides (La+Ce+Y), which are relevant in the nuclear waste disposal context. A high actinide content enhances the annealing of fission-tracks in apatites, which is a very favourable feature of these minerals as radioactive waste matrices. This work also points to a new strategy for the best use of information provided by geological samples. In particular, the mathematical methodology proposed here allows, first, to evaluate the 'quality' of the information obtained and, second, to improve it by a proper choice of additional samples to investigate. (authors)