Regional Basic Professional Training Course in Korea

Regional Basic Professional Training Course (BPTC) on Nuclear Safety
Disposal is based on the idea that there is no need for later retrieval of the waste.
However, to provide for some unforeseen development and to enhance public acceptance,
adoption of retrievable disposal concepts have recently been proposed. It seems that this
approach would not imply any major modifications to the existing disposal concepts.
Disposal operations would probably be implemented in a more stepwise manner than
envisaged until now, and they would be succeeded by a surveillance period prior to
backfilling and sealing of all underground opening. Even after sealing of the repository,
retrieval of waste canisters, which have preserved their integrity, is feasible, though at a
high cost.
20.7.2. Site selection
The approaches for siting a HLW or high‐level waste repository seem to vary from
country to country. Some countries have made first a nation‐wide identification of
potentially suitable areas, and through a more detailed screening gradually narrowed the
list to a small number of specific sites where comprehensive site characterization
investigations have been done. Another approach has been to pick out initially one – a
few sites, with seemingly favorable geological and other characteristics, and to focus the
site characterization on that site (or those sites). The site confirmation studies, requiring
at‐depth investigations from an exploratory shaft, are usually made at one preferred site.
The suitability of a site for HLW disposal is affected by a number of factors including
geological, environmental, climatic, logistic and social ones. Only very general criteria
can be given to site suitability, because the more detailed criteria depend on the rock type
and even on the disposal concept. The general geological siting criteria usually address:
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