CONCLUSIONS AND OUTLOOK

Chapter 7. Conclusions and outlook

7.1. Conclusions

Many countries today are engaged in the development of projects for the final disposal of radioactive waste. Disposal facilities will be developed, implemented and operated over many decades and are meant to remain functional for up to hundreds of thousands of years in the case of high-level radioactive waste and spent fuel.

Embedding disposal facilities in society

In the past, the vision seems to have been that radioactive waste management (RWM) ended with, or at least shortly after, the closure of a disposal site. Oversight after closure was not an issue that was studied, developers tacitly assuming the safe oblivion of repositories, or that markers would succeed in deterring intrusion into a repository (see Section 1.2). Today, it is recognised that disposal facilities will remain part of society over time and that scaring people off or encouraging oblivion are not viable strategies. Future generations should be able to keep oversight over disposal sites for as long as they want, and this requires the preparation of a variety of instruments today, including records, knowledge and memory (RK&M) preservation (see Section 2.1). As the International Commission on Radiological Protection puts it: “one of the important factors that influence the application of the protection system over the different phases in the life time of a disposal facility is the level of oversight or ‘watchful care’ that is present. […] The level of oversight directly affects the capability to reduce or avoid some exposures” (ICRP, 2013: pp. 34-35). The RK&M initiative highlighted and elaborated that such a vision shift with regard to the future requires an accompanying shift with regard to present thinking and practices.

Preventing inadvertent human intrusion and supporting informed decision making over time

RK&M loss has indeed been found to take place rapidly if it is not acted upon in a dedicated manner and embedded in a regulatory framework (see Chapter 3). In the context of hazardous waste management, overall it was learnt that, even in the short term, bad quality or lack of RK&M jeopardises informed decision making and can present the involved parties with significant impacts on project schedules and costs, and increased health and safety risks. RK&M preservation thus constitutes a dedicated management task in RWM that is best started by the generations responsible for producing the waste, while waste management plans are being designed and implemented and while interest is present and funding is available (see Sections 3.4 and 6.3).

Addressing the question of “Why should we try to continue to remember and understand across generations where, why and how radioactive waste is disposed?” on a more fundamental level, RK&M preservation aims to avoid inadvertent human intrusion into a repository and to enable future generations to make informed decisions about the repository (see Chapter 2). Addressing these objectives can only be done in a manner that combines records, knowledge and memory preservation. It is not only about keeping information as such, but about preserving selected data and information that has been committed to a medium and accompanied by the appropriate context and structure for later uses (records). Moreover, records in themselves have limited meaning without the ability to understand and utilise the data and information they carry (knowledge). In order for this combination of records and knowledge to be transferred across generations, in whatever form and detail, there needs to be

CONCLUSIONS AND OUTLOOK

awareness of their existence and the reason for their existence, which is supported by a broader awareness of events, people, places and levels of knowledge in the past (memory).

RK&M preservation thus goes well beyond present data management and record keeping alone. It is not just a question of handing down a message, but of keeping that message interpretable, meaningful, credible and usable over time. Put more generally, RK&M aims at keeping track of disposal projects across time, by supporting an informed and alert attitude towards the required levels of safety, security and societal accordance, not only by the implementing agency and the authorities, but also by society at large and local communities in particular. As such, RK&M preservation concurrently has a communication and an evaluation function. These functions do not change over time and are valid for the present as well as the future, for both the operational and the post-operational phases of disposal facilities. Against this background, RK&M preservation has been identified as an integral part of responsible RWM, in line with a prudent approach to safety and a conscious attitude to ethics.

Based on these more theoretical understandings, elaborated throughout the first part of this report (see Chapters 1-3), the RK&M initiative also formulated more practice-oriented recommendations, elaborated throughout the second part of this report (see Chapters 4-6).

Developing a systemic strategy for RK&M preservation

A fundamental recommendation of the RK&M initiative is to develop a systemic strategy for RK&M preservation. This recommendation is based on the finding that there is no single approach or mechanism that would achieve, on its own, the preservation of RK&M over centuries and millennia. To state it bluntly, simply putting up a marker or placing records in an archive will not achieve the desired result. RK&M preservation requires a well-considered combination of different RK&M preservation approaches with multiple mechanisms. The desired diversity can be achieved by combining approaches and mechanisms that vary among the following key characteristics set out in Chapter 4:

•addressed time frame (short, medium and long term);

•type of medium (tangible/intangible, oral/written, multi-language, textual/visual, etc.);

•type of content (more technical, more contextual, high/low levels of detail, etc.);

•mode of transmission (mediated/non-mediated, taking into account both continuity and discontinuity in the functioning of society over time);

•involved and addressed actors;

•implied locations and scopes.

The RK&M initiative developed a non-exhaustive “toolbox” of 35 concrete RK&M preservation mechanisms that differ with regard to the key characteristics just mentioned. They can be adapted and combined to achieve a context-responsive, individual systemic RK&M preservation strategy with optimal diversity (see Annex 2). The mechanisms themselves are, with a few exceptions, not new. On the contrary, to the degree possible they are hinged upon structures and interests that already exist in society. What is original is how to use and apply them within a systemic RWM related RK&M preservation strategy. The proposed mechanisms are classified under nine overarching RK&M preservation approaches set out in Chapter 5, namely:

•dedicated record sets and summary files (the set of essential records and the key information file);

•memory institutions (archives, libraries and museums);

•markers (both above and below the surface);

•time capsules (both with and without opening strategies);

•culture, education and art (industrial heritage, cultural heritage, education and research, works of art);

CONCLUSIONS AND OUTLOOK

•knowledge management (knowledge retention tools, knowledge sharing philosophy);

•oversight provisions (monitoring, clear and planned responsibilities, land use controls);

•international mechanisms (international regulations and agreements, international inventories and catalogues);

•regulatory framework (encompassing the national regulatory framework and safeguards).

When combining these approaches and their mechanisms, particular care should be dedicated not only to their diversity but also to their inter-connectedness. The components of a systemic RK&M preservation strategy should work together, complement and strengthen each other, act as indexes to each other and thus provide diversity and redundancy with a view to maximising information accessibility, understandability and survivability over the various timescales considered.

Figure 7.1 visualises the concept of a systemic strategy, by illustrating the promoted diversity (lower part of the figure) and the inter-connectedness between the different RK&M preservation approaches and their underlying mechanisms (upper part of the figure).

Figure 7.1. A systemic strategy: Creating diversity and inter-connectedness among different RK&M preservation approaches and their underlying mechanisms

The importance of multi-disciplinarity and participation

RK&M preservation inherently requires to be elaborated as a multidisciplinary and participatory process (see Sections 4.6 and 6.5). To address the fundamental objectives of avoiding inadvertent intrusion and supporting informed decision making over time, RK&M preservation aims at the societal embedding of the repository by creating a holistic disposal project in which the disposal technology, the site’s design and the societal environment are integrated and mutually supporting. This can only be achieved through an effort that combines the workings and insights from the spheres of institutional, professional, academic and daily life. Since the topic of RK&M preservation so unmistakably requires and involves a variety of insights and actors at the production, preservation, as well as the access level (see Section 3.1), it may also offer a platform for innovative forms of engagement and mutual learning.