Events and processes due to climatic developments are relevant for assessing the safety of a repository for nuclear waste including operational safety of e.g. surface installations and long-term safety of a deep geological repository (DGR). Short-term events, such as floods or storms, may impact transport infrastructure and surface installations. Long-term processes, such as glacial erosion, subglacial valley formation or permafrost thawing/freezing as results of certain climate states modify the setting of the overburden and can potentially even impact the geological barrier of a DGR. The investigation of the impact of such events and processes on the safe containment of the radioactive waste when describing the safety case is paramount and ongoing in the international context but still challenging due to uncertainties regarding the future climate evolution. Nevertheless, such future climate scenarios are required as part of the FEP analysis (Features, Events and Processes) for estimating the performance of a repository. Research is also being undertaken to better understand the influence of recent (anthropogenic) climate change on the long-term evolution of expected climate patterns as a basis for estimating future climate scenarios and their impact on repository safety.
This session shall combine a broad array of presentations on the effects of climate events and processes of relevance to the safety of radioactive waste management on all relevant timescales – from operational safety to long-term safety, for all waste types, and for all disposal concepts. Theoretical and experimental or field based works are equally welcome in this session.