The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has published a new technical document providing a common framework for addressing long-term climate and environmental change in post-closure safety assessments of solid radioactive waste disposal. The document reflects the output of Working Group 6 of an IAEA programme on Modelling and Data for Radiological Impact Assessments (MODARIA), which ran from 2012 to 2015.
Radioactive Waste Management Ltd (RWM) provided a major input to the Working Group 6 programme through an associated four-year research project, led by Quintessa. The RWM project included updated global climate modelling and associated projections through a funded PhD at Bristol University’s BRIDGES unit. A summary of the RWM-funded research is also available.
Since the MODARIA programme completed in 2015, further consideration has been given to long-term projections of global climate, including further work at the BRIDGE unit, in support of Posiva and SKB.
Within a follow-on programme to MODARIA (MODARIA II), Working Group 6 has also drawn on the updated framework for climate and environmental change in enhancing the IAEA’s BIOMASS methodology for long-term biosphere assessment. This latter work has been supported by the international collaborative BIOPROTA forum and the updated guidance has recently been submitted to the IAEA for publication.