EURAD-2: European Joint Programme on Radioactive Waste Management
EURAD aims to implement a joint Strategic Programme of research and knowledge management activities at the European level, bringing together and complementing EU Member State programmes in order to ensure cutting-edge knowledge creation and preservation in view of delivering safe, sustainable and publicly acceptable solutions for the management of radioactive waste across Europe now and in the future. It promotes more effective and efficient public RD&D funding in Europe, and a deepening of research-cooperation between Member States.
Overview
Project Status: Ongoing
Project Website: www.ejp-eurad.eu
After five years of implementation the EURAD(-1) vision is still alive and valid, EURAD-2 builds upon EURAD(-1) and PREDIS to further implement a joint strategic programme of research & development, strategic studies and knowledge management activities at the European level, bringing together and complementing EU Member States’ programmes in order to ensure cutting edge knowledge creation and preservation in view of delivering safe, responsible and publicly acceptable solutions for the management of radioactive waste throughout all programme phases (from “cradle to grave”) across Europe now and in the future.
EURAD-2 supports the implementation of the Waste Directive in EU Member-States, taking into account the various stages of advancement of national programmes, the differences in capabilities and inventories.
EURAD-2 gathers Waste Management Organisations (WMOs), Technical Support Organisations (TSOs) and Research Entities (REs) from Member-States
- with no nuclear power programme operating, but with research, training or demonstration reactors, and/or other sources of radioactive waste;
- with a nuclear programme;
- with different amounts of radioactive waste to manage;
- at different stages of advancement in the implementation of their national radioactive waste management programme; and
- with plans for geological disposal for spent fuel, high-level waste and long-lived intermediate level waste, with different host rocks and different disposal concepts and at different stages of implementation.
EURAD-2 Vision
The vision of EUARD(-1) is carried forward into EURAD-2:
A step change in European collaboration towards safe radioactive waste management (RWM), including disposal, through the development of a robust and sustained science, technology and knowledge management programme that supports timely implementation of RWM activities and serves to foster mutual understanding and trust between Joint Programme participants.
Objective
EURAD-2 Vision, Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) and Roadmap will be delivered through 5-year implementation phases broken down into a set of Work Packages, Tasks and Sub-Tasks. The following four types of activities shall contribute deliver against EURAD objectives.
The research, development and demonstration (RD&D) carried out in support of safe radioactive waste management (RWM), including disposal, is considered a key requirement of each national programme. Given the long timescales and socio-political dimension, RD&D provides primarily the scientific basis for implementing safe and robust RWM solutions, whilst also contributing to building stakeholder trust, public acceptance, and training and education for the next generations of the workforce. EURAD-2 implements in a collaborative way those aspects of RD&D activities where synergy from Programming at European level has been identified.
- CSFD: Criticality Safety for Final disposal
- HERMES: High fidElity numerRical siMulations of strongly coupled processes for rEpository syStems and design optimisation with physical models and machine learning
- SUDOKU: Near-surface disposal optimisation based on knowledge and understanding
- RAMPEC: Radionuclide mobility under perturbed conditions
- ANCHORS: Hydraulic mechanical chemical evolution of bentonite for barriers optimisation
- InCoMand: Innovative and new container/canister materials under disposal fields conditions: manufacturing feasibility and improved durability
- SAREC: Release of safety relevant radionuclides from spent nuclear fuel under deep disposal conditions
- L’OPERA: Long-term performance of waste matrices
- STREAM: Sustainable treatment and immobilisation of challenging waste
- ICARUS: Innovative characterisation techniques for large volumes
Complementary to RD&D and in support to the implementation of the Member States’ national programmes, EURAD-2 shall, based on the lessons learned from EURAD(-1), further give the opportunity to participants and expert contributors to network on methodological and strategic issues and challenges that are common to various national programmes and in direct links with scientific and technical issues.
- DITUSC: Development and Improvement of Quality Assured Thermodynamic Understanding for use in Nuclear Waste Disposal Safety Case
- DITOCO2030: Next generation Digital Twins to support Optimisation, Construction and Operation of surface and subsurface radioactive waste management facilities
- OPTI: HLW repository optimisation including closure
- CLIMATE: Impact of climate change on nuclear waste management
- FORSAFF: Waste management for SMRs and future fuels
- ASTRA: Alternatives RWM strategies
It is essential to implement an efficient and integrated Knowledge Management programme at the EU level in order to establish, capitalize and transfer the state of scientific and technical knowledge, competences and capabilities in the field of RWM. Objectives are to:
- Capture knowledge
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Knowledge application and know-how development
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Competence building
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Dissemination of knowledge
The successful implementation of RWM national programmes relies on both scientific and technical aspects for a sound safety strategy and scientific and engineering excellence and societal (social, legal, ethical, political) aspects.
Interacting with Civil Society is important in this perspective and therefore one further highlighted objective of EURAD-2, as in EURAD(-1), is to allow interactions between WMOs, TSOs, REs and Civil Society Organisations. These interactions will facilitate the translation of scientific/technical results and create the conditions for CSOs to express their expectations and views. Such interactions shall improve the mutual understanding on RD&D performed to support the development of safe solutions of processing and disposal of radioactive waste. It shall also contribute to developing ideas, propositions and methodologies on how to interact with Civil Society on scientific and technical results uncertainties (inherently linked to the long timeframes and numerous processes considered for geological disposal), and on how to interact with Civil Society stakeholders in order to promote mutual benefit of the available knowledge, based on cooperation and sharing.