IGSC Symposium 2018

Background

Over the past five years, there have been major developments in a number of national programmes for the geological disposal of radioactive waste. Significant experience has been obtained in both preparing and reviewing safety cases for the operational and long-term safety of deep geological repositories (DGRs). Some countries are approaching the industrial implementation of geological disposal and, therefore, will increasingly focus on the feasibility of constructing and operating a repository that is safe and secure in the short as well as the long term. There are also new insights into the basis for regulations and the challenge of communicating highly technical information to a wide range of stakeholders.

The OECD NEA Integration Group for the Safety Case (IGSC) has been organising a series of symposia focused on the development of a competent and robust safety case since 2007, in cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the European Commission (EC). The first symposium, “Safety cases for the deep disposal of radioactive waste: where do we stand?”, and the second, “State-of-the-art”, took place in 2007 and 2013 respectively.  The purpose of this 2018 symposium is to determine and document achievements since 2013, share good practice and to consider future direction.

Scope and Aims

This symposium will focus on, but go beyond, the technical aspects of the safety case for the post-closure phase of DGRs.  The interplay of technical feasibility, engineering design issues, operational and post-closure safety, and non-technical challenges such as safety case communication will be explored.  The aim is to share practical experiences in preparing, developing, documenting and reviewing a safety case from both the implementers’ and reviewers’ perspectives.

• To learn from national programmes about issues concerning the siting, construction, operational and post-closure phases;
• To identify potential challenges that may arise as a repository programme matures and the safety case moves to represent an actual facility and inventory;
• To understand different players’ perspectives on safety case communication, i.e. implementers, regulators and communities; and
• To exchange useful information for developing work programmes through international cooperation.

Attendees

The symposium is open to individuals concerned with the geological disposal of radioactive waste including implementers, regulators, both technical and social science researchers, and interested stakeholders.

Sessions

1. Opening remarks
2. Keynote lectures – Safety cases in the Netherlands applied to DGRs and other facilities
3. Development of the safety case in the Netherlands
4. A safety case for a petroleum facility in the Netherlands
5. Safety case and siting
6. Safety case and licensing
7. Safety case and non-technical stakeholders
8. Conference dinner with poster session
9. International developments since 2013
10. Keynote lecture – NEA Committee on Radiological Protection and Public Health (CRPPH) point of view
11. Parallel sessions
12. Technical, regulatory and societal issues for the safety case
13. Panel discussion
14. Closing remarks

Call for Abstracts

Contributors are asked to select the topic which is most relevant to your contribution from the enclosed list of topics, and register on the ConfDB system.

Abstracts (300-500 words) are solicited for both the oral presentations and the poster session. The programme committee will notify the authors of the acceptance of the abstracts for oral presentation or poster session. Abstracts must be submitted through another ConfDB which will be provided later.   The deadline for abstracts is 31 March 2018. Full papers (3-7 pages) of the accepted abstracts must be submitted by 31 August 2018. They will be published in the final proceedings of the symposium.

Registration

A registration fee of 300€ will be payable by each participant.  The special registration fee for students is 200€.  The registration fee includes coffee during the breaks, lunches and the conference dinner.   Cost-free site visits are being held on 12 October 2018.

Registration for the workshop is now open at: http://www.oecd-nea.org/confdb/confdb/conf?id=284

Key Dates

Further Information

For further information please see https://www.oecd-nea.org/rwm/workshops/igsc2018/ or contact igsc2018symposium@oecd-nea.org.