Lessons from Nature in Nuclear Waste Management

The study for the behaviour of materials and elements involved in the environment of a deep geological repository for nuclear waste sheds light on their long-term performance that is needed to add confidence to safety assessments. Materials and elements occurring in nature are similar or analogous to the materials and elements manufactured or processed by man. Also, natural processes are similar to those envisaged a occurring in a nuclear waste repository. As many materials and elements have been in the natural environment for long time periods (thousands to million of years), the data obtained can be extrapolated to estimate the future evolution of similar components. Thinking by analogy is the process of comparison, and the materials, elements and environments used to perform the studies that allow the comparison are regarded as natural analogues.