Building technical and social confidence in the safety of geological disposal in Japan

Geological disposal has been adopted as the most feasible option for the method of long-term management of high-level radioactive waste (HLW) in every country in the world, regardless of the pros and cons of the nuclear power generation. Building stakeholders’ confidence in safety of geological disposal is indispensable to reach the point where the implementation of geological disposal is accepted by the current generation. The safety case is a key input to build confidence in geological disposal stepwise as the program progresses and regarded to play an important role as a common platform in the communication among stakeholders.

The aim of this paper is to review arguments relevant to building technical and social confidence in the progress of Japanese research and development activities as well as international discussions.