International Symposium on Nuclear Waste Management Research

Interdisciplinary research symposium on the safety of nuclear disposal practices "safeND" Source: BASE

There is no final repository for high-level radioactive waste from nuclear power plants ready for operation anywhere in the world. At the same time, more and more such waste is being produced. The Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management (BASE) conducts research on the safe handling and storage of radioactive waste in the present and the future. To promote scientific exchange in this field, BASE will host the second international and interdisciplinary forum on the topic of safe radioactive waste disposal.

The "safeND " research symposium will take place in Berlin from 13 to 15 September. The organisers are expecting 300 participants and about 140 scientific contributions to be presented and discussed. Some of the contributions will be broadcast online via the BASE YouTube channel.

safeND is aimed at scientists from all disciplines involved in research on safe disposal, including the natural sciences, engineering sciences, participation and communication sciences, sociology, political and economic and administrative sciences, historical sciences, as well as science and technology studies. The aim is to promote interdisciplinary dialogue, because nuclear waste management is much more than a purely technical challenge.

The main topic in 2023 will be "Research for resilient safety: Gaps, Progress and Priorities". To ensure the safety of nuclear waste management, which is associated with extremely long time horizons, we need extraordinarily resilient systems – at technical, institutional and social levels. Where are we today, and what knowledge gaps have we identified? What knowledge-related progress has been made in recent years? And what are the priorities on the international research agenda?

safeND will also address the following topics:

• Decommissioning of nuclear facilities
• Interim storage, conditioning and transport of radioactive waste
• Site selection and final disposal of high-level and low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste
• Alternative disposal methods
• Communication processes, long-term information preservation and semiotics
• Participation processes
• Historical, economic and legal aspects

State Secretary Stefan Tidow (Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection) and Jochen Ahlswede (Head of Research at BASE) will open the conference. Furthermore, BASE is pleased to announce the following keynote speakers:

• Prof. Dr Allison M. Macfarlane (School of Public Policy and Global Affairs at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver), expert in the field of nuclear waste management.
• Markus Weißkopf (Table.Media), expert in the field of science communication.
• Dr Nadezhda Gotcheva (VTT Technical Research Center of Finland), expert in the field of security of complex socio-technical systems.

Event details:

Date: Wed, 13 September 9 am, to Fri, 15 September 2 pm
Venue: Café Moskau / Karl-Marx-Allee 34 / 10178 Berlin
Livestream https://www.youtube.com/@AmtSicherheitnuk.Entsorgung
You can view the full programme here.
The conference language will be English.

For journalist accreditation, please contact presse@base.bund.de.