Final report of the project Performance Assessment and Economic Evaluation of Nuclear Waste Management

This publication is the final report of the project Performance Assessment and Economic Evaluation of Nuclear Waste Management (TOKA) at the Nuclear Engineering Laboratory of VTT, forming part of the Publicly Financed Nuclear Waste Management Research Programme (JYT). The project covers safety and cost aspects of all phases of nuclear waste management. The main emphasis has been on developing an integrated system of models for performance assessment of nuclear waste repositories. During the four years the project has so far been in progress, the total amount of work has been around 14 person-years. Computer codes are the main tools in the project, they are either developed by the project team or acquired from abroad. In-house model development has been especially active in groundwater flow, near-field and migration modelling. The quantitative interpretation of Finnish tracer experiments in the laboratory and natural analogue studies at Palmottu support performance assessments via increased confidence in the migration concepts used. The performance assessment philosophy adopted by the team consists of deterministic modelling and pragmatic scenario analysis. This is supported by our long term experience in practical performance assessment, and in theoretical probabilistic modelling exercises. The radiological risks of spent fuel transportation from the Loviisa nuclear power plant to Russia have been analysed using a probabilistic computer code and Finnish traffic accident statistics. The project assists the authorities in the annual assessment of utility estimates of funding needs for future nuclear waste management operations. The power companies must pay the necessary funds annually to the Nuclear Waste Management Fund established for this purpose. The models and methods used within the project are tested in international verification/validation projects. Finnish nuclear waste projects have extensively applied the expertise developed within the TOKA project.