1Terminology used in this publication is defined and explained in the IAEA Safety Glossary [10] (see http://www-ns.iaea.org/standards/safety-glossary.htm).

2‘Human intrusion’ refers to human actions that affect the integrity of a disposal facility and which could potentially give rise to radiological consequences. Only those human actions that result in direct disturbance of the disposal facility (i.e. the waste itself, the contaminated near field or the engineered barrier materials) are considered.

3Natural processes include the range of conditions anticipated over the lifetime of the facility and events that could occur with a lesser likelihood. However, extremely low probability events would be outside the scope of consideration.

4Risk due to the disposal facility in this context is to be understood as the probability of fatal cancer or serious hereditary effects.

5A Safety Guide on the Safety Case and Safety Assessment for Disposal of Radioactive Waste is in preparation.

6INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY, Safety Indicators in Different Time Frames for the Safety Assessment of Underground Radioactive Waste Repositories, IAEA-TECDOC-767, IAEA, Vienna (1994).

7In the IAEA safety standards, ‘operator’ means any organization or person applying for authorization or authorized and/or responsible for nuclear, radiation, radioactive waste or transport safety when undertaking activities or in relation to any nuclear facilities or sources of ionizing radiation. This includes, inter alia, private individuals, governmental bodies, consignors or carriers, licensees, hospitals, self-employed persons, etc.

8INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY, Monitoring of Geological Repositories for High Level Radioactive Waste, IAEA-TECDOC-1208, IAEA, Vienna (2001).

9State systems of accounting for, and control of, nuclear material are required by IAEA nuclear safeguards agreements.

10INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY, Issues in Radioactive Waste Disposal, IAEA-TECDOC-909, IAEA, Vienna (1996).

11INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY, Issues in Radioactive Waste Disposal, IAEA-TECDOC-909, IAEA, Vienna (1996).

12INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY, Advisory Group Meeting on Safeguards Related to Final Disposal of Nuclear Material in Waste and Spent Fuel (AGM-660), Rep. STR-243 (Revised), IAEA, Vienna (1988).

13The term ‘management system’ includes all the initial concepts of quality control (controlling the quality of products) and its evolution through quality assurance (the system for ensuring the quality of products) and quality management (the system for managing quality).

14An arbitrary representation of behaviour is assumed, often on the basis of present human habits.

1For the sake of consistency, the term ‘exempt waste’ has been retained from the previous classification scheme detailed in INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY, Classification of Radioactive Waste, Safety Series No. 111-G-1.1, IAEA, Vienna (1994). However, once such waste has been cleared from regulatory control, it is not considered to be radioactive waste.