Euradwaste '08 - EU Bookshop - Europa

Summary of the Panel Discussion on the Topic:
"Coordination of RD&D for Waste Disposal in Europe"
Panel members:
Alan Hooper (Chair), NDA-RWMD, United Kingdom
Jordi Bruno, Amphos XXI, Spain
Vit�zslav Duda, RAWRA, Czech Republic
Édouard Scott-de Martinville, IRSN, France
Peter Wikberg, SKB, Sweden
All five of the questions posed in the Conference Programme were addressed by the panel as follows:
� In the context of the shared vision on implementation of geological disposal in Europe, which
areas of RD&D in particular would benefit most from a “technology platform” approach (i.e.
close coordination between all key stakeholders, agreed strategic research agenda and deployment
strategy)?
One strongly held view was that the area that would benefit most would be research into physical
and chemical processes. It was argued that stakeholder acceptance would be improved significantly
if there was greater visibility of a shared view between programmes on what are the important processes
and how to address them. Continued research into such processes provides a valuable framework
for training and development of the early career professionals that will necessarily come into
the field of geological disposal if implementation is to be sustained over the relevant long timescales.
The existing bilateral cooperation between Sweden and Finland provides good examples of
both such types of benefits.
It was pointed out that there is significant interest in the benefits derived from coordination of technology
development in the FP6 ESDRED Integrated Project and that technology development projects
can provide helpful evidence of the practicality of establishing barrier systems to stakeholders.
� Do coordinated RD&D programmes produce some types of results more readily than standalone
national programmes, in particular in respect of regulatory confidence and technical
quality?
It was concluded that confidence is improved when there is evidence of overlap of key issues and
the means of addressing them between different programmes and that the technology platform approach
should improve visibility of such overlaps, in particular to the regulators.
It was pointed out that in many countries the level of acceptance is significantly improved in the
light of evidence of meaningful international cooperation on relevant RD&D topics. For this reason,
a number of regulatory bodies formally request information on their national programme’s international
cooperation programme.
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