ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the principles of design and construction of on-ground and underground repositories and discusses their waste-isolating function with respect to geological conditions, referring to a number of planned and actually constructed landfills and underground facilities for storage of low-level radioactive waste (LLW) and intermediate-level radioactive waste (ILW). It discusses the role of different climatic conditions, which also contains conceptual and theoretical modeling of the evolution of engineered barriers. The chapter explains how repository planners and designers can solve the problem of avoiding or minimizing contamination of the groundwater around a disposal site and begin by looking at two concepts for on-ground disposal of LLW and ILW. The cross section of an element of fully water-saturated smectite clay shows permeable microscopic and submicroscopic channels that can be characterized with respect to shape and size by optical and electronic microscopy. The chapter ends with assessment of different concepts for disposal of LLW and ILW.
