Página 361 - irpa

361 ST 4.3 – Gestión de residuos radiactivos
BIOPROTA AN INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATIVE FORUM FOR
IMPROVE THE SAFETY ASSESSMENT IN RADIOACTIVE
WASTE MANAGEMENT
Perez-Sanchez, Danyl1*; Smith, Graham 2; Smith, Karen3
1 CIEMAT. España.
2 GMS Abingdon Ltd. United Kingdom.
3 RadEcol Consulting Ltd. United Kingdom.
* Autor responsable, email: d.perez@ciemat.es
BIOPROTA is an international collaborative forum, started in 2002, designed to support
resolution of key issues in the biosphere aspects of assessments of the long-term impact of
potential contaminant releases associated with solid radioactive waste disposal. The focus is on
the application of good science to provide a good understanding of relevant biosphere system
processes and address important uncertainties. This in turn supports decision making related to
waste management and the appropriate allocation of resources to solve problems. Membership
includes regulators, operators, technical support organisations and academic institutions from
North America, Europe and Asia. Member organisations have representation on a Sponsoring
Committee, and supported by a Technical Secretariat. Given the long timeframes which are
required to be addressed in post-closure assessments of radioactive waste disposal facilities,
thousands of years or even longer, the range of assessment issues is very large. In essence,
they boil down to being related to the scope for environmental change and the behaviour of
humans and ecosystems in response to such change, including their contribution to the change
itself. This requires consideration of climate change, landscape evolution, the dynamics of
ecosystems, and then, the behaviour of radionuclides within those changing systems and the
ways by which their presence may give rise to radiation exposure. It is multi-disciplinary but has
an important focus on radioecology. The forum is tailored to enable opportunities for sharing,
reviewing and interpretation of information used in assessments. This includes methods for
system characterisation and description, modelling of system evolution subject to assumptions
for environmental change, exposure modelling according to those possibilities for evolution, and
data to support all the assessment assumptions and model parameter selection. The working
method is based on an annual meeting for information exchange and identification of key issues
of common interest. Out of that discussion, opportunities for collaborative projects and topical
workshops are developed. Not all activities are of interest to all organisations and participation is
open to those who wish to contribute. Subject to agreement from contributors, the final results
are openly made available on the website www.bioprota.org. In many cases the reports are
published in the report series of one of the participating organisations. Hopefully this approach
leads to efficient use of skills and resources to solve common problems. In addition, the
information shared and produced is commonly referenced in various project specific
assessments and reviews.