Environmental Earth Sciences - Call for Papers

Deep Geological Disposal (DGD)

Guest Editors: Thomas Nagel, Wolfram Rühaak, Florian Amann, Guido Bracke, Stefan Buske, Julia Kowalski, Sönke Reiche, Thorsten Schäfer, Traugott Scheytt, Thorsten Stumpf, Holger Völzke, Florian Wellmann

The safe deposition of hazardous waste in geological repositories is one of the most pressing challenges for environmental and geoscience. It affects economies which continue to rely on nuclear energy as well as those which are undergoing an energy transition towards renewable sustainable energy sources along with a phase-out of nuclear energy sources. Therefore, activities are increasing worldwide for searching and establishing deep geological disposal sites, in particular for high-level radioactive waste (HLW). In Germany, a new site selection process was started in 2017 that has yielded first intermediate results recently. Different countries are at different stages in the site selection process, and only in a few select countries sites have already been identified. However, there is still no HLW disposal site in operation, yet.

This topical collection addresses environmental, geoscientific, geotechnical and engineering challenges associated with the identification, design, licensing, construction and operation of deep geological disposal. We invite research papers related to experimental and numerical studies with respect to the safe enclosure of radionuclides in a repository, studies on repository designs, challenges associated with monitoring, recovery and retrieval of the waste as well as related issues. Research studies from underground laboratories or from natural analogues providing insight into the complex physical and chemical processes on the relevant time scales are invited as well.

The Topical Collection “Deep Geological Disposal” invites manuscript submissions related to the above-mentioned topics.