Nuclear Waste Disposal: Designing Materials For the End of Time

Convenors :

• Prof.  Scott Kroeker, LE STUDIUM RESEARCH FELLOW
  FROM Department of Chemistry, Winnipeg, Manitoba, CA
  IN RESIDENCE AT Conditions Extrêmes et Matériaux: Haute Température et Irradiation (CEMHTI), CNRS, Orléans, FR
• Dr Pierre Florian, Conditions Extrêmes et Matériaux: Haute Température et Irradiation (CEMHTI), CNRS, Orléans, FR

Introduction:

The effective disposal of high-level nuclear waste is a unique challenge due to the extremely long timescale required for some radioactive decay processes. Solutions to this problem require an unprecedented degree of foresight, as materials designed to encapsulate waste products must outlast their creators by many thousands of years. This conference will draw together specialists in various aspects of nuclear waste immobilization ranging from atomic-level characterization of wasteforms to global health and safety. In addition to formal presentations, attendees will be invited to participate in a facilitated discussion focusing on the role of fundamental science in long-term radioactive waste disposal. Thus, speakers will be asked to contribute not only as experts in their own fields, but also as citizens who have thought carefully about the larger societal context of their research. On a philosophical level, this conference may stimulate us to contemplate the limits of science in planning for the unforeseeable future.

Confirmed Speakers:

• Dr Catherine Bessada, CEMHTI-CNRS, Orléans, France
• Dr Etienne Vernaz, CEA, Marcoule, France
• Dr Thibault Charpentier, CEA, Saclay, France
• Pr Neil Hyatt, Immobilisation Sciences Lab, Sheffield, U.K.
• Pr Ian Farnan, University of Cambridge, U.K.
• Dr Odile Majérus, Chimie Paristech (ENSCP), Paris, France
• Thorsten Geisler-Wierwille, Steinmann Institut für Geologie, Mineralogie und Paläontologie
• Pr Christophe POINSSOT, CEA (Marcoule)
• Dr Christelle MARTIN, ANDRA
• Dr Karl MUELLER, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
• Dr Maik LANG, University of Tennessee

Topics:

• long-term safety of nuclear disposal
• structure-property relationships in wasteforms
• spectroscopic characterisation of wasteforms (e.g., NMR, XAS)