Development of Improved Methodology for the Comparative Assessment of Potential Repository Concepts and Locations

NUMO has adopted a volunteering approach to siting a geological repository for high-level radioactive waste (HLW). It is important for this process that the pros and cons of volunteers can be assessed from literature data in a clear and transparent manner, prior to the very careful selection of those sites that will be carried forward for more detailed characterisation. For this purpose, multi-attribute analysis (MAA) methodology has been developed that allows the technical assessment of criteria to be represented as scoring models. The trickier job of weighting different criteria involves expert opinion, which can be solicited by different methods. In particular, weighting of top-level attributes involves balancing a range of technical and socio-economic issues, which can be examined by considering the viewpoint of different stakeholders. The applicability of the MAA tool and its sensitivity to stakeholder viewpoints have been examined by simple case studies.