High-level radioactive waste remains dangerous for extremely long periods of time. Far longer than human civilizations have existed. How can such a legacy be stored safely? Researchers at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) and the Center for Advanced Systems Understanding (CASUS) in Görlitz are looking into this question. The Federal Ministry for the Environment, Climate Protection, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety is funding their MALEK project with around 1.7 million euros.
MALEK stands for "Machine learning for complex hydrological-geochemical processes in crystalline waste disposal". Put simply, it is about predicting how radioactive substances move and change deep in the rock - over periods of up to one million years.
Germany is currently facing a major environmental challenge: the safe final disposal of highly radioactive waste. Even after the phase-out of nuclear energy, the waste that has already been produced is still present and must be secured responsibly. A nationwide search process is currently underway to find a site that will permanently and reliably shield the nuclear waste from people and the environment. This search is necessary because the existing interim storage facilities are only designed for a limited period of time. However, high-level radioactive waste remains dangerous for very long periods of time, sometimes for hundreds of thousands of years.
