General framework of risk analysis

Problem setting 

a) Course Introduction;

b) Waste categories and sources; Regulations and IAEA standards

c) Waste treatment and disposal options: Near surface LILW and Geologic HLW disposal (near-field, far-field environments)

Probabilistic approach to Performance Assessment

Near-field analysis

Far-field analysis

Consequence estimation

a) Groundwater transport by classical Advection Dispersion Equation

b) Parameter estimation: laboratory tests and field scale experiments

c) Groundwater transport by particle tracking methods: standard Random Walk, Kolmogorov-Dmitriev

Practical simulation for consequence estimation with the software AMBER

Practical Monte Carlo simulations for contaminant transport

Sensitivity and uncertainty analyses

a) General theory 

b) Subset Simulation

c) Meta-modelling

Projects presentations

The primary goal of this course is to provide the students with the methodological, analytical and computational tools needed for the assessment of the safety performance of a radioactive waste repository. This assessment is based on the analysis of the performance of the engineered and natural barriers which dilute and retard the radionuclide release and migration into the environment. 

Group projects on assigned topics involving the development and/or the application of computational tools within the performance assessment framework.

Presentation of the results by means of a short paper and a presentation.

Oral test on the main course topics.