1.10. A number of design options for disposal facilities have been developed andvarious types of disposal facility have been constructed in many States and are in operation. These design options have different degrees of containment and isolation capability appropriate to the radioactive waste that they will receive.The specific aims of disposal are:
(a) To contain the waste.
(b) To isolate the waste from the accessible biosphere and to reduce substantially the likelihood of, and all possible consequences of,inadvertent human intrusion2 into the waste;
(c) To inhibit, reduce and delay the migration of radionuclides at any time from the waste to the accessible biosphere;
(d) To ensure that the amounts of radionuclides reaching the accessible biosphere due to any migration from the disposal facility are such that possible radiological consequences are acceptably low at all times.
2)‘Human intrusion’ refers to human actions that affect the integrity of a disposal facility and which could potentially give rise to radiological consequences. Only those human actions that result in direct disturbance of the disposal facility (i.e. the waste itself, the contaminated near field or the engineered barrier materials) are considered.