There has been, for decades, a worldwide consensus in the nuclear technical community for disposal through geological isolation of high-level waste (HLW), including spent nuclear fuel (SNF). However, none of the national programs established to implement geological disposal has yet succeeded in establishing a geological repository and emplacing HLW in it. The large and growing HLW inventory from civilian and military reactor use over nearly 60 years remains in surface facilities intended only for interim storage. The societal and technical challenges of geological disposal and, more broadly, of ongoing management of HLW have turned out to be substantially greater than anticipated when the United States and other nations established programs for HLW disposal starting some decades ago.
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