Management of documents and information on radioactive waste

Abstract

The assurance of the safety of a repository for low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste, during the 300 years of institutional control after closure, depends on assuming that the responsible institution will be capable to control the documents with information regarding the facility, the disposed of waste and the established measures for counteracting events that could breach the isolation of the radioactive material. Management of documents or information does not represent a major challenge in itself in view of consolidated practices and international standards, such as ISO 15489. However, considering the time scale involved in the disposal of the radioactive wastes, efforts should be made to ensure the preservation and proper access to documents and information. In this matter, the technological aspect of document production can be a complicating factor. In fact, it is common to be unable to access electronic documents produced 20 or 30 years ago, due either to problems related to the media where the information is stored, or to a lack of compatible systems for reading the files. This is just one example of complication when thinking about production, organization, representation, preservation and retrieval of recorded information that is to last for centuries. In this way, this work seeks to present the situation of the management of documents and information on radioactive waste in the scope of the Institute of Energy and Nuclear Research (IPEN) and with national regulation in Brazil.