has an MSC in nuclear chemistry and worked as a senior nuclear inspector for radioactive waste safety issues in Bulgaria before joining the Waste Safety Section of the IAEA. At the IAEA, Borislava was initially involved in the development of standards for borehole disposal of sealed sources, safety assessment methodology and waste acceptance criteria, including the management of two coordinated research programmes (ISAM and ASAM). From 2003 to 2008 Borislava worked in the IAEA’s Decommissioning and Residual Waste Unit with responsibility for safety standards and supporting documents in the area of decommissioning, including the management of the international DeSa project and coordination of remediation assessment work within the EMRAS project. Since 2008, Borislava has been an independent consultant in the fields of radioactive waste management, licensing, development of new nuclear facilities and decommissioning. This is a link to Borislava’s Website
has over 20 years experience in groundwater chemistry, hydrogeology, and environmental chemistry related to nuclear waste management and assessment of radionuclides in the environment. In recent years he has contributed to the interpretation of geochemical and hydrogeological data from borehole investigations at the Mont Terri clay underground laboratory in Switzerland, the hydrochemical and hydrogeological interpretation of the Äspö underground laboratory in Sweden, and the geochemical characterisation of a potential repository site at Sellafield in the UK.
has a first degree in Geology and a Masters degree in Hydrogeology. He has thirty years of experience in diverse hydrogeological investigations, mainly connected with radioactive waste. This has given rise to particular expertise in flow and contaminant movement in fractured rocks, poorly permeable rocks, the unsaturated zone and around tunnels and underground openings. He believes that the key to solving hydrogeological problems is the performance of well-targeted field-testing linked to appropriate interpretation and relevant modelling. To this end, he has developed a number of innovative approaches including sinusoidal testing, non-integer flow dimension interpretation, single borehole fracture network testing and flow accounting. He has over 60 publications on these and other topics. In the past, John has been a Principal Scientist of the British Geological Survey, Scientific Co-ordinator for the Stripa International Co-operation Project and established a 50-person operation for Golder Associates. He is currently Managing Director of In Situ Solutions (UK) Ltd, a company specialising in solving problems in "unusual" hydrogeology and providing focussed borehole testing for flow and contaminant movement evaluation.
is a chartered geologist with a first degree in Chemistry and Geology and a Masters degree in Mineral Exploration. Following twenty years varied geological and project management experience in mining and mineral exploration world-wide he spent eight years with UK Nirex Limited as Manager for Geology in the characterisation of the Sellafield site in Cumbria as a potential site for radioactive waste disposal. Since 1998 he has been consulting, principally in the Oil and Gas sector, specialising in uncertainty analysis, risk assessment and decision support methods as applied to geological and geophysical interpretation and modelling. His special interests include geostatistics and the application of evidence based methods of uncertainty analysis to geological interpretation. He has presented evidence-based methods widely to the Oil and Gas sector on the lecture circuit and has developed training courses in statistics, geostatistics and evidence based uncertainty analysis.
is an expert in low level radioactive waste management, with over 30 years experience in environmental safety and the nuclear industry. This expertise is based on a range of roles held mainly within British Nuclear Fuels plc but also with the National Radiological Protection Board, combined with national and international experience of radioactive waste management. In particular, a key role has been as Technical Manager for the UK’s principal low level waste disposal site at Drigg, West Cumbria from 1988 to 2000. Experience, principally at Sellafield and Drigg, includes waste characterisation and controls, waste treatment and containerisation, disposal option and waste strategy development, site characterisation and remediation, safety case management and regulatory and stakeholder liaison.
trained as a mathematician, specialising in the modelling of environmental and biological systems. Her experience covers total-system performance/safety assessment modelling with a particular emphasis on biosphere assessment and has led several international collaborative projects within the BIOPROTA framework. She is a major contributor to the provision of biosphere assessment support for the LLWR at Drigg and to the UK Deep Geological Repository programme in addition to NWMO’s Postclosure Safety Assessment of a Deep Geologic Repository for low and intermediate level radioactive waste in Canada. Laura is also involved in several EU-funded Carbon Capture and Storage projects, where she is responsible for aspects of biosphere modelling and model validation using field data.
has more than 25 years’ experience in radioactive waste disposal, mainly associated with the selection and characterisation of potential disposal sites, for both waste management organisations and regulatory bodies, and with the effects of natural processes on the long-term safety of disposal facilities. He has been involved in the design, development and operation of several site selection and site characterisation programmes for low, intermediate and high level radioactive wastes. Throughout a large part of the 1980s, when he worked for the British Geological Survey, he was extensively involved in work for Nirex, in the selection and characterisation of sites for both the shallow disposal of LLW and the deep disposal of I/LLW. He has also been involved with international organisations, such as the NEA, IAEA and NATO, in providing advice on similar areas of work. He has been associated with the development of several safety assessments, supplying information on geological events and processes, and in the review of such assessments. Recently he has been extensively involved with Posiva’s programme in developing an underground research facility, the ONKALO, and a repository at Olkiluoto, Finland.
has worked in environmental geochemistry, mineral exploration and resource development since 1968, both in the UK and world-wide. He has worked for the British Geological Survey, the Natural Environment Research Council, the Ministry of Overseas Development, the International Atomic Agency and the European Community. Uisdean specialised in monitoring natural radioactivity and the environmental behaviour of uranium and other radio-elements. In 1980, he joined the nuclear energy industry, initially to explore for and develop uranium resources in Canada, USA, Europe, Australia and Africa. In 1990, he joined the UK radioactive waste agency, Nirex, to co-ordinate the acquisition and interpretation of earth science data from site characterisation programmes at possible sites for a deep repository for radioactive waste. He worked closely with safety assessment modellers to provide them with appropriate data for studies of long term radiological safety. He also co-ordinated generic research on geosphere and biosphere topics and on geosphere interactions with cement, bentonite and steel corrosion.
has a BSc in Physics and Applied Mathematics, an M.Sc in Physics, a post-graduate diploma in Radiation Protection, and is presently completing an M.Sc in Nuclear Engineering. Alastair worked at the Nuclear Energy Corporation of South Africa (NECSA) for four years in the field of radiation protection, primarily in post-closure safety assessments using AMBER, followed by five years at the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (Pty) Ltd where the focus of his work was on the transport of fission products in the primary circuit and reactor building following a postulated Loss of Coolant Accident.
trained in geology and geochemistry and for the past twenty years has been concerned with the development and application of geochemical concepts and models for environmental and energy-related problems including the disposal of radioactive and hazardous wastes and carbon dioxide, and geothermal energy.
has a BSc in physics and is a member of the Society for Radiological Protection. He has worked at the National Radiological Protection Board and elsewhere as a consultant assessing the safety of the management and disposal of effluent and solid hazardous and radioactive wastes. Graham has provided technical input to the international biosphere model validation and testing projects, BIOMOVS and BIOMASS and this continues under the BIOPROTA banner. He has acted as a consultant to the IAEA on radioactive waste exemption, waste categorisation, storage and disposal facilities, and comparative assessment of the environmental impacts arising from waste produced by different electricity generation systems.
has over 25 years experience in radiological protection and the environmental transport of radionuclides. He has a BSc in physics and a PhD in experimental high energy physics. He spent five years with the Medical Research Council working on the radiotoxicology of plutonium and developing biokinetic models for radionuclides in man. For most of the last twenty years he has been employed by various private consultancies. Much of his work has related to estimation of the radiological impacts of liquid and gaseous releases of radioactive effluents, and of solid radioactive waste disposal. For the last 15 years, he has co-ordinated the Nirex biosphere research programme. Dr Thorne is a former member of ICRP Committee 2 and a former President of the UK Society for Radiological Protection. He is also a Visiting Fellow at the Climatic Research Unit, University of East Anglia. Dr Thorne has published books on the environmental distribution and transport of radionuclides, and on the pharmacodynamics of chemical carcinogens in man. His journal papers cover a wide variety of topics ranging from the microstructure of mouse bone to the elicitation and aggregation of expert judgments in nuclear safety studies. He has appeared as an expert witness in several US cases relating to exposure of workers to ionising radiations.
majored in geology at Nagoya University and since 1990 he has been engaged in geology/hydrogeology investigations as a consulting engineer. He has been involved in various fields of study including active fault investigations, water resource development/environmental conservation for groundwater, and soil pollution investigations as well as geological/hydrogeological studies for radioactive waste disposal. From 1991 to 1994, Hisanori was engaged in hydrogeological projects on secondment to Chubu Works, Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corporation (currently Tono Geoscience Center, Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute). He is presently engaged mainly in projects relating to geological structure, and to groundwater flow and mass transfer.
has over 20 years experience of studying the behaviour of contaminants in the environment and assessing impacts arising from contaminant releases to the biosphere. Areas of expertise include quantitative safety assessments for radioactive and hazardous waste disposal, the transport and bioaccumulation of radionuclides and heavy metals in terrestrial and aquatic environments and the effects of climate change on the biosphere. She has managed and contributed to a wide range of technical projects concerned with radioactive waste disposal and management for clients both in industry and government regulatory departments. Technical contributions have involved critical reviews of published information, biosphere assessment methodology development and data application in biosphere assessment models. She has also co-ordinated the collation of contributions, technical analyses and production of final documentation for a number of international collaborative studies including the EC BIOCLIM, IAEA BIOMASS and BIOMOVS II projects.
Dr Paul Woollam has a lifetime of knowledge and experience in the technical and strategic aspects of nuclear decommissioning and waste management. He was Chief Decommissioning Strategist with Magnox Electric and in this role he developed UK decommissioning strategy, carried out independent peer reviews of many major UK waste and decommissioning issues, was the Company’s Chief Witness at the Trawsfynydd Public Inquiry into decommissioning and managed Europe’s first reactor decommissioning Environmental Impact Assessment. During his career, Paul gained international experience working with other countries with requirements to decommission gas-cooled reactors, including five years working with Public Service Company, Colorado as a member of the Fort St Vrain Oversight Committee. He has reviewed decommissioning strategies and plans for gas reactors in the US, France, Spain and Japan. In addition, he has chaired the OECD/NEA Expert Group on Decommissioning Policies, Strategies and Costs and been a member of both the American Nuclear Society’s and EPRI’s Decommissioning Executives, and worked with both the IAEA and the European Union on decommissioning matters.