Nuclear power has the potential to provide significant amounts of reliable electricity generation without carbon dioxide emissions. Disposing of radioactive waste is, however, an ongoing challenge, and if it is to be buried, the characterisation of the regional groundwater system is vital to protect the anthroposphere. This aspect is understudied in comparison to the engineered facility; yet, selecting a suitable groundwater setting can ensure radionuclide isolation hundreds of thousands of years beyond that provided by the engineered structure. This paper presents a multi-faceted scoping tool to quantitatively assess, and directly compare, the regional hydrogeological prospectivity of different groundwater settings for disposal at an early stage of the site selection process. The scoping tool is demonstrated using geological data from three distinct UK groundwater settings as a case study. Results indicate a significant difference in the performance potential of different regional groundwater settings to ensure long-term waste containment.

核电有潜力提供大量可靠的发电而不会排放二氧化碳。但是，放射性废物的处置一直是一个挑战，如果要掩埋，区域地下水系统的特征对于保护人类圈至关重要。与工程设施相比，这方面的研究不足；但是，选择合适的地下水位可以确保放射性核素的隔离比工程结构所提供的隔离数十万年。本文提出了一个多方面的范围界定工具，可以定量评估和直接比较不同地下水位的区域水文地质前景，以便在选址过程的早期阶段进行处理。作为案例研究，使用了来自英国三个不同地下水环境的地质数据演示了范围界定工具。结果表明，在确保长期废物控制方面，不同区域地下水环境的性能潜力存在显着差异。