Description
The characteristics of terrestrial and aquatic vegetation, including algae and fungi, both as individual plants and in mass, and the processes affecting their potential evolution (including stimulation or inhibition of growth).
Category
Categorisation as a Feature, Event and/or Process.
Features
are physical components of the disposal system and environment being assessed. Examples include waste packaging, backfill, surface soils. Features typically interact with one another via processes and in some cases events.Events
are dynamic interactions among features that occur over time periods that are short compared to the safety assessment timeframe such as a gas explosion or meteorite impact.- "Processes" are issues or dynamic interactions among features that generally occur over a significant proportion of the safety assessment timeframe and may occur over the whole of this timeframe. Events and processes may be coupled to one another (i.e. may influence one another).
The classification of a FEP as an event or process depends upon the assessment context, because the classification is undertaken with reference to an assessment timeframe. In this generic IFEP List, many IFEPs are classified as both Events and Processes; users will need to decide which of these classifications is relevant to their context and its timeframes.
- Feature
- Process
Relevance to Performance and Safety
The “Relevance to Performance and Safety” field contains an explanation of how the IFEP might influence the performance and safety of the disposal system under consideration through its impact on the evolution of the repository system and on the release, migration and/or uptake of repository-derived contaminants.
Soil containing any repository-derived contaminants, and/or the use of water that contains any repository-derived contaminants, will lead to contaminated vegetation. For some contaminants, exposure from the atmosphere may be possible.
Contaminated vegetation may be consumed by humans and non-human biota directly, may be consumed by livestock. It is also possible for humans to be exposed to contaminants contained in the vegetation via non-ingestion exposure pathways. These pathways include external and inhalation exposure following the use of vegetation in building materials, the use of compost (rotted vegetation) as a fertiliser for crops, and the burning of vegetation, either as a fuel or as part of farming practices.
2000 List
A reference to the related FEP(s) within the 2000 NEA IFEP List.