Description
The transport of any repository-derived contaminants in the biosphere as a direct result of human actions.
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.
- Process
Comments
The “Comments” field, when present, contains any additional explanation of the IFEP, beyond that implicit in the FEP's description and provided in the “Relevance to Performance and Safety” field. This additional explanation may include, where appropriate, the IFEPs characteristics, the circumstances under which it might be relevant and its relationship to other (especially similar) IFEPs.
Includes processes such as the dredging of contaminated sediments from lakes, rivers and estuaries and placing them on land, the ploughing of soils, which result in the mixing of the top layers of agricultural soil, and irrigation of soils.
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.
This FEP relates to human actions that would disturb and potentially redistribute solid materials or water, and thus subject any repository-derived contaminants associated with the solid material or water to be moved also.
These processes can act to dilute and disperse contaminants in the environment through mixing processes. However, they can also act to enhance contaminant concentrations in the environment. For instance, contaminants can be accumulated in compost piles or animal and human waste and then used as soil conditioners.
2000 List
A reference to the related FEP(s) within the 2000 NEA IFEP List.