Several countries have been operating radioactive waste disposal (RWD) programs to construct their own repositories and have used natural analogues (NA) studies directly or indirectly to ensure the reliability of the long-term safety of deep geological disposal (DGD) systems. A DGD system in Korea has been under development, and for this purpose a generic NA study is necessary. The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute has just launched the first national NA R&D program in Korea to identify the role of NA studies and to support the safety case in the RWD program. In this article, we review some cases of NA studies carried out in advanced countries considering crystalline rocks as candidate host rocks for high-level radioactive waste disposal. We examine the differences among these case studies and their roles in reflecting each country’s disposal repository design. The legal basis and roadmap for NA studies in each country are also described. However because the results of this analysis depend upon different environmental conditions, they can be only used as important data for establishing various research strategies to strengthen the NA study environment for domestic disposal system research in Korea.

1. Introduction
2. Finland
    2.1 Radioactive Waste Disposal (RWD)Programs in Finland
    2.2 NA Studies
3. Canada
    3.1 RWD Programs in Canada
    3.2 NA Study in Canada
4. The United States
    4.1 RWD Programs in the U.S.
    4.2 NA Study
5. Spain
    5.1 RWD Programs and Policies in Spain
    5.2 NA Study in Spain
6. Conclusion and Discussion
    6.1 Summary of NA Study by Country
    6.2 Implication to Korea NA Study
Acknowledgements
REFERENCES

• HunSuk Im(Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute) Corresponding author
• Dawoon Jeong(Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute)
• Min-Hoon Baik(Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute)
• Ji-Hun Ryu(Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute)