The disposal site for low and intermediate level radioactive waste (LLW/ILW) has been operated since 1986, after large scale decontamination operations conducted after a nuclear accident on the Chernobyl NPP. A large amount of radioactive waste (2.5-4.0*10⁶ m³ was stored in temporary disposal sites, various trenches of about 2.5-3.0 m in depth which have engineered barriers or without isolation. The risk to human health of potential radiological releases resulting from facility accidents constitutes an important consideration in the waste management program.

Waste retrieval and remediation of temporary disposal sites in the Chernobyl 30-km evacuation zone is frequently identified as a priority by technical experts. The risk induced by potential facility accidents is evaluated for waste storage site. In order to evaluate the health risk basis for this remediation, both on-site and off-site health risks caused by radionuclide migration to the groundwater have been estimated.

A simple and conservative analytical model was developed to assess radionuclide transport to the groundwater from the temporary disposal sites.

A spectrum of accident scenarios that could occur during storage, or retrieval activities with the chosen waste stream were developed on the basis of the waste's physical characteristics and type of activity. The risk for each accident sequence and site was simply calculated from the consequence and annual sequence probability. Determination of the risk-dominant sequence resulted in the source term generation for the associated releases, which are a function of scenarios depends on the storage configuration and release of radionuclides.

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