The mission of the IGD-TP is to be a tool to support confidence-building in the safety and implementation of deep geological disposal solutions. IGD-TP is not only beneficial for the safe implementation of the first facilities but also for the waste programmes with longer implementation time frames. A majority of the countries with nuclear have active waste programmes, but current status, implementation times and the challenge differ. Sweden, Finland and France are the readiest for implementation and plan to start licensing disposal facilities in few years. An interim executive group was formed to direct the works to produce a vision document and IGD-TP was launched in 2009 under the Swedish presidency.

Our vision
is that by 2025, the first geological disposal facilities for spent fuel, high-level waste, and other long-lived radioactive waste will be operating safely in Europe

The commitment of the platform members

• is to build confidence in the safety of geological disposal solutions among European citizens and decision-makers
• is to encourage the establishment of waste management programmes that integrate geological disposal as the accepted option for the safe long-term management of long-lived and/or high-level waste
• is to facilitate access to expertise and technology and maintain competence in the field of geological disposal for the benefit of member states.

The SecIGD project is a support action with a financial contribution from the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) from the Union research budget with the aim to implement the 7th Framework Programme (FP7).

The target of the SecIGD project is to implement a Secretariat for the Implementing Geological Disposal of Radioactive Waste Technology Platform (IGD-TP) that assists the IGD-TP to achieve its goals and produce the anticipated benefits for Europe. The Secretariat promotes the scientific and technical quality of the Research, Development and Demonstration (RD&D) work to be carried out for the implementation of deep geological disposal by the IGD-TP that was formally launched in November 2009.

The Secretariat project's (SecIGD) work programme aims at supporting (in WP1) the IGD-TP mission in its practical administrative and operational tasks and management. These include the organisation of the meetings for the IGD-TP functions and meeting of the Exchange Forums, acting as an information centre, carrying out dissemination activities, publishing and providing for open access of the produced documents, and maintenance of public website with regular updates. The Secretariat will also engage in developing further the methods (in WP2) for ensuring efficient resource utilisations in Research, Development and Demonstration (RD&D) carried out in the management of radioactive waste and deep geological disposal in Europe. The duration of the Secretariat (SecIGD) project is 24 months.

The Secretariat is part of the overall concept of implementing the IGD Technology Platform and it is responsible for providing a dedicated organisation contributing to the efficient management of the IGD-TP and its operations so that the mission and objectives of the IGD-TP are achieve and the benefits from the work of the IGD-TP are widely spread. A dedicated small organisation and committed human resources in the form of a Secretary General make the core of the Secretariat function, which is to reside physically at the Swedish waste management organisation SKB.

The concept of the IGD-TP and its Secretariat derives from the results of the FP5 project Net.Excel and from the FP6 project CARD, where the feasibility to establish such a technology platform in the field of deep geological disposal in Europe was studied with a favourable end result.