title: Humans and ecosystems over the coming millennia: overview of a biosphere assessment of radioactive waste disposal in Sweden.
abstract: This is an overview of the strategy used to describe the effects of a potential release from a radioactive waste repository on human exposure and future environments. It introduces a special issue of AMBIO, in which 13 articles show ways of understanding and characterizing the future. The study relies mainly on research performed in the context of a recent safety report concerning a repository for spent nuclear fuel in Sweden (the so-called SR-Site project). The development of a good understanding of on-site processes and acquisition of site-specific data facilitated the development of new approaches for assessment of surface ecosystems. A systematic and scientifically coherent methodology utilizes the understanding of the current spatial and temporal dynamics as an analog for future conditions. We conclude that future ecosystem can be inferred from a few variables and that this multidisciplinary approach is relevant in a much wider context than radioactive waste.
authors.affiliation: Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Co. (SKB), Box 250, 101 24, Stockholm, Sweden. ulrik.kautsky@skb.se
authors.forename: Ulrik
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Kautsky
authors.forename: Tobias
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lindborg
authors.forename: Jack
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Valentin
mesh_terms: D017753:Ecosystem; D006801:Humans; D011850:Radioactive Waste; D012449:Safety; D013548:Sweden; D035501:Uncertainty; D018505:Waste Management
chemical_list: D011850:Radioactive Waste