Radioactive waste is produced in all phases of the nuclear fuel cycle and from the use of radioactive materials in industrial, medical, defence and research applications. After creation and use, many countries have a policy of interim storage, followed by permanent disposal underground in engineered repositories located in suitable geological formations. Significant quantities of data and information are generated throughout this lifecycle with many countries now exploring the concept of a digital safety case.

The operational period of nuclear generation facilities often covers several decades, while disposal facilities are designed to operate for even longer. This raises significant challenges as these timeframes span multiple generations of workers and are likely to see many changes in policy and technology. It is crucial to maintain well-structured records of the waste, its packaging and processing, together with appropriate knowledge and skills within society to ensure informed decisions can be made to manage the waste hazard effectively until its disposal. Moreover, even after disposal, there is now a consensus on the importance of adopting strategies to preserve awareness of waste and disposal facility for long periods of time. While improvements to technology have made it easier to generate and query large volumes of data, if appropriately structured, they have also introduced challenges related to digital obsolescence.

The NEA Working Party on Information, Data and Knowledge Management (WP-IDKM) aims to co-ordinate these activities in a more holistic way, considering cross-disciplinary approaches and cognizant of all timescales of the information cycle. There have been significant developments in IDKM in recent years, beyond radioactive waste management, to encompass the wider structure of information management.

The 2025 NEA Symposium on IDKM brought together technical and non-technical experts, policy and decision makers, and interested community groups which:

• Provided a forum for WP-IDKM and its expert groups (EGs): the Expert Group on a Data and Information Management Strategy for the Safety Case (EGSSC), the Expert Group on Knowledge Management for Radioactive Waste Programmes and Decommissioning (EGKM), and the Expert Group on Archiving and Awareness Preservation (EGAAP) to present conclusions of their current work;
• Allowed NEA member countries to present their internal initiatives and learn from the experience of others;
• Enhanced the understanding of IDKM among stakeholder groups and RWMO's, fostering dialogue and feedback;
• United IDKM and information technology specialists from the nuclear and non-nuclear sectors to understand the state-of-the-art technology and enable horizon scanning;
• Enabled networking and knowledge exchange;
• Worked towards building an international consensus on IDKM best practices for radioactive waste management;
• Developed a more holistic vision of IDKM across technical and non-technical stakeholders across all timescales; and
• Identified future challenges on IDKM that would benefit from future international co-operation. 

The 2025 NEA IDKM Symposium was hosted locally by the Nuclear Waste Management Organization of Japan (NUMO).

Vincent Maugis (ANDRA, France)

Panja Feuker (BGE, Germany)

Jasmin K. Böhmer (BASE, Germany)

Stephan Hotzel (BASE, Germany)

Ulrich Noseck (GRS, Germany)

József Fekete (RHK, Hungary)

Takeshi Ebashi (NUMO, Japan)

Luca Abele Piciaccia (DSA, Norway)

Carl-Henrick Pettersson (SSM, Sweden)

Pascale Jana Künzi (BFE, Switzerland)

Alexander Carter (NWS, United Kingdom)

Shogo Nishikawa (NEA)

Linda Okpala (NEA)

Morgan Packer (NEA)

Rebecca Tadesse (NEA)

Photo credit: Pierre Blaché on Pexels