Seismic Hazard Assessment On A Nuclear Waste Time Scale

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Abstract (Seismic hazard assessment on a nuclear waste time scale): Nuclear waste storage in the bedrock or sedimentary deposits calls for safety assessments over a time period of 100,000 years or even more. This may be to drive our assessments “in absurdum”. Still, we have to do what we can, and this calls for sophisticated studies in paleoseismicity covering the deglacial period or preferably a full glacial/interglacial cycle. We investigate the situation in Sweden and Finland where repositories are in preparation. During the deglacial phase with a very high rate of glacial isostatic uplift, this region was a high-seismic area in magnitudes (M>8) as well as in frequency (6 events within 102 years). If this paleoseismological data base is not included in the hazards assessment, it will become meaningless and even directly misleading.