Ensuring Future Skills: Education and Training in Underground Waste Disposal

Progress has been slow in solving the radioactive waste disposal problem, with wide swings in the resources deployed in national programs over the last $30\text{years}$ . Disposal programs takes decades to implement. There is already a problem of maintaining the expertise base and ensuring that trained scientists, engineers, and policy makers will be available when and where they are needed. Internationally, we need to ensure that this problem does not undermine the capability to provide safe and secure waste management solutions. New initiatives are establishing organizations to help resolve this problem. In this paper we look at the nature of the education and training needs, what resources are available, and how knowledge and experience might be propagated into the future. The future outlook is mixed. Despite the need, the funding of training is still widely regarded as of low priority and seems often to be regarded as a marginal organizational expenditure. Provision of high quality education requires much preparation, access to large facilities, and the input of the best expertise.