These directions of work were found to be of most common Nordic interest for the period. Radionuclide content Surface contamination Influence from internal radiation Radionuclides homogeneity Surface dose rate or dose rate at a certain distance Composition Homogeneity and structure Content of free liquid Corrosion resistance Gas evaluation Combustibility Content of chemotoxical substances Chemical reactivity Content of complexing agents Leach properties Internal stability Strength to withstand external influence Shaping, geometry, dimensions Weight and other handling properties Marking Figure 1 Waste characterisation is a part of a performance analysis, a performance analysis is a first step in a safety analysis and results from a safety analysis is used in an environmental impact statement. For all of the Nordic countries inventories have been made of waste types, waste containers, conditioning methods, methods to estimate or measure activity content and methods to estimate or measure chemical composition. The inventories have mainly been focused on long-lived low and intermediate level waste, but this differs from country to country depending on different waste situations. The results from the inventories show that the Nordic countries have much in common regarding waste characterisation.
Steel drums are e. g. common packagings and segmentation is an often used conditioning method.
But there are also many differences. Iceland has e. g. at present no special waste containers or conditioning methods. Missing methods and methods that need to be improved will be identified. For these cases available equipment on the market and relevant information in the literature will be studied. New or improved methods which provide more information about waste packages will possibly also be developed.