Selecting a repository site

The paper summarizes the present knowledge about regional and local geologic prediction, and some related knowledge gained from oil and mining explorations. It also summarizes some of the lessons learned and applies them to the problem of waste isolation. The remainder of the paper describes in broad terms the type of geologic testing involved in selecting a repository site and discusses a simple analytic scheme for estimating the costs of such a program. This scheme is based on a sequential accumulation of knowledge throughout the process of siting.