In addition, the treatment of radioactive waste is subject to international treaties and recommendations relating to the use of nuclear energy and ionising radiation which have been adopted by the Czech Republic.

The Richard repository is intended primarily for the storage of so-called institutional waste which is generated by the health, industry, agriculture and research sectors.

The repository itself makes up only a small part of the mining works which takes up a total area of 9.8 square kilometres with more than 80 km of tunnels and crosscuts.

The final date and method of closure of the repository will be dependent on the future volume of stored radioactive waste; notwithstanding, decommissioning is planned for around 2020.

The State Energy Concept, drawn up by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, presumes that the production of nuclear power will increase in the future.

Whether produced by currently operational or future new reactors, there will always be sources of spent nuclear fuel and high level waste to be disposed of.

The deep geological repository will provide a facility in which high-level waste will be safely stored and isolated from the environment for hundreds of thousands of years thanks to the so-called multi-barrier system which is made up of a natural barrier (the rock mass which will remain stable for several million years) and technical (or engineered) barriers, e.g. the waste container.

It is necessary that the various rock property requirements be fully met in addition to a number of other equally important conditions including local public acceptance, the technical potential for the construction of the complex surface area of the repository and accessibility.

At that time international research and experimentation began aimed at identifying the most appropriate materials and methods with concern to the construction of both the repository itself and the engineered barriers.

The first such facility in the Czech Republic consisted of the now-closed Hostim radioactive waste repository located three kilometres east of Beroun (Central Bohemia).

During World War II the Nazis partially reconstructed the underground complex as a factory for the production of car parts.

Situated in a reconstructed former uranium mine near Jáchymov, the Bratrství facility serves for the storage of radioactive waste containing only natural radionuclides.

Therefore, in 1992 the Ministry of the Economy was charged with developing a new radioactive waste management concept which included the final disposal of spent nuclear fuel.

In 2002 the government approved the concept and thus officially declared that the basic strategy of the Czech Republic involved the direct disposal of spent nuclear fuel in a deep geological repository.