This special issue gathers contributions from the 3rd Interdisciplinary Research Symposium on the Safety of Nuclear Disposal Practices (safeND), held in Berlin, Germany, on 17–19 September 2025. The papers, representing a wide variety of disciplines, will focus on the topic of the conference: "Time as a safety factor: opportunities and challenges of timely nuclear waste disposal". Among other topics, the special issue will address some of the socio-technical challenges of nuclear waste management, recent developments in engineering as well as research on different host rocks and repository safety.

This special issue gathers contributions from the 3rd Interdisciplinary Research Symposium on the Safety of Nuclear Disposal Practices (safeND), held in Berlin, Germany, on 17–19 September 2025. The papers, representing a wide variety of disciplines, will focus on the topic of the conference: "Time as a safety factor: opportunities and challenges of timely nuclear waste disposal". Among other topics, the special issue will address some of the socio-technical challenges of nuclear waste management, recent developments in engineering as well as research on different host rocks and repository safety.