AbstractThe radioactive wastes that would be produced in demonstration and commercial fusion reactors which could be extrapolated from the design database that will be provided by ITER and its supporting R&D and from a design database supplemented by advanced physics and advanced materials R&D programs are identified and characterized in terms of a number of possible criteria for near-surface burial. The results indicate that there is a possibility that all fusion wastes could satisfy a “low level” waste criterion for “near-surface” burial.