The article analyses how some adverse external environmental factors impact on the protective properties of
concrete containers for storage and disposal of long-lived radioactive waste (RAW). Some conceptual issues of
storing (placing) and location of RAW containers in storages, which can significantly affect on the containers
durability during their exploitation, are discussed as well. A mathematical formalization is proposed, which allows
to perform general analysis of the potential effects of climatic, hydro-geological and other environmental factors on
the main operational characteristics of the ―container + RAW‖ system.
Keywords: container, protective barrier, radioactive waste, nuclear power.