The approval of future licences will necessitate considering those safety aspects pertinent to the corresponding licence under application. This will in turn determine how a safety case is further refined and presented.

For the general licence application, the repository and the barriers have been developed to the level of a conceptual design. However, forthcoming licences will demand progressively more detailed technical specifications. Along with a steadily improving understanding of the geological environment, e.g., due to construction activities, and along with technological progress and confirmation of engineering solutions, e.g., through testing facilities, the repository project will become increasingly specific. In parallel, options for optimisation will be reduced. This evolution will be reflected in the increasing level of detail at which arguments are discussed in the safety case.

Moreover, future safety cases will be expanded beyond post-closure safety, to include, in particular, the case for operational safety. This is necessary to meet the needs of IAEA SSR-5 (IAEA 2011a), which states that a safety case needs to consider both the operational and post-closure phases. It is necessary to ensure that actions during operation will not be detrimental to post-closure safety. Furthermore, operational aspects will be important for future design optimisation.