For about five decades, solutions for the disposal of radioactive waste in the geological subsurface have been sought in a wide variety of countries around the world. Contrary to initial expectations, the implementation programs initiated from the 1970s onward have turned out to be much more complex than originally expected. As a result, several of these processes had to be stopped or restarted, and the realization of the repository programs was delayed, in some cases massively. This article tries to find out where the stumbling blocks lay in the execution of previously defined disposal programs and what consequences this has for the longer-term interim storage of radioactive waste, especially high-level waste.