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Selfsealing Barriers of Clay/Mineral Mixtures. The SB Project at the Mont Terri Rock Laboratory
Summary Clay/sand mixtures are currently being investigated at GRS’s geotechnical laboratory on their suitability for sealing disposal rooms containing gas generating radioactive waste. It has been found that moderately compacted mixtures may represent a reasonable alternative to highly compacted bentonite envisaged as buffer in various multi-barrier repository concepts. In contrast to highly compacted buffers moderately compacted clay/sand mixtures exhibit a comparably low gas entry through pressure in the saturated state while providing an adequate sealing potential due to swelling of the clay minerals in consequence of water uptake from the host rock. The evolution of high gas pressure in the repository near-field due to corrosion of the waste containers will thus be avoided while possible migration of radionuclides from the waste matrix through the buffer will be diffusion controlled. Besides laboratory investigations and mockup testing, full-scale experiments are being conducted at the Mont Terri Underground Rock Laboratory to test and demonstrate the advantageous sealing properties of moderately compacted clay/sand-mixtures under representative in-situ conditions.
Selfsealing Barriers of Clay/Mineral Mixtures. The SB Project at the Mont Terri Rock Laboratory
Summary Clay/sand mixtures are currently being investigated at GRS’s geotechnical laboratory on their suitability for sealing disposal rooms containing gas generating radioactive waste. It has been found that moderately compacted mixtures may represent a reasonable alternative to highly compacted bentonite envisaged as buffer in various multi-barrier repository concepts. In contrast to highly compacted buffers moderately compacted clay/sand mixtures exhibit a comparably low gas entry through pressure in the saturated state while providing an adequate sealing potential due to swelling of the clay minerals in consequence of water uptake from the host rock. The evolution of high gas pressure in the repository near-field due to corrosion of the waste containers will thus be avoided while possible migration of radionuclides from the waste matrix through the buffer will be diffusion controlled. Besides laboratory investigations and mockup testing, full-scale experiments are being conducted at the Mont Terri Underground Rock Laboratory to test and demonstrate the advantageous sealing properties of moderately compacted clay/sand-mixtures under representative in-situ conditions.
Selfsealing Barriers of Clay/Mineral Mixtures. The SB Project at the Mont Terri Rock Laboratory
Rothfuchs, Tilmann (author) / Miehe, Rüdiger (author) / Jockwer, Norbert (author) / Zhang, Chun-Liang (author)
2007-01-01
8 pages
Article/Chapter (Book)
Electronic Resource
English
radioactive waste repository , barrier , clay/sand-mixture , swelling pressure , permeability , gas entry pressure Engineering , Theoretical and Applied Mechanics , Engineering Fluid Dynamics , Geotechnical Engineering & Applied Earth Sciences , Hydrogeology , Appl.Mathematics/Computational Methods of Engineering , Classical Continuum Physics
Selfsealing Barriers of Clay/Mineral Mixtures. The SB Project at the Mont Terri Rock Laboratory
| British Library Conference Proceedings | 2007