EBS behaviour immediately after repository closure in a clay host rock: HE-E experiment (Mont Terri URL)

Abstract

AbstractThe evolution of the clay-based engineered barrier system (EBS) of geological repositories for radioactive waste has been the subject of many research programmes during the last decade. The early post-closure thermal behaviour is elucidated by the HE-E experiment, a 1:2 scale heating experiment (at the Mont Terri Rock Laboratory), which was implemented in the first semester of 2011, with the initiation of the heating phase in June 2011. A maximum temperature of 140 °C was reached in June 2012. After 15 months of heating, the temperature evolution in the EBS and the Opalinus Clay reflects the design calculations, and thermally induced porewater overpressures are being measured at a few metres’ distance in the Opalinus Clay. Seismic methods proved to be a sensitive tool for the continuous characterization of changes of EBS and Opalinus Clay properties. Design modelling and predictive modelling based on the as-built parameter dataset with established coupled codes (TOUGH, CODE_BRIGHT; using various geometries) are described. The results indicate that the models are generally in agreement with the observations and capable of capturing the evolution of the experiment.