Cel
SKB's reference concept for deep disposal of spent nuclear fuel, the KBS-3 system, has several features in common with other European concepts and full-scale testing is therefore of great value. Components of this system have been thoroughly investigated but the Prototype Repository is the first full scale application. T he Prototype Repository will be conducted at the AEspoe Hard Rock Laboratory (AEHRL) as an integrated test focusing on EBS performance but comprising also canister deposition, backfilling and plug construction. It offers a number of possibilities to compare test results with models and assumptions and also to develop engineering standards and quality assurance methods. The co-operative work aims at accomplishing confidence building as to the capability of constructing safe repositories and predicting EBS performance also for somewhat different conditions than those in the AEHRL.
Project´s actual:
- Completion of a test set-up with up to six canisters with heaters in deposition holes;
- Preparation of an operating monitoring system covering THM processes in buffer, backfill and rock, and gas and water sampling;
- Results of predictive modelling for:
- THM processes in bentonite buffer and bentonite-based backfill during saturation;
- heat distribution in the buffer and surrounding rock;
- development of stresses in the rock mass;
- development of piezometric heads in the rock mass;
- movement of canisters (heaters) in the buffer;
- chemical changes in the buffer (salt enrichment, precipitations), (THC);
- microbial effects (migration, attack on minerals), (THMB).
Tentative comparison between the readings from the first two years after commissioning and the results from predictive modelling.