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SUMMARY:How safe is underground nuclear waste storage in claystones? - Pro
 fessor Catherine Davy
DTSTART:20171129T190000Z
DTEND:20171129T200000Z
UID:TALK96253@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Fiona Hughes
DESCRIPTION:In all industrialized countries using nuclear power plants\, s
 pent radioactive fuel exists under several forms. Those representing the g
 reatest issues are long lived (with half lives from 31 to millions of year
 s) and of intermediate to high activity. In France\, these peculiar waste 
 are currently expecting a long term storage solution\, which has been stud
 ied for a number of years as potentially occurring in an underground tunne
 l structure\, located at 500m depth in the East of France (at Bure). It is
  the CIGEO project\, for Centre Industriel de Stockage Géologique\, made 
 of galleries drilled in a Callovo-Oxfordian (COx) claystone\, coupled to a
  whole Engineered barrier made of concrete\, seals of swelling bentonite c
 lay\, steel casings\, etc. There\, the waste could be placed after being e
 ncapsulated in glass (vitrified waste)\nor in steel and concrete canisters
 . This concept is similar to the Swiss project foreseen in an Opalinus cla
 y (which is \nalso a claystone)\, or to the Belgian project (Boom clay)\, 
 or to the Hungarian project (Boda claystone). Other concepts\nare within c
 rystalline rocks (e.g. granite)\, for instance in Finland or Sweden\, with
  seals and complementary filling\nof the tunnels with swelling bentonite c
 lay. The seminar will show experimental evidence of the very low transport
  properties of COx claystone\, its self-sealing ability\, all allowed by i
 ts nanoscopic pore structure.\n
LOCATION:Harrods Room\, Emmanuel College
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