Hydromechanical and Biogeochemical Processes in Fractured Rock Masses in the Vicinity of a Geological Disposal Facility for Radioactive Waste

该项目的主要目标是建立专门知识和能力，模拟放射性废物地质处置设施附近断裂岩体中发生的水力机械和地球化学过程。由三所英国大学组成的财团将开展这项研究，期望建立持久的团队，未来将继续在其他放射性废物项目上合作。该项目将汇集在放射性废物研究方面具有丰富经验的研究人员，以及其他将带来在其他研究领域（如采矿，石油工程，地球物理学或地球化学）开发的关键专业知识和技术的研究人员，但现在是解决核废物所涉及的跨学科问题的关键。该项目还将受益于与全球领先研究人员以及瑞士Grimsel地下研究实验室等国际设施的互动。整个项目包括六个工作包。工作包1将根据地质上真实的裂隙网络几何形状，开发用于估计裂隙岩体的储库尺度水力传导率的改进方法。工作包2将探索和评估适当的地震监测战略，并开发数据处理技术，以确定潜在处置库场址的特征。工作包3将检查用于识别裂缝属性的关键地震属性（例如，裂缝密度、方向和刚度），这些因素在处置库性能中起着关键作用。工作包4将为断裂岩体的行为开发耦合的热-水-力学模型。工作包5将模拟在瑞士格里姆塞尔试验场进行的胶体和示踪剂迁移实验。第6工作包将测试涉及微生物和天然有机物的地球化学过程对核废料处置库近场环境中锕系元素流动性的重要性。这六个工作包是互补的，但在某些情况下，通过共享数据，博士生的重叠监督等相互联系，如下面更详细描述的。总体而言，该项目解决了RATE呼吁中优先考虑的两个科学领域：在一系列空间尺度上进行岩体表征的技术创新，以及生物地球化学耦合，包括深层多相运输过程。该项目涉及三所英国大学（帝国理工学院，伯明翰大学，利兹大学），以及来自美国和欧洲几个机构的合作者。该项目的主要成果将是一套新的和/或改进的方法、守则和协议，用于分析处置库寿命期间或场址定性阶段发生的各种过程。这些方法和工具将具有足够的灵活性和通用性，可用于任何可能作为英国地质处置库潜在位置进行调查的断裂地质构造。该项目的成果和调查结果将在同行评审的期刊上发表，并在适当的国家和国际科学会议和讲习班上介绍。在整个项目期间，将通过频繁的会议和访问，与负责安全处置核废料的政府机构-核退役管理局保持密切联系。

The main goal of this project is to build up expertise and capability in modelling hydromechanical and biogeochemical processes that occur in fractured rock masses in the vicinity of a geological disposal facility for radioactive waste. A consortium of three UK universities will carry out the research, with the expectation of creating durable teams that will continue to collaborate in the future on other radioactive waste projects. The project will bring together researchers with extensive experience in radioactive waste research, as well as others who will bring in key expertise and technologies that were developed in other research fields, such as mining, petroleum engineering, geophysics, or biogeochemistry but are now key to tackling the interdisciplinary problems involved in nuclear waste. The project will also benefit form interactions with leading researchers worldwide, as well as international facilities such as the underground research lab at Grimsel, Switzerland. The overall project comprises six work packages. Work Package 1 will develop improved methods for estimating the repository-scale hydraulic conductivity of a fractured rock mass, based on geologically realistic fracture network geometries. Work Package 2 will explore and evaluate suitable seismic monitoring strategies, and develop data processing techniques, for the characterisation of potential repository sites. Work Package 3 will examine the key seismic attributes for identifying fracture properties (e.g., fracture density, orientation and stiffness) that play a critical role in repository performance. Work Package 4 will develop coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical models for the behaviour of fractured rock masses. Work Package 5 will model colloid and tracer transport experiments that have been conducted at the Grimsel test site in Switzerland. Work Package 6 will test the importance of biogeochemical processes involving microbes and natural organic matter on actinide mobility in the near-field environment of a nuclear waste repository. The six work packages are complementary, but are linked to each other in some cases through shared data between, overlapping supervision of PhD students, etc., as described in more detail below. Overall, the project addresses two scientific areas prioritised in the RATE call: Technological innovation for rock mass characterisation at a range of spatial scales, and Biogeochemical coupling, including deep multiphase transport processes. The project involves three UK universities (Imperial College, University of Birmingham, University of Leeds), as well as collaborators from several institutions in the US and Europe. The main outcomes of this project will be a set of new and/or improved methodologies, codes and protocols for analysing various processes that occur during the lifetime of a repository, or during the site characterisation phase. These methods and tools will be sufficiently flexible and generic to be used in any fractured geological formation that might be investigated as a potential location of a geological repository in the UK. The results and findings of this project will be published in peer-reviewed journals, and presented at appropriate national and international scientific conferences and workshops. Throughout the project, close contact will be maintained, through frequent meetings and visits, with the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, which is the governmental agency responsible for the safe disposal of nuclear waste.