Precision pump facilities for environmental geomechanics research

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Evidence of global climate change has renewed interest in nuclear power generation, which is not without problems. Safe disposal of highly radioactive waste is being investigated by many countries including Canada; most disposal schemes favour deep geological 'burial' of the high level, heat-emitting waste in repositories formed in rock.  All deep disposal concepts have to rely on several engineered and natural barriers to inhibit the migration of radionuclides from repository to geosphere. The applicant's research over the past fifteen years has focused on an integrated approach to modelling of thermo-hydro-mechanical behaviour of rocks, considering modelling, experimentation and computational developments. Damage evolution in rock, in the form of nucleation, extension and coalescence of cracks and voids occurs at the grain level; this sheds light on the efficacy of geological disposal concepts. Since groundwater in rock transports radionuclides released from the repository, any alteration in the transport properties of a rock due to thermal and mechanical effects is critical.  The study of fluid transport requires sophisticated equipment, and the results from these experiments are used in computer models of repositories to predict their long-term behaviour at time scales in excess of 10,000 years.  If the experimental results are unreliable, the predictive capability of computer modelling becomes suspect. The existing pumps in the Geomechanics Laboratories at McGill, crucial for conducting accurate fluid transport experiments, are aging and have already proved unreliable. The researchers in geomechanics need replacements pumps, otherwise the vital experimental phase of the research that the computer models rely on, will have to be terminated. The experimental facilities for which the funds are being requested are multi-faceted and the group plans to use these in the study of a variety of problems, including flow in fractured rocks subjected to high confining stress, movement of bentonite emulsions in fractures and internal erosion of land reclamation endeavours. In this sense, the equipment will be integrated into well-planned, on-going research with a high national importance and demonstrated success both nationally and internationally.