(GRS 127) The TSS Project: Thermal Simulation of Drift Emplacement - Final Report Phase 2

L. Lührmann, U. Noseck

The reference concept for spent fuel management of nuclear power plants in the Federal Republic of Germany comprises both the reprocessing of spent fuel assemblies by recycling the uranium and plutonium and disposing the waste in boreholes in a salt dome and the direct disposal of the spent fuel elements. The direct disposal provides the packaging of the fuel rods in self shielding Pollux casks and their emplacement in the drifts of a repository mine In rock salt. The remaining volume of the drifts is backfilled with crushed salt immediately after the emplacement of the casks.

The "Thermal Simulation of Drift Emplacement" (TSS) large scale test is being performed in the Asse salt mine to demonstrate the emplacement technology and to study the thermomechanical effects with this way of disposal. The test is carried out by the Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe GmbH (FZK), the GRS - Repository Safety Research Division (until June 3D, 1995 GSF - Institut für Tieflagerung (IfT)), the Bundesanstalt für Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe (BGR) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft zum Bau und Betrieb von Endlagern für Abfallstoffe (DBE) and is sponsored by the Bundesministerium für Bildung, Wissenschaft, Forschung und Technologie (BMBF) of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Within the framework of the project the GRS is responsible for all technical measures necessary for conducting the in situ test and for the geomechanical and geophysical measurements.

This report presents the results obtained by the GRS until December 1995.