(GRS 202) Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical and Geochemical Behaviour of the Callovo-Oxfordian Argillite and the Opalinus Clay

Since 2000, the Meuse/Haute-Marne Underground Research Laboratory (MHM-URL) is being built at Bure in eastern France to study the suitability of the Callovo-Oxfordian argillaceous formation to host a repository for high-level and long-lived radioactivewaste. ANDRA envisages a research programme, in which a set of full-scale in situ experiments will be conducted in the underground laboratory. GRS intends to participate in the Bure programme and to co-operate with ANDRA on basis of a co-operation agreement. GRS has proposed to contribute to ANDRA’s research programme by participating in in situ experiments as well as by performinglaboratory investigations and numerical modelling. In preparation of the Bure activities a pre-project was conducted by GRS under contract number 02E9541 with BMWA, between July 2001 and December 2003.