(GRS-707) Basics for Groundwater Flow under Permafrost Conditions in the Context of Radioactive Storage

Deep geological disposal of nuclear waste implies storage at a depth of several hundred metres below the surface and a safety assessment covering a long period of time. One of the main concerns for such a repository is the detrimental effect of groundwater on the technical and geotechnical barriers, a second one the migration of radionuclides with the groundwater into the biosphere in case of a possible failure of the waste canisters. Long-term safety assessment thus requires well-founded knowledge of the local and regional groundwater system as a basis for assessing the robustness of a repository in general and for predicting radionuclide migration in case of leakage from a damaged waste canister in particular.