Site Characterization Survey at the Äspö Hard Rock Laboratory of SKB, Sweden

-Overview of the Geotechnological Survey-

Abstract

  Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company (SKB) is operating a Hard Rock Laboratory (HRL) at the Äspö island in southeastern Sweden, to develop new technologies concerning High Level Waste (HLW) disposal, and to be useful for the safety assessment and survey of the candidate sites for HLW disposal by applying and verifying the test and survey methods developed before. Many in-situ experiments in operation phase are on going or planned at the Äspö HRL. This paper describes an outline of in-situ experiments in both construction and operation phase, and geological and hydrological surveys during construction and fracture estimation method which can provide basic data for the estimations of groundwater flow and radionuclide migration.