The DR-D experiment in the Mont-Terri rock laboratory, heterogeneity of the Sandy Facies of Opalinus Clay across scales, from seismic surveys to radionuclide diffusion

Frank Heberling; Hendrik Albers; Thies Beilecke; Guido Deissmann; Markus Furche; Horst Geckeis; Eva Maria Hoyer; Claudia Joseph; Axel Liebscher; Stefan Lüth; Volker Metz; Katharina Müller; Ulf Nowak; Dorothee Rebscher; Friedhelm Schulte; Florian Steegborn; Torsten Tietz

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-13268

[Back] [Session ERE3.5]

EGU22-13268

https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-13268

EGU General Assembly 2022

© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

The DR-D experiment in the Mont-Terri rock laboratory, heterogeneity of the Sandy Facies of Opalinus Clay across scales, from seismic surveys to radionuclide diffusion

Frank Heberling¹, Hendrik Albers², Thies Beilecke², Guido Deissmann³, Markus Furche², Horst Geckeis¹, Eva Maria Hoyer⁴, Claudia Joseph^1,4, Axel Liebscher⁴, Stefan Lüth⁵, Volker Metz¹, Katharina Müller⁶, Ulf Nowak², Dorothee Rebscher², Friedhelm Schulte², Florian Steegborn¹, and Torsten Tietz²

Frank Heberling et al.

¹Institute for Nuclear Waste Disposal, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany
²Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR), Hannover, Germany
³Institut für Energie- und Klimaforschung – Nukleare Entsorgung und Reaktorsicherheit, Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ), Germany
⁴Federal Company for Radioactive Waste Disposal (BGE), Peine, Germany
⁵Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum (GFZ), Potsdam, Germany
⁶Institut für Ressourcenökologie, Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), Germany

Clay rocks are investigated as potential host rocks for high-level nuclear waste (HLW) repositories in many countries. The Sandy Facies of Opalinus Clay (SF-OPA), as accessible in the Mont Terri rock laboratory, exhibits a pronounced heterogeneity, which is as well expected for lower cretaceous clay rocks, that are among the potential host rocks for the German HLW repository.

Aim of the DR-D experiment is to characterize the heterogeneity of SF-OPA on the m-cm scale via seismic tomography and borehole seismic characterization. Borehole logging and ex-situ drill core characterization provide information on rock heterogeneity on smaller scales.

Within the area, characterized by seismic tomography, a radio-tracer diffusion experiment will be set up, with the aim to correlate the observed diffusion behavior with the heterogeneous rock structure.

The first drilling campaign took place in May 2021. The seismic tomography survey of the experimental area was performed in October 2021. Processing and analysis of the seismic data, as well as drill core characterization are currently underway.

In this contribution we present the general concept and layout of the DR-D experiment, as well as first results.

We acknowledge funding by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) (Grant 02NUK053A-E), the Helmholtz Association (Grant SO-093), BGR, and BGE. Special thanks to swisstopo and the Mont-Terri project for help, advice, and support.

How to cite: Heberling, F., Albers, H., Beilecke, T., Deissmann, G., Furche, M., Geckeis, H., Hoyer, E. M., Joseph, C., Liebscher, A., Lüth, S., Metz, V., Müller, K., Nowak, U., Rebscher, D., Schulte, F., Steegborn, F., and Tietz, T.: The DR-D experiment in the Mont-Terri rock laboratory, heterogeneity of the Sandy Facies of Opalinus Clay across scales, from seismic surveys to radionuclide diffusion, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-13268, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-13268, 2022.