International workshop on deep geological repositories in sedimentary environments in Peine

In cooperation with the Swiss ITC School (School of Underground Waste Storage and Disposal) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) DBE TECHNOLOGY GmbH arranged a workshop on "Deep Geological Repositories in Sedimentary Environments" in Peine running from the 24th - 28th of Septem­ber 2007.

World-wide, geological disposal is seen as the only safe, practical and sustainable solution for the management of long-lived radioactive waste. But radioactive waste management is a very long-ranging issue and therefore it is a widely acknowledged need to propagate skilled knowledge across generations. The workshop is one in a sequence of events from IAEA to maintain the expertise base in mature programmes facing waves of retirements and to provide basic training for those countries just starting to develop their programmes on radioactive waste management.

At the 5-day-workshop in Peine 22 tutors informed on current state-of-research-and-technology in the field of the final disposal of radioactive waste. 20 participants, delegated from the national authorities for radioactive waste management of 13 countries, took the chance to be comprehensively updated. So, one issue of the presentations was the current knowledge on the hydrogeological and geomechanical properties of different rock formations that are in principle suitable for the final disposal of radioactive waste. Furthermore the state-of-the-art on safety concepts and safety confirmations for underground repositories was illustrated. In addition further experiences from the German sophisticated programme as well as experien­ces from projects in France, UK, Switzerland and the Czech Republic were described.

The presentations of the DBE Technology GmbH specifically addressed the issues:

• Engineering properties of clay and marl formations, presentation

• Engineering properties of salt and anhydrite formations, presentation
  
• Repository design and operational considerations in clays and salt formations, presentation
  
• Geotechnical safety assessment of the Morsleben site,presentation
  
• Backfilling and sealing of salt repositories: technical and safety aspects, presentation
  
• Geology of the Konrad area: surface-based and underground geological site characterisation programme, presentation
  
• Generic salt dome repository, presentation
• Limestone-marl: Richard repository, Czech Republic, presentation
  
• Monitoring of deep geological repositories for high level waste presentation

As a completion of the lectures, visits were offered to the Konrad Mine, the Morsleben repository as well as to a technique hall in the industrial area of Peine storing specific designed vehicles and other equipment for the underground transport and the handling of casks for radioactive waste.

Finally, the promoters as well as the participants agreed that the workshop was successful and has well met his objectives.

Here you will find further photos from the workshop.