ESV Euridice GIE

RESEARCH PROGRAMME | IN-SITU EXMPERIMENTS

The ESV EURIDICE is responsible for the technical and scientific management of the underground laboratory HADES. The experiments are carried out by the EIG EURIDICE and by its members: the SCK•CEN and ONDRAF/NIRAS. The laboratory is also open at international level to any organisation wanting to carry out experiments at our site.

The underground laboratory HADES is accessible through the second vertical shaft (or Second Shaft) 230 m deep ; this has an experimental gallery at a depth of 225 m. The first access shaft (or First Shaft) is a safety shaft that is only used in emergencies or during inspections. The surface laboratories, workshops, data gathering systems and safety installations serve to support the research projects.

The underground infrastructure HADES is solely a research laboratory; it would never act as a final repository for radioactive waste. The underground laboratory HADES is mainly used for studying the behaviour of the different components of a disposal system under real conditions. It also allows for technical demonstrations in realistic operational conditions.

The experiments carried out in the underground laboratory HADES are intended to gather information about the geological, hydro-geological and geotechnical characteristics of the host rock and to study the interaction with the artificial barriers and the waste. This consequently required a multidisciplinary approach. The experiments are carried out in drillings of varying lengths and depths from the experimental gallery. The rock is examined and the components of experiments implemented, for example the constraints, pore water pressure, displacements and geochemical parameters.

The experiments can be divided into numerous categories: