Deep geological disposal remains the preferred option at present for the management of long-living and heat-emitting radioactive waste, which consists of confining the waste during a very long period (several hundreds of thousands of years) by placing them in a deep geological formation. Therefore, the understanding of the long-term behaviour of formations is becoming a key issue to ensure the feasibility of the geological disposal facilities, particularly regarding the generation and migration of gases. The present PhD work aims at better understanding the complex hydro-mechanical response of different argillaceous formations to gas migration process. To this end, gas flow through Boom Clay (one of the potential candidate plastic Paleogene clay formations to host nuclear waste in Belgium) has been deeply investigated on the basis of laboratory experiments at different scales and their numerical modelling. This main study has been complemented by presenting tests on two indurated and deeper claystone Mesozoicformations, considered as candidate host rocks in the Swiss programme for deep geological disposal, namely Opalinus Clay and ‘Brauner Dogger'. The different materials have been firstly characterised to evaluate mechanical (compressibility on loading) and two phase flow properties (water retention and permeability). Gas injection tests under oedometer and isotropic conditions have been performed following different testing protocols, in which boundary conditions have been carefully controlled. Major relevance has been given to restore the in situ stress state and to ensure full saturation conditions before the gas tests. Special emphasis has been placed in measuring sample deformation along the gas injection and dissipation process. The anisotropy of Boom Clay has been studied by carrying out tests with bedding planes parallel and normal to flow. Air injections have been performed at three different controlled-volume rates. The dissipation stages after shut-off have been also analysed to study air intrinsic permeability changes. Microstructure of samples before and after air injection tests has been evaluated by different techniques: mercury intrusion porosimetry, field-emission scanning electron microscopy and micro-focus Xray computed tomography. Gas migration turned out to be a fully coupled hydro-mechanical process. Air injection at constant stress induced expansion of the samples during pressure front propagation and compression during air pressure dissipation. The deformational behaviour was dependent on the injection rate. At slower injection rates expansion occurred during the injection while at higher rates it was delayed in time. Air intrinsic permeability resulted higher than water permeability suggesting that air flow took place along preferential pathways. Evaluation of the microstructural changes induced by air migration revealed the opening of fissures and allowed quantifying their apertures and separation, as well as their volume and connectivity. Air intrinsic permeability was found to be dependent on the fissured volume. To complete and better understand the gas transport mechanisms, numerical simulations of the experimental results have been performed using a fully coupled hydro-mechanical finite element code, which incorporates an embedded fracture permeability model to account for the correct simulation of the gas flow along preferential pathways. Clay intrinsic permeability and its retention curve have been made depend on strains through fracture aperture changes. Numerical results not only accounted for the correct simulation of the recorded upstream pressures and outflow volumes and pressures, but also for the volume change behaviour. The experimental and numerical information provided a good insight into the mechanisms of gas transport in deep clay formations and highlighted the role played by the deformational response on the air transport properties of argillaceous rock formations.

As part of research into the geological disposal of radioactive waste in Belgium, the HADES underground research laboratory (URL) was constructed in a clay formation in the early 1980s. This was the world's first purpose-built URL in a deep clay formation. Over the past four decades, the HADES URL has played an important role in the research, development and demonstration (RD&D) of geological disposal. It enabled the in situ characterization of the clay host rock, it allowed experiments to be performed under realistic geological conditions and it demonstrated the feasibility of constructing, operating and closing underground repositories. This volume presents several key contributions of the HADES URL to both Belgian and international research into geological disposal. It not only compiles some important RD&D results, but also illustrates the essential role URLs such as the HADES URL have played in developing concepts for the geological disposal of radioactive waste.

Understanding the behaviour of gases in the context of radioactive waste disposal is a fundamental requirement in developing a safety case for the disposal of radioactive waste. Of particular importance are the long-term performance of bentonite buffers and cement-based backfill materials that may be used to encapsulate and surround the waste in a repository, and the behaviour of plastic clays, indurated mudrocks and crystalline formations that may be the host rocks for a repository. The EC Euratom programme funded project, FORGE, has provided new insights into the processes and mechanisms governing gas generation and migration with the aim of reducing uncertainty. This volume brings together papers on aspects of this topic arising from both the FORGE project and work undertaken elsewhere. This has been achieved by the acquisition of new experimental data coupled with modelling, through a series of laboratory and field-scale experiments performed at a number of underground research laboratories throughout Europe.

These conference proceedings examine gas generation, accumulation and migration in underground repository systems for radioactive waste: safety-relevant issues.

This Special Publication contains 43 scientific studies presented at the 5th conference on ‘Clays in natural and engineered barriers for radioactive waste confinement’ held in Montpellier, France in 2012. The conference and this resulting volume cover all the aspects of clay characterization and behaviour considered at various temporal and spatial scales relevant to the confinement of radionuclides in clay, from basic phenomenological process descriptions to the global understanding of performance and safety at repository and geological scales. Special emphasis has been given to the modelling of processes occurring at the mineralogical level within the clay barriers. The papers in this Special Publication consider research into argillaceous media under the following topic areas: large-scale geological characterization; clay-based concept/large-scale experiments; hydrodynamical modelling; geochemistry; geomechanics; mass transfer/gas transfer; mass transfer mechanisms. The collection of different topics presented in this Special Publication demonstrates the diversity of geological repository research.

It is internationally accepted that the safest and most sustainable option for managing radioactive waste is geological disposal, utilizing both engineering and geology to isolate the waste and contain the radioactivity. This Special Publication contains 25 scientific studies presented at the 6th conference on ‘Clays in natural and engineered barriers for radioactive waste confinement’ held in Brussels, Belgium in 2015. The conference and this resulting volume cover many of the aspects of clay characterization and behaviour considered at various temporal and spatial scales relevant to the confinement of radionuclides in clay, from basic phenomenological process descriptions to the global understanding of performance and safety at repository and geological scales. The papers in this volume consider research into argillaceous media under the following topic areas: large-scale geological characterization; general strategy for clay-based disposal systems; geomechanics; mass transfer; bentonite evolution and gas transfer. The collection of different topics presented in this Special Publication demonstrates the diversity of geological repository research.