UNDERGROUND RESEARCH LABORATORY IN THE NIZHNEKANSKIY MASSIF: EVOLUTIONARY DESIGN STUDY

The role of underground research laboratories (hereinafter URL) is generally recognized and involves the following points: URL enables to perform research and demonstration activities aimed at evaluating the feasibility of technological processes under actual spatial scales and geological setup. In recent years, quite a lot of articles and reviews was published [1—5], concerning the issues associated with URLs established to demonstrate the safety of radioactive waste deep geological disposal. It should be noted that 25 URLs were developed globally for various purposes. Most similar to the Russian one by their purpose are those being site-specific (located at the potential disposal site) and excavated in crystalline bedrock (granite and gneiss), namely: operating URL ONKALO (Finland) and the one planned for construction in 2020 in China (Beishan Province). Among all the publications there are several articles [6—14] focused on particular studies planned to be carried out in the Russian URL being under construction at the site of Nizhnekanskiy massif near Zheleznogorsk city (Krasnoyarsk region). This paper presents the designs of the Russian URL being for the first time ever discussed in a holistic and dynamic manner starting with the construction stage and up to the closure of the disposal facility.

Keywords: radioactive waste, safety assessment, underground research laboratory, research program at construction stage, long-term experiments, massif characterization, complex of in situ studies of rock mass state, URL construction.

Abramov A. A., Bolshov L. A., Dorofeeev A. N., Igin I. M., Kazakov K. S., Krasilnikov V. Y., Linge I. I., Trokhov N. N., Utkin S. S. Underground Research Laboratory in the Nizhnekanskiy Massif: Evolutionary Design Study. Radioactive Waste, 2020, no. 1 (10), pp. 9—21 (In Russian). DOI: 10.25283/2587-9707-2020-1-9-21.