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DECOVALEX Project: from 1992 to 2007

Environmental Geology volume 57, pages 1221–1237 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

The DECOVALEX project is a unique international research collaboration, initiated in 1992, for advancing the understanding and mathematical modelling of coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical (THM) and thermo-hydro-mechanical-chemical (THMC) processes in geological systems—subjects of importance for performance assessment of radioactive waste repositories in geological formations. From 1992 up to 2007, the project has made important progress and played a key role in the development of numerical modelling of coupled processes in fractured rocks and buffer/backfill materials. The project has been conducted by research teams supported by a large number of radioactive-waste-management organizations and regulatory authorities, including those of Canada, China, Finland, France, Japan, Germany, Spain, Sweden, UK, and the USA. Through this project, in-depth knowledge has been gained of coupled THM and THMC processes associated with nuclear waste repositories, as well as numerical simulation models for their quantitative analysis. The knowledge accumulated from this project, in the form of a large number of research reports and international journal and conference papers in the open literature, has been applied effectively in the implementation and review of national radioactive-waste-management programmes in the participating countries. This paper presents an overview of the project.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to express their sincere gratitude to all funding organizations of the DECOVALEX project (Table 1) for their financial and technical support, and to the experts and research teams for their extensive contributions and outstanding achievements that have made the project successful. Especially, we would like to thank the Swedish Nuclear Power Inspectorate (SKI, recently reorganized as the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority SSM) for their sustained support and encouragement throughout the 15 years of this most successful international cooperative project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA

    Chin-Fu Tsang

  2. GeoForschungsZentrum, Telegrafenberg, 14473, Potsdam, Germany

    Ove Stephansson

  3. Royal Institute of Technology, 10044, Stockholm, Sweden

    Lanru Jing

  4. Swedish Radiation Safety Authority, 17116, Stockholm, Sweden

    Fritz Kautsky

Authors
  1. Chin-Fu Tsang
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  2. Ove Stephansson
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  3. Lanru Jing
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  4. Fritz Kautsky
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Correspondence to Chin-Fu Tsang.

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Tsang, CF., Stephansson, O., Jing, L. et al. DECOVALEX Project: from 1992 to 2007. Environ Geol 57, 1221–1237 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-008-1625-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-008-1625-1

Keywords

  • Geoscience
  • Quantitative Hydrogeology
  • Waste Management