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Investigation into water retention and gas permeability of Opalinus clay

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Abstract

Opalinus clay (OPA) is currently being investigated as a potential host rock for radioactive waste repository. The construction of this repository will lead to an excavation-damaged zone (EDZ) in the surrounding. Its sealing ability is crucial for the safety assessment of the geological repository. The sealing ability of OPA has a close relationship with its water retention and gas permeability behaviours. For this purpose, the water retention and gas permeability of OPA and its comparison with the artificial barrier (i.e. bentonite) were investigated in this study. The results show that OPA absorbed less water than granular bentonite material with equal suction. Compared with the other two similar materials (Boom clay and COx argillite), which were selected as natural engineering barriers for nuclear waste storage in Belgium and France, the suction behaviours of OPA are similar to those of COx argillite but notably different from those of Boom clay. The gas permeability tests show that OPA sample is quite sensitive to the changes in confining pressures but is less sensitive to applied gas pressures. Further, it is found that the OPA is more permeable than bentonite barrier after 10.5 years of hydration. Then, the OPA samples were artificially water-saturated. We find that the sealing ability can be recovered after long-time water saturation. However, when comparing with bentonite barrier, it is still a weak zone. This indicates that the EDZ should be paid more attention for the assessment the performance of the nuclear repository.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the support of the ANDRA (Agence nationale pour la gestion des déchets radioactifs), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province of China (BK20160249 and BK20160252), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (China University of Mining and Technology) (2015XKZD06) and the Opening fund of State Key Laboratory of Geohazard Prevention and Geoenvironment Protection (Chengdu University of Technology) (SKLGP2017K018).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The State Key Laboratory for GeoMechanics and Deep Underground Engineering, and School of Mechanics and Civil Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, 221116, China

    Jiang-feng Liu, Yu Wu, Cheng-Zheng Cai, Hong-yang Ni, Xu-lou Cao, Hai Pu & Shuai-bing Song

  2. State Key Laboratory of Geohazard Prevention and Geoenvironment Protection, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu, 610059, Sichuan, China

    Jiang-feng Liu & Sheng-yan Pu

  3. Laboratoire de Mécanique de Lille (CNRS, LML), Ecole Centrale de Lille, CS 20048, 59651, Villeneuve d’Ascq Cedex, France

    Frédéric Skoczylas

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  1. Jiang-feng Liu
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Correspondence to Jiang-feng Liu or Sheng-yan Pu.

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Liu, Jf., Wu, Y., Cai, CZ. et al. Investigation into water retention and gas permeability of Opalinus clay. Environ Earth Sci 77, 213 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-018-7397-3

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