Twenty Years of Underground Research at Canada's URL

Conference · Thu Feb 27 00:00:00 EST 2003

OSTI ID:825815

Chandler, N A

Construction of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited's (AECL's) Underground Research Laboratory (URL) began in 1982. The URL was designed to address the needs of the Canadian nuclear fuel waste management program. Over the years, a comprehensive program of geologic characterization and underground hydrogeologic, geotechnical and geomechanical projects have been performed, many of which are ongoing. The scientific work at the URL has evolved through a number of different phases to meet the changing needs of Canada's waste management program. The various phases of the URL have included siting, site evaluation, construction and operation. Collaboration with international organizations is encouraged at the URL, with the facility being a centre of excellence in an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) network of underground facilities. One of AECL's major achievements of the past 20 year program has been the preparation and public defense of a ten-volume Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for a conceptual deep geologic repository. Completion of this dissertation on the characterization, construction and performance modeling of a conceptual repository in the granite rock of the Canadian Shield was largely based on work conducted at the URL. Work conducted over the seven years since public defense of the EIS has been directed towards developing those engineering and performance assessment tools that would be required for implementation of a deep geologic repository. The URL continues to be a very active facility with ongoing experiments and demonstrations performed for a variety of Canadian and international radioactive waste management organizations.

• Research Organization: Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, Whiteshell Laboratories, Pinawa, Manitoba (CA)
• Sponsoring Organization: none (US)
• OSTI ID: 825815
• Resource Relation: Conference: Waste Management 2003 Symposium, Tucson, AZ (US), 02/23/2003--02/27/2003; Other Information: PBD: 27 Feb 2003
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING
POLICY AND ECONOMY
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE WASTES, AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
CONSTRUCTION
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENTS
EVALUATION
GRANITES
IAEA
IMPLEMENTATION
INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
NUCLEAR ENERGY
NUCLEAR FUELS
PERFORMANCE
RADIOACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT
SHIELDS
SIMULATION
UNDERGROUND FACILITIES
WASTE MANAGEMENT