Introduction to the special issue on 'Issues in nuclear waste isolation research'

摘要

Papers presented in this issue were initially presented at a Workshop dedicated to nuclear waste isolation held in Paris. This Workshop was the sixth of a series of successful scientific workshops that were held in 1989 (Lund, Sweden), 1991 (Durham, NC, USA), 1993 (Bergamo, Italy), 1995 (Montreal, Canada) and 1998 (Barcelona, Spain). The topics addressed in these workshops concerned the experimental, theoretical and numerical aspects of the thermo-hydro-mechanical (THM) couplings that are involved in the isolation of high activity nuclear waste at great depth. Presentations in these workshops also showed that large scale in-situ tests progressively became an important aspect of the researches since they permitted the confrontation to reality and the validation of numerical models. They also allowed for predicting relevant phenomena in a more and more accurate manner.