The nature and identification of water conducting features in the Sherwood Sandstone Group at Sellafield

The geology and hydrogeology of the area around Sellafield in West Cumbria, NW England has been studied to determine the suitability, or otherwise, of a site as the potential location for a deep repository for intermediate-level and certain low-level radioactive wastes. Much of the site characterisation work has focused on the nature of groundwater flow in the repository host rock. Equally important for determining the site suitability of Sellafield is an understanding of the nature of groundwater flow in the overlying Triassic sandstones, the Sherwood Sandstone Group. In order to better understand the groundwater flow mechanisms, and in order to up-scale the parameters of interest with confidence from measurement scale up to scales relevant for representation in the regional models, hydrogeological studies must derive representative parameter distributions determine appropriate length scales of variability for the Sherwood Sandstone Group. (author)