Repository design calculations for the alternative storage of spent fuel

Parallel to the planning of a final repository in the Gorleben salt dome for radioactive waste from a reprocessing plant the RandD program known as ''Alternative Spent Fuel Management and Disposal Techniques'' was implemented. In this report the authors will discuss the safety-related aspects of direct disposal (without reprocessing) of spent fuel supported by rock mechanics calculations. The objective of those computations was to define possible critical effects concerning the thermomechanical impact on the deformation and stresses in the near field and far field as well as to confirm the mining design from a rock mechanics point of view