Thermo-hydro-mechanical characterization of the Spanish reference clay material for engineered barrier for granite and clay HLW repository: laboratory and small mock up testing

This report refers to the work carried out by Technic Geologic Division of CIEMAT (CIEMAT.DT.TG) coordinated by SCK/CEN (Belgium), participating besides UPC-DIT and University of Wales on the framework of CEC Contract F12W-CT91-0102 (DOEO). It presents the results obtained. The total results on the project will be published by CE in the EUR series. The role of CIEMAT in this project was to carry out tests in which the conditions of the clay barrier in the repository were simulated. The interaction of heat coming from the wastes and of water coming from the geological medium has been reproduced on compacted clay blocks. For the performance of tests on high density compacted clay blocks (Task 2.1) and for the cementation and chemical-mineralogical transformation studies two different cells were designed and constructed in stainless steel: a thermohydraulic cell and an alteration cell. The experiments performed in these cells have provided us with a better knowledge of the heat source, hydration system and sensors, as well as interesting data on heat and water diffusion. A revision of the experiments performed on the thermohydraulic cell was presented at the ''International Workshop on Thermomechanics of Clays and Clay Barriers'' held in Bergamo in October'93 (Villar et al. 1993)