Natural Analogues (NAs) are an important component of a Pre-siting site descriptive model-based safety case (hereafter referred to as the NUMO safety case) published by NUMO in 2021 as a corollary to the long-term safety of a geological disposal system. In the NUMO safety case, NAs are discussed as one of the multiple lines of evidence of confidence in the safety function and long-term performance in the geological disposal system.

Based on the feedback at the workshop held in 2023, we will hold a workshop this year as follows.

Details of venue and a link of web meeting will be e-mailed to those accepted later.

Date & Place

• September 18^th and 19^th
• Sapporo, Japan (Hokkaido university)
• Lecture session (Hybrid), Group discussion (In-person)

Registration

To participate, please complete the Microsoft forms by September 5. The number of people will be limited to the first 40 people for in-person participants and first 60 people for web participants. Please note that the application will close earlier than the deadline if the maximum number of participants is reached.

Theme

• Learning from good practices on the use of NAs published by foreign implementers.
• Usage of NAs for verification & validation of the analytical techniques to understand the long-term behavior of the geological systems.
• The ways to use analogues to present mechanisms of safety assurance of the geological disposal system in an easy-to-understand manner to the public.

Schedule (subject to change)

Program details will be updated later.

* The video footage of the event may be used in NUMO's public relations and recruiting activities. If you have any problem with the publication of your name or face, please contact us individually.
* Please refrain from recording and photographing (both video and still images) in the venue, as well as distributing leaflets and other materials that you have brought with you.

NAWG-17 Workshop Proceedings published

The 17th NAWG workshop was organized by the Faculty of Mining, Geology and Petroleum Engineering, University of Zagreb, and the Natural Analogues Working Group (NAWG), 8-11 May 2023 in Zadar.

On the link NAWG-17 you can download proceedings of the workshop located at http://www.rgn.unizg.hr website. Proceedings prepared & published by:

University of Zagreb, Faculty of Mining, Geology and Petroleum
Engineering
Pierottijeva 6, p.p. 390
10000 Zagreb
The Republic of Croatia
www.rgn.unizg.hr 

See also presentation here online at NAWG website.

Please consider participating in a technical session on nuclear waste disposal at the 2024 Clay Minerals Society Annual Meeting. Details of the session are given below. The meeting will be held June 3-6, 2024 in Honolulu, Hawai’i, jointly with the Asian Clay Groups. Abstract submission deadline is March 15, 2024. Here is a link to the meeting website:

https://clayconferences.org/

Scientific and engineering aspects of clays in nuclear waste disposal

Organizers

Jeffery Greathouse, Sandia National Laboratories, USA

Patricia Fox, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA

Tsutomu Saito, Hokkaido University, JAPAN

Satoru Suzuki, Nuclear Waste Management Organization of JAPAN

Cristophe Tournassat, Université d’Orléans, FRANCE

Clay minerals and clay-bearing rocks are essential components in many design concepts for deep geologic disposal of spent nuclear fuel. This session invites contributions from basic research to applied repository design. Topics can include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Clay/shale host rock and engineered barrier systems
• Natural or artificial analogues of clay barriers
• Thermo-hydro-chemo-mechanical (THMC) properties
• Heavy metal and radionuclide sorption and transport
• Modeling across length and time scales, including artificial intelligence methods
• Benchtop and underground research laboratory investigations

Invited speakers:

Chun Chang, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Xiandong Liu, Nanjing University

Nikolaos Prasianakis, Paul Scherrer Institute

Ruth Tinnacher, California State University East Bay

Seok Yoon, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI)

Maria Villar, Centre for Energy, Environmental and Technological Research (CIEMAT)

NAWG-15 Workshop Proceedings published

NAWG-15 Proceedings have been published as an Bedrock Geosciences Technical Report at natural-analogues.com website. You can download yours here.

The 15th NAWG Workshop was held from Tuesday, 23rd to Thursday, 25th May, 2017 at the ÚJV laboratory, Řež, Prague in the Czech Republic.

On Friday 26th May there was a Field trip to SÚRAO’s Bukov URL in the former Rozna uranium mine.

The workshop was held with the kind support of  ÚJV Řež, a.s. and SÚRAO

Presentations from NAWG-17 workshop held in Zadar, Croatia, have been uploaded at NAWG website. Have a look here.

Note!

Deadline for IGC 2024 has been extended to March 15, 2024

IGC2024 T36 Management of Radioactive Resources and Waste hosts interesting session:

Session 3 - Transport of radionuclides in deep geological repositories and nuclear-related facilities

governor: professor Sung-Wook Jeen, Jeonbuk National University

NAWG-16 Workshop Proceedings published

NAWG-16 Proceedings have been published as an Bedrock Geosciences Technical Report at natural-analogues.com website. You can download yours here.

NAWG-16 was held in Yamagata, Japan (Zao Onsen) on 15-18 October, 2019. Three days of discussion were followed by a one-day field trip to two NA sites of focus in the IBL project (please see www.iblproject.com for details). 

The International Bentonite Longevity (IBL) project was launched at the kick-off meeting on 22-23 May, 2019 in Sagae-shi in Japan. The project was introduced at the NAWG-15 workshop in Prague and recent updates presented at the Clay Conference 2022 in Nancy and current progress will be presented at NAWG-17. For future updates follow the website at www.iblproject.com. For further details contact Russell Alexander (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) or Heini Reijonen (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

The bentonite beds exposed in the rived bed at Tsukinono site.

Tony Milodowski and his co-authors have described the salinity and redox evolution in a deep coastal groundwater system. The results indicate long-term stability in a deep hydrochemical system despite repeated glaciations and associated sea level changes throughout the Quaternary.

The document can be found in our document library, or downloaded directly pdf here (3.86 MB) . pdf
(3.86 MB)

The results of a new approach to examine long-term physical changes in bentonite properties has just been published as part of the Geosciences journal Special Issue on Geological Disposal of High Level Radioactive Waste - The Relationship between Engineered and Natural Barriers.

The document can be found in our document library, or downloaded directly here : pdf Alexander et al 2017 LPB long term behaviour of bentonite Geosciences (5.87 MB)

Posiva, Finland, have recently released a new assessment of the potential impact of alkali, cementitious leachates from their L/ILW repository on their SF repository. The new study, Posiva Working Report 2017-03 (which can be downloaded here), builds on information from several NA studies, including work in Jordan (Maqarin) and Northern Ireland (Scawt Hill). See also Posiva Working Report 2007-35 (here) and SKB Report 12-17 (here).

Nuclear Waste Management Organizations in Finland (Posiva), Sweden (SKB) and Canada (NWMO) Partner on First-of-its-Kind Research on Greenland Ice Sheet was completed : View the Posiva Press Release

Posiva have published POSIVA Report 2016-17 The Greenland Analogue Project: Final Report which can be downloaded as a PDF through the following link.

Posiva Report 2016-17