Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering. Special Issue: Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical Effects in Clay Host Rocks for Radioactive Waste Repositories

The management of High level radioactive nuclear waste is an important environmental issue. Disposal in deep clay geological formations is one of the promising options. Preventing unnecessary damage to the host formation is one of the objectives of repository design. A proper evaluation of the excavation-damaged zone (EDZ) is an important issue for the long-term safety of underground disposal. The influence of the thermal load generated by the radioactive waste on the performance of the disposal system is particularly important also. Between 2006 and 2010, the TIMODAZ project (http://www.timodaz.eu/) has investigated the coupled THM effects in clay formations to sssess the consequences of the thermal transient on the performance of the disposal system. Three types of clay and clay rocks corresponding to the three potential host sites were investigated: Boom Clay (Belgium), Opalinus Clay (Switzerland), and Callovo–Oxfordian argillite (France). This special issue gathers the main achivements of the TIMODAZ project and several selected papers which expand on the technical contributions presented at the International post-TIMODAZ workshop organized On 6–7 February 2012.