Mizunami Underground Research Laboratory Project, Annual report for fiscal year 2015

Hama, Katsuhiro ; Iwatsuki, Teruki  ; Matsui, Hiroya ; Mikake, Shinichiro ; Ishibashi, Masayuki; Onoe, Hironori ; Takeuchi, Ryuji  ; Nohara, Tsuyoshi   ; Sasao, Eiji   ; Ikeda, Koki; Koide, Kaoru

The Mizunami Underground Research Laboratory (MIU) project is being pursued by the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) to enhance the reliability of geological disposal technologies through investigations of the deep geological environment in the crystalline host rock (granite) at Mizunami City in Gifu Prefecture, central Japan. On the occasion of the reform of the entire JAEA organization in 2014, JAEA identified three important issues on the geoscientific research program: "Development of countermeasure technologies for reducing groundwater inflow", "Development of modelling technologies for mass transport" and "Development of drift backfilling technologies", based on the latest results of the synthesizing research and development (R&D). These R&D on three important issues have been carrying out on the MIU project. In this report, the current status of R&D activities and construction in 2015 is summarized.