Synthesis report on the R&D for the Horonobe Underground Research Laboratory; Project carried out during fiscal years 2015-2019

Nakayama, Masashi; Saiga, Atsushi; Kimura, Shun; Mochizuki, Akihito; Aoyagi, Kazuhei; Ono, Hirokazu; Miyakawa, Kazuya; Takeda, Masaki; Hayano, Akira; Matsuoka, Toshiyuki; et al.

JAEA-Research 2019-013, 276 Pages, 2020/03

JAEA-Research-2019-013.pdf:18.72MB

The Horonobe Underground Research Laboratory (URL) Project is being pursued by the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) to enhance the reliability of relevant disposal technologies for geological disposal of High-level Radioactive Waste through investigations of the deep geological environment within the host sedimentary rock at Horonobe Town in Hokkaido, north Japan. The investigations will be conducted in three phases, namely "Phase 1: Surface based investigations", "Phase 2: Construction phase" (investigations during construction of the underground facilities) and "Phase 3: Operation phase" (research in the underground facilities). According to the research plan described in the 3rd Mid- and Long- term Plan of JAEA, "Near-field performance study", "Demonstration of repository design option", and "Verification of crustal-movement buffering capacity of sedimentary rocks" are important issues of the Horonobe URL Project, and schedule of future research and backfill plans of the project will be decided by the end of 2019 Fiscal Year. The present report summarizes the research and development activities of these 3 important issues carried out during 3rd Medium to Long-term Research Phase.

Earthquake observation data collection in the Horonobe Underground Research Laboratory Project (Phase II)

Miyara, Nobukatsu; Matsuoka, Toshiyuki

JAEA-Data/Code 2019-013, 8 Pages, 2020/01

JAEA-Data-Code-2019-013.pdf:1.45MB
JAEA-Data-Code-2019-013-appendix(DVD-ROM)1.zip:239.91MB
JAEA-Data-Code-2019-013-appendix(DVD-ROM)10.zip:346.69MB
JAEA-Data-Code-2019-013-appendix(DVD-ROM)11.zip:237.95MB
JAEA-Data-Code-2019-013-appendix(DVD-ROM)12.zip:335.05MB
JAEA-Data-Code-2019-013-appendix(DVD-ROM)13.zip:335.0MB
JAEA-Data-Code-2019-013-appendix(DVD-ROM)2.zip:433.26MB
JAEA-Data-Code-2019-013-appendix(DVD-ROM)3.zip:360.88MB
JAEA-Data-Code-2019-013-appendix(DVD-ROM)4.zip:292.24MB
JAEA-Data-Code-2019-013-appendix(DVD-ROM)5.zip:315.31MB
JAEA-Data-Code-2019-013-appendix(DVD-ROM)6.zip:426.42MB
JAEA-Data-Code-2019-013-appendix(DVD-ROM)7.zip:286.49MB
JAEA-Data-Code-2019-013-appendix(DVD-ROM)8.zip:187.61MB
JAEA-Data-Code-2019-013-appendix(DVD-ROM)9.zip:826.1MB

As part of the research and development program on the geological disposal of high-level radioactive waste (HLW), the Horonobe Underground Research Center, a division of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), is implementing the Horonobe Underground Research Laboratory Project (Horonobe URL Project) with the aim at investigating sedimentary rock formations. This data collection is a compilation of Earthquake observation data acquired in the Horonobe Underground Research Project (Phase II).

The Regional-scale 3D geological model in the Horonobe Underground Research Laboratory Project

Sakai, Toshihiro; Matsuoka, Toshiyuki

JAEA-Data/Code 2019-007, 29 Pages, 2019/09

JAEA-Data-Code-2019-007.pdf:53.07MB
JAEA-Data-Code-2019-007-appendix(CD-ROM).zip:340.04MB

Japan Atomic Energy Agency is performing the Horonobe Underground Research Laboratory Project, which includes a scientific study of the deep geological environment as a basis of research and development for the geological disposal of high level radioactive wastes, in order to establish comprehensive techniques for the investigation, analysis and assessment of the deep geological environment in the sedimentary rock. This report summarize numerical data of 3D geological model in regional-scale constructed by Maptek Vulcan.

Development of evaluation method for variability of groundwater flow conditions associated with long-term topographic change and climate perturbations

Onoe, Hironori; Kosaka, Hiroshi*; Matsuoka, Toshiyuki; Komatsu, Tetsuya; Takeuchi, Ryuji; Iwatsuki, Teruki; Yasue, Kenichi

Genshiryoku Bakkuendo Kenkyu (CD-ROM), 26(1), p.3 - 14, 2019/06

https://doi.org/10.3327/jnuce.26.1_3

In this study, it is focused on topographic changes due to uplift and denudation, also climate perturbations, a method which is able to assess the long-term variability of groundwater flow conditions using the coefficient variation based on some steady-state groundwater flow simulation results was developed. Spatial distribution of long residence time area which is not much influenced due to long-term topographic change and recharge rate change during the past one million years was able to estimate through the case study of the Tono area, Central Japan. By applying this evaluation method, it is possible to identify the local area that has low variability of groundwater flow conditions due to topographic changes and climate perturbations from the regional area quantitatively and spatially.

Horonobe Underground Research Laboratory Project; Synthesis of Phase II (Construction Phase) investigations to a depth of 350m

Sato, Toshinori; Sasamoto, Hiroshi; Ishii, Eiichi; Matsuoka, Toshiyuki; Hayano, Akira; Miyakawa, Kazuya; Fujita, Tomoo*; Tanai, Kenji; Nakayama, Masashi; Takeda, Masaki; et al.

JAEA-Research 2016-025, 313 Pages, 2017/03

JAEA-Research-2016-025.pdf:45.1MB

The Horonobe Underground Research Laboratory (URL) Project is being pursued by the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) to enhance the reliability of relevant disposal technologies through investigations of the deep geological environment within the host sedimentary formations at Horonobe, northern Hokkaido. This report summarizes the results of the Phase II investigations carried out from April 2005 to June 2014 to a depth of 350m. Integration of work from different disciplines into a "geosynthesis" ensures that the Phase II goals have been successfully achieved and identifies key issues that need to made to be addressed in the Phase II investigations Efforts are made to summarize as many lessons learnt from the Phase II investigations and other technical achievements as possible to form a "knowledge base" that will reinforce the technical basis for both implementation and the formulation of safety regulations.

Synthesized research report in the second mid-term research phase, Mizunami Underground Research Laboratory Project, Horonobe Underground Research Laboratory Project and Geo-stability Project (Translated document)

Hama, Katsuhiro; Sasao, Eiji; Iwatsuki, Teruki; Onoe, Hironori; Sato, Toshinori; Fujita, Tomoo; Sasamoto, Hiroshi; Matsuoka, Toshiyuki; Takeda, Masaki; Aoyagi, Kazuhei; et al.

JAEA-Review 2016-014, 274 Pages, 2016/08

JAEA-Review-2016-014.pdf:44.45MB

We synthesized the research results from the Mizunami/Horonobe Underground Research Laboratories (URLs) and geo-stability projects in the second midterm research phase. This report can be used as a technical basis for the Nuclear Waste Management Organization of Japan/Regulator at each decision point from siting to beginning of disposal (Principal Investigation to Detailed Investigation Phase).

3D geostatistical modeling of fracture system in a granitic massif to characterize hydraulic properties and fracture distribution

Koike, Katsuaki*; Kubo, Taiki*; Liu, C.*; Masoud, A.*; Amano, Kenji; Kurihara, Arata*; Matsuoka, Toshiyuki; Lanyon, B.*

Tectonophysics, 660, p.1 - 16, 2015/10

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tecto.2015.06.008

This study integrates 3D models of rock fractures from different sources and hydraulic properties aimed at identifying relationships between fractures and permeability. A geostatistical method (GEOFRAC) that can incorporate orientations of sampled data was applied to 50,900 borehole fractures for spatial modeling of fractures over a 12 km by 8 km area, to a depth of 1.5 km. GEOFRAC produced a plausible 3D fracture model, in that the orientations of simulated fractures correspond to those of the sample data and the continuous fractures appeared near a known fault. Small-scale fracture distributions with dominant orientations were also characterized around the two shafts using fracture data from the shaft walls. By integrating the 3D model of hydraulic conductivity using sequential Gaussian simulation with the GEOFRAC fractures from the borehole data, the fracture sizes and directions that strongly affect permeable features were identified.

Synthesized research report in the second mid-term research phase; Mizunami Underground Research Laboratory Project, Horonobe Underground Research Laboratory Project and Geo-stability Project

Hama, Katsuhiro; Mizuno, Takashi; Sasao, Eiji; Iwatsuki, Teruki; Saegusa, Hiromitsu; Sato, Toshinori; Fujita, Tomoo; Sasamoto, Hiroshi; Matsuoka, Toshiyuki; Yokota, Hideharu; et al.

JAEA-Research 2015-007, 269 Pages, 2015/08

JAEA-Research-2015-007.pdf:68.65MB
JAEA-Research-2015-007(errata).pdf:0.07MB

We have synthesised the research results from Mizunami/Horonobe URLs and geo-stability projects in the second mid-term research phase. It could be used as technical bases for NUMO/Regulator in each decision point from sitting to beginning of disposal (Principal Investigation to Detailed Investigation Phase). High quality construction techniques and field investigation methods have been developed and implemented and these will be directly applicable to the National Disposal Program (along with general assessments of hazardous natural events and processes). It will be crucial to acquire technical knowledge on decisions of partial backfilling and final closure by actual field experiments in Mizunami/Horonobe URLs as main themes for the next phases.

Quality and performance of a pseudo-random number generator in massively parallel plasma particle simulations

Matsuoka, Seikichi*; Satake, Shinsuke*; Idomura, Yasuhiro; Imamura, Toshiyuki*

Proceedings of Joint International Conference on Mathematics and Computation, Supercomputing in Nuclear Applications and the Monte Carlo Method (M&C + SNA + MC 2015) (CD-ROM), 13 Pages, 2015/04

The quality and performance of a parallel pseudo-random number generator (PRNG), KMATH_RANDOM, are investigated using a Monte Carlo particle simulation code for the plasma transport. The library is based on Mersenne Twister with jump routines and provides a numerical tool which is suitable and easy-to-use on massively parallel supercomputers such as K-computer. The library enables the particle code to increase the parallelization up to several thousand processes without loosing the quality and performance of the PRNG. As a result, the particle code can use large amounts of random numbers, which results in removing unphysical phenomena caused by a numerical noise.

Mizunami Underground Research Laboratory Project, Annual report for fiscal year 2013

Hama, Katsuhiro; Mikake, Shinichiro; Nishio, Kazuhisa; Kawamoto, Koji; Yamada, Nobuto; Ishibashi, Masayuki; Murakami, Hiroaki; Matsuoka, Toshiyuki; Sasao, Eiji; Sanada, Hiroyuki; et al.

JAEA-Review 2014-038, 137 Pages, 2014/12

JAEA-Review-2014-038.pdf:162.61MB

Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) at Tono Geoscience Center (TGC) is pursuing a geoscientific research and development project namely the Mizunami Underground Research Laboratory (MIU) Project in crystalline rock environment in order to construct scientific and technological basis for geological disposal of High-level Radioactive Waste (HLW). The MIU Project has three overlapping phases: Surface-based Investigation phase (Phase I), Construction phase (Phase II), and Operation phase (Phase III). The MIU Project has been ongoing the Phase II and the Phase III in fiscal year 2013. This report presents the results of the investigations, construction and collaboration studies in fiscal year 2013, as a part of the Phase II and Phase III based on the MIU Master Plan updated in 2010.