Update on the regional-scale 3D geological model in the Horonobe Underground Research Laboratory Project

Sakai, Toshihiro; Ishii, Eiichi

JAEA-Data/Code 2021-009, 13 Pages, 2021/08

JAEA-Data-Code-2021-009.pdf:1.9MB
JAEA-Data-Code-2021-009-appendix(CD-ROM).zip:42.79MB

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. The numerical data of 3D geological model in regional-scale was compiled in 2019 as JAEA-Data/Code 2019-007, and then this report updates a part of the numerical data of 3D geological model around the underground facilities.

Horonobe Underground Research Laboratory Project; Investigation program for the 2021 fiscal year

Nakayama, Masashi

JAEA-Review 2021-009, 54 Pages, 2021/07

JAEA-Review-2021-009.pdf:5.02MB

The Horonobe URL Project is being pursued by the 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. In 2021 fiscal year (2021/2022), JAEA continue to conduct research on "Demonstration of EBS in geological environment", "Demonstration of disposal concept", and "Validation of buffer capacity of the sedimentary rock to tectonism", which are the important issues shown in the Horonobe underground research plan after 2020 fiscal year. The main studies to be conducted in 2021 fiscal year are as follows. As "Demonstration of EBS in geological environment", we will shift to the test under the condition that the influence of heating is eliminated in the full scale EBS experiment. As "Demonstration of disposal concept", as a demonstration of the closure techniques, it details the conditions under which long-term transitions in the tunnel and surrounding bedrock have a significant impact on safety assessments. And we will continue engineering scale experiment to confirm the workability and performance of plugs and laboratory tests to examine the interaction between backfilling materials and buffer materials. As "Validation of buffer capacity of the sedimentary rock to tectonism", we will analyze the results of the hydraulic disturbance test and continue to study the hydraulic disconnection of faults/fissures in the Wakkanai Formation. As an advancement of technology for investigating and evaluating areas where the flow of groundwater is extremely slow, a boring exploration will be conducted to confirm the three-dimensional distribution of the fossil seawater area.

A Numerical simulation study of the desaturation and oxygen infusion into the sedimentary rock around the tunnel in the Horonobe Underground Research Laboratory

Miyakawa, Kazuya; Aoyagi, Kazuhei; Akaki, Toshifumi*; Yamamoto, Hajime*

JAEA-Data/Code 2021-002, 26 Pages, 2021/05

JAEA-Data-Code-2021-002.pdf:2.14MB
JAEA-Data-Code-2021-002-appendix(CD-ROM).zip:40.99MB

Investigations employing numerical simulation have been conducted to study the mechanisms of desaturation and oxygen infusion into sedimentary formations. By mimicking the conditions of the Horonobe underground research laboratory, numerical simulations aided geoscientific investigation of the effects of dissolved gas content and rock permeability on the desaturation (Miyakawa et al., 2019) and mechanisms of oxygen intrusion into the host rock (Miyakawa et al., 2021). These simulations calculated multi-phase flow, including flows of groundwater and exsolved gas, and conducted sensitivity analysis changing the dissolved gas content, rock permeability, and humidity at the gallery wall. Only the most important results from these simulations have been reported previously, because of publishers' space limitations. Hence, in order to provide basic data for understanding the mechanisms of desaturation and oxygen infusion into rock, all data for 27 output parameters (e.g., advective fluxes of heat, gas, and water, diffusive fluxes of water, CH, CO, O, and N, saturation degree, water pressure, and mass fraction of each component) over a modeling period of 100 years are presented here.

K-Ar geochronology for hydrothermal K-feldspar within plagioclase in a granitic pluton; Constraints on timing and thermal condition for hydrothermal alteration

Yuguchi, Takashi*; Yagi, Koshi*; Sasao, Eiji; Nishiyama, Tadao*

Heliyon (Internet), 7(4), p.e06750_1 - e06750_9, 2021/04

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e06750

Our methodology and interpretations provide new insight for K-Ar geochronology in hydrothermal microcline within altered plagioclase in a granitic pluton. Our methodology employs a two-step separation process consisting of (1) plagioclase extraction from the rock sample and (2) separation of the hydrothermal microcline from the plagioclase, giving precise determination of microcline powders in K-Ar geochronology. This tighter constraint should provide the ability to better unravel thermal and age histories in granite subject to multi-step alteration processes and complex thermal histories.

Data of radon measurement in underground facilities of Mizunami Underground Research Laboratory

Aoki, Katsunori; Yamanaka, Hiroki*; Watanabe, Kazuhiko*; Sugihara, Kozo

JAEA-Data/Code 2020-018, 45 Pages, 2021/02

JAEA-Data-Code-2020-018.pdf:4.54MB
JAEA-Data-Code-2020-018-appendix(DVD-ROM).zip:6.8MB

Mizunami Underground Research Laboratory (MIU) Project is pursued by Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) in the crystalline host rock (granite) as a part of geoscientific study of JAEA, and underground facilities of MIU are constructed down to 500m blow the ground surface. As small amount of Uranium is normally contained in granite, high concentration of radon is sometimes detected in the air of the underground facilities constructed in granitic rocks depending on their ventilation conditions. Radon concentrations in underground facilities of MIU have been measured according to the excavation progress of underground facilities or the change of ventilation system. It is recognized that the data obtained by the actual measurement of radon concentration in such underground facilities are rare and valuable. This repot summarizes the measured data from fiscal 2010 to fiscal 2020, together with the information of ventilation conditions and air temperature which affect radon concentrations in underground facilities. The variation of the equilibrium factors of radon is also examined with the actually measured data. As a result, it has been found that radon concentration in the drift is high in summer and low in winter according to the natural ventilation caused by the seasonal temperature difference between in and out of the underground facilities. Furthermore, the temporary increase in the equilibrium factor of radon in the drift at the start of ventilation is supposed to be due to the aerosol increase by the ventilation flow, such as the dust blown up.

Numerical simulation of oxygen infusion into desaturation resulting from artificial openings in sedimentary formations

Miyakawa, Kazuya; Aoyagi, Kazuhei; Akaki, Toshifumi*; Yamamoto, Hajime*

Dai-15-Kai Iwa No Rikigaku Kokunai Shimpojiumu Koen Rombunshu (Internet), p.609 - 614, 2021/01

Desaturation is expected due to excavation of an underground repository, especially in the newly created fractures zone (EDZ). During the construction and operation of facilities, the air in the gallery infuses into the rock around the gallery though the excavation affected area and causes oxidation of host rock and groundwater, which increase nuclide mobilities. In the Horonobe underground research laboratory (HURL), which is excavated in the Neogene sedimentary formations, no pyrite dissolution or precipitation of calcium sulfates was found from the cores drilled in the rock around the gallery. The reason for no oxidation is estimated that the release of dissolved gases from groundwater due to pressure decrease flows against the air infusion. In this research, the mechanism of O intrusion into the rock was investigated by numerical multiphase flow simulation considering advection and diffusion of groundwater and gases. In the simulation, only Darcy's and Henry's laws were considered, that is, chemical reaction related to oxidation was not handled. The effects of dissolved gas and rock permeability on O infusion into the rock were almost identical. Decreasing humidity with relatively low permeability leads to extensive accumulation of O into the EDZ even though with a relatively large amount of dissolved gas. In the HURL, the shotcrete attenuates O concentration and keeps 100% humidity at the boundary of the gallery wall, which inhibits O infusion. Without the shotcrete, humidity at the gallery wall decreases according to seasonal changes and ventilation, which promotes O intrusion into the EDZ but the chemical reaction related to O buffering such as pyrite oxidation consumes O.

Horonobe Underground Research Laboratory Project; Investigation program for the 2020 fiscal year

Nakayama, Masashi; Saiga, Atsushi

JAEA-Review 2020-022, 34 Pages, 2020/11

JAEA-Review-2020-022.pdf:3.99MB

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, "Demonstration of EBS in geological environment", "Demonstration of disposal concept", and "Validation of buffer capacity of the sedimentary rock to tectonism" are important issues of the Horonobe URL Project, and schedule of future research and backfill plans of the URL will be decided by the end of 2019 Fiscal Year. JAEA summarizes the research and development activities of the important issues carried out during the 3rd Mid- and Long-term Plan, and set out three important issues after 2020 fiscal year. After consultation with Hokkaido and Horonobe town, JAEA formulated the Horonobe underground research plan after 2020 fiscal year within the 3rd and 4th Mid- and Long-term Plan. This report summarizes the investigation program for the 2020 fiscal year (2020/2021).

Mizunami Underground Research Laboratory Project; Compilation of digital data of geological model and hydrogeological model

Onoe, Hironori

JAEA-Data/Code 2020-016, 15 Pages, 2020/11

JAEA-Data-Code-2020-016.pdf:3.12MB
JAEA-Data-Code-2020-016-appendix(DVD-ROM).zip:262.52MB

Japan Atomic Energy Agency has been conducting Mizunami Underground Research Laboratory (MIU) Project, which is a broad scientific study of the deep geological environment as a basis of research and development for geological disposal of high-level radioactive waste, targeting in crystalline rock. This report summarized the digital data of local scale and site scale geological model and hydrogeological model constructed in the MIU project and the Regional hydraulic study.

Poroelastic hydraulic-response of fractured mudstone to excavation in the Horonobe URL; As an indicator of fracture hydraulic-disconnectivity

Ozaki, Yusuke; Ishii, Eiichi; Sugawara, Kentaro*

Extanded abstract of International Conference on Coupled Processes in Fractured Geological Media; Observation, Modeling, and Application (CouFrac 2020) (Internet), 4 Pages, 2020/11

We perform the numerical simulation of the response of hydraulic head observed in HDB-6 during the excavation of the Horonobe URL to verify the existence of low effective permeable domain in the subsurface. The low permeable domain as an intact rock due to the low hydraulic fracture connectivity is estimated to exist in the deep domain while the permeability of the shallow domain is relatively high due to the hydraulic fracture connectivity there. Our simulation shows that the observed hydraulic head is affected by the Mandel-Cryer effect due to the hydrogeological structure and the effect for the duration of over years requires the low permeability as an intact rock in the deep domain. These results verify the existence of the low effective permeable domain in the deep subsurface estimated by the previous study.

Data of long term hydro-pressure monitoring on Mizunami Underground Research Laboratory Project for fiscal year 2017-2019

Onoe, Hironori; Takeuchi, Ryuji

JAEA-Data/Code 2020-010, 112 Pages, 2020/10

JAEA-Data-Code-2020-010.pdf:6.22MB
JAEA-Data-Code-2020-010-appendix1(DVD-ROM).zip:169.12MB
JAEA-Data-Code-2020-010-appendix2(DVD-ROM).zip:338.45MB
JAEA-Data-Code-2020-010-appendix3(DVD-ROM).zip:448.05MB

The Mizunami Underground Research Laboratory (MIU) Project has three overlapping phases: Surface-based Investigation phase (Phase I), Construction phase (Phase II), and Operation phase (Phase III), the project is being carried out under the Phase III. The main goals of the MIU Project from Phase I to Phase III are: to establish techniques for investigation, analysis and assessment of the deep geological environment, and to develop a base of engineering for deep underground application. One of the Phase III goals is to construct geological environment models and grasp deep geological changes when expanding the research gallery by research and investigations using research galleries. The long term hydro-pressure monitoring has been continued to achieve the Phase III goals. Furthermore, these monitoring were ceased at the end of FY2019 due to the completion of the MIU project. This report describes the results of the long term hydro-pressure monitoring from April 2017 to March 2020.