Long-term experiments prove the stability of Czech bentonite
Bentonite was exposed over a period of 18 months to limit conditions, extreme temperature levels and chemical load.
Extreme situations which might potentially occur in a future deep disposal system were re-created during the course of these experiments which were conducted under both laboratory (Czech Technical University) and “in-situ” real conditions at the Josef underground facility. Josef is an educational and experimental facility operated by the Centre for Experimental Geotechnics, Czech Technical University located in the vicinity of the Slapy reservoir 50km south of Prague. http://ceg.fsv.cvut.cz/
A number of experts from outside the geological field – mineralogists, geochemists and physical chemists – were involved in the assessment of the experiments.
The results of one of a number of projects which studied the properties of bentonite and compared bentonite of Czech origin with that of other countries proved the long-term stability of the Czech clay which, in view of the proposed use of this material in the future development of a deep geological repository, is very encouraging.
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