TWENTY YEARS OF UNDERGROUND RESEARCH AT CANADA'S URL

Construction of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited’s (AECL’s) Underground Research Laboratory (URL) began in 1982. The URL was designed to address the needs of the Canadian nuclear fuel waste management program. Over the years, a comprehensive program of geologic characterization and underground hydrogeologic, geotechnical and geomechanical projects have been performed, many of which are ongoing. The scientific work at the URL has evolved through a number of different phases to meet the changing needs of Canada’s waste management program. The various phases of the URL have included siting, site evaluation, construction and operation. Collaboration with international organizations is encouraged at the URL, with the facility being a centre of excellence in an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) network of underground facilities. One of AECL’s major achievements of the past 20 year program has been the preparation and public defense of a ten-volume Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for a conceptual deep geologic repository. Completion of this dissertation on the characterization, construction and performance modelling of a conceptual repository in the granite rock of the Canadian Shield was largely based on work conducted at the URL. Work conducted over the seven years since public defense of the EIS has been directed towards developing those engineering and performance assessment tools that would be required for implementation of a deep geologic repository. The URL continues to be a very active facility with ongoing experiments and demonstrations performed for a variety of Canadian and international radioactive waste management organizations.