ABSTRACT:

The program for the final disposal of low and intermediate level radioactive waste was established by Paks Nuclear Power Plant, Hungary. The Central Nuclear Financial Found and the Public Limited Company for Radioactive Waste Management (PURAM) has been established to coordinate organizations and activities for all tasks in connection with nuclear waste treatment. Based on a detailed geological screening a granite complex has been chosen as potential host rock beside Bátaapáti village in the south-western part of Hungary. The goal of this paper is to present shortly the used seismoacoustic systems in underground facilities and discussing more detailed on the long term acoustic emission (AE) acquisition system installed in the repository area. The used AE measurement method allowed a detailed short- and long-term, non-destructive supervision. With this technique is possible to allocate zones of stress-related fracturing around the underground spaces and to correlate the modeling results of the Excavation Damaged Zones (EDZs) around the Bátaapáti radioactive waste repository.

1 INTRODUCTION

There is no doubt about the worldwide renaissance in nuclear industry based on its numerous strong economical and environmental competitive advantages in spite of some recent technical crashes generated by devastating human or natural influences. While the technical background of the nuclear industry exceeded a half century the conscious nuclear environmental protection has only some decades of experience. Consequently the main questions in connection of siting and construction of radwaste disposals are still in the rank of pioneering challenges worldwide. In the lack of generally adaptable methodology radwaste management remains to be solved in national frames all over the world, so this task in Hungary has an enhanced priority too.

According to the managerial and research results in all stages of the two decades process of the harmonization of the natural environment and underground objects confining radwaste disposal the role of investigation methods in tunneling design and construction covers the:

  • challenges of technical management backgrounding the special aspects of construction engineering in connection with radwaste repository design and safety,

  • application results of some investigation methods put into domestic practice for decision making support.

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