Quintessa and the University of Edinburgh have recently been awarded a contract from NDA-RWMD to participate in the international DECOVALEX-2011 project. DECOVALEX-2011 aims to improve understanding of THMC processes and apply this to the performance assessment of radioactive waste disposal facilities.
One of the ways in which these aims are being addressed is by modelling experiments performed in Opalinus Clay at the Mont Terri underground laboratory. Quintessa will using the multi-physics QPAC code for these modelling studies, while Edinburgh University will be applying Rockflow/GeoSys.
Alex Bond from Quintessa and Chris McDermott from Edinburgh University attended the inaugural meeting of DECOVALEX-2011 hosted by NDA-RWMD in the elegant surroundings of Magdalen College, Oxford. This meeting brought together 28 delegates from Canada, China, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Japan, Korea, Spain, Sweden and the USA.