Thermomechanical modelling of the Gorleben exploration site to analyse the integrity of the salt barrier

Geoscientific exploration work on the final disposal of high-level radioactive wastes has been underway at the Gorleben salt dome since 1979 including a ten-year moratorium lasting from October 2000 until October 2010 and the restart of explorating the site in November 2010. A fundamental part of the investigations is the geotechnical safety analysis to evaluate the long-term integrity of the salt barrier from a rock-mechanical point of view. To this end, several numerical calculations using different finite-element codes as well as two-and three-dimensional models have been carried out during the past years to predict the long-term far-field thermomechanical response of the salt structure under repository conditions.