Lou Areias

• SCK CEN - Belgian Nuclear Research Centre

The Supercontainer is a reference concept of the Belgian Agency for Radioactive Waste and Enriched Fissile Materials (ONDRAF/NIRAS) for the post-packaging of vitrified high-level waste and spent fuel destined for deep geological disposal. The behaviour of this massive concrete structure was studied using macro-scale modelling, based on extensive ex...

The Belgian Agency for Radioactive Waste and Enriched Fissile Materials (ONDRAF/NIRAS) is developing a conceptual design for a supercontainer made of concrete and carbon steel for the post-conditioning of high-level nuclear waste prior to disposal in a geological repository site. This supercontainer should be instrumented to follow the temperature...

We present the preliminary results obtained with bare fiber Bragg grating-based sensors embedded into half-scale Belgian supercontainer concept. Being temperature and strain sensitive, some sensors were placed into aluminum tubes to monitor only temperature and results were compared with thermocouples data. The utility of using bare fiber Bragg gra...

Protecting the environment and future generations against the potential hazards arising from high-level and heat emitting radioactive waste is a worldwide concern. Following this direction, the Belgian Agency for Radioactive Waste and Enriched Fissile Materials has come up with the reference design which considers the geological disposal of the was...

The long term management of high-level and heat emitting radioactive waste is a worldwide concern, as it directly influences the environment and future generations. To address this issue, the Belgian Agency for Radioactive Waste and Enriched Fissile Materials (ONDRAF/NIRAS) has come up with a reference design for the geological disposal of this was...

The supercontainer (SC) is the reference concept for the postconditioning of vitrified high level radioactive waste and spent fuel in Belgium. It is designed with a concrete buffer completely surrounding a carbon steel overpack. A half-scale (HST-2) experiment was set up to measure the instantaneous uniform corrosion rate, representative of the ini...

We present the use of microstructured optical fiber Bragg grating-based sensors for strain and temperature monitoring inside the concrete buffer of the Belgian supercontainer concept, demonstrated in a half-scale test in 2013. This test incorporated several optical fiber sensors inside the concrete buffer for production and condition monitoring. Th...

The Supercontainer (SC) is a reference concept, adopted by the Belgian Agency for Radioactive Waste and Enriched Fissile Materials (ONDRAF/NIRAS), for the packaging of high level vitrified radioactive waste (HLW) and spent fuel (SF). The waste package consists of different components all designed to fulfil specific functions. One of these is a carb...

Disposal in deep underground geological formations is internationally recognized as the most viable option for the long-term management of high-level radioactive waste. In Belgium, the Boom clay formation is extensively studied in this context, in particular at the 225 m deep HADES Underground Research Facility in Mol. A cost-effective design of de...

This paper presents results of a half-scale test performed by ESV EURIDICE, an Economic Interest Grouping between the Belgian Nuclear Research Centre (SCK•CEN) and the Belgian Agency for Radioactive Waste and Enriched Fissile Materials (ONDRAF/NIRAS). The primary objective of the test was to assess the feasibility of constructing the Supercontainer...

Current analyses of seismic cone penetration (SCPT) test data assume that seismic rays travel in a straight path between the source and receivers. While this holds true for single-layered homogeneous soil, soil layers cause rays to reflect and refract, resulting in a deviation from their normally assumed straight-path geometry. This paper presents...

Different types of sources are currently used to generate horizontal shear (SH) wave signals with the seismic cone penetration (SCPT) test. Yet little is known about their performance and whether they can affect the accuracy of arrival time measurements. This paper presents test results obtained to characterize the performance of two types of SH wa...

A common method of determining arrival times of polarized shear (S) waves in the seismic cone penetration (SCPT) test is the cross-over method. This method relies on personal judgment to pick first arrivals and is difficult to automate. A better approach is to use cross-correlation methods, which rely less on operator judgment and can be automated...

The modern downhole seismic cone penetration test (SCPT), which has been integrated into the standard cone penetration test (CPT), is used in geotechnical engineering studies to determine shear wave velocity and dynamic modulus profiles in soils. Although recommended test procedures exist for the SCPT method, no standard specification is available...

: Modern downhole seismic cone penetration tests (SCPTs) are used in geotechnical studies to determine shear wave velocity and dynamic modulus profiles in soils. Although recommended test procedures exist for the SCPT, no standard specification is available for the source's size, type, impact energy and coupling stresses. Results of tests performed...