Technical Report NTB 85-58

The Buffer Mass Test was conducted in a 30 m long drift at 340 m depth in the Stripa mine, the main objective being to check the predicted functions of certain bentonite-based buffer materials in rock environment. These materials were blocks of highly compacted sodium bentonite placed in large boreholes simulating deposition holes for canisters, and on-site compacted sand/bentonite mixtures used as tunnel backfill. The blocks of bentonite embedded electrical heaters which served to produce heat so as to create conditions similar to those in a repository. The temperature in the initially non-saturated buffer materials was expected to be a function of the water uptake from the rock, which was also assumed to lead to rather high swelling pressures. The recording of these processes and of the moistening of the buffer materials, as well as of the associated build-up of piezometric heads at rock/buffer interfaces, was the major item of the field test. For this purpose the buffer materials and the rock were equipped with a large number of thermal elements, pressure and piezometric cells as well as moisture sensors. The choice of positions and properties of these gauges, which were connected to an effective data acquisition system, was based on predictions that required a careful site documentation with respect to the fracture characteristics and hydrological properties of the surrounding rock.