To provide the opportunity to exchange knowledge and to provide training in the necessary skills for working underground and for the safe disposal of radioactive waste in general, Nagra established the Grimsel Training Centre (GTC) in 2017, as a permanent platform.
Facing the long-lasting programmes of the radioactive waste management, training the next generation of radioactive waste management scientists was identified by many organisations as one major challenge for the next few years and decades.
To meet the various needs of training and knowledge transfer, the GTC team developed a programme which allows both tailor-made and established courses repeated every two or three years. Also, the combination of more theoretical lectures and hands-on training renders this programme very attractive for various levels of experience and expertise. High quality and relevance of the courses is achieved by involving lecturers from the GTS partner organisations.
Site selection of Deep Geological Repository, focus on drilling campaign processes and lessons learned
13.10.25 - 17.10.25 at Nagra Headquarters, Wettingen, CH
Nagra offers a 5-day workshop on the process of Site selection for a Deep Geological Repository, with specific focus on planning, conducing and organising a drilling campaign.
Focus of the workshop is to promote exchange among participants and with Nagra Tutors. The participants will have the chance to meet and share experience with Nagra’s Project Managers directly involved in the siting selection process.
The course aims to impart “hands-on” practical knowledge, with specific focus on processes and lessons learned. The acquired skills shall help the participants in planning and carrying out site characterisation programmes in their own countries.
Programme
General lecture hours from 09:00 am to 5:00 pm
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Day 1
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Course Introduction, overview of Site Selection process |
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Day 2 |
Geological site description before, during and after a site characterisation campaign Geophysics, Geomechanics |
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Day 3 |
Drilling rig organisation and optimisation Core handling, storage and analyses Porewater and groundwater hydrochemistry |
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Day 4 |
Hydraulic testing, long-term monitoring Data management concepts |
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Day 5 |
Data management for a site characterisation campaign. Workshop closure |
Date
Monday, 13 October 2025 until
Friday, 17 October 2025
Location:
Nagra's Headquarters, Wettingen, CH
Costs:
CHF 3500.– (incl. Coffee & Lunch, lecturers, courseware, 1 course dinner)
(excl. travel, accommodation, further dinners)
Accommodation:
We are happy to support you to organise appropriate accommodation or local transportation if desired. Hotels in Baden
Requirements:
Participants shall bring their own laptop.
Registration:
The expected number of participants is between 8 and 10. Please note that in the case of not reaching the minimum number of participants the course will not take place.
Deadline for registration is 31 July 2025.
For your registration please use this dedicated online registration form.
Optional:
Field visit to the Grimsel Test Site on the 18 October 2025 (Saturday): Clothing should be adequate for an Autumn mountainous regional environment. Temperature in the GTS is 14°C.
CHF 250.-
From RD&D requirements to in-situ URL experiments
20.10.25 – 21.10.25 at Grimsel Test Site, Guttannen, CH
This 2-day course provides a general understanding of the role of underground research laboratories (URL) in Radioactive Waste management programmes. Participants will engage with the management and design of URL experiments ranging from relatively small experiments with one or two boreholes up to large scale experiments testing and demonstrating the performance of engineered barrier system (EBS) component(s). Each experiment is unique; there is no ‘manual’ that can be referred to.
As the GTS is one of the few URLs where radioactive tracers can be used for in situ migration tests both in the rock matrix and in water-bearing channels in fractures and faults or other structural features, the course will also highlight the specificities and role of these experiments.
To this end, new techniques and/or procedures typically have to be designed and developed to achieve the experimental goals and RD&D objectives. Lessons learned from designing and running URL experiments at the Grimsel Test Site (GTS) over the last 4 decades and other URLs will also be presented and discussed.
Programme
General lecture hours from 09:00 am to 5:00 pm
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Day 1 |
Welcome, introduction and overview of course Role of URL in RWM-programmes From repository concept to staged RD&D requirements HLW disposal concept and RD&D requirements derived from it Life cycle of URL experiments - from the requirements to planning and conceptualisation, implementation and monitoring, to dismantling |
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Day 2 |
Relevant in-situ parameters and how can these be measured, further processed and what are the limits Site visit to ongoing in-situ experiments and large-scale demonstration experiments Experiments using radionuclides (“Hot-Experiments”) – Objectives, planning and implementation Hot-Experiments - Site visit to radioprotection-controlled zone “Lessons Learned” from about 40 years underground research in Switzerland and elsewhere Summary of Course |
Date:
Monday,20 October 2025 until
Tuesday, 21 October 2025
Location:
Nagra's underground rock laboratory (Grimsel Test Site - GTS), near Guttannen, Switzerland – www.grimsel.com
Costs:
CHF 1750.- (incl. transportation Meiringen – GTS, Coffee & Lunch at GTS, lecturers, courseware, 1 course dinner)
(excl. travel, accommodation, further dinners).
We are happy to support you to organise appropriate accommodation or local transportation if desired.
A pre-booking at Hotel Rebstock in Meiringen (Hotel Rebstock - Meiringen) has been made. Price per person/night CHF 115.- incl. breakfast, single room.
Requirements:
Participants shall bring their own laptop.
Clothing should be adequate for an Autumn mountainous regional environment. Temperature in the GTS research galleries is about 14°C.
Registration:
The expected number of participants is between 8 and 10. Please note that in the case of not reaching the minimum number of participants the course will not take place. Deadline for registration is 31 July 2025. For your registration please use the dedicated online registration form.
Bentonites in radioactive waste disposal
22.10.25 – 24.10.25 at Grimsel Test Site, Guttannen, CH
A 3-day workshop will be offered at the Grimsel Test Site covering the various aspects related to engineered barrier systems (EBS) and specifically bentonite in EBS.
Participants will get an introduction to engineered barrier / bentonite requirements, properties and applications in radioactive waste topics, THM and THMC behaviour and performance in large scale in-situ experiments. International and national experts will give keynote speeches and share their experiences, and discussion forums will facilitate the exchange of knowledge and current research issues. GTS lab visits will provide first-hand insights into ongoing experiments and support the discussion of related topics in the course.
The aim of the course is to provide both theoretical and practical knowledge and experience. The information conveyed should help participants to define, plan, tender and manage their own field (URL) and laboratory experiments at different scales and to interpret data and results e.g. with regard to their safety case.
Programme
General lecture hours from 09:00 am to 5:00 pm
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Day 1 |
Welcome and overview of course (F. Kober, Nagra) Introduction to Engineered Barriers & safety requirements; Clays and Bentonites in radioactive waste (O. Leupin, Nagra) Clay Mineralogy (R. Dohrmann, BGR/LBEG) Basic properties of Clays and Bentonites; the various bentonites worldwide (R. Dohrmann, BGR/LBEG) Bentonites Experiment at GTS (F. Kober/R. Schneeberger, Nagra) |
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Day 2 |
C-properties of Bentonites (R. Dohrmann, BGR/LBEG) THM properties of Bentonites (E. Romero, UPC/CIMNE) Monitoring of Bentonites properties in Experiments (R. Schneeberger, Nagra) |
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Day 3 Friday, 24.10.2025 |
Engineered Barriers & Experiments (P. Sellin, SKB) Mock-Up & Field Experiments - SKB focus (P. Sellin, SKB) Bentonite Experiments - design & construction: FEBEX, FE, HE-E, HotBENT (F. Kober/R. Schneeberger, Nagra) Bentonites and RD&D topics (O. Leupin, Nagra) Summary and closure of the course (F. Kober, Nagra) |
Date:
Wednesday,22 October 2025 until
Friday, 24 October 2025
Location:
Nagra's underground rock laboratory (Grimsel Test Site - GTS), near Guttannen, Switzerland – www.grimsel.com
Costs:
CHF 2250.– (incl. transportation Meiringen – GTS, Coffee & Lunch at GTS, lecturers, courseware, 1 course dinner)
(excl. travel, accommodation, further dinners).
Accommodation:
We are happy to support you to organise appropriate accommodation or local transportation if desired.
A pre-booking at Hotel Rebstock in Meiringen (Hotel Rebstock - Meiringen) has been made. Price per person/night CHF 115.- incl. breakfast, single room.
Requirements:
Participants shall bring their own laptop.
Clothing should be adequate for an Autumn mountainous regional environment. Temperature in the GTS research galleries is about 14°C.
Registration:
The expected number of participants is between 8 and 10. Please note that in the case of not reaching the minimum number of participants the course will not take place. Deadline for registration is 31 July 2025. For your registration please use the dediacted online registration form.
Download Flyer PDF Online Registration
This Module - Bentonites in radioactive waste disposal – links to the preceding Module - From RD&D requirements to in-situ URL experiments – and can also be connected to the subsequent Module - Numerical Modelling in radioactive waste disposal - with focus on experiments and performance assessment.
Numerical Modelling in radioactive waste disposal - with focus on experiments and performance assessment (with Finsterle GeoConsulting & Nagra)
27.10.25 – 29.10.25 at Nagra Headquarters, Wettingen, CH
Numerical modelling is an essential tool in all phases of radioactive waste disposal research and implementation. It supports the design of experiments, field tests, monitoring systems, and site characterisation campaigns, and helps analyse and interpret the collected data. Moreover, it is the main tool to assess the long-term performance of the repository system and to examine various aspects of reference and alternative what-if scenarios.
In this course, the participants will gain practical insights into the development of a conceptual model and its implementation into a numerical simulation model.
Required input data and their integration into the model will be discussed. The important topics of model calibration, validation, sensitivity analyses, and uncertainty quantification will be presented within the specific context of performance assessment modelling. Each element of the modelling workflow will be illustrated using examples from simulation studies that are related to radioactive waste isolation.
This 3-day course does not provide instructions about the use of a specific simulation software; however, an overview of available toolsets and required simulation capabilities will be given. A participant’s basic understanding of the principles of numerical modelling would be beneficial.
Programme
General lecture hours from 09:00 am to 5:00 pm
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Day 1 |
Welcome and overview of the course Linking the design of experiments, field tests, monitoring systems Development of a conceptual model and its implementation into a numerical simulation model Data and their integration into models |
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Day 2 |
Model calibration, validation, sensitivity analyses, and uncertainty quantification with example Assessing the long-term performance of the repository systems with models |
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Day 3 |
Codes and Inter-Comparison Data Worth Analysis Wrap up and Q&A, summary and closure of the course |
Date:
Monday, 27 October 2025 until
Wednesday, 29 October 2025
Location:
Nagra's Headquarters, Wettingen, CH
Costs:
CHF 3500.– (incl. Coffee & Lunch, lecturers, courseware, 1 course dinner)
(excl. travel, accommodation, further dinners)
Accommodation:
We are happy to support you to organise appropriate accommodation or local transportation if desired. Hotels in Baden
Requirements:
Participants shall bring their own laptop.
Participants are welcome to formulate questions they want to be developed in the workshop.
Registration:
The expected number of participants is between 8 and 10. Please note that in the case of not reaching the minimum number of participants the course will not take place. Deadline for registration is 31 July 2025. For your registration please use this dedicated online registration form.
Data Management - Making Geoscientific Data FAIR*
PREVIOUS COURSE 2023 - 3 days @ Nagra, Wettingen
Data and data management tools are both expanding rapidly. The radioactive waste business is no exception. It is very important for scientists, engineers, and managers alike working in the radioactive waste management business to know how to handle large amounts of geological and geophysical data.
This course will teach participants the basics of data management systems, the different data types used in radioactive waste management and the concept of metadata (including searchability, accessibility, localizability). Participants will also gain familiarity by performing exercises using Nagra’s data management tools.
*FAIR: Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable
In-situ Testing and Hydraulic Characterisation in URL
PREVIOUS COURSE 2023 - 6 days @ GTS, Grimsel
Nagra offers a 6-day workshop at the Grimsel Test Site (GTS) on in-situ rock characterisation in underground rock laboratories (URLs). The participants will get hands-on experience on URL field research methods such as handling drill cores, borehole fluid logging and hydraulic testing. The testing will be done in existing boreholes in low permeable and fractured rock.
The course aims to impart both theoretical and practical knowledge. The acquired skills shall help the participants in planning, tendering and carrying out field experiments in URLs. To a certain degree, the imparted topics are translatable to site investigations in general.
Site Selection of Deep Geological Repositories
Module 1: Processes and Methodologies
Module 2: Geological and Geophysical Data Collection
PREVIOUS COURSE - 2022
This course is divided into two modules. Although both modules are linked it is possible for participants to attend one module only.
Module 1: This module will familiarize participants with the main approaches used for selecting sites for radioactive waste repositories. It will include an overview of Nagra’s own experience and recent staged approach starting from a ‘white’ map. Site selection programmes developed in other countries from around the world will also be evaluated and compared from both technical and social-political points of views. Participants will also learn about important lessons learned and key aspects to be considered when designing a site-selection programme.
Module 2: This module will teach about data collection techniques mainly from surface based geophysics and borehole investigations.
From RD&D requirements to in-situ Experiments – How to design and setup URL experiments
PREVIOUS COURSE - 2022
This course will teach participants how to manage and design URL experiments ranging from relatively small experiments with one or two boreholes up to large scale experiments testing and demonstrating the performance of EBS component(s). The use of radioactive tracers in URL experiments (input for safety cases) will also be covered in the course, as well as lessons learned from designing and running URL experiments at Swiss URLs.