The Grimsel Test Site - Introduction
The Grimsel Test Site - International Underground Research Laboratory.
The Grimsel Test Site (GTS) located in the Swiss Alps was established in 1984 as a centre for underground Research and Development (R&D) supporting a wide range of research projects on the geological disposal of radioactive waste.
The GTS provides an environment which is analogous to that of a repository site so allowing the development and testing of equipment, methodology and models under fully realistic conditions. International partners from Europe, Asia and North America are working together at this unique facility.
View over the Hotel Grimsel Hospiz. The Grimsel Test Site (GTS) is located at an altitude of 1730 metres within the granitic rock of the Aar Massif in central Switzerland.
Its all very well to design a waste disposal system - but how do you know that it will work ?
This is where the Grimsel Test Site (GTS) comes in - with experiments to test the long term behaviour of the engineered barriers, to develop and test tools to confirm the suitability of potential geological host rocks and to test the models used to predict its performance as a long-term barrier to radionuclide release.
Many countries have plans for repositories but in order to ensure that their designs will work, they need somewhere to test out their concepts for safe waste disposal.
These tests should be carried out in similar conditions to a repository. The GTS is a research facility several hundred metres underground which provides a relevant environment for equipment, methodology and model tests.
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Grimsel's Role in Underground Research & Development
The GTS is a research facility and not a potential repository site; although investigations may utilise a wide range of radioactive tracers, no radioactive waste will be disposed of at the GTS.
