Grimsel Phase VI fomally began on 1st January 2003 and represents a major step forward in the research carried out at the GTS. The focus of the new research will be examining waste disposal concepts on more repository-relevant timescales and conditions. Three Phase V projects, FEBEX, HPF and GMT have been officially extended into 2005. This allows a greater volume of high quality data to be collected from these projects where long term monitoring is a fundemental part of the investigation.

Projects include:

• Development and optimisation of the technology, transporting, emplacing, quality-assuring, monitoring and, if required, retrieving of radioactive waste.
   
• Extending past studies of processes in the geosphere (mainly associated with radionuclide mobility) to more closely represent the physical scales (at least 10s of metres) and boundary conditions (e.g. low water velocities) relevant to repository environments. This requires multi-decade duration tests, more than an order of magnitude longer than has been the case in any rock laboratory anywhere in the world to date.
   
• Monitoring and extending the knowledge and experience available from the present generation of radioactive waste experts by training the next generation who will actually build repositories.