The first stage of the excavation phase was the dismantling of the FEBEX concrete plug :
| The first stage in the operation involved dismantling of the existing concrete plug (2.7 meters long - shown below) and exposure of the bentonite blocks that lay behind. | Initially, a series of boreholes were drilled into the concrete plug: |
 The concrete plug prior to dismantling |
 Drilling boreholes into the concrete plug |
| The concrete plug was broken up by a hydraulic splitting techniques. | As this continued, samples were also taken of the interface between the plug and the host rock |
 Hydraulic splitting of the concrete |
 Taking samples from the rock/plug interface |
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Eventually the bentonite was reached (shown left). The excavation of the bentonite is shown in the next section (FEBEX II - Excavation phase - Bentonite excavation). |
Full-scale High Level Waste Engineered Barriers (FEBEX) - Excavation Phase
