Abstract. The French national radioactive waste management agency (Andra) research program is dedicated to preparing the construction and operation of a deep geological disposal facility for high-level and intermediate-level long-lived radioactive waste (HL, IL-LLW) in the Callovo-Oxfordian claystone (COx). The characterization of the COx thermo-hydro-mechanical (THM) behavior, at different scales of interest, must gradually give relevant data for design and safety calculations. The effects of saturation and desaturation of COx claystone are studied in laboratory conditions (sample scale) and in situ (drift scale), in order to improve knowledge on ventilation effect at gallery wall as galleries will remains open during operational phase (more than 100 years for some specific galleries) in the repository. The Saturation Damaged Zone (SDZ) experiment is outlined and its results are discussed. This experimentation aims to change the relative humidity in an isolated portion of a gallery in order to follow the HM behavior of the surrounding rock mass. Drying and wetting cycles could induce in certain cases cracks and swelling and modify the hydromechanical behavior of the claystone around the gallery (Young modulus, strength, creep…). The long term behavior of the COx claystone at the vicinity of gallery is then studied by performing climatic, hydraulic, geological and geomechanical measurements. Results of the in situ experiment are discussed with respect to the identified process on samples. The discussion given on this paper intends to highlights the inputs from 7 years of an in situ experiment to better understand the unsaturated behavior of the COx claystone.
-A small number of blowouts from gas storage caverns has been described in the literature. Gas flow lasted several days before the caverns were emptied. In this paper, we suggest simplified methods that allow for computing blowout duration, and evolution of gas temperature and pressure in the cavern and in the well. This method is used to compute air flow from an abandoned mine, an accident described by Van Sambeek in 2009, and a natural gas blowout in an underground storage facility in Kansas. The case of a hydrogen storage cavern also is considered, as it is known that hydrogen depressurization can lead, in certain cases, to an increase in hydrogen temperature.Re´sume´-É ruption en cavite´s de stockage de gaz -Un petit nombre d'e´ruptions en cavite´s salines de stockage de gaz a e´te´de´crit dans la litte´rature. L'e´coulement de gaz dure plusieurs jours avant que les cavite´s ne se vident comple`tement. Dans cet article, nous proposons une me´thode de calcul de la dure´e de l'e´ruption et de l'e´volution des parame`tres majeurs du syste`me tels que la tempe´rature, la pression et la vitesse du gaz dans la cavite´ou dans le puits. Cette me´thode est utilise´e pour calculer le de´bit d'air expulse´par un puits d'acce`s a`une mine de sel abandonne´e, un accident de´crit par Van Sambeek en 2009, et une e´ruption suivie d'une combustion du gaz naturel sur un site de stockage souterrain de gaz naturel au Kansas. Le cas d'une cavite´de stockage d'hydroge`ne est e´galement examine´, avec le souci de ve´rifier si la de´tente de l'hydroge`ne peut conduire, dans certains cas, a`une augmentation de sa tempe´rature.
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