Message from the Director
Research Core for Deep Geological Environment / AIST
The Research Core for Deep Geological Environments carries out the research focusing on the deep geological envirronments in respect of the safety assessment of radioactive waste geological disposals.
Since the Japanese Islands are located along the plate margins, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions often occur. We must exclude the areas with high possibilities of the volcanic activity and fault movements, toward the emplacement of the disposal. It is also required to evaluate a long-term effect by these phenomena on the geological environments. On the other hand, the groundwater flows slowly through the mineral interstices and rock fractures in the deep underground where the disposal is expected. For the safety assessment of the geological disposal, we must also clarify these groundwater properties and movements with relating chemical processes.
As researches for the safety assessment of geological disposals, we are canying out a long-term assessment of fluctuating geological phenomena such as the volcanic eruptions and earthquakes, and the evaluations of the isolating performance of the strata for the radionuclide. We must pay much more attention in Japan to the geological envirouments than in the other atomic power plant nations, because the geological disposal of the radioactive wastes may suffer from active tectonic movements.
We cordially aim to the systematic understanding of the present dynamics of the earth, by the elucidation of the nature and mechanism of relating geological phenomena.