The Institute of Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering was founded in 1974 and has ever since been involved in research and teachings in the field of geotechnical engineering and underground construction. It conducts basic and applied research in order to answer current questions like geological disposal of nuclear waste.

In the framework of the research project ENTRIA the Institute of Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering examines the option to geological disposal of nuclear waste with provisions for monitoring and retrieval. In this process there are three aspects to be considered:

• the geological and geotechnical aspects of the available waste concepts in different host rocks and depths,
• the analysis of functional efficiency and serviceability of monitoring systems through methods of Life Cycle Engineering during the timeframe of a possible retrieval as well as
• evaluating the long-term stability of geotechnical protection systems over probabilistic methods.

These mentioned methods are being interdisciplinary discussed among the research platform whereas the option of geological storage of highly radioactive waste with the associated waste removal, final disposal and long-term interim storage are being compared and evaluated.

The Institute of Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering offers students in the degree program Environmental Engineering and Civil Engineering the course “Geological disposal”. Furthermore, the Institute offers Bachelor or Master Theses as well as dissertations in the field of geological disposal.

Vertical Project 6 (optional retrievability):

• WP 6.1: Geotechnical Evaluation of the Issues of Retrieval in Geological Disposal of Radioactive Waste
• WP 6.2: Life-Cycle-Engineering Based on Monitoring
• WP 6.3: Risk Analysis Assessment of Geotechnical Ground Support Systems
• WP 6.4: Analyzing the Interaction of Geotechnical Requirements of Life-Cycle-Engineering and Risk-analytic Valuation of Underground Storages with Arrangements for Retrieval

• Prof. Dr. Joachim Stahlmann
• Dipl.-Ing. Rocio P. Leon-Vargas
• Dipl.-Geol. Volker Mintzlaff
• Dipl.-Ing. Christian Missal

Website of the Institute of Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering at the TU Braunschweig