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45 years of joint research programmes on geological disposal of radioactive waste and the pioneering role of the HADES Underground Research Laboratory


 Since 1975, the European Commission has supported research in the field of radioactive waste management and geological disposal through the Euratom Research and Training Programme. During the first two community programmes (1975-1985), the research activities focused on basic knowledge, feasibility and safety assessments of such Geological Disposal Repositories (GDR). It was during this first decade of collaborative research activities that the site characterization, preliminary design studies and the application for authorization to construct the first Underground Research Laboratory (URL), the High Activity Disposal Experimental Site (HADES) facility, took place.
 The URL is an essential tool to develop the knowledge needed for demonstration and safety assessment of the geological repository concept. Belgium has been operating the underground HADES laboratory on the site of Mol since the early 1980's. More than 30 million euros were allocated to the research activities and the in-situ experiments in the Boom clay formation, such as the PRACLAY project [1], leading to breakthrough results and feeding the Belgian R&D programme (e.g. SAFIR-1, and SAFIR-2 reports).
 Set up in 1995, the European Underground Research Infrastructure for Disposal of nuclear waste in a Clay Environment (EURIDICE) is an economic partnership between ONDRAF/NIRAS and the SCKoCEN and manages and operates the HADES facility. HADES played a pioneering role in the demonstration of the feasibility of the GDR, paved the way to other URL in Europe and still contributes today to the science behind the geological disposal of radioactive waste through various EU collaborative research programmes.