• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.571-598
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• 2024

Nuclear power generation, which belongs to the eco-friendly energy category, has a comparative advantage over other power generation methods in terms of cost and efficiency, and its share of electricity energy has recently shifted to an increasing trend worldwide. In Korea, various empirical studies have been conducted centering on KURT (KEARI Underground Research Tunnel) to secure elemental technology necessary for safe and efficient disposal of high-level radioactive waste inevitably generated during the operation of nuclear power plants. Considering the domestic rock type and geological conditions, the multi-barrier system is evaluated as the most effective among various high-level radioactive waste disposal methods. The objectives of this study were, first, to evaluate the hydraulic characteristics of deep and low-permeable rock masses and second, to secure quantitative information on the hydraulic connectivity between boreholes for establishing a large-scale in-situ test system necessary for the proper design and stability evaluation of the multi-barrier system. In this regard, diverse borehole tests using DHTS (Deep borehole Hydraulic Testing System) were performed in the two research modules in KURT, and in particular, the injection type cross-hole hydraulic connectivity tests were successfully completed for the first time in Korea. In this paper, we briefly introduced MDST (Mini Downhole Shut-in Tool) developed to update the performance of DHTS and mainly discussed the key results obtained from the stepwise in-situ borehole tests.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.39-53
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• 2007

Generally, fractured medium can be described with some key parameters, such as hydraulic conductivities or random field of hydraulic conductivities (continuum model), spatial and statistical distribution of permeable fractures (discrete fracture network model). Investigating the practical applicability of the well-known conceptual models for the description of groundwater flow in fractured media, various types of hydraulic tests were applied to studies on the highly fractured media in Geumsan, Korea. Results from single-hole packer test show that the horizontal hydraulic conductivities in the permeable media are between $7.67{\times}10^{-10}{\sim}3.16{\times}10^{-6}$ m/sec, with $7.70{\times}10^{-7}$ m/sec arithmetic mean and $2.16{\times}10^{-7}$ m/sec geometric mean. Total number of test interval is 110 at 8 holes. The number of completely impermeable interval is 9, and the low permeable interval - below $1.0{\times}10^{-8}$ m/sec is 14. In other words, most of test intervals are permeable. The vertical distribution of hydraulic conductivities shows apparently the good correlation with the results of flowmeter test. But the results from the cross-hole test show some different features. The results from the cross-hole test are highly related to the connectivity and/or the binary properties of fractured media; permeable and impermeable. From the viewpoint of the connection, the application of the general stochastic approach with a single continuum model may not be appropriate even in the moderately or highly permeable fractured medium. Then, further studies on the investigation method and the analysis procedures should be required for the reasonable and practical design of the conceptual model, with which the binary properties, including permeable/impermeable features, can be described.