Spanish ENRESA visits CIEMAT to advance safety research on radioactive waste covers

Technical staff from the Spanish National Radioactive Waste Company (ENRESA) recently visited facilities of the Environmental Department at the Spanish Research Centre for Energy, Environment and Technology (CIEMAT) to review the progress of joint research projects in the field of radioactive waste safety management. The visit focused on two projects, VEBIOCA and CARCOB, whose research supports the optimization of the safety cover system and long-term environmental protection at the El Cabril waste storage facility in the province of Córdoba.

During the visit, ENRESA technical staff first toured CIEMAT's Soil Conservation and Remediation Department. The research team presented the progress of the VEBIOCA project, which primarily analyzes the influence of vegetation on the behavior of the bio-intrusion layer within the pilot vegetation cover at the El Cabril waste storage facility. Researchers are conducting plant species identification and assessment at two locations, Madrid and Córdoba, with particular focus on the growth characteristics of different plants at the site and in the surrounding environment, as well as their interactions with the vegetation cover system. The results will provide a basis for ENRESA's selection of plant species in subsequent pilot trials.

Both parties also reviewed the progress of the CARCOB project. This project is part of the long-term scientific collaboration between ENRESA and CIEMAT, aimed at enhancing the reliability of cover systems and engineered barrier designs for radioactive waste storage facilities through experimental research. The project is currently developing specialized laboratory testing methods to characterize the performance of different materials in the final cover.

According to the project schedule, after the closure of radioactive waste storage units, a multi-layer cover system consisting of clay, selected soils, drainage layers, and vegetation will be used for sealing. CIEMAT is generating physical, mechanical, hydraulic, and geochemical behavior data for these materials under long-term conditions through laboratory testing, to support and improve the numerical simulation and predictive models used by ENRESA, while also providing technical support for optimizing the design of engineered barriers that isolate waste from the environment.