Consulting

Waste Isolation

Overview Selected Clients Work in the Field

Projects in the waste isolation field center around examination of the suitability of geologic materials for underground storage facilities. Because product storage is sometimes subject to adverse effects due to temperature and pressure in host rock, Itasca's geomechanics expertise is particularly pertinent.

Itasca engineers have been involved and Itasca software has been used in virtually every major waste isolation program in Canada, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the U.S.

The Itasca effort is led by Dr. Charles Fairhurst, who has acted as Chairman of the WIPP Scientific Review Committee and currently serves on the Yucca Mountain Review Panel. Itasca acted as the primary geotechnical and mining consultant to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission from 1985 to 1989 in its review capacity of U.S. waste isolation activities. In total, the experience of Itasca staff dates from Project Salt Vault in the early 1970s to the present.

Itasca pioneers the development of new methodologies and techniques to ensure safe, continuous operation of waste facilities (for instance, experimental methods of fracture characterization at waste storage sites, or new methodologies for assessing the long-term risks of flow and contaminant transport to the biosphere). Itasca's thermohydromechanical modeling codes have been documented to U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission standards, and are currently used as a basis for design and evaluation by numerous waste isolation projects.