Certain wastes such as nuclear wastes, are so hazardous that their disposal creates a major challenge requiring considerable technical skill and understanding. Their effective isolation in the ground depends on the properties of the surrounding clays. This authoritative book explains the detailed function of clay-based engineered barriers, gives a number of examples of the design and construction of successful sites, and sets out conceptual and theoretical models for the prediction of their performance.

It begins by providing a scientific grounding in the relevant aspects of...

One of the principal objections to or problems with the use of nuclear fuel is that a proven method for safe disposal of spent nuclear fuel has yet to be established. The central focus of most schemes underway to dispose of these high-level radioactive wastes relies on clay-based buffers and barriers to isolate spent fuel canisters in boreholes deep underground in specially constructed tunnels and caverns.

Current thought on the principal methods of containment of high-level radioactive wastes is presented in this book. The authors proceed to discuss the processes and...

From bridges and tunnels to nuclear waste repositories, structures require that soils maintain their design engineering properties if the structures are to reach their projected life spans. The same is true for earth dams, levees, buffers, barriers for landfills, and other structures that use soils as engineered materials. Yet soil, a natural resource, continues to change as a result of natural and anthropogenic stresses. As the discipline of soil properties and behaviours matures, new tools and techniques are making it possible to study these properties and behaviours in more depth.