The interdisciplinary graduate school TRANSFER investigates issues related to the safe disposal of high-level radioactive waste in clay-rich formations through ten mutually complementary PhD projects. The focus lies on how spatial and temporal heterogeneities in the rock influence the retention of radionuclides.
Opalinus Clay serves as a reference to transfer findings from Switzerland to clay-rich formations in southern and northern Germany. A central goal is to develop new simulation methods for the representation of these heterogeneities based on laboratory tests and experiments in underground research facilities.
This process-oriented research yields a structured workflow and a robust selection protocol that provides scientifically sound support for future site selection at both the national and international levels.
Project partners:
- Freie Universität Berlin (FUB)
- Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR)
- Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ)
- Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT)
- RWTH Aachen
- TU Bergakademie Freiberg (TUBAF)
- Umweltforschungszentrum Leipzig (UFZ)
- Universität Greifswald (UG)
- Friedrich-Schiller Universität Jena (FSJ)
Project runtime: 01.04.2026 – 31.03.2029
GFZ Responsibility: The GFZ is responsible for the central coordination and management of the entire project. The PhD project based at the GFZ investigates the mineralogical, geochemical, and structural influence on the heterogeneity of the Opalinus Clay.
Financial support: This project is jointly funded by the Federal Ministry for Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR, Grant code 02NUK113A-F) and the Federal Company for Radioactive Waste Disposal (BGE, Grant code STAFuE-25-05).