Architecture and management of a geological repository - Andra

7 – The shafts and the drifts7.4 Description of the connecting infrastructuresThese infrastructures comprise, on the one hand, the infrastructures of the shaft zone described insection 7.4.1, and, on the other hand, the connecting drifts described in section 7.4.2, and connectingthis zone to the access drifts to the cells.7.4.1 The infrastructures of the shaft zoneFigure 7.4.1Shaft zoneThe infrastructures of the shaft zone make up the interface between the shafts and connecting driftsand the repository zones. They are organised around the following four functionalities :- Receipt and evacuation of the building materials (mucks, concrete, backfills, miscellaneousmaterials and equipment) ;- Receipt of the transfer transfer casks of the full and empty packages ;- Support for the operation of the underground installations ;- Air exhaust.Because of the diversity of the functions to be satisfied and the flows to be controlled, the shaft zone isa complex zone whose design must be studied in depth. Described here is a possible preliminarydesign capable of being adapted and optimised according to the study scenarios. This design iscomparable to that of an underground mine, but rendered more complex by the presence of wastepackages and large concrete flows.Figure 7.4.2 gives as an example the shaft zone of the Gorleben repository project in Germany.DOSSIER 2005 ARGILE -ARCHITECTURE AND MANAGEMENT OF A GEOLOGICAL DISPOSAL SYSTEM300/495