The management of highly radioactive waste is one of the most challenging environmental tasks of modern society. The final disposal of nuclear waste is a project that will continue into the next century, and not only in Germany. Worldwide, disposal in deep geological formations is favoured. The search for a site for a deep geological disposal is therefore a cross-generational social and political task with a geoscientific core.

We are specialised in the quantification of geochemical processes, such as water-rock-interactions and sorption of radionuclides, in the subsurface, taking into account the entire hydrogeological system. We focus on argillaceous formations as potential host rocks. The collaboration with the Mont Terri underground research laboratory in Switzerland offers thereby a unique opportunity and access to data obtained within more than 25 years of research for the Opalinus Clay which is also present in Germany.

Our research topics include:

• Unravelling of transport processes of radionuclides by means of reactive transport simulations,

• acceleration of coupled simulations by means of approximated computing and machine learning,

• geochemical characterisation of the rock unit to assess the hydrogeological impact on the mineralogy,

• transferability of worldwide findings to the geological conditions in Germany.