Determination of hydraulic properties of the Callovo-Oxfordian argillite at the bure site: Synthesis of the results obtained in deep boreholes using several in situ investigation techniques

Since 1991, ANDRA (Agence Nationale pour la gestion des Déchets Radioactifs – National Radioactive Waste Management Agency) has been performing research on the possibility of geologic disposal of high level radioactive waste. In 1999, Andra began constructing an Underground Research Laboratory at Bure, a site located on the border of the Meuse-Haute-Marne departments, 300 km East of Paris. The laboratory is investigating the Callovo-Oxfordian argillite, a 130 m thick middle Jurassic stratum, at a depth of about 420 m. Argillite is a clay-rich sedimentary rock with low-permeability. Between 1994 and 2004, Andra collected from deep boreholes an impressive wealth of data covering a wide range of geosciences. This paper focuses on the hydraulic data related to argillite, including the results from short-term hydraulic packer tests and long-term monitoring of the formation pressures.Three types of tools are used on the site for investigations in deep boreholes. The first one is a conventional packer test tool used in the petroleum industry and adapted for hydrogeological purposes. The main objective is to determinate the permeability of the formation through short-term tests (24–72 h) at about 10 regular intervals. The two other types of tool are permanent monitoring devices. The electromagnetic pressure gauge (EPG) is totally isolated from the surface perturbations. There are no electric or hydraulic lines to the surface and the borehole is cemented. The advantage of this tool is that the formation almost recovers its initial pressure, avoiding disturbances from surface. Although the multi-packer equipment, installed in an open borehole can be affected by surface perturbations, it is used to measure pressure at different isolated levels in the same borehole (i.e., 11 chambers in one borehole).Evaluations of the formation pressure (freshwater head) and hydraulic conductivity have been performed for all intervals investigated (19 short-term packer tests and 15 long-term monitoring sections). Borehole simulators were used to define a suitable flow model taking into account the complete pressure history of the borehole, and to derive best-guess estimates and uncertainty ranges for the hydraulic parameters. The sources of perturbations and the consistency of results are discussed in this paper. For instance, for a same interval tested through different techniques, an overestimation by one order of magnitude of the hydraulic conductivity due to a large overestimation of pore pressure during packer test was observed. In situ permeability estimations are also compared with those obtained from laboratory tests on core samples.Both short-term and long-term measurements provide values for the hydraulic conductivity at different scales with high consistency. This parameter is shown to be less than 2 × 10−12 m/s. Pressures measurements from long-term monitoring are sufficiently accurate for determining formation hydraulic heads. A pressure profile in the argillite, derived from the extensive set of data currently available, shows an overpressure in the argillite 20–60 m above its surrounding formations.As a whole, the pressure data and derived hydraulic properties acquired from deep boreholes, offer a high degree of reliability and constitute a major contribution to the hydraulic characterisation of the low-permeable argillite formation. In 2006, this data will be complemented with measurements carried out in the Laboratory at 490 m depth, with the aim to characterize in greater depth the pressure profile of the argillite.