The international Mont Terri rock laboratory in Switzerland plays a central role in the safety
and construction of deep geological nuclear repositories in clay formations. The laboratory has
developed and refined a range of new measurement and evaluation methods: it has e.g. advanced
the determination of rock parameters using innovative borehole geophysics improved the
methodology for characterizing pore-water and microbial activity in claystones and greatly
improved our understanding of diffusion and retention processes of radionuclides in and through
claystones. The methods and insights described in this compendium can also be applied to
low-permeability rocks at various sites around the globe and in other fields of application.
