On Tuesday 13 August, the staff of the CEG visited the Bukov Underground Research Facility. The reasons included the regular maintenance of the Interaction experiment and the organisation of preparatory work for the dismantling of the experiment. In November 2017, CEG and the Czech Radioactive Waste Repository Authority (SÚRAO) concluded a contract for the conducting of the “Interactive physical models in-situ at the Bukov URF” project (the “Interaction Experiment”). The purpose of the experiment is to compare several types of candidate engineered barrier materials and their reactions under real rock conditions. The CEG designed, built and operates a total of 5 heated and 5 unheated physical models with bentonite emplaced in boreholes at the Bukov URF. The loading phase of the experiment included the saturation of the models with water, the heating of 5 of the models with installed heaters and the comprehensive monitoring of the models via a system of sensors. The experiment will be concluded in the near future with the removal of the physical models and their dismantling that will allow for the laboratory analysis of the materials. In addition to the CEG, CTU, Prague, ÚJV Řež, a.s. (formerly the Nuclear Research Institute) and the Technical University of Liberec are participating in the dismantling project. 😀