World's first virtual underground laboratory
28 Jun 2012
German researchers are developing the world’s first virtual underground research laboratory as part of the VIRTUS project.
The project is designed to carry out virtual experiments on detailed models of repository mines in geological formations.
The hope is that it will aid the study of processes and their complex interactions in detail as well as represent them visually.
So far, researchers have simulated how heat emanating from the radioactive waste increases the rock temperature of a geological salt formation.
In the long term, it is expected that researchers from all over the world will have access the VIRTUS platform, carry out virtual experiments, and exchange results.
The project is being run by the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR), DBE TECHNOLOGY GmbH, Gesellschaft für Anlagen- und Reaktorsicherheit (GRS) and the Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operation and Automation (IFF).
