• The buildings of the IfG Leipzig - Südwerkbunker (left) and the Kauengebäude (right)

    The buildings of the IfG Leipzig - Südwerkbunker (left) and the Kauengebäude (right)

  • The rock mechanical laboratory of the IfG Leipzig

    The rock mechanical laboratory of the IfG Leipzig

  • Drilling cores of the Leine rock salt (Na3)

    Drilling cores of the Leine rock salt (Na3)

  • Dimensioning

    Dimensioning

  • Large-diameter borehole experiment in Springen

    Large-diameter borehole experiment in Springen

  • Modelling of a cavern

    Modelling of a cavern

  • Subsidence over a	cavitary field (modelling)

    Subsidence over a cavitary field (modelling)

Public relations

The IfG Leipzig is holding in cooperation with the Institute of Geotechnical Engineering of the Technical University of Freiberg every year a geomechanical colloquium and is member in the Verein Freiberger Geotechniker e. V.

Representatives of IfG collaborate on various committees:

 

German Geotechnical Society (DGGT):

  • AK 3.1 salt mechancis, Chairman: Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. K.-H. Lux (IfG-representative: Dr. W. Minkley)
  • AK 3.3 experimental rock mechanics, Chairman: Dipl.-Ing. Th. Mutschler (IfG-representative: Dr. T. Popp)

 

Solution Mining Research Institute (IfG-representative: D. Brückner)

The SMRI is a non-profit-organisation which focuses on all scientific-technical questions for the usage of salt formations, e.g. for solution mining or high-pressure gas storage. For this purpose, inter alia, Conferences and other events, as well as special research projects are regularly carried out.

 

The salt club (IfG-representative: T. Popp)

Rock salt is a candidate rock to host a repository for high-level radioactive waste (HLW) because of its favourable characteristics. Specifically, rock salt provides isolation of the waste from groundwater due to its low hydraulic conductivity. The "salt club" is a OECD-NEA working group aiming on development of the necessary scientific background for radioactive waste disposal in geological rock salt formations.

  

IfG is founder member of the "Deutschen Arbeitsgemeinschaft Endlagerforschung (DAEF)" (German Working Group for Radioactive Waste Repository Research). (IfG-representative: Dr. W. Minkley)

Other involved research institutions are:

  • DBE TECHNOLOGY GmbH, 
  • Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, 
  • Gesellschaft für Anlagen- und Reaktorsicherheit (GRS) mbH,
  • Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), 
  • Institut für Sicherheitstechnologie (ISTec) GmbH, 
  • Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT), 
  • Öko-Institut  e.V., 
  • Institut für Bergbau und Spezialtiefbau der Technischen Universität Bergakademie Freiberg und 
  • Institut für Endlagerforschung der Technischen Universität Clausthal.

Among other things, the working group considers to receive and develop the professional expertise on the range of the radioactive waste repository research.