The DECOVALEX project is an international cooperative project initiated by SKI, the Swedish Nuclear Power Inspectorate, with participation of about 10 international organizations. The name DECOVALEX stands for DEvelopment of COupled models and their VALidation against Experiments. The general goal of this project is to encourage multidisciplinary interactive and cooperative research on modeling coupled processes in geologic formations in support of the performance assessment for underground storage of radioactive waste. Three multi-year project stages of DECOVALEX have been completed in the past decade, mainly focusing on coupled thermal-hydrological-mechanical processes.Currently, a fourth three-year project stage of DECOVALEX is under way, referred to as DECOVALEX-THMC. THMC stands for Thermal, Hydrological, Mechanical, and Chemical processes. The new project stage aims at expanding the traditional geomechanical scope of the previous DECOVALEX project stages by incorporating geochemical processes important for repository performance. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) leads Task D of the new DECOVALEX phase, entitled "Long-term Permeability/Porosity Changes in the EDZ and Near Field due to THC and THM Processes for Volcanic and Crystalline-Bentonite Systems." In its leadership role for Task D, DOE coordinates and sets the direction for the cooperative research activities of the international research teams engaged in Task D.

The DECOVALEX project is an international cooperative project initiated by SKI, the Swedish Nuclear Power Inspectorate, with participation of about 10 international organizations. The general goal of this project is to encourage multidisciplinary interactive and cooperative research on modelling coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical-chemical (THMC) processes in geologic formations in support of the performance assessment for underground storage of radioactive waste. One of the research tasks, initiated in 2004 by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), addresses the long-term impact of geomechanical and geochemical processes on the flow conditions near waste emplacement tunnels. Within this task, four international research teams conduct predictive analysis of the coupled processes in two generic repositories, using multiple approaches and different computer codes. Below, we give an overview of the research task and report its current status.

An international, multiple-code benchmark test (BMT) study is being conducted within the international DECOVALEX project to analyse coupled thermal, hydrological, mechanical and chemical (THMC) processes in the excavation disturbed zone (EDZ) around emplacement drifts of a nuclear waste repository. This BMT focuses on mechanical responses and long-term chemo-mechanical effects that may lead to changes in mechanical and hydrological properties in the EDZ. This includes time-de-pendent processes such as creep, and subcritical crack, or healing of fractures that might cause "weakening" or "hardening" of the rock over the long term. Five research teams are studying this BMT using a wide range of model approaches, including boundary element, finite element, and finite difference, particle mechanics, and elasto-plastic cellular automata methods. This paper describes the definition of the problem and preliminary simulation results for the initial model inception part, in which time dependent effects are not yet included.