Quintessa's hydrogeological modelling team endeavours to build a sound conceptual model of the system that is compatible with all the available hard and soft data. Following this, numerical modelling is undertaken using the most appropriate in-house or third-party codes (e.g. FEFLOW) in order to refine the understanding of the system and its sensitivity to further data acquisition.
Quintessa has particular expertise in the understanding and modelling of impermeable environments where flow and transport is governed by discontinuities and is therefore highly heterogeneous. For example:
Repository projects, by their nature, are sited in low permeability hydrogeological environments, in which there is only a limited hydrogeological experience. Hence, understanding low permeability environments has required careful adaptation of existing techniques and development of innovative approaches to hydrogeological testing. GTF members, most notably John Black have pioneered such innovative approaches, including:
 
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