European Underground Research Infrastructure for Disposal of Nuclear Waste in Clay Environment

Their core work

EURIDICE operates the HADES Underground Research Laboratory (URL) in Mol, Belgium — one of Europe's dedicated facilities for studying the long-term behaviour of radioactive waste disposal in deep clay formations (Boom Clay). Their core work is providing underground experimental infrastructure and conducting in-situ research on geological disposal safety, monitoring technologies, and clay barrier performance. In H2020, they contributed to developing and testing monitoring strategies for deep geological repositories and participated in the pan-European joint programme on radioactive waste management. They function as an essential physical platform: researchers from across Europe use the HADES facility to run experiments that cannot be done anywhere else.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In their earlier H2020 engagement (Modern2020, 2015–2019), EURIDICE was focused on the concrete, instrumentation-level challenge of monitoring — how do you detect, measure, and demonstrate what is actually happening inside a deep clay repository over time. By their second project (EURAD, 2019–2024), the framing broadened to the full policy and science programme of radioactive waste management: disposal solutions, safety cases, and multi-national knowledge integration. The shift is from "how do we monitor clay disposal" to "how does Europe build a complete scientific and regulatory basis for geological disposal" — a natural progression from technical contributor to programme-level partner.

EURIDICE is moving from single-project technical contributor toward embedded partner in large European joint programmes, suggesting growing institutional involvement in shaping the European approach to deep geological disposal rather than just hosting experiments.

How they like to work

EURIDICE has never led a project — both H2020 participations are as partner or third party — which reflects their identity as infrastructure providers rather than research coordinators. Despite only two projects, they are connected to 126 unique partners across 27 countries, indicating they operate inside very large consortia (EURAD alone involves most European waste management agencies). Working with them means accessing their underground facility and the dense network of national nuclear waste programmes that orbit it.

With 126 unique consortium partners across 27 countries from just two projects, EURIDICE sits at the centre of the European nuclear waste management research community. Their network spans national waste management organisations, nuclear regulators, and research centres from across the EU and associated states.

What sets them apart

EURIDICE operates the HADES URL, one of only a handful of deep underground research laboratories in the world dedicated to clay-hosted geological disposal — there is no Belgian equivalent and very few European ones. Any research consortium needing in-situ clay formation experiments must work with facilities like HADES, making EURIDICE essentially irreplaceable for that specific experimental need. Their location in Mol, within the SCK-CEN nuclear research campus, also gives them direct access to Belgium's national nuclear expertise and regulatory environment.

Highlights from their portfolio

• EURAD
  A European Joint Programme (COFUND-EJP) representing the broadest multi-national coordination effort in radioactive waste management science in Europe, with EURIDICE participating as a third-party contributor to this flagship programme.
• Modern2020
  Their only directly funded H2020 project (EUR 204,846), focused on demonstrating monitoring technologies for geological disposal — work that directly exploits EURIDICE's unique underground experimental capability.