Commentaries: Art. 66

In the pilot installation, the behaviour of waste, backfill material and host rock must be monitored until the expiry of the monitoring period. During monitoring, data must be collected in order to confirm long-term safety with a view to closure.
The obtained findings must be transferable to the processes going on in the main section. They form the basis for the decision on the closure of the repository.
The following principles must be observed in connection with the design of the pilot section:
1. The geological and hydro-geological conditions must be comparable to those of the main section.
2. The pilot section must be spatially and hydraulically separated from the main section.
3. The construction of the pilot section and the emplacement procedure of waste and backfill material must correspond to those of the main section.
4. The pilot section must contain a small but representative quantity of waste.