Nirex Geological 3D Models for Sellafield and Dounreay Site Investigations

British Geological Survey holds a series of 3-D geological models created by Nirex between 1989 and 1997. The models were developed using EarthVision and Vulcan software to interpret the geological structure of the Sellafield and Dounreay areas for assessing deep radioactive waste repository suitability. The archive was deposited with BGS in 2000 for a minimum 50-year retention.

Use Cases

• Analyze geological structure models from EarthVision and Vulcan software for subsurface characterization.
• Investigate site suitability for deep radioactive waste disposal based on geological interpretations.
• Study geophysical and deep drilling data integrated into the 3-D models for the Sellafield site.

Strengths

• Models cover a significant 8-year investigation period from 1989 to 1997.
• Archive is retained by the British Geological Survey for a minimum of 50 years as a national record.
• Data originates from a major government-led nuclear waste assessment program.

Limitations

• Specific data volume, row count, column structure, and file formats are unknown.
• Data is temporally stale, representing investigations concluded over 25 years ago.
• Access is primarily for non-commercial academic use, which may restrict some applications.

Provenance

Source

British Geological Survey (BGS), from the Nuclear Industry Radioactive Waste Executive (Nirex) archive.

Collection Method

3-D models created using EarthVision and Vulcan software during geological site investigations.

Time Range

1989 to 1997

Freshness

null

Geography

Sellafield and Dounreay areas, United Kingdom.