The DECOVALEX Task SAFENET is dedicated to advancing the understanding of fracture nucleation and evolution processes in crystalline rocks, with applications in nuclear waste management and geothermal reservoir engineering.

By testing the strength of granite in compression and tension at a range of deformation rates, we found that the strength increases with faster deformation. This observation highlights that at these rates, relevant for example to geothermal exploration, we have to consider how the rate of deformation impacts the energy released when rocks crack. The results are promising for developing safe procedures for extracting resources from the subsurface.

In the context of hydraulic fracturing we constructed a comprehensive FEP database and applied it to six key focused scenarios defined under the scope of FracRisk project (www.fracrisk.eu). The FEP database is ranked to show the relevance of each item in the FEP list per scenario. The main goal of the work is to illustrate the FEP database applicability to develop a conceptual model for regional-scale stray gas migration.