[29.2.2024] The RINGEN Research Centre, where pilot boreholes for the PUSH IT and SYNERGYS projects are currently being drilled, is also visited by groups of students from the Faculty of Science of Charles University. The course guarantors are thus taking advantage of the opportunity for practical field training with demonstrations of drilling medium-deep boreholes and working with the removed core in the geothermal laboratory. Students can see the drillers in action and can ask them specific questions to get a better idea of how drilling works in practice. Lucie Janků, one of the seminar guarantors in the summer semester, can thus effectively link the theory of teaching with practice. The students have the opportunity to see, for example, the core line, which transports individual three-metre sections of the removed core to the surface using the "wireline coring" system, which are gradually divided into one-metre sections, labelled and placed in wooden boxes and carefully packed to prevent drying out, which is important for subsequent analyses in the laboratory.Students also get to literally touch the drilling tools and see other components of the drilling site, such as flushing management, waste management, and casing modifications. Likewise, with a representative from the German company ANGER Anger&Söhne, they can soak up the working atmosphere with all its pitfalls and potential issues of this demanding and tough job, which normally runs 24/7 and requires precision and adherence to work safety rules. The company's representative for the Czech Republic, Otto Daněk, answers students' specific questions and interprets others directly to the crew of the drilling rig, which is currently working at a depth of around 120 m.
After a practical demonstration at the drilling site, there is a tour of the laboratories and warehouses, where students can see already drilled core samples not only from the Litoměřice site, but also, for example, from wells in western Bohemia, which were recently drilled for CO2 monitoring and funded by the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP). Josef Vlček, a geophysicist from the Faculty of Physics of Charles University, adds expert commentary and details on the samples stored here and how they can be used to obtain information about the subsurface and its characteristics.
Once they have completed the last practical demonstrations, a summary lecture follows in the lecture hall of the RINGEN Research Centre, which provides ample space and facilities for conducting expert lectures and meetings.
Students leave RINGEN with new practical knowledge and experience to use in their further studies. The gates of the RINGEN Research Centre are always open to them, and this also applies to international students and interested students from other universities across the country.
