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REVIEW article

Front. Nucl. Eng.
Sec. Radioactive Waste Management
Volume 3 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fnuen.2024.1417827
This article is part of the Research Topic EURAD: State of the Art in Research and Development on Radioactive Waste Management and Disposal View all articles

State-of-the-Art report on the understanding of radionuclide retention and transport in clay and crystalline rocks

Provisionally accepted
Norbert Maes Norbert Maes 1*Sergey Churakov Sergey Churakov 2*Martin Glaus Martin Glaus 2Bart Baeyens Bart Baeyens 2Maria Marques Fernandes Maria Marques Fernandes 2Rainer Dähn Rainer Dähn 2Sylvain Grangeon Sylvain Grangeon 3Felix Brandt Felix Brandt 4Jenna Poonoosamy Jenna Poonoosamy 4alwina hoving alwina hoving 5vaclava havlova vaclava havlova 6Cornelius Fischer Cornelius Fischer 7ulrich Noseck ulrich Noseck 8Susan Britz Susan Britz 8Marja Siitari-Kauppi Marja Siitari-Kauppi 9Otto Fabritius Otto Fabritius 9Tiziana MISSANA Tiziana MISSANA 10Laurent Charlet Laurent Charlet 11
  • 1 Belgian Nuclear Research Centre (SCK CEN), Mol, Belgium
  • 2 Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI), Villigen, Switzerland
  • 3 Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières, Orléans, France
  • 4 Julich Research Center, Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres (HZ), Jülich, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
  • 5 TNO, utrecht, Netherlands
  • 6 International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, Vienna, Austria
  • 7 Helmholtz Center Dresden-Rossendorf, Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres (HZ), Dresden, Lower Saxony, Germany
  • 8 GRS, Braunschweig, Germany
  • 9 University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Uusimaa, Finland
  • 10 Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas, Madrid, Madrid, Spain
  • 11 UMR5275 Institut des Sciences de la Terre (ISTERRE), Gières, Rhône-Alpes, France

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    After isolation of radioactive waste in deep geological formations, radionuclides can enter to the biosphere by slow migration through engineered barriers and host rocks. The amount of radionuclides that migrate into the biosphere depends on the distance from the repository, dominant transport mechanism (diffusion vs advection), and the interaction of the dissolved radionuclides with minerals present in the host rock and engineered barrier systems. Within the framework of the European Union’s Horizon 2020 EURAD project (https://www.ejp-eurad.eu/), a series of state of the art reports have been drafted which form the basis of a series of papers. This state-of-the-art paper aims at providing a comprehensive overview of the current understanding of the underlying processes contributing to the radionuclide retention and migration in clay and crystalline host rocks in the European context for non-specialists. For each process, a brief theoretical background is provided together with current methodologies used to study these processes as well as references to key data. Thanks to the innovative research on retention and migration and the extensive knowledge collected for some decades (in the European context), the process understanding and insights are continuously improving, prompting to adapt and refine conceptual descriptions towards safety assessments. Nevertheless there remain important research questions to be investigated in the future which are enlisted at the end of the manuscript.

    Keywords: Geological disposal, Radionuclide migration, Diffusion, retention, sorption, redox chemistry, Clay host rock, crystalline host rock

    Received: 15 Apr 2024; Accepted: 18 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Maes, Churakov, Glaus, Baeyens, Marques Fernandes, Dähn, Grangeon, Brandt, Poonoosamy, hoving, havlova, Fischer, Noseck, Britz, Siitari-Kauppi, Fabritius, MISSANA and Charlet. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Norbert Maes, Belgian Nuclear Research Centre (SCK CEN), Mol, 2400, Belgium
    Sergey Churakov, Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI), Villigen, 5232, Switzerland

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.