ECOCLAY II: Effects of cement on clay barrier performance - phase II

• Research unit: EU RFP
• Project number: 99.0751-2

Key words (English)

Strontium; Europium; Curium; sorption; co-precipitation; CSH phases; high pH plume; laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy;
Nuclear Fission; Radioactive Waste; Safety

Alternative project number (English)

EU project number: FIKW-2000-00028

Research programs (English)

EU-programme: 5. Frame Research Programme - 5.5.2 Nuclear fission

Short description (English)

See abstract

Partners and International Organizations (English)

Coordinator: ANDRA, Chatenay-Malabry (F)

Abstract (English)

Cements will be used intensively in radioactive waste repositories. During their degradation in time, in contact with geological pore water, they will release hyper-alkaline fluids rich in calcium and alkaline cations. This will induce geochemical transformations that will modify the containment properties of the different barriers (geological media and EBS, i.e. clay-based engineered barriers). ECOCLAY I identified major geochemical reactions between bentonite and cement. ECOCLAY II proposes to investigate aspects such as radionuclides sorption, kinetics of the geochemical reactions, coupled geochemistry / transport processes, conceptual and numerical modelling and performance assessment. The whole hyper-alkaline plume (EBS, clay and granite host rock) will be studied within the project. To do so, ECOCLAY II brings together the efforts of 8 European countries on this subject with an aim of supplementing studies.

References in databases (English)

Swiss Database: Euro-DB of the
State Secretariat for Education and Research
Hallwylstrasse 4
CH-3003 Berne, Switzerland
Tel. [phone]
Swiss Project-Number: 99.0751-2