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The Role of Groundwater Oxidation Potential and Radiolysis on Waste Glass Performance in Crystalline Repository Environments

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2011

Carol M. Jantzen  and
Ned E. Bibler
Carol M. Jantzen
Affiliation:
E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, Savannah River Laboratory Aiken, South Carolina 29808
Ned E. Bibler
Affiliation:
E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, Savannah River Laboratory Aiken, South Carolina 29808
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Abstract

Laboratory experiments have shown that groundwater conditions in a granite repository will be as reducing as those in a basalt repository. Chemical analysis of the reduced groundwaters confirmed that the Fe2+/Fe3+ couple controls the oxidation potential (Eh). The reducing groundwater conditions were found to decrease the time-dependent release of soluble elements (Li and B) from the waste glass. However, due to the lower solubility of multivalent elements released from the glass when the groundwaters are reducing, these elements have significantly lower concentrations in the leachates.

Gamma radiolysis reduced the oxidation potential of both granitic and basaltic groundwater in the absence of both waste glass and oxygen. This occurred in tests at atmospheric pressure where H2 could have escaped from the solution. The mechanism for this decrease in Eh is under investigation but appears related to the reactive amorphous precipitate in both groundwaters. The results of these tests suggest that radiolysis may not cause the groundwaters to become oxidizing in a crystalline repository when abundant Fe2+ species are present.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 50: Symposium STOCKHOLM – Scientific Basis for Nuclear Waste Management IX , 1985 , 219
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1985

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