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Minerals
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The Role of Clays in Geological Disposal of Radioactive Waste
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The Role of Clays in Geological Disposal of Radioactive Waste

A special issue of Minerals (ISSN 2075-163X). This special issue belongs to the section "Clays and Engineered Mineral Materials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (18 September 2022) | Viewed by 3833

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Honty Miroslav

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Guest Editor
Institute for Environment, Health and Safety, Belgian Nuclear Research Centre (SCK CEN), 2400 Mol, Belgium
Interests: geological disposal; clay mineralogy; pore water geochemistry; long-term stability of host rock and engineered barriers; interactions between various components of geological repository
Dr. Stephan Kaufhold

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Bundesanstalt fur Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe, 30655 Hannover, Germany
Interests: properties of clays and natural functional raw materials; applicability of bentonites in European HLRW repositories; adsorption mechanisms in soils and geotechnical barriers; development of new or modified mineralogical methods frequently based on a collection of reference materials
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Ana María Fernández

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas Medioambientales y Tecnológicas, 28040 Madrid, Spain
Interests: pore water chemistry; clay mineral synthesis; clay formations; properties of clays and natural raw materials; applicability of bentonites in European HLRW repositories
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Patrik Sellin

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Swedish Nuclear Fuel Management (Svensk Kärnbränslehantering), 169 03 Solna, Sweden
Interests: research and safety assessments for the long-term performance of buffer and materials for radioactive waste repositories

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Geological disposal is internationally accepted as the safe solution for the long-term management of the long-lived radioactive waste. In this context, clays and clay minerals possess several unique properties (e.g. low hydraulic conductivity, high sorption capacity, low porosity, swelling, self-sealing), which are essential to maintain safe functioning of the repository via long-term containment of the waste and retardation of the radionuclide transport. Therefore, clays play a crucial role as natural barriers or as components of the engineered barrier system in the various disposal concepts. To function as effective barriers, clays must maintain their desirable properties for long periods of time (≥1Ma) under a variety of (bio)geochemical conditions. Such conditions involve, among others, increased temperature, oxidation, alkaline plume, bacterial activity with the reaction fronts typically studied at the interface between various repository components (concrete/clay, bentonite/metal etc.) at multiple spatial and time scales. All these phenomena lead to a complex interplay between THMC coupled processes, which may have a significant impact on the long-term performance of the clay host rocks or engineered barriers. This special Issue is open to scientific papers featuring multiple facets of the clay research in the broad context of the geological disposal of radioactive waste.

Dr. Honty Miroslav
Dr. Stephan Kaufhold
Dr. Ana María Fernández
Dr. Patrik Sellin
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Minerals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • clays
  • bentonites
  • physico-chemical properties
  • geochemical alterations
  • geological disposal

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

12 pages, 2454 KiB  
Article
Prediction of the Adsorption Behaviors of Radionuclides onto Bentonites Using a Machine Learning Method
by Do-Hyeon Kim and Jun-Yeop Lee
Minerals 2022, 12(10), 1207; https://doi.org/10.3390/min12101207 - 25 Sep 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1745
Abstract
This study builds a model to predict distribution coefficients (Kd) using the random forest (RF) method and a machine learning model based on the Japan Atomic Energy Agency Sorption Database (JAEA-SDB). A database of ten input variables, including the distribution coefficient, [...] Read more.
This study builds a model to predict distribution coefficients (Kd) using the random forest (RF) method and a machine learning model based on the Japan Atomic Energy Agency Sorption Database (JAEA-SDB). A database of ten input variables, including the distribution coefficient, pH, initial radionuclide concentrations, solid–liquid ratio, ionic strength, oxidation number, cation exchange capacity, surface area, electronegativity, and ionic radius, was constructed and used for the RF model calculation. The calculation parameters employed in this work included two different hyperparameters, the number of decision trees and the maximum number of variables to divide each node, together with the random seeds inside the RF model. The coefficients of determination were derived with various combinations of hyperparameters and random seeds, and were employed to assess the RF model calculation result. Based on the results of the RF model, the distribution coefficients of 22 target nuclides (Am, Ac, Co, Cm, Cd, Cs, Cu, Na, Np, Ni, Nb, U, Sr, Sn, Pb, Pa, Pu, Po, I, Tc, Th, and Zr) were predicted successfully. Among the various input variables, pH was found to make the highest contribution to determining the distribution coefficient. The novelty of this study lies in the first application of the machine learning method for predicting the Kd value of bentonites, using JAEA-SDB. This study has established a model for reliably predicting the distribution coefficient for various radionuclides that is intended for use in evaluating the Kd value in arbitrary aqueous conditions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Role of Clays in Geological Disposal of Radioactive Waste)
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14 pages, 6306 KiB  
Article
Experimental Study on the Thermal Conductivity of Compacted SPV200 Bentonite
by Guo-Liang Ren, Chih-Chung Chung, Chia-En Tsai, Che-Jui Cuo and Wei-Hsing Huang
Minerals 2022, 12(8), 932; https://doi.org/10.3390/min12080932 - 24 Jul 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1525
Abstract
This study employed two thermal conductivity measuring techniques, including the needle probe-based transient needle-probe method in accordance with ASTM 5334-14 and the surface probe-based transient plane source method in compliance with ISO 22007-2:2015, to examine the thermal conductivity of compacted SPV200 bentonite. The [...] Read more.
This study employed two thermal conductivity measuring techniques, including the needle probe-based transient needle-probe method in accordance with ASTM 5334-14 and the surface probe-based transient plane source method in compliance with ISO 22007-2:2015, to examine the thermal conductivity of compacted SPV200 bentonite. The effects of temperature, water content, and dry density on the thermal behavior of SPV200 bentonite were extensively investigated. The test results indicate: (1) thermal conductivity measured by the two methods agreed well, while the transient plane source method exhibited good efficiency; (2) the thermal conductivity of compacted SPV200 increases with water content, dry density, and temperature; (3) three-dimensional representations of the thermal conductivity of SPV200 bentonite as functions of dry density, water content, and temperature were generated to illustrate a clear relationship among them; (4) two multi-parameter models for predicting thermal conductivity of compacted SPV200 bentonite were proposed, and both showed good fits to the experimental data. The results provide a practical approach to the prediction of thermal properties of compacted bentonite, which can be helpful in the coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical analysis of buffer materials. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Role of Clays in Geological Disposal of Radioactive Waste)
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