ABSTRACT In this paper, we review ~140 yr of investigations about pelagosite, a usually black aragonitic encrustation with a vitreous luster that forms in the splash zone of Mediterranean rocky coasts. Prior to the mid-1920s, the geologic community considered pelagosite to be a separate mineral of uncertain composition, but then in 1926, Italian mineralogist Ettore Onorato determined that pelagosite has the same structure as aragonite (orthorhombic CaCO 3 ), and also that it contained cells of blue-green algae (i.e., cyanobacteria). Once pelagosite was declassed from the status of a mineral, and its name was eliminated from catalogues and textbooks, Onorato’s documentation of the cyanobacterial cells contained in this encrustation seems to have fallen into almost total oblivion during the rest of the twentieth century. We revisited pelagosite in its original type locality, the remote southern Adriatic island of Pelagosa (today’s Croatian island of Palagruža), as well as in the Dalmatian island of Hvar. Using modern analytical methods and techniques, we redefined the mineralogical and geochemical composition of pelagosite, the nature and significance of its microbial content, and the origin of its pisolitic “tree-ring” internal structure, which probably reflects cyclic climate changes.

Abstract A key component of the site comparison planned for the deep geological disposal of spent fuel and high-level waste (SF/HLW) in Switzerland is the assessment of the evolution of repository-induced perturbations in the repository nearfield associated with thermal effects from heat production due to radioactive decay of radionuclides, as well as gas pressures developing in the backfilled underground structures from the anaerobic corrosion of the steel waste canisters and tunnel support materials. The assessment of such effects is integrated in the site comparison through safety indicators used to evaluate repository performance. In this context, probabilistic assessments need to integrate the uncertainty of the entire ensemble of input parameters, and estimate the propagation to these indicators in a reliable and computationally efficient manner. This paper presents the development of a methodology for an indicator-based assessment of heat- and gas-induced effects in a SF/HLW repository in Opalinus Clay integrating a probabilistic treatment of parametric uncertainty. The workflow is demonstrated using preliminary data, repository configurations and indicators. Complementary simulations are presented to demonstrate the feedback to the optimization of repository design in order to mitigate repository-induced effects that can potentially compromise the safety function of the engineered and natural barriers.

Abstract Geological disposal is the most realistic option for high-level radioactive waste in Japan. In considering long-term stability for geological disposal, several types of materials have been studied as engineered barriers with a host rock. We focused our study on metal and bentonite as engineered barrier materials and investigated the long-term corrosion tendency of the metal exposed to bentonite. An electrochemical method for inducing accelerated corrosion was studied in a laboratory, and we analysed some field samples from a FEBEX dismantling project (FEBEX-DP) in Switzerland for comparison with our experimental results.

Abstract This study investigates the Late Aptian–earliest Albian platform carbonates of the Benicàssim area (Maestrat Basin, Spain) in order to assess the relationship between bed-parallel stylolites and the flow of diagenetic fluids during dolomitization and subsequent hydrothermal alteration. Dolostones and burial dolomite and calcite cements were studied by a combination of field geology and standard petrographic and isotope analysis. Field data indicate that dolostones are closely associated with seismic-scale synsedimentary faults, preferentially replace grain-dominated facies and typically show wavy dolomitizing fronts that mostly correspond to bed-parallel stylolites. The dolostones are corroded and contain bed-parallel pores that are filled with hydrothermal saddle dolomite and blocky calcite cements. This late calcite cement frequently engulfs clasts of the host dolostones, suggesting that hydraulic brecciation likely associated with overpressured fluid occurred. Results indicate that stylolites play a key role in the distribution of dolostones and subsequent hydrothermal mineralization. During the replacement stage, stylolites acted as baffles for the dolomitzing fluids controlling lateral fluid flow and resulting in the stratabound dolostone distribution. During the post-dolomitization stage, stylolites became preferred pathways for overpressured hydrothermal corrosive and mineralizing fluids that likely came from the underlying basement, and increased bed-parallel stylolitic porosity and probably also permeability.