Multiple Roles of Clays in Radioactive Waste Confinement
This Special Publication highlights the importance of clays and clayey material, and their multiple roles, in many national geological disposal facilities for higher activity radioactive wastes. Clays can be both the disposal facility host rock and part of its intrinsic engineered barriers, and may be present in the surrounding geological environment. Clays possess various characteristics that make them high-quality barriers to the migration of radionuclides and chemical contaminants, e.g. very little water movement, diffusive transport, retention capacity, self-sealing capacity, stability over millions of years, homogeneity and lateral continuity.
The 20 papers presented in this Special Publication cover a range of topics related to clays in radioactive waste confinement. Aspects of clay characterization and behaviour at various temporal and spatial scales relevant to the confinement of radionuclides in clay are discussed, from phenomenological processes to the overall understanding of the performance and safety of geological disposal facilities.
Self-sealing of claystone under X-ray nanotomography
Correspondence: [email protected]
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Published:January 01, 2019
Abstract
Self-sealing tests were carried out on cylindrical samples artificially cracked on one-third of the diameter with a perfectly controlled aperture. Water was then injected into the crack. An innovative cell was used that had been developed, the body of which is transparent to X-rays. The sample could fully rotate in the nanotomograph, allowing a 3D reconstruction of images before, during and after tests, a visualization of the evolution of the cracked zone, and a quantification of the variations in crack volume during self-sealing. Permeability measurements were made to quantify the influence of self-sealing on flows. In the present work, two facies of claystone with different CaCO3 contents were tested. In the clay-rich sample, an important but not total, reduction in volume was observed, as well as a large decrease in permeability, even if a safe claystone value was not recovered and a two-phase kinematic occurred. On the CaCO3-rich samples, a small volume reduction of the fracture was observed with a small decrease in water permeability. The influence of the mineralogy on the self-sealing capacity of the claystone was demonstrated and a threshold of carbonate content of around 40% was exhibited to discriminate samples able to self-seal from those that were not.
- calcium carbonate
- Callovian
- characterization
- chemical properties
- clastic rocks
- claystone
- connectivity
- cracks
- Europe
- excavations
- expansive materials
- experimental studies
- fluid injection
- fractures
- France
- Haute-Marne France
- instruments
- Jurassic
- kinematics
- kinetics
- measurement
- mechanical properties
- Mesozoic
- Meuse France
- Middle Jurassic
- mineral composition
- orientation
- Oxfordian
- permeability
- porosity
- properties
- quantitative analysis
- radioactive waste
- reconstruction
- rock masses
- rock mechanics
- sample preparation
- saturation
- sedimentary rocks
- testing
- three-dimensional models
- tomography
- Upper Jurassic
- variations
- waste disposal
- Western Europe
- X-ray data