The use of natural analogues in the long-term extrapolation of glass corrosion processes

One of the most critical aspects of nuclear waste management is the extrapolation of materials and systems behavior from short term experiments, typically on the order of one year, over comparatively very long periods of time. Safety and risk analyses have to rely on extrapolations and the respective findings have to be evaluated in the frame of licensing procedures. In this unique situation, any source of information that can lend support to the credibility of predicted behavior, should be exploited and investigated with great care. There are natural systems, e.g. the Oklo reactor, which can provide evidence of radionuclide migration over very long periods of time and thus help to answer specific questions of interest. Natural glasses and minerals can serve as analogues for both glass and crystalline nuclear waste forms, and the alteration of the natural materials can be studied to infer information on the behavior of the man-made products in geologic environments. This paper reviews most of the work performed by the authors and their colleagues in this field together with information available from literature and discusses the extent to which natural glasses can be used to validate or verify predictions. (author)