The investigation of the neptunium complexes formed upon interaction of high level waste glass and boom clay media

Since complexes formed between actinides released from high level waste glass and humic acids present in high concentration in boom clay porewater may control the actinide solubility in the clay formation, a research programme has been started to study the complexes formed between neptunium, the most critical actinide in the Belgian performance assessment studies, and boom clay porewater. The leaching experiments give a maximum solution concentration of Np in boom clay porewater of 10-6 M after 24 days. In the leachates, Np is mainly associated with colloidal particles of small sizes and is present as a mixture of two oxidation states, V and IV. The retention of Np in the glass increases with increasing SA/V (geometrical surface area on solution volume ratio). A high solution concentration is accompanied by a high retention of Np. The characterisation of the mobile boom clay organic matter (OM) gives a proton exchange capacity (PEC) equal to 2.9 meq g-1 OM at pH 8.5. Related to this value, the interaction constants (β) of the literature were reviewed and calculated according to their proton exchange capacity for the pH of interest. (orig.)