A study on long term stability of bentonite. The preliminary study on the bentonite stability in the groundwater influenced by cementitious material

In the geological disposal concept of radioactive wastes, a kind of clay with sorption ability and low permeability, called bentonite, is envisaged as an engineered barrier system in the geological repository. Also, the cementitious material is envisaged as the backfill material in the vaults and the structure material of the vaults. The groundwater in contact with the cementitious material will promote hyperalkaline conditions in the repository environment and these conditions will affect the performance of the bentonite. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the interaction between the cementitious material and the bentonite for the evaluation of long term stability of the disposal system. In this study, for the identification and the investigation of the secondary minerals, the batch immersion experiments of the powder bentonite were carried out using synthetic cement leachates (pH=7, 12.5, 14) at 200degC. As the results, it was confirmed that Na as exchangeable cations in the bentonite can exchange relatively easily with Ca in the solution from the experiment results. And the ratio of cation exchange was estimated to be about 25% based on the amount of exchangeable cations Ca2+ between layers. Furthermore, it was concretely shown that the generation of analcime might be affected by the Na concentration from results of the solution analyses and a stability analysis of analcime using the chemical equilibrium model, in addition to the pH in the solution. (author)