Alteration of R7T7-type nuclear glass in deep geological storage conditions

This PhD thesis is aimed to study the alteration of SON68 glass, French inactive glass of R7T7-type, in contact with near field materials of a deep geological storage (French concept from ANDRA) which are mainly metallic iron and Callovo-Oxfordian clay. Therefore, experiments involving a 'glass-iron-clay' system at lab-scale have been carried out. Interactions between glass, iron and clay have been characterised from submicron to millimeter scale by means of SEM, TEM, XRD and XAS and Raman spectroscopies in terms of chemistry and crystal-chemistry. In the mean time, a conceptual model of glass alteration has been developed to account for most of the experimental observations and known mechanisms of alteration. The model has been then transposed within the transport-chemistry code HYTEC, together with developed models of clay and iron corrosion, to simulate the experiments described above. This work is thus a contribution to the understanding of iron corrosion in Callovo-Oxfordian clay and subsequent glass alteration in the newly formed corrosion products, the whole process being considered as a lab-scale model of a deep geological storage of radioactive wastes. (author)