Progress report on safety research on radioactive waste management for the period April 1996 to March 1998

This report summarizes the research and development activities on radioactive waste management at the Engineered Barrier Materials Laboratory, Natural Barrier Laboratory and Environmental Geochemistry Laboratory of the Department of Environmental Safety Research, JAERI during the fiscal year of 1996 and 1997 (April 1, 1996 - March 31, 1998). The topics are as follows: (1) In the research and development of waste forms and engineered barrier, studies on development of ceramic waste forms, the leaching behaviors from glass waste at reduced condition and sorption behaviors on backfill materials have been carried out. (2) In studies on shallow land disposal, studies on the migration behaviors of radionuclides in the presence of humic acid have been carried out. (3) In the studies on geological disposal, the studies on diffusivity in rock formation, in-situ migration and diffusion experiments, sorption mechanism, fixation mechanism, natural analogue study and geochronology have been carried out. (author)