The aim of the Natural Analogue study at Ruprechtov site (CZ) is to investigate the potential mobility of uranium in tertiary argillaceous sediments under representative long-term conditions. Such sediments often build up the overburden of host rocks for deep geological waste repositories. The Ruprechtov site represents a tertiary basin with argillized volcano-detritic sediments, which is surrounded by granite and underlain by kaolin and granite. U-enrichment mainly occurs in distinct layers of limited thickness on top of the kaolin close to aquiferous horizons and the clay-lignite seams. After a general survey of the site a new set of drillings has been sunk in 2002 in order to investigate the hydraulic, geological and chemical conditions of the area, including detailed investigations of kaolin and granite.Based on actual results new conceptual models for geological evolution and uranium transport pathways at Ruprechtov site have been developed. There is now strong evidence that U-migration at the site is mainly determined by three different processes: a) diffusion through kaolin, b) advection via fault zones across the kaolin and c) advection through aquiferous layers at the interface kaolin/Tertiary. Uranium source is the so-called Erzgebirgs-(Krusné hory) granite, underlying the Tertiary and kaolin and outcropping at the margins of the Tertiary basin.
World-wide activities focus on the remediation of radioactively contaminated sites. One common aim is to deliver a more profound chemical base for risk assessment, namely all those physico-chemical phenomena governing the contamination plume development in time and space. Coupled transport codes able to tackle this challenge have to simplify the resulting very complex reaction pattern. To do so in an adequate way requires extending the knowledge about retardation and mobilisation phenomena and the underlying basic processes and interactions (e.g. physisorption, chemisorption, surface precipitation). Interactions at the solid-liquid interface can be described by complementary approaches, the empirical Kd concept and the mechanistic Surface Complexation Models (SCM). Kd’s are used by most reactive transport and risk assessment codes due to the straightforward numerics involved. In addition, the Kd concept is often the only feasible option for complex solid phases. However, the Kd concept is a rather simplistic approach. Many very different basic physico-chemical phenomena are subsumed in just one conditional parameter. Therefore, extrapolating Kd values may yield very large uncertainties. SCM account adsorption of ions on surface sites as complexation reaction comparable to complexation in solution. The electrical charge at the surface is determined by the chemical reactions of the mineral functional groups, including acid-base reactions and formation of ion pairs and coordinative complexes. The required parameters are site-independent and applicable despite large variations in geochemical conditions. This presents a high potential to increase confidence in safety analysis and risk assessment studies (performance assessment). The mechanistic description of sorption processes with SCM allows a thermodynamically consistent calculation of the species distribution between liquid and solid phase combined with more reliable inter- and extrapolations. However, this requires that all mineral constituents of the solid phase are characterized. Another issue is the large number of required parameters combined with time-consuming iterations. Addressing both approaches, we present two sorption databases, developed mainly by or under participation of the Forschungszentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (FZD). Both databases are implemented as relational databases, assist identification of critical data gaps and the evaluation of existing parameter sets, provide web based data search and analyses and permit the comparison of SCM predictions with Kd values. RES3T (Rossendorf Expert System for Surface and Sorption Thermodynamics) is a digitized thermodynamic sorption database (see www.fzd.de/db/RES3T.login) and free of charge. It is mineral-specific and can therefore also be used for additive models of more complex solid phases. ISDA (Integrated Sorption Database System) connects SCM with the Kd concept but focuses on conventional Kd. The integrated datasets are accessible through a unified user interface. An application case, Kd values in Performance Assessment, is given.
The Ruprechtov Natural Analogue (CZ) Programme has been focused on studying real system processes, relevant to performance assessment (PA) of sediment formations that can form the overburden of geological repository host rocks. The site has been extensively studied due to its geological constitution (granite – kaolin – clay – U mineralisation – organic matter). The presented study used Ruprechtov unique but well-described geological conditions in order to identify and characterise mobile organic matter (MOM) that can be easily released into groundwater and can influence PA relevant specie migration due to complexation/sorption reaction. The modern analytical method MALDI-TOF MS was used for characterisation. It was found that only a small fraction of sedimentary natural organic matter (NOM) from the site was easily releasable (max. 5%) as MOM, resulting in low organic substance concentration in natural groundwater. MOM amount released was decreasing with increasing NOM content. MALDI-TOF MS proved to be a useful tool to characterize organic substances, either natural ones or artificially released from natural organic matter samples. A noticeable fingerprint for all the MOM compounds analysed was found at MALDI-TOF MS spectra. This showed that MOM from the Ruprechtov site was in all cases composed of molecules with low molecular weight (under 1000 Da). As determined by the consequent geochemical analyses, despite groundwater reducing conditions MOM compounds would be mainly interacting with U(VT) in the groundwater, being present as more abundant U specie. Good correspondence of results enabled to consider the extracted humic acid HA 12/3 as a mobile organic matter fraction representative.
Groundwater data from the natural analogue site Ruprechtov have been evaluated with special emphasis on the uranium behaviour in the so-called uranium-rich clay/lignite horizon. In this horizon in-situ Eh-values in the range of −160 to −280 mV seem to be determined by the SO42−/HS− couple. Under these conditions U(IV) is expected to be the preferential redox state in solution. However, on-site measurements in groundwater from the clay/lignite horizon show only a fraction of about 20% occurring in the reduced state U(IV). Thermodynamic calculations reveal that the high CO2 partial pressure in the clay/lignite horizon can stabilise hexavalent uranium, which explains the occurrence of U(VI). The calculations also indicate that the low uranium concentrations in the range between 0.2 and 2.1μg/l are controlled by amorphous UO2 and/or the U(IV) phosphate mineral ningyoite. This confirms the findings from previous work that the uranium (IV) mineral phases are long-term stable under the reducing conditions in the clay/lignite horizon without any signatures for uranium mobilisation. It supports the current knowledge of the geological development of the site and is also another important indication for the long-term stability of the sedimentary system itself, namely of the reducing geochemical conditions in the near-surface (30m to 60 m deep) clay/lignite horizon. Further work with respect to the impact of changes in redox conditions on the uranium speciation is on the way.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.