Characterization of surface processes on mineral surfaces in aqueous solutions. Annual report for fiscal year 1993

摘要

Performance assessments by Los Alamos National Laboratory for the DOE's Yucca Mountain Site Characterization Project (YMP) are being done investigating the environmental risk related to long-term disposal of hazardous wastes resulting from the use of radioactive materials that must subsequently be isolated from the environment. The YMP site, located in southwestern Nevada, is intended for the storage of high-level wastes generated by nuclear energy-related activities, including spent fuel and waste from reprocessed fuel rods. The work covered by this contract is necessary for producing a defensible model and dataset, and may be critical for evaluation of repository compliance. This work, performed by the Environmental Engineering and Science research group at Stanford University, will quantify the adsorption of uranyl on various minerals. The project's principle objective is to provide sorption coefficients for uranyl and other ions of interest to predict radionuclide movements form the repository to accessible environments. This adsorption data is essential for the unambiguous interpretation of field experiments and observations. In this report, details of the activity and progress made with respect to the study of uranyl adsorption on mineral surfaces is presented and discussed.