Investigations of subterranean microorganisms and their importance for performance assessment of radioactive waste disposal. Results and conclusions achieved during the period 1995 to 1997

摘要

In 1987, microbiology became a part of the Swedish scientific program for the safe disposal of high level nuclear waste (HLW). The goal of the microbiology sub-program is to understand how subterranean microorganisms will interact with the performance of a future HLW repository. The Swedish research program on subterranean microbiology has mainly been performed at two sites in granitic rock aquifers at depths ranging from 70 m down to 1240 m; the Stripa research mine in the middle of Sweden and the Aespoe hard rock laboratory (HRL) situated on the south eastern coast of Sweden. Some work has also been performed in co-operation with other national or international research groups in Sweden, Canada and at the natural analogue sites in Oklo in Gabon and Maqarin in Jordan. The most recent report in the SKB technical report series on microbiology and performance assessment, SKB-TR--95-10, gave the state of the art regarding microorganisms and their importance for performance assessment. That report is recommended as a source of knowledge about basic microbiology, microbial ecology of subterranean environments and the nuclear waste disposal concept in a microbiological perspective. The present report summarises results and conclusions achieved during the period 1995 to 1997 and is a continuation of SKB TR 95-10. The report is structured as summary which explains and analyses the obtained results and conclusions in a performance assessment perspective. The scientific basis for the summary is an enclosed series of eleven papers of which eight have gone through an international peer review process for publication in international scientific journals and reports and papers published earlier. 413 refs, 56 figs, 39 tabs.