Technical Report NTB 93-03

Natural Analogue Studies in the Geological Disposal of Radioactive Wastes

1 Introduction
1.1  The concept of geological disposal
1.2  What is a natural analogue?
1.3  Reasoning by analogy
1.4  Perception of natural analogue studies
1.5  Previous natural analogue reviews
1.6  Scope of the book

2 The disposal concepts
2.1  Swiss disposal concept
2.2  Swedish disposal concepts
2.3  British disposal concept

3 Selecting analogue studies
3.1  Chemical analogues
3.2  Natural analogue environments

4 Analogues of Repository Materials
4.1  Glasses
4.2  Spent fuel
4.3  Metals
4.4  Bentonite
4.5  Concretes and cements
4.6  Bitumen
4.7  Cellulose
4.8  Polymers and resins

5 Radionuclide release and transport
5.1  Radionuclide solubility and speciation
5.2  Retardation processes
5.3  Matrix diffusion
5.4  Radiolysis
5.5  Redox fronts
5.6  Colloids
5.7  Microbiological activity
5.8  Gas generation and migration

6 Applying natural analogue information
6.1  Natural analogues in published performance assessments
6.2  The reality of analogue application
6.3  How natural analogues should be used in performance assessment
6.4  Non-performance assessment applications

7 Status of natural analogue studies
7.1  Natural analogues of repository materials
7.2  Natural analogues of radionuclide release and transport processes
7.3  Summary

8 Conclusions

A Descriptions of natural analogue studies
A.1    Oklo
A.2    Poços de Caldas
A.3    Cigar Lake
A.4    Tono
A.5    Alligator Rivers
A.6    Palmottu
A.7    Oman
A.8    Maqarin
A.9    Loch Lomond
A.10  Broubster
A.11  Needle's Eye
A.12  South Terras
A.13  Kronan
A.14  Inchtuthil