Publikationsrepositorium - Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf

Argillaceous rock is one option for hosting radioactive waste repositories in deep geological formations in Germany. Furthermore, clays are considered as backfill material in a variety of nuclear repository types. While South German clay deposits have ionic strengths below 0.5 mol kg^-1, the ionic strengths found in North German clay deposits can be as high as 4.5 mol kg^-1. Radionuclide retention by clays at such high ionic strengths is rarely investigated and therefore dealt with in the present work.
Montmorillonite serves as model clay in uranium sorption experiments. NaCl is used as background electrolyte. The sorption data generated in the experiments are then processed with surface complexation models to generate thermodynamic formation constants.