New report about bentonite clay!

2017-12-20

A recently produced report by Micans in collaboration with SKB (Swedish Nuclear Fuel Management Company) describes how microbial activity is affected by clay density for two different bentonite clays.

The project has gathered new information on how the bentonite clay will be affected in Sweden's future final repository for spent nuclear fuel, there its task is to be a buffer around the canister containing the radioactive waste. The report shows, among other things, that the choice of clay plays a role and that there are threshold densities that vary between the clays where the microbial activity completely stops. It could also be shown that the bacteria in the clay can use organic carbon that the clay contains and form acetate. The report can be downloaded in full here: http://www.skb.com/publication/2488913/TR-17-05.pdf.