click on photo to enlarge
Here’s the question faced by a team of Sandia National
Laboratories researchers: How fast will iodine-129 released from spent nuclear
fuel move through a deep, clay-based geological repository?
Understanding that process is crucial as countries worldwide
consider underground clay formations for nuclear waste disposal, because clay
offers low permeability and high radionuclide retention. Even when a repository
isn’t sited in clay, engineered barriers often include a compacted buffer of
bentonite, a common type of clay, to improve waste isolation.