Microbial effects on high-level waste disposal; Research review and perspective

Onuki, Toshihiko

Various microorganisms have been observed in deep geologic formation. The effects of such microorganisms on the performance of HLW disposal are still unknown. This paper reviews the studies of microbial effects on the long-term contaiment of HLW disposal, and discusses the future work to be carried out. Microbial reduction and oxidation and byproducts derived from microbial activities affect performance of HLW repository and have a potential to enhance actinides migration in geologic formation (degradation of the materials of repository, complex-formation, dissolution of actinides precipitates and occurrence of nm scale colloid formation). Potential microbial perturbation of performance of the barriers may enhance confinement of actinides by biomineralization, bioadsorption, bioaccumulation and precipitation. These studies indicate that further experiments are required to elucidate microbial effects on the performance of HLW disposal.