The Effect of alkaline alteration on sorption properties of sedimentary rock

Shimoda, Satoko*; Nakazawa, Toshiyuki*; Kato, Hiroyasu*; Tachi, Yukio  ; Seida, Yoshimi*

The potential effect of alkaline perturbation caused by the cementitious materials must be evaluated in the performance assessment for HLW geological disposal. In this study, sorption of Cs, Ni and Th was investigated using the altered and unaltered samples of sedimentary rock from Horonobe underground research laboratory. The K values of Cs, Ni and Th measured by batch method using synthetic groundwater changed as a function of degrees of alteration. The K values of Cs increased with increasing degrees of alteration, indicating secondary minerals contributes to the increase in Cs sorption by ion exchange mechanism. On the other hand, the K values of Ni and Th decreased with the increase of degrees of alteration. This change may be caused by dissolution of clay minerals controlling Ni and Th sorption by surface complexation. These results imply that the effect of alkaline perturbation on K values of rocks depend on the surface property of the altered rock and sorption mechanism.