Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T02:59:37.715Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Microbiology of The Maqarin Site, Jordan - A Natural Analogue for Cementitious Radioactive Waste Repositories

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 February 2011

Julia M West ,
Patricia Coombs ,
Susan J Gardner  and
Christopher A Rochelle
Julia M West
Affiliation:
Fluid Processes Group, British Geological Survey, Keyworth, Nottingham NG12 5GG, UK.
Patricia Coombs
Affiliation:
Fluid Processes Group, British Geological Survey, Keyworth, Nottingham NG12 5GG, UK.
Susan J Gardner
Affiliation:
Fluid Processes Group, British Geological Survey, Keyworth, Nottingham NG12 5GG, UK.
Christopher A Rochelle
Affiliation:
Fluid Processes Group, British Geological Survey, Keyworth, Nottingham NG12 5GG, UK.
Get access

Abstract

The Maqarin site, Jordan is being studied as a natural analogue of a cementitious radioactive waste repository. The microbiology has been studied and diverse microbial populations capable of tolerating alkaline pH were detected at all sampling localities. Dissolved organic carbon was identified as the potentially most important reductant with sulphate identified as the main oxidant, both supplying energy for microbial life. Calculations on upper limits of microbial numbers were made with a microbiology code (MGSE) using existing information but the results are overestimates when compared with field observations. This indicates that the model is very conservative and that more information on, for example, carbon sources is required.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 353: Symposium – Scientific Basis for Nuclear Waste Management XVIII , 1994 , 181
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

1. Abed, A.M. and Amireh, B. S., J. Petrol. Geol. 5/3, 261–274. (1983).Google Scholar
2. Clark, I. D., Khoury, H. N., Salameh, E., Fritz, P., Seidlitz, H. K. and Milodowski, A. E., in Proceedings of the 7th International Symposium on Water-Rock Interaction - WRI-7 edited by Kharaka, Y. K. and Maest, A. S. (Elsevier, 1992) pp 1485–1489.Google Scholar
3. Alexander, W. R. (Ed), NAGRA NTB 91–10. NAGRA, Wettingen, Switzerland. 1992.Google Scholar
4. Tweed, C. J., (Ed), NAGRA NTB 94–XX (in preparation) NAGRA, Wettingen, Switzerland. 1994.Google Scholar
5. West, J. M., Cave, M., Higgo, J. J. W., Milodowski, A. E., Rochelle, C. A. and Ross, C. A. M. in Scientific Basis for Nuclear Waste Management XV edited by Sombret, C.G. (Mater. Res. Soc. Proc. 257, Strasbourg, France 1992) pp. 729–736.Google Scholar
6. Rochelle, C. A., Noy, D. J., , D. J. and West, J. M., Abstract for 1993 Symposium on Subsurface Microbiology, Bath, UK. 1993.Google Scholar
7. Capon, P. and Grogan, H., Unpublished NAGRA internal report, NAGRA, Wettingen, Switzerland. 1991.Google Scholar
8. Collins, V. G. Proc. Soc. Water Treat. Exam. 12, 40–67 (1963).Google Scholar
9. Christofi N., and Philp, J. C., in Diversity of Environmental Biogeochemistry, edited by Berthelin, J. (Elsevier. Amsterdam, 1991) pp. 245–256.Google Scholar
10. Postgate, J. R., The Sulphate-Reducing Bacteria (2nd Ed), (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1984), p. 32.Google Scholar
11. West, J. M., McKinley, I. G. and Vialta, A.. J. Geochem. Explor. 45, 439–449 (1992).Google Scholar
12. Ehrlich, H. L., Geomicrobiologv 2nd ed. (Marcel Dekker Inc, New York, 1990), p. 520.Google Scholar
13. Grogan, H. A. and McKinley, I. G., NAGRA NTB 89–06. NAGRA, Wettingen, Switzerland. 1990.Google Scholar
14. Stroes-Gascoyne, S., Atomic Energy of Canada Limited report, AECL-9574. 1989.Google Scholar
15. Chapelle, F. H., Groundwater Microbiology and Geochemistry, (John Wiley, New York, 1993), p. 68.Google Scholar
16. West, J. M., Grogan, H. A. and McKinley, I. G., in Diversity of Environmental Biogeochemistry, edited by Berthelin, J. (Elsevier. Amsterdam, 1991) pp. 205–215.Google Scholar