Redox kinetics and colloid formation during water-chlorite interactions

Abstract:

For the isolation of high-level radioactive wastes from biosphere, the deep geological repository should be maintained reducing conditions. Surface groundwater can flow along fractures into the deep geological repository, which may cause oxic conditions. In the oxic conditions, uranium can be oxidized from U(Ⅳ) to U(Ⅵ) and U(Ⅵ) can easily migrate in groundwater due to its high mobility. Chlorite with Fe(Ⅱ), which is a phyllosilicate minerals generally occurred in fractures, can help maintenance of the reducing condition because chlorite can consume oxidizing agents by redox reactions. In this study, redox kinetics of chlorite were investigated by conducting redox batch kinetic tests at various conditions (i.e., concentration of oxidizing agent, pH, and presence of NaCl). Colloidal particle formation during redox reactions of chlorite was also investigated. Two types of chlorite samples: low iron content (CCa-2) and high iron content (Chlorite from Daejeon, South Korea) were used. Redox batch kinetic tests were conducted for 60 days. The solutions, reactants, and colloidal particles collected from the redox batch kinetic tests every 10 days were characterized. Results show that the concentration of oxidizing agent decreased more in the chlorite sample having higher Fe(Ⅱ) content than that having lower Fe(Ⅱ) content. After 10 days, both the chlorite samples tend to be reached steady-state conditions and then no changes in the concentration of oxidizing agent were observed. SEM analysis shows that surface and edge of the chlorite samples tend to be crispy and smoothy with increasing reaction time. SEM-EDS analysis on colloidal particles shows that colloidal particles consisted of Fe and O, which were identified as ferrihydrite.