The concept of storing radioactive waste in geological formations calls for large quantities of concrete that will be in contact with the clay material of the engineered barriers as well as with the geological formation. France, Switzerland and Belgium are studying the option of clayey geological formations. The clay and cement media have very contrasted chemistries that will interact and lead ...

Several observations of the Nb long-lived Mossbauer phenomena are presented, in consequence of an irradiation increased by an order of magnitude compared with previous work. These are 1) two β decays of 182Ta and 92mNb are enhanced, i.e., 182Ta is now 200 times faster than in previous results while 92mNb is twice as fast as normal; 2) γs emitted from two β decays compete to eject electrons in a...

A very simple and dirrct radioactive isotope m&hod has been tlwcl~ibed for the quantitative determination of reducing sugars. The method can be adapted to give any degrtte of sensitivity desired. The procedure is of general applicability to the determination of a large class of sugars. The stoichiometry of the reaction makes it a comprehensive procedure which greatly facilitates the analysis of...

A probabilistic risk analysis (PRA) for a high-level radioactive waste repository is very important since it gives an estimate of its health impacts, allowing comparisons to be made with the health impacts of competing technologies. However, it is extremely difficult to develop a credible PRA for a specific repository site because of large uncertainties in future climate, hydrology, geological ...