Natural immobilization processes aid the understanding of long-term evolution of deep geological radioactive waste repositories

The majority of readers of Geochemistry: Exploration, Environment, Analysis (GEEA) are doubtless well aware of the numerous geochemical studies of ore bodies around the world (e.g. GEEA 2005), and the natural interest that the nuclear power industry has in uranium ore bodies in particular as the ultimate source of fuel for nuclear power plants (NPPs). Perhaps fewer are aware, however, of the interest that the power industry also has in uranium ore bodies as indicators of long-term isolation of radioactive wastes ('radwastes') produced by the very same NPPs. Admittedly, this is a relatively young field of study, going back less than three decades to the pioneering work on the Oklo natural reactor site in The Gabon in West Africa and the Morro do Ferro Th-rare-earth element (REE) body in Brazil (see Table 1 for details).