$2.8 million study to test if microbes can grow in Canada’s national facility for nuclear waste & More News Here

With Canada getting nearer to shifting all its spent nuclear gas to a single facility, and encasing every gas container in bentonite clay, researchers are finding out whether or not that clay might help microbial life – which might eat away at the metallic containers. 

“I’ve found that microbial life always surprises us,” says Myrna Simpson, one of many researchers and a professor in University of Toronto Scarborough’s division of bodily and environmental sciences. “Microbes will grow in the strangest places.”

The proposed storage facility, known as a deep geological repository (DGR), would sit 500 to 800 metres underground in one in all two Ontario websites. Every room storing nuclear waste shall be packed and sealed with bentonite clay, a swelling materials that helps dissipate warmth and reduces water motion when packed tightly.

But the clay is mined from a pure deposit in Wyoming and can inevitably arrive embedded with tiny bits of natural matter. Microbes will even be in the clay and rock surrounding the facility, and in groundwater which will cross via it. Some of that microbial life might produce sulfide, a chemical compound that might lead to corrosion of the metallic containers holding the used gas.

Myrna Simpson is a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Integrative Molecular Biogeochemistry and works out of the Simpson Lab at U of T Scarborough (picture by Ken Jones)

To test if the microbes can grow, the group constructing Canada’s DGR, the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO), introduced collectively Simpson and professors Josh Neufeld and Greg Slater from the University of Waterloo and McMaster University, respectively. Their five-year study was lately awarded $2.8 million in funding from the brand new NSERC Alliance grant program.

“My lab has the capability to study the organic matter chemistry, but what does that mean in terms of the microbiology?” says Simpson. “By combining forces with professors Neufeld and Slater, we can put results together in a holistic manner.”

The workforce will study samples of groundwater and surrounding rock on the two proposed websites for the DGR, close to Ignace in northern Ontario and in southwestern Ontario’s South Bruce space. Their outcomes will add to a knowledge set that can assist the NWMO determine on a location, together with different facets of the undertaking. 

“If we find conditions that promote microbial growth, then this information can be factored into the DGR’s design to minimize potential risks,” Simpson says.

Researchers to replicate situations deep underground

Canada has about three million bundles of used nuclear gas, which comprise the stable uranium that powers nuclear reactors. They’re saved in above-ground containers at seven amenities throughout the nation, with 90,000 added yearly. The containers solely final about 50 to 100 years, however used nuclear gas have to be saved for one million years earlier than its radiation ranges return to that of naturally occurring uranium ore. For Canada – and virtually each nation that commercially produces nuclear energy – the answer is a DGR.

A DGR is a community of tunnels that join rooms of used nuclear gas. Canada plans to place each gas bundle in a specialised metallic container, which is able to then be encased in a field of extremely compacted bentonite clay. Boxes shall be stacked one huge and two excessive, then all empty areas in the room shall be filled with clay and sealed with a wall of it.  

“The microbes are going to drive the chemistry,” Simpson says. “If the chemistry changes, then you have an entirely different scenario in terms of stability. This is something we will test collaboratively.”

 

 

The analysis workforce is being led by Neufeld, who will study the methods bentonite clay can help microbial life. Slater will complement his analysis with insights into microbes which may change into energetic. Meanwhile, Simpson will study how natural matter discovered in the clay and DGR might react to microbial life.

Though their analysis can’t absolutely simulate being 500 metres underground, Simpson says most situations of the DGR can be replicated in the lab or studied in equal geological settings. The workforce can simulate how the clay is packed, density, temperature, salt content material of the groundwater and different situations of the facility.

“Working with professors Neufeld and Slater will yield new and integrated knowledge regarding how microbes can grow and co-operate underground, and what conditions prevent their activities,” Simpson says. “This partnership has many benefits and I’m excited to be a part of this team.”

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