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The EL Berrocal Project: Geological Characterisation and Radionuclide Migration Studies in a Fractured Granitic Environment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 February 2011

W. M. Miller ,
L. Pérez Villar ,
P. Gómez ,
M. Ivanovich ,
B. de la Cruz ,
P. Rivas ,
P. Hernán ,
J. Carrera ,
J. Guimerà  and
D. Holmes
...Show all authors
W. M. Miller
Affiliation:
Intera Information Technologies Ltd., Melton Mowbray, UK
L. Pérez Villar
Affiliation:
Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológias (CIEMAT), Madrid, Spain
P. Gómez
Affiliation:
Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológias (CIEMAT), Madrid, Spain
M. Ivanovich
Affiliation:
AEA Technology, Analytical Services Group, Harwell, UK
B. de la Cruz
Affiliation:
Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológias (CIEMAT), Madrid, Spain
P. Rivas
Affiliation:
Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológias (CIEMAT), Madrid, Spain
P. Hernán
Affiliation:
Empresa Nacional de Residuos Radioactivos, SA (ENRESA), Madrid, Spain
J. Carrera
Affiliation:
Centro Internacional de Métodos Numéricos en Ingeniería, Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña, Barcelona, Spain
J. Guimerà
Affiliation:
Centro Internacional de Métodos Numéricos en Ingeniería, Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña, Barcelona, Spain
D. Holmes
Affiliation:
British Geological Survey, Keyworth, UK
S. Avogadro
Affiliation:
JRC, Environment Institute, Ispra, Italy
J.-M. Fernández
Affiliation:
Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique, Cadarache, France
J. Bruno
Affiliation:
Intera Information Technologies SL, Cerdanyola, Spain
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Abstract

El Berrocal is an abandoned uranium mine in a mineralised quartz vein hosted by a Hercynian granite in central Spain. This mine is the focus of an international project to characterise and model natural elemental migration in a fractured-rock environment as an aid to understanding and predicting processes that may occur in a geological repository for radioactive wastes.

Uranium in the mineralised quartz vein has been shown to have originated from the orthomagmatic uraninite in the granite with the elemental removal and migration occurring predominately by hydrothermal fluids. Mobilisation of uranium from the mineralised quartz vein and from granite adjacent to hydraulically-active fractures away from the vein occurred over the geologically-recent past and in the present-day. The most recent mobilisation is evidenced by dissolution features seen in SEM photomicrographs; mineral growth and sorption signatures identified by enhanced uranium concentrations on the surfaces of preexisting minerals; and measured disequilibrium in the uranium series for whole rock close to fracture walls.

Present-day groundwaters in the studied area are young meteoric waters. They are generally calcium-sulphate enriched, oxidising and mildly acidic near the surface, becoming more bicarbonate-rich with near neutral pH in the deeper zones, except around the mineralised vein where the waters are acid (pH around 3) due to oxidisation of the sulphide minerals. No deep, chemically-reducing groundwaters have yet been identified in the El Berrocal boreholes.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 353: Symposium – Scientific Basis for Nuclear Waste Management XVIII , 1994 , 1243
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1995

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References

REFERENCES

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