The Poços De Caldas Project: Natural Analogues of Processes in a Radioactive Waste Repository

The safe disposal of radioactive wastes by burial in deep geological formations requires long-term predictions of the future behaviour of the wastes and their engineered repository. Such predictions can be tested by evaluating processes analogous to those which will occur in a repository, which have been long active in the natural geochemical environment. The Poços de Caldas Project is a comprehensive study of two ore deposits in Minas Gerais, Brazil, aimed at looking at uranium and thorium series radionuclide and rare-earth element mobility, the development and movement of redox fronts, and.