Publications Repository - Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf

Concrete widely serves as an engineering barrier and for waste conditioning in nuclear waste re-positories. Organic additives like poly(hydroxyl)carboxylates are commonly used for tuning the physico-chemical and mechanical properties of fresh concrete. In the worst-case scenario of wa-ter intrusion into the waste repository, the concrete may degrade, so that the soluble organic ad-ditives will be leached out and may form stable radionuclide (RN) complexes. Consequently, for a long-term risk assessment in nuclear waste repositories, the interactions of RNs with cement additives and CSH phases (main phase of cement) must be known. Americium(III) is one of the RN that will determine the radiotoxicity of a waste repository for a long time. As a model com-pound for cement additives malic acid (α-hydroxydicarboxylic acid) was chosen...