Abstract
A highly weathered deposit of thorium and rare earth elements located near the summit of a hill in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, is being studied as an analogue for a radioactive waste repository that sometime in the distant future may be eroded to the surface or intruded by groundwater Thorium serves as an analogue for Pu4+, and La3+ as an analogue for Cm3+ and Am3+ The mobilization rate constants of the analogue elements by groundwater are so slow (of the order of 10−9 per year) as to suggest that essentially complete radioactive decay of the transuranic actinides would occur in place even under the relatively unfavorable conditions that exist at a site such as this
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Eisenbud, M., Krauskopf, K., Franca, E.P. et al. Natural analogues for the transuranic actinide elements: An investigation in Minas Gerais, Brazil. Environ. Geol. Water Sci 6, 1–9 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02525564
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02525564