Impact of dry density and incomplete saturation on microbial growth in bentonite clay for nuclear waste storage

Many countries are in the process of designing a deep geological repository (DGR) for long-term storage of used nuclear fuel. For several designs, used fuel containers will be placed belowground, with emplacement tunnels being backfilled using a combination of highly compacted powdered bentonite clay buffer boxes surrounded by a granulated "gapfill" bentonite. To limit the potential for microbiologically influenced corrosion of used fuel containers, identifying conditions that suppress microbial growth is critical for sustainable DGR design. This study investigated microbial communities in powdered and gapfill bentonite clay incubated in oxic pressure vessels at dry densities between 1.1 g cm-3 (i.e. below repository target) and 1.6 g cm-3 (i.e. at or above repository target) as a 1-year time series.

Our results showed an initial (i.e. 1 month) increase in the abundance of culturable heterotrophs associated with all dry densities <1.6 g cm-3, which reveals growth during transient low-pressure conditions associated with the bentonite saturation process. Following saturation, culturable heterotroph abundances decreased to those of starting material by the 6-month time point for all 1.4 and 1.6 g cm-3 pressure vessels, and the most probable numbers of culturable sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) remained constant for all vessels and time points. The 16S rRNA gene sequencing results showed a change in microbial community composition from the starting material to the 1-month time point, after which time most samples were dominated by sequences associated with Pseudomonas, Bacillus, Cupriavidus, and Streptomyces. Similar taxa were identified as dominant members of the culture-based community composition, demonstrating that the dominant members of the clay microbial communities are viable. Members of the spore-forming Desulfosporosinus genus were the dominant SRB for both clay and culture profiles.

After initial microbial growth while bentonite was below target pressure in the early phases of saturation, microbial growth in pressure vessels with dry densities of at least 1.4 g cm-3 was eventually suppressed as bentonite neared saturation.