Understanding the mechanism and process behind the synthesis of artificial clay based samples in the context of radioactive waste disposal

This report, as part of an active collaboration in the EURAD programme, contains an account on the mobility mission which included the preparation of synthetic clay based materials, which are intended for the purposes of experimental testing in the scheme of radioactive waste disposal. The synthetic clay specimens have been conceptualized with the intention of resembling natural host rock formations across Europe (like the Callovo – Oxfordian clays of France, Opalinus Clays in Switzerland and Boom Clay in Belgium), in terms of mineralogy. The mobility programme lasted for 1.5 weeks, with the main objective being the manufacturing of synthetic clay samples in the Keyworth labs of the British Geological Survey, UK. Understanding the mechanism behind the manufacturing process was a key step in my PhD project as it gave me visual and hands on insight into the samples which I will be using for gas diffusion tests, under varying degrees of water saturation.