Guide to reference groundwater and porewater compositions
This report has been prepared by British Geological Survey, under contract, in support of the UK Geological Disposal Facility Programme.
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This guide provides a summary of available data and information relating to the chemical compositions of groundwaters and porewaters within a defined group of Lower-Strength Sedimentary Rocks (LSSRs) across England, including the Kimmeridge Clay Formation (KCF), Oxford Clay Formation (OCF) and Mercia Mudstone Group (MMG).
The available data have been collated as a first step towards the production of a set of ‘reference’ chemical compositions of waters typical in these LSSR’s. These are intended to encompass the compositional ranges likely to be encountered in a Geological Disposal Facility (GDF) during construction, operation, and post-closure. In the absence of data from within Nuclear Waste Services’ (NWS’) current GDF search areas, data derived from borehole samples in other geological basins is presented and geochemical modelling is used to derive representative compositions for the geological regions of interest. The intended uses of the data include technical development activities for the GDF programme, including for example radiochemistry safety assessments, materials investigations, and engineering design.
Authors: P L Smedley; J M Bearcock; A J Newell; M A Stewart; R Metcalfe; R Zagorscak; M Bailey