July 16th, 2021

Remember when we talked about radioactive pollution in our previous blogs? If so, you must remember that radioactive pollution also means HUGE amounts of radioactive waste that many countries do not know how to dispose of. Radioactive waste is a huge issue as it releases radioactive particles that can impact human health and the environment. Radioactive waste decays overtime, but while it decays, it emits certain radioactive atoms that are harmful to humans if exposed to it, called radionuclides. This is why it's all the more important to store this waste in a proper way until it decays into non-radioactive elements.

A recent Belgian concept for disposing of nuclear waste underground has caught many countries' attention. This concept encourages deep geological radioactive nuclear waste disposal, meaning, the storage of radioactive waste deep underground. Even the French radioactive waste disposal agency, Andra, is designing a deep geological repository in clays at Bure in eastern France.

But, what is boom clay exactly ? Boom clay is a type of sedimentary formation deposited many millions of year ago about 290 meters below the mol-dessel, in Belgium. The clay is a very plastic type of rock. It does not let radionuclides –that radioactive waste emits – to escape it.

So, the process goes like this, high level radioactive nuclear waste is placed in high integrity steel containers and then emplaced in excavated tunnels approximately 230 meters deep within a ductile (self-sealing) clay – the Boom clay. This will inhibit any radionuclides from escaping the containers as the radioactive waste decays. This type of "high level waste" (HLW) will stay underground until the radioactivity of it decays, which takes about 1,000 - 10, 000 years.

All in all, Boom Clay is an efficient way for storing any radioactive waste underground, without it harming the environment or human health, until that waste has decayed into non-radioactive waste.