Shock Basaltic Glasses from Lonar Lake, Maharashtra: a Potential Natural Analogue of Nuclear Waste Glasses

Abstract

One of the most critical issues in nuclear waste management is the extrapolation of material and system behavior from Short-Term laboratory experiments, typically on the order of Two-Three years to thousands of years. Natural rhyolitic and basaltic glasses serve as potential natural analogues of nuclear waste glasses for providing insight on the long term performance assessment of these High-Level radioactive waste forms over thousands of years in a deep geological repository. In spite of compositional variation, a remarkable phenomenal similarity exists among these glasses in terms of alteration mechanism, rates and products when subjected to alteration by both fresh as well as marine waters. In this note, the geochemistry of shock glasses from world famous impact crater of Lonar Lake, Buldana district, Maharashtra is evaluated to assess its suitability for use as a natural analogue of waste glasses.