EIS study on aerobic corrosion of copper in ground water: influence of micro-organisms

The nuclear waste disposal concept in Finland and Sweden is based on a multi-barrier system, where the spent fuel is placed in a cast iron container that is further enclosed in a copper canister. The copper canisters will be placed vertically in holes bored in a deep bedrock which are then filled with a bentonite clay. The near-field environment of bentonite clay and groundwater is then expected to maintain integrity of the copper canisters for at least 100 000 years. The groundwater at the final disposal depth contains micro-organisms, which may induce or accelerate corrosion of metals. In this study, the microbial communities forming biofilm on copper surfaces in mesocosms simulating the disposal conditions were characterized by bacterial 16S rRNA gene targeted amplicon sequencing.