Conclusions

Abstract

Throughout this book most of the emphasis has been on rocks, and how radioactive elements, their daughter elements, and analog elements behave in rocks. There are abundant examples given in the preceding chapters that demonstrate and document the simple fact that many rocks will retain and retard the constituent elements of buried radwaste. The Oklo natural reactor of Gabon, and contact zone studies of the Eldora-Bryan stock and Alamosa River Stock, both in Colorado, all show the extreme immobility of radwaste-analog elements, even under elevated temperatures. Further, routine radiometric age determinations indicate that rocks also retain many elements of interest under essentially closed-system conditions for up to billions of years in some cases.