Alteration of glasses by micro-organisms

Micro-organisms are suspected to play a basic part in materials alteration. Obviously, they will be present in nuclear waste repositories, either introduced by technological activity or laid by fluids circulation. Their metabolism may induce chemical modifications to the surrounding media and then affect the durability of storage materials. Biodegradation of glasses is studied in the Pierre Sue Laboratory. In the frame of a collaboration with microbiologists interested in stained glasses alteration, leaching experiments with various species of bacteria and fungi are carried out. Ion beam analysis techniques are performed to quantify surface modification of glasses and elemental incorporation in micro-organisms. Analyses of the solutions will lead to a complete assessment of elemental exchanges between glass sample, culture media and micro-organisms. In this paper, preliminary results on characterisation of glasses and micro-organisms and the first results of leaching experiments are presented. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.