Sorption of Am(III) on clays and clay minerals: A review

The problem connected to the long-term storage of high-level nuclear waste has initiated an extensive search for suitable host rock formations and backfill materials to guarantee an isolation of hazardous nuclear elements from the biosphere for thousands of years. Besides other alternatives, clays and clayey materials have been in the focus of various sorption studies. With respect to long-term predictions of migration processes, the transuranium elements and fission products are of particular interest. The present review gives a detailed summary of sorption studies conducted during the past decades describing the impact of various geochemical parameters on the immobilization of Am(III) by different clays and clay minerals.