Salt-concrete

Construction material used to reduce water inflow in radioactive waste repositories in salt rock

Salt-concrete (or salzbeton) is a building material that is used to reduce the water inflow in mining shafts in salt mines. It is composed of 16% cement, 39% halite, 16% limestone powder, 14% water and 15% sand.[1]

## History

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Salt-concrete was used for the first time in 1984 in the potash mine in Rocanville in Canada.[2] A salt-concrete seal was also installed in the Asse II mine in Lower Saxony in 1995.[3]

## Filling tunnels

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Since the end of the repository for radioactive waste Morsleben in 1998, the salt dome stability deteriorated to a state where it could collapse. Since 2003, a volume of 480,000 m3 of salt-concrete has been pumped into the pit to temporarily stabilize the upper levels. In addition another 4,000,000 m3 of salt-concrete will be used to temporarily stabilize the lower levels.[4]

## See also

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* Friedel's salt
* synthesized first by Georges Friedel
* Sorel cement
* produced first by Stanislas Sorel
* Saltcrete

## References

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1. ^ pumpversatz Archived 2011-07-18 at the Wayback Machine
2. ^ Thyssen
3. ^ Investigation of a Salt-concrete seal Archived 2006-09-30 at the Wayback Machine
4. ^ "Endlager für radioaktive Abfälle Morsleben (ERAM)". Archived from the original on 2009-02-26.