Bentonite will be used for a buffer material of radioactive waste disposal facilities in many countries of the world. For the operation of the facilities in the future, the stable supply of bentonite in the long term is necessary. When supply deficiency, quality change and soaring price of bentonite occur due to the demand growth, they would give adverse effects on the radioactive waste disposal project. In this paper, we studied the situation of bentonite production in the world, in particular in China. We also investigated analytical procedures and brief properties of Chinese, Japanese and American bentonite. As a result, however, we identified that the establishment of quality assurance systems for not only production but analytical procedures are necessary to assess evenly the suitability of each bentonite for radioactive waste disposal facilities.
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