Bacterial diversity and production of sulfide in microcosms containing uncompacted bentonites.

The use of carbon-supplemented, clay-in-water microcosms offered insights into the bacterial diversity present in as-received clays, along with the types of metabolic and sulfidogenic reactions that might occur in regions of a DGR (, interfaces between the bulk clay and host rock, cracks, fissures, ) that fail to attain target parameters necessary to inhibit microbial growth and activity.