Practical Modeling of aluminum species in high-pH waste

One of the main components of the nuclear waste stored at the Hanford Site is aluminum. As efforts are made to dispose of the waste, the need to predict the various phases of the aluminum becomes important for modeling of the disposal processes. Current databases of the aluminum species are not adequate as they stand. This study is not an attempt to present a rigorous discussion of aluminum chemistry, but to approach aluminum solubility as a practical application. The approach considers two different forms of aluminate; Al(OH){sub 4}{sup {minus}} and AlO{sub 2}{sup {minus}}. By taking both of these forms of aluminate into consideration, a workable system of aluminium chemistry is formed that can be used to model the various waste disposal processes