Assessing high ionic strength solutions: A new activity of the TDB Project

For the past 30 years, the Thermochemical Database (TDB) Project has been actively building a database of chemical thermodynamic values for the most significant elements related to repository performance assessments in the field of radioactive waste management. One of the more unique characteristics of the TDB project is that data from existing primary experimental sources are critically reviewed by experts from universities and research institutes. The selected data are characterised for their accuracy, self-consistency and traceability so as to develop an international high-quality reference in the field. The fifth phase of the project (TDB-5) was initiated in 2014 for a period of four years. During this phase, state-of-the-art reports will also be produced that consist of literature surveys and assessments aiming to analyse and systematise current methods and techniques for the study of waste disposal. The new TDB-5 programme of work envisages the preparation of a state-of-the-art report that will assess the modelling of and experimental approaches used to describe high ionic strength solutions. The report will build on previous TDB work (Modelling in Aquatic Chemistry, 1997) to address high ionic strength systems (I > 3 M), where the Pitzer formulation rather than the SIT approach is usually applied