Electrolyte solutions in alkaline nuclear waste contain aluminate, hydroxide, nitrate and nitrite with sodium as the predominant counterion. The salts of these ions are highly soluble, so the liquids are highly concentrated. This study found that there is a substantial incompatibility between the hydroxide and nitrite and/or nitrate ions. This was determined by the observation that adding just one molal of NaNO₂ or NaNO₃ to saturated NaOH solution results in the precipitation of 10 mol of NaOH•H₂O salt, whereas by the common ion effect only about 1 mole would have been expected to precipitate. Further analysis indicates that the presence of nitrate and nitrite drastically increases the reactivity of sodium hydroxide ions in solution, which likely influences the reactivity of other hydroxide-mediated reactions. This enhanced reactivity is likely due to the disruption of large Na⁺-OH⁻ ion networks, because nitrate and nitrite do not fit into those ion networks, in a similar way to the incompatibility of certain ions with substitution into a foreign crystal lattice. In contrast, the aluminate ion did not have the same large incompatibility with hydroxide.

碱性核废料中的电解质溶液包含铝酸盐，氢氧化物，硝酸盐和亚硝酸盐，钠为主要抗衡离子。这些离子的盐是高度可溶的，因此液体是高度浓缩的。这项研究发现，氢氧根与亚硝酸根和/或硝酸根离子之间存在很大的不相容性。通过观察发现，仅将一摩尔的NaNO ₂或NaNO _3添加到饱和的NaOH溶液中会导致10 mol的NaOH•H ₂沉淀。盐，而由于普通的离子效应，预计只有约1摩尔沉淀。进一步的分析表明，硝酸盐和亚硝酸盐的存在会大大增加溶液中氢氧化钠离子的反应性，这可能会影响其他氢氧化物介导的反应的反应性。这种增强的反应性可能是由于大的Na破坏⁺ -OH ^-离子的网络，因为硝酸盐和亚硝酸盐不适合这些离子的网络，以类似的方式与替代某些离子的不相容性成外晶格。相反，铝酸根离子与氢氧化物不具有相同的大的不相容性。