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The humic acid complexation reaction presented in this work is based on the concept of metal ion charge neutralization upon complexation to humic acid functional groups. Experimental results from the complexation of UOi + , Am 1+ , and Cm'' with humic acids of different origin are presented to demonstrate and validate the proposed model. By introducing the operational humic acid concentration and the loading capacity, the complexation constants are derived, which are independent of the metal ion concentration, pH, and origin of humic acid. The loading capacity is an operational term needed for the intercomparison of stability constants and is the mole fraction of the maximum available complexing sites of humic acid under a given set of experimental conditions. The metal ion charge neutralization model adequately describes the thermodynamic equilibrium reaction of metal ions with humic acid and allows a direct application of the resulting stability constants for geochemical modeling of actinide migration at an environmentally relevant pH.

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