Seminar: Actinide Analytical Chemistry Capabilities at Los Alamos National Laboratory

Abstract

Actinide analytical chemistry capabilities at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) play a critical role in the science and technology efforts to protect our nation and to promote world stability. Within unique infrastructures for handling special nuclear materials, these capabilities support the nation’s plutonium material characterization/certification and plutonium-238 heat source fabrication, as well as nuclear forensic studies sponsored by multiple agencies; FBI, DHS and IC. Currently, we are challenged by a common but urgent issue faced by nuclear industries around the world: decommissioning our aging nuclear facility and relocating into a new, but low hazard category radiological facility. At LANL, the actinide analytical chemistry operations in the historic Chemistry and Metallurgy Research (CMR) nuclear facility are undergoing such a transition to the new Radiological Laboratory Utility Office Building (RLUOB). The success of this transition relies on scientists to modify current operations and develop new methodologies in order to accommodate the stringent facility material-at-risk (MAR) allowance by the Department of Energy. This presentation will demonstrate various efforts in MAR reduction and new technology development.

About the Speaker

Dr. Ning Xu came to the United States in 1990 with a Master’s degree in Environmental Chemistry from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. She received her Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from the University of Kentucky in 1994 and was as a National Research Council postdoctoral fellow at the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) groundwater research center in Ada, OK. Dr. Xu worked on groundwater contamination monitoring and remediation for eight years at the EPA prior to joining Los Alamos National Laboratory in 2006. Currently, she is a scientist within the Actinide Analytical Chemistry group in the Chemistry Division and is leading a team in transitioning the country’s crucial actinide analytical chemistry capabilities from a historic nuclear facility to a newly built radiological facility.

Hosted by Professor Lei R. Cao