Strategic direction

The comprehensive set of mechanical testing capabilities in Structure/Property Relations (MST-8) complement ongoing efforts to improve constitutive performance predictive codes for the Nuclear Weapons program, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science. Our current research directions focus on increased fidelity in the inclusion of microstructure and processing effects.

Modeling and simulation of nuclear materials is a growth area and MST-8 plays a major role in two new DOE efforts—the Nuclear Energy Innovation Hub and the Energy Frontier Research Center—and has several long-range projects supported by the directed research component of the Los Alamos Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD-DR) program. These activities are complemented by the unique capabilities of the Ion Beam Materials Laboratory.

Nuclear fuels synthesis and preparation of mock samples is a major and growing activity for MST-8 and in 2011 will be complemented by a new LDRD-DR focusing on methods for accelerating the testing of nuclear waste—as part of a broader initiative exploring disposition approaches.

The development and realization of neutron-based characterization tools at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center and photon-based tools are a major part of our characterization efforts and MST-8 staff are involved in defining MaRIE (Matter-Radiation Interactions in Extremes) the Laboratory's signature experimental facility