Los Alamos hosts international plutonium meeting in Santa Fe

Contact: Jim Danneskiold, slinger@lanl.gov, (505) 667-1640 (00-093)

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LOS ALAMOS, N.M., July 8, 2000 -- The science of plutonium and how current research in the field can enhance global nuclear security are among major topics for "Plutonium Futures-The Science," a conference that begins Sunday, July 9 at La Fonda in Santa Fe.

Sponsored by the Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory, the meeting will run until Thursday, July 13, and include talks by international experts in chemistry, physics, and in materials, nuclear and environmental science. More than 40 talks and nearly 150 technical poster sessions are scheduled.

Scheduled to talk during the opening session on Monday are Nikolai Ponomarev-Stepnoi of the Kurchatov Institute; former Los Alamos Director Sig Hecker; Thomas Cochran of the Natural Resources Defense Council; Leo Brewer of the University of California Department of Chemistry; and Vladimir Onoufriev of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Media representatives are welcome to attend Monday's session or any other sessions. A complete program and information about the conference is available at http://www.lanl.gov/pu2000.html.

"We plan to examine what we currently know about the chemical and physical properties of plutonium and the other actinides and focus on the science needed to solve the important national and international issues associated with plutonium," said one of the conference organizers, David Clark of Los Alamos' Nuclear Materials Technology Division, who heads the Glenn T. Seaborg Institute for Transactinium Science.

"We hope the conference will provide a forum to help increase interest - especially among students - define issues and improve capabilities in the field," Clark added.

Among the broad range of scientific topics in plutonium and actinide sciences to be covered are actinides in the environment and the science underlying plutonium disposition. Some major subtopics at the conference include separations; matrix interactions; materials compatibility; plutonium metallurgy; detection and analysis; environmental and biosphere chemistry; nuclear fuels; and novel compounds and complexes of plutonium and other actinides.

More than 325 researchers from all over the world are expected to attend. Los Alamos sponsored a previous conference on plutonium sciences in August 1997.

General chairs for the conference are Hecker and Bruce Matthews, former director of Los Alamos' Nuclear Materials Technology Division; program chairs are K.C. Kim and K. K. S. Pillay, also of NMT Division.

More news releases from the Nuclear Materials Technology (NMT) Division