About Nuclear Materials Science (MST-16)
Our mission is to provide
- Multidisciplinary expertise in actinide materials science using a comprehensive suite of destructive and nondestructive analytical techniques within a category I nuclear facility; and
- The characterization of new and aged pit construction materials, the development of technologies for advanced actinide materials analysis, and the performance of actinide materials science investigations.
Nuclear Materials teams
Dynamic Testing
Materials Properties
Metallography and Microscopy
Surface ScienceMultidisciplinary expertise
The group's multidisciplinary expertise comprises the core actinide materials science and metallurgical capability within the nuclear weapons production and surveillance communities. Destructive and nondestructive analysis of weapons material is performed by the six MST-16 materials science team
The evaluations performed by MST-16 are essential for the Nuclear Weapons Program as well as nuclear materials storage, forensics, and actinide fundamental science.
Alison Costello
One for the team by Diana Del Mauro
Surface Science and Corrosion team staff member Alison Costello and Pittsburgh Steeler Franco Harris
Those who don’t know Alison Costello by name sometimes refer to her as “The Steelers girl.” The team’s logo appears on everything from her Los Alamos lanyard to her black and yellow purse, not to mention her vast wardrobe of fan apparel.
The Pittsburgh native has always been a devoted home team girl. But she never imagined that her love for football and her love for science would converge.
Then, in 2009, while at the airport traveling home for Christmas she spied Pittsburgh Steelers’ Hall of Famer Franco Harris. Like a “giddy 12-year-old girl,” she said she ran over to get his autograph. That’s really all she needed, but she was in for a bigger surprise. Harris invited her to sit by him on the plane.
During the plane ride to Pittsburgh, they discussed articles in his copy of Scientific American. She never knew he was a science buff. Before they parted ways, Harris jotted down his e-mail address, and Costello invited him to visit her at Los Alamos National Laboratory,
where she was a postdoctoral researcher.
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