Chief scientist says goodbye

In our first-year anniversary issue of Actinide Research Quarterly, winter I said "A newsletter is in some sense like a living plant. A plant is constantly absorbing essential elements to synthesize nutrients for its growth, constantly trying to adapt to its changing environment, and constantly in need of nurturing ... "

In our sixth-year anniversary issue, winter 2001, I said "In the end, every human endeavor is a learning process; publishing this newsletter is no exception. We draw immense satisfaction knowing that our readers and the publication team members have journeyed together the past six years on this learning path."

Indeed I have learned a lot and I have enjoyed tremendously seeing the growth of this publication for the past eight years. Now, it is time for me to say farewell to all our readers and move onto another phase of my career. The publication will continue with the remaining dedicated team members under the aegis of the Nuclear Materials Technology Division and Los Alamos National Laboratory. I hope all our present and future readers will support this newsletter with your continued input and encouragement. -K.C. Kim

Editor's note: The Actinide Research Quarterly publications team welcomes its new scientific advisors: David Clark, Gordon Jarvinen, and Web Keogh. All three are members of the Laboratory's Seaborg Institute for Transactinium Science.

Lab hosts second plutonium metal standards exchange workshop

Researchers from six national laboratories and the Atomic Weapons Establishment, Aldermaston, U.K., met in Los Alamos Sept. 10 and 11 for the 2nd Annual Plutonium Metal Standards Exchange Workshop. Participants met with members of the design and production agencies for pit manufacturing to discuss current analytical chemistry results, comparison of current results with Rocky Flats standards, and other issues related to the Plutonium Metal Standards Exchange program.

Los Alamos reestablished the Plutonium Metal Standards Exchange program two years ago. It is a continuation of the Rocky Flats Plutonium Metal Sample Exchange program, which was conducted to ensure the quality and comparability of measurements such as plutonium assay, plutonium isotopics, and impurity analyses. The Rocky Flats program was discontinued in 1989 after more than 30 years.

The purpose of reestablishing the program is to provide participating facilities a way to independently verify their analytical measurement capabilities and to identify problems. At Los Alamos, the focus is pit production and certification measurements.

Under the program, Los Alamos' Actinide Analytical Chemistry (C-AAC) research and development team, in collaboration with Nuclear Materials Management (NMT-4) and Pit Disposition Science and Technology (NMT-15), prepare and distribute plutonium metal samples to various sites.

The samples are then used primarily for destructive measurements to determine elemental concentration, isotopic abundance, and metallic and nonmetallic impurity levels. This data is then statistically evaluated by the C-AAC quality assurance team and Statistical Sciences (D-1) and a report is released semiannually.

Argonne National Laboratories East and West, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, New Brunswick Laboratory, Savannah River Site, and AWE are participating in the exchange program along with Los Alamos.

Reestablishing an overall interlaboratory measurement evaluation program has involved the efforts of many Los Alamos organizations. Key support has come from Distributed Finance (BUS-2); C-AAC; the Chemistry Division Office (C-DO); D-1; Weapons System Engineering (ESA-WSE); the Nuclear Materials Technology Division Office (NMT-DO); NMT-4; NMT-15; and Nuclear Materials Science (NMT-16). For more information on the plutonium metal exchange program or the workshop, contact Lav Tandon (C-AAC) at (505) 665-5458 or tandon@lanl.gov.

Lab team wins White House award

A team from Actinide Process Chemistry (NMT-2) has won a 2002 White House Closing the Circle Award for a unique way to eliminate acid waste at the Plutonium Facility at TA-55. Aquilino Valdez, Ronald Chavez, Benjie T. Martinez, and Don Mullins accepted the award in the recycling category for their Nitric Acid Recovery System. The technology also won a Department of Energy Pollution Prevention Award.

The Nitric Acid Recovery System reconcentrates nitric acid used to purify plutonium at TA-55 and separates a stream of 99.98 percent pure water, with no measurable plutonium. The system also reduces the nitric acid used in processing operations to about 20 percent of the historic usage.

Editor's note

The lead article in our last issue, "Researchers cast first 'spiked' plutonium alloy," reported a major success in replicating how the stockpile ages. We failed to note a historical perspective of radiation-induced aging studies of materials using plutonium 238. The idea of doping materials with plutonium-238 for accelerated aging effects was proposed by Rodney Ewing at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in the late 1970s and the plutonium 238-doped zircon was prepared during the 1980s at Battelle. The resulting materials were extensively studied by Ewing and other researchers.

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