contents

Plutonium Futures-The Science Conference 2003

More than 1,000 tons of plutonium exist throughout the world in the form of used nuclear fuel, nuclear weapons components, various nuclear inventories, legacy materials and wastes. It is clear that large inventories of plutonium must be prudently managed for many decades. A complex blend of global political, socioeconomic and technological challenges must be overcome to manage these inventories efficiently and safely.

From a technological perspective, plutonium is one of the most complex elements in the Periodic Table. The metal exhibits six solid allotropes at ambient pressure and its phases are notoriously unstable with temperature, pressure, chemical additions and time. Plutonium sits near the middle of the actinide series, which marks the emergence of 5f electrons in the valence shell. Elements to the left of plutonium have delocalized (bonding) electrons, while elements to the right of plutonium exhibit more localized (non-bonding) character.

Plutonium is poised in the middle, and for the delta-phase metal, the electrons seem to be in a unique state of being neither fully bonding or localized, which leads to novel electronic interactions and unusual physical and chemical behavior. The concept of localized or delocalized 5f>/ electrons also pervades the bonding descriptions of many of the plutonium molecules and compounds. An understanding of the electronic structure of the pure element and its compounds continues to challenge both theorists and experimentalists in all areas of plutonium science.

Conference participants received a specially designed coin encased with a sample of Trinitite, a greenish, glasslike substance found only at ground zero at Trinity Site in southern New Mexico. The man-made mineral and was formed on July 16, 1945, when the desert sand was melted by the intense heat of the world's first nuclear explosion and then solidified. The coin was designed by Los Alamos' Jay Tracy.

The "Plutonium Futures-The Science Conference" was established to increase awareness of the importance of plutonium research and facilitate communication among its international practitioners. Moreover, we hope that this series of conferences will stimulate the next generation of scientists and students to study the fundamental properties of plutonium. The 2003 conference, held in July in Albuquerque, N.M., was the third in this series, and attracted more than 328 participants from 57 institutions and 11 countries. We were also encouraged by the participation of 40 students, an increase over past years. Over 180 contributed presentations covered the latest results in plutonium condensed matter physics, materials science, compounds and complexes, environmental behavior, detection and analysis, separations and purification, nuclear fuel cycles, and waste isolation and disposal.

In this issue of "Actinide Research Quarterly," we present some highlights of the 2003 conference in the form of short articles from conference participants, interviews with poster presenters, and reports from ARQ staff.

By increasing the international dialogue through conferences and publications, we hope to facilitate the developing renaissance in plutonium science that will enable efficient solutions to Cold War legacy problems and provide maximum benefits for society from the enormous energy potential of plutonium.

Gordon D. Jarvinen and David L. Clark


NMT | LANL | DOE
Phone Book | Search | Help/Info

L O S  A L A M O S  N A T I O N A L   L A B O R A T O R Y
Operated by the University of California for the US Department of Energy

Questions? - Copyright © UC 1998-2000
- For conditions of use, see Disclaimer