On August 28, 1996, NMT Division opened its doors to all Laboratory postdoctoral researchers and graduate research assistants for its first one-day seminar on "Careers in Actinide Sciences." Thirty-five current Laboratory "postdocs" and students participated in exciting, unclassified discussions of plutonium-related programs at TA-55. This event, supported by the Laboratory upper management, was intended to inform attendees of our work and interest them in careers in actinide sciences.
Allen Hartford discussed the Laboratory postdoctoral and student recruiting program and the opportunities that NMT presents to the new work force. Nuclear Materials and Stockpile Management Program Director Paul Cunningham talked about national and international nuclear materials issues and the program's long- and short-term goals. NMT Division Director Bruce Matthews presented his vision for the disposition of nuclear materials, the division's mission, and our scientific and technological opportunities to help reduce the nuclear danger. Group Leaders of NMT-2, NMT-5, NMT-6, and NMT-9 discussed their individual groups' specific programs, activities, and potential growth areas. Anyone interested in any of NMT's programmatic activities are encouraged to contact NMT group leaders or project leaders about their specific areas.
Thirteen NMT researchers received awards for their distinguished contributions of noteworthy publications, patents, technology transfers, major program developments, successful research proposals, or other technological innovations. The NMT Division's Science and Technology Award Program is administered as part of the Los Alamos Award Program, approved by the DOE on a two-year trial basis, to recognize exceptional employee contributions and achievements. This year $4700 from NMT Division's $16,700 awards program fund was earmarked for the science and technology awards.
Three individual award winners are John M Haschke (NMT-5) for his publications and study of long-term storage of nuclear materials, Steven M. "Mark" Dinehart (NMT-6) for significant program development, and Jerry Foropoulos (NMT-6) for his new, innovative technology to treat volatile halocarbons (see article on page 6).
There were three team awards: The salt distillation team members (NMT-2) are Vonda R. Dole, Eduardo Garcia, Walter J. Griego, and James A. McNeese for demonstrating waste-minimizing, innovative technology that can partition plutonium and clean salts. The team working on new separations technology development (NMT-6) includes members Gordon D. Jarvinen, Mary E. Barr, and Geraldine M. Purdy for developing selective extraction of actinides and novel anion exchange resins and polymer filtration. The third team (NMT-6) award was given to Arthur N. Morgan, Mary Esther Lucero, and Timothy O. Nelson for their work in electrolytic decontamination.
Karen W. Hench (NMT-4) has received her Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from New Mexico State University. Her dissertation was entitled "Modeling Fabrication of Nuclear Components: An Integrative Approach." It presents a two-stage approach to modeling the TA-55 foundry, one stage for optimizing foundry layout for reduced personnel exposures and the second for assessing the impact of different layouts on operational performance. The work was conducted under the supervision of David Olivas (NMT-5).
Plutonium Futures-The Science, a three-day topical conference on plutonium and the actinides is well into the planning stages for next August 2527, 1997. It is sponsored by the Laboratory in cooperation with the American Nuclear Society. The conference will address issues of national and international importance including the safe storage and ultimate disposal of surplus weapons materials and the management of large inventories of actinides from civilian nuclear power generation. The focus of the conference will be on the technical knowledge base necessary for addressing these issues. The conference will be held at the Santa Fe Hilton. For more information, please send e-mail to puconf97@lanl.gov or sign on to the conference Web page at http://www.lanl.gov/PuConf97/Welcome.html. This page is updated frequently with information about the conference.
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