Ubaldo Gallegos of Plutonium Mettalurgy (NMT-16) aligns a quartz cubicle, platinum crucible and liner for insertion into the calorimeter to be used for Pu sample analysis. Solution calorimetry is performed at 700 degrees Centigrade. Quartz glassware must be lowered incrementally into place slowly for conditions to avoid breakage and damage to calorimeter. The High Temperature Solution Calorimeter has been successfully demonstrated for use with actinide materials and is the only one of its kind with this ability. Photo by LeRoy N. Sanchez, Public Affairs

Lab/UC collaboration leads to world's first high-temperature melt solution calorimeter

An actinide is one of 15 radioactive metallic chemical elements with atomic numbers 89 to 95.

The calorimeter will be used for studying the long-term solution for burying nuclear material. By better understanding the energy that nuclear waste produces, researchers can develop new methods for disposing of radioactive waste.

The device measures the amount of energy needed to heat material from room temperature to 700 degrees Celsius.

"We know we are on our way to answering questions about the thermodynamic stability of plutonium pyrochlore, which is a major component used in the disposal of radioactive waste," said Tracy Lee of the University of California, Davis.

The project was a five-year collaboration among Tracy Lee, Charles Bennett and Alexandra Navrotsky from the University of California, Davis thermochemistry facility; Robert Putnam and Ubaldo Gallegos of Plutonium Metallurgy (NMT-16); John Huang of Weapons Component Technology (NMT-5); and former Laboratory employee Mark Williamson.

"The collaboration, begun in 1998, has been long in coming to fruition and has been possible only with personnel exchanges between UC Davis and Los Alamos," said Navrotsky.

The project was funded through the Campus Laboratory Exchange program. The installation of equipment was funded by the Department of Energy and Laboratory- Directed Research Development funds for the study of metal materials. Nuclear Materials Technology also helped with funding by endorsing the project at that organization's Science Leadership Council, said Navrotsky.

"It's taken a long time, three years of my graduate program, my postdoc at Los Alamos and finally my conversion to staff here," said Putnam. "In every turn, through the work control and authorization basis issues, NMT management has been extremely supportive, and of course, it's always nice to have money to do what one needs and wants to do."

--Michael Carlson

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