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Conference Provides International Forum on Plutonium Science

This article was contributed by Ann Mauzy, CIC-1, who covered the conference for Actinide Research Quarterly.

The 300 participants registered for the international conference "Plutonium Futures-The Science" represented 14 countries* as well as Department of Energy national laboratories and other federal and international institutions, universities, and industries. Among the attendees were 20 students and 17 faculty members, representing 14 universities from the USA, France, and Sweden. Los Alamos National Laboratory in cooperation with the American Nuclear Society sponsored the conference to discuss the current state of plutonium and actinide sciences and to rejuvenate the science needed to solve the international issues surrounding these materials.











*Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Russia, Spain, Sweden, UK, USA

The conference, which ran from August 25 through 27, 1997, at the Hilton Hotel in Santa Fe, New Mexico, began with a welcoming message by Laboratory Director Sig Hecker followed by five plenary lectures. In a videotaped presentation Dr. Glenn Seaborg, awarded a 1951 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his discovery of plutonium, talked about the history of the discovery of the element and his personal perspective on the evolving use of plutonium in our society. Dr. Seaborg, in a classroom setting at the University of California, Berkeley, emphasized the importance of attracting young researchers to the field.

"A great deal of modern life revolves around science. We need scientists and engineers to make the discoveries and developments necessary to compete in a highly technological world...We need a higher level of science literacy in the general population in order that its members may perform adequately in a technological society."

Dr. Seaborg set in motion another theme of the conference, that of the utility and importance of plutonium and other transuranic elements in medical applications and energy and the need to better educate the public about the risks and benefits of these elements. He characterized nuclear energy as a rational approach to the dangers of various other energy sources and predicted that the depletion of those other sources will mean an eventual return to breeder reactors and nuclear energy using both plutonium and the most abundant isotope of uranium, 238U.






Other plenary speakers included Dr. Victor Mourogov of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Dr. Alan Waltar, Dr. Daniel Kerlinsky, and Dr. Darleane Hoffman. The speakers addressed the core science issues associated with nuclear proliferation and nuclear energy: the safe storage and ultimate disposal of surplus weapons material and management of large inventories of actinides from civilian nuclear power generation. Representing the "loyal opposition," Daniel Kerlinsky, Physicians for Social Responsibility, agreed that these were the basic science issues and also urged international cooperation. The final plenary speaker, Dr. Darleane Hoffman, echoed Dr. Seaborg's message emphasizing the challenges and opportunities for basic research that plutonium and the other actinides present.

The five technical sessions that followed during the two and a half days covered topics under the broad categories of materials science, transuranic waste forms, nuclear fuels and isotopes, separations, actinides in the environment, detection and analysis, plutonium, and actinide compounds and complexes. The papers within these areas spanned an extremely wide range of technical topics and gave attendees a chance to learn about current research outside of their particular specialties. There were more than 100 papers presented at the conference. Among those were 12 in materials science, 26 in transuranic waste forms, 5 in nuclear fuels and isotopes, 19 in separations, 12 in actinides in the environment, 9 in detection and analysis, and 13 in plutonium and actinide compounds and complexes. Topics covered the entire gamut from the general, e.g., overview of work at the V. G. Khlopin Radium Institute, to the specific, e.g., specific separations techniques for specific types of mixed wastes, material and thermodynamic properties, and spectroscopic studies of actinides.

In the discussions of nuclear fuels, Dr. Seaborg and a number of other speakers noted that nearly 20% of the electricity generated around the world presently comes from fission energy of plutonium in nuclear reactors. Others noted that about 60 metric tons of excess plutonium will be recovered from warheads being dismantled under the START I and II agreements. The central question is, "What is the best way to use/dispose of this plutonium?"

The need for international cooperation in answering this question was nicely summed up by Richard Rhodes, the banquet speaker (see inset). Rhodes sees plutonium as an essential resource to ensure humankind's right to live without starvation. He sees nuclear energy and nuclear proliferation as global problems that can only be solved with global solutions.

Rhodes Challenges Plutonium Scientists

Pulitzer Prize-winning author (The Making of the Atomic Bomb) Richard Rhodes challenged the conference attendees to use the public health model, the one that has eradicated smallpox from the earth, in solving problems of nuclear proliferation and nuclear energy. In his talk entitled "Public Health, Public Knowledge, Public Peace" he pointed out, "Moralizing about subjects that are essentially technical (disease was once considered a punishment from God) blocks the path to finding solutions." He placed the ban on reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel in this category and pointed out that this decision ignored the fact that there are much easier routes for proliferation.

In furthering the metaphor, he urged declassification of necessary facts, shared open knowledge, committed individuals, and an international, nonpoliticized regime of nongovernmental agencies to enable a nuclear materials management system to oversee retrievable storage of plutonium, its separation, and its burnup in power reactors. In working together, he concluded, we will be furthering the greater good: the prevention of nuclear weapons proliferation and the production of electrical power necessary for civilization.












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