Materials Science Division
Plutonium Science and Technology Group
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Supporting national security missions with experimental work on plutonium and tritium materials and multidisciplinary expertise in metallurgy, analytical chemistry, and tritium processing.
Our group processes and characterizes nuclear materials in LLNL’s Superblock facility for activities in manufacturing, surveillance, chemical processes, and research and development. Our comprehensive suite of analytical and processing techniques helps us characterize nuclear materials and develop technologies to deliver responsive solutions to defense programs and for inertial confinement fusion research.
The goals and applications of our research provide direct experience for LLNL engineers, scientists, and technicians to sustain and improve characterization capabilities as well as our understanding of materials processing.
Our capabilities
Plutonium facility

The material characterization capabilities of our plutonium facility include:
- Metallography sample preparation
- Optical metallography
- Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS)
- Electron probe microanalyzer (EPMA)
- X-ray diffraction
- Tensile and hardness testers
- Immersion density
- X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS)
- Auger emission spectroscopy
These instruments and associated gloveboxes have provided direct experience for our group and others to maintain and improve their understanding of capabilities that are essential to maintaining viable nuclear weapons expertise.
Tritium operations

Our tritium operations capabilities include:
- Gloveboxes and associated equipment to provide protium/deuterium/tritium (H/D/T) custom mixes
- Mass spectrometry
- Tritium gas recovery
- Non-destructive assay
These capabilities support:
- Delivering the tritium fuel required for the inertial confinement fusion research at the National Ignition Facility
- Recovering tritium from legacy items
- Providing precise H/D/T gas mixes for external facilities
Our team









Our publications
New insights into the electronic structure of α-U and δ-Pu
J. Phys.: Condens. Matter, 2024
A. L. Kutepov, J. G. Tobin, S.-W. Yu, B. W. Chung, and P. Roussel
Formulation and testing of a high-tin borosilicate nuclear waste glass for in-can melting
Journal of Nuclear Materials, 2023
J. V. Crum, J. D. Vienna, B. J. Riley, J. A. Silverstein, R. M. Kissinger, J. J. Neeway, J. L. George, D. L. Bellofatto, M. A. Hall
Radio-frequency magnetron sputter deposition of ultrathick boron carbide films
J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A, 2023
L. B. Bayu Aji, S. J. Shin, J. H. Bae, A. M. Engwall, J. A. Hammons, S. T. Sen-Britain, P. B. Mirkarimi, S. O. Kucheyev
Corrosion Mechanisms in Additively Manufactured 316L Stainless Steels
ECS Meeting Abstracts, 2022
T. Voisin et al
Elemental mapping and iron oxidation state measurement of synthetic low-activity waste feeds
Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids, 2022
J. Marcial, J. George, P. Ferkl, R. Pokorný, R. Kissinger, C. I. Pearce, J. V. Crum, J. Klouzek, P. Hrma, A. A. Kruger
Evidence of an oxidation induced phase transformation for a delta phase plutonium-gallium alloy
Corrosion Science, 2022
S. B. Donald, J. A. Stanford, W. A. Talbot, C. K. Saw, B. W. Chung, W. McLean
Fabrication of radioactive and non-radioactive titanate and zirconate ceramics for immobilization of used nuclear fuel
Journal of Nuclear Materials, 2022
J. T. Reiser, K. R. Tolman, M. T. Kropp, R. M. Kissinger, S. A. Saslow, D. A. Cutforth, J. V. Crum, B. N. Seiner, G. L. Smith, J. D. Vienna
Hydriding of titanium: Recent trends and perspectives in advanced characterization and multiscale modeling
Current Opinion in Solid State and Materials Science, 2022
Y. Zhu et al
Morphological and chemical characteristics of oxide scales formed on δ-phase plutonium metal alloys II: 2.0 at% Ga
Journal of Nuclear Materials, 2022
S. B. Donald and B. W. Chung
Pitting Corrosion in 316L Stainless Steel Fabricated by Laser Powder Bed Fusion Additive Manufacturing: A Review and Perspective
Environmental Degradation of Additively Manufactured Alloys, 2022
T. Voisin, R. Shi, Y. Zhu, Z. Qi, M. Wu, S. Sen-Britain, Y. Zhang, S. R. Qiu, Y. M. Wang, S. Thomas, and B. C. Wood
Study of cluster ions produced from ToF-SIMS analysis of a U-6%Nb target
Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms, 2022
S. Sen-Britain and A. J. Nelson
Submicrometer spectromicroscopy of UO2 aged under high humidity conditions
J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A, 2022
A. S. Ditter, J I. Pacold, Z. Dai, M. L. Davisson, D. Vine, S. B. Donald, B. W. Chung, D. K. Shuh
Effects of Al:Si and (Al + Na):Si ratios on the properties of the international simple glass, part I: Physical properties
Journal of the American Ceramic Society, 2021
J. T. Reiser, X. Lu, B. Parruzot, H. Liu, T. Subramani, H. Kaya, R. M. Kissinger, J. V. Crum, J. V. Ryan, A. Navrotsky, S. H. Kim, J. D. Vienna
Morphological and chemical characteristics of oxide scales formed on δ-Phase plutonium metal alloys I: 3.5 at% ga
Journal of Nuclear Materials, 2021
S. B. Donald, B. W. Chung
Parabolic oxidation kinetics of a plutonium alloy at room temperature
Corrosion Science, 2021
S. B. Donald, J. A. Stanford, J. M. Haschke, D. D. Ashley, W. A. Talbot, D. J. Roberts, A. J. Nelson, B. W. Chung, W. McLean
Single-component-at-a-time variation study for glass-ceramic waste forms
Journal of the American Ceramic Society, 2021
R. M. Kissinger, J. V. Crum, B. J. Riley
The relativistic 5f electronic structure of delocalized α-U and localized δ-Pu from the self consistent vertex corrected GW approach and X-ray Emission Spectroscopy
2021
A.L. Kutepov, J.G. Tobin, S.-W. Yu, B.W. Chung, P. Roussel, S. Nowak, R. Alonso-Mori, T. Kroll, D. Nordlund, T.-C. Weng, and D. Sokaras
Transformations of Ti-5Al-5V-5Cr-3Mo powder due to reuse in laser powder bed fusion: A surface analytical approach
Applied Surface Science, 2021
S. T. Sen-Britain, N. D. Keilbart, K. E. Kweon, T. A. Pham, C. A. Orme, B. C. Wood, A. J. Nelson
Synthesis and crystal structure of a mixed alkaline-earth powellite, Ca0.84Sr0.16MoO4
Crystallographic Communications, 2020
R. M. Kissinger, S. Chong, B. J. Riley, J. V. Crum
Understanding the Mechanisms of Early Stage Aluminum Corrosion
ECS Meeting Abstracts, 2020
V. Stavila, S. T. Sen-Britain, S. E. Weitzner, N. D. Keilbart, J. D Sugar, R. W. Friddle, T. W. Heo, T. A. Pham, B. C. Wood, and M. D. Allendorf
Improving Microstructural Quantification in 3D FIB-SEM Tomography
2019
K. S. Ogura, S. B. Donald, B. W. Chung
Microstructural characterization of plutonium oxalate and oxide particles by three-dimensional focused ion beam tomography
Materialia, 2019
B. W. Chung, R. A. Torres
ToF-SIMS and TIRF microscopy investigation on the effects of HEMA copolymer surface chemistry on spatial localization, surface intensity, and release of fluorescently labeled keratinocyte growth factor
Biointerphases, 2019
S. Sen-Britain, D. M. Britain, W. L. Hicks Jr., J. A. Gardella Jr.