Materials Science Division

Plutonium Science and Technology Group

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

Metallurgy glovebox
Our metallurgy glovebox helps researchers evaluate the physiochemical properties of plutonium materials.

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

Gloveboxes and associated equipment
Our custom gas mixes support fusion research and nuclear experiments.

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

Chung, Brandon W.
Culbertson, Derek Reed
Greenwood, Cole Thomas
Cole Greenwood
Kissinger, Ryan Michael
Ryan Kissinger
Mehta, Uday
Ripplinger, Lindsay Sue
Lindsay Ripplinger
Roberts, Neil
Rosas, Debra Lin
Debra Rosas
Sanchez, Jorge J.
Jorge Sanchez
Schnackenberg, Jason Earl
Jason Schnackenberg
Sen-Britain, Shohini Tanuka
Servando-Williams, Donya Rochelle
Donya Servando-Williams
Steiner-Leach, Travis Lewis
Travis Steiner-Leach
Tardiff, Emma Rose
Emma Tardiff
Wong, Frank M G.

Our publications