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Faculty and Student
Teams Program |
Project Descriptions
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Radiochemical Science and Engineering Group
Requesting applications from science or engineering faculty members at institutions serving students underrepresented in science, engineering, mathematics, and technology, to work on investigating f-Block Element Separations to Support Advanced Nuclear Fuel Cycles.
Project
Description
Project
Title: f-Block Element Separations to Support Advanced Nuclear Fuel Cycles
The Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) program has as its primary objective developing new approaches to reprocessing nuclear fuel to close the nuclear fuel cycle. Central to this theme is separation of long-lived and radiotoxic transuranic (TRU) elements from the high-level waste (HLW), and transmuting them to less hazardous short-lived radionuclides. This will greatly improve confidence in the performance assessment for the HLW geologic repository, and reduce the overall risk of nuclear waste disposal.
In this work, the applicants will perform investigations to support fuel cycle research at PNNL. The work will be performed on the lanthanide elements, which are relevant to the fuel cycle in that a) they constitute an important set of fission products that the TRU elements must be separated from and b) they can also serve as surrogates for investigating the chemistry of the trivalent actinide ions. The research will involve studying the fundamental coordination chemistry of lanthanide ions with ligands that form the basis for actinide separations media. Ligands to be investigated will include phoshonate ligands and amine derivatives. A variety of spectroscopic tools will be applied in investigating these coordination chemistry systems including spectrophotometry (UV/vis/NIR), FTIR, and multinuclear NMR. In additions, thermochemical methods such as isothermal titration calorimetry may also be applied to determine binding affinities of the ligands for the different lanthanide ions.
Applicants
Responsibilities and Relationship to Project
Applicants will receive support under the Department of Energy Faculty Student Team Research Program (FaST) to work collaboratively with the project research team at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory for up to 10 weeks during the year, starting in May. Summer and academic year visits to PNNL will be scheduled by mutual agreement between the Radiochemical Science and Engineering Group and the successful applicant. Faculty will be expected to identify students from their campus to participate in the Undergraduate Research Participation programs offered by the Department of Energy at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Faculty will provide mentorship and/or advising support to students during the summer research activities. It is expected that the faculty member will become an integral part of the research team working on this project and will support the project through the academic year on her or his campus.
Qualifications
of Ideal Candidate
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Faculty:
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Ph.D. in inorganic, analytical, or physical chemistry. Currently teaching the same. |
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Student:
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Working toward a BS or BA in chemistry. Works well in collaboration with faculty, other students, and researchers. Must be willing to work at PNNL for ten weeks in the Summer. |
Support
and Financial Commitments
See
Financial
Information.
For
More Information contact:
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