EMSL hosted the 3rd international workshop on Advanced Techniques in Actinide Spectroscopy, or ATAS, on Nov. 7-10. Nearly 60 scientists from around the world attended the three-day conference at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
"We are proud to host this forum for progress and new approaches in experimental and computational studies of actinides," said Associate Laboratory Director Allison Campbell, PNNL's Earth and Biological Sciences Directorate, who gave opening remarks.
The workshop highlighted advances in actinide chemistry from spectroscopic and theoretical perspectives. Presentations showcased spectroscopy techniques in fundamental actinide science, nuclear material characterization, spent nuclear fuel separation, nuclear waste processing, long-term high-level nuclear waste storage, contaminated subsurface remediation and nuclear forensics.
Peter Burns, University of Notre Dame, was the keynote speaker. Other speakers included Enrique Batista, Los Alamos National Laboratory; Robin Steudtner, Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf; Sue Clark, PNNL and Washington State University; Zoltan Szabo, Royal Institute of Technology; Patrick Simon, National Center for Scientific Research; Jeffrey Catalano, Washington University in St. Louis; and Eugene Ilton, PNNL.
The agenda included tours of EMSL, RadEMSL – EMSL's radiochemistry facility, B Reactor National Historical Landmark at the Hanford Site and LIGO – Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory and a poster session.
PNNL scientists Nancy Hess, EMSL; Zheming Wang, Physical and Computational Sciences Directorate; and Carolyn Pearce, Earth and Environment Directorate, were the organizers.
PNNL and Bruker cosponsored the workshop.
The Institute of Resource Ecology at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden Rossendorf in Germany organized the first and second ATAS workshops in 2012 and 2013.