CONTACTSG. T. Seaborg Institute for Transactinium Science
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Seaborg Institute – Why an ITS?Knowledge of actinide science continues to be essential to the US and central to the mission of the DOE and NNSA, including national defense, energy, environmental restoration and radioactive waste management. Even if no new radioactive or transactinium waste were generated, there are a host of sites that require assessment, cleanup and closure. Our nation’s future requires a core capability and expertise in transactinium science that will allow future decisions to be based on sound technical understanding and expert judgment. Background / HistoryDue to the concern that the actinide science field was becoming sub critical, Professor Glenn T. Seaborg (link to http://isswprod.lbl.gov/Seaborg/) and LLNL Director John H. Nuckolls briefed Secretary of Energy James D. Watkins in 1990 on a plan to establish a transactinium science institute. UC President David Gardner approved the Institute Charter and the naming of the Institute in honor of Glenn T. Seaborg in February 1991. The UC Charter included additional Institute branches at University of California laboratories. In February 1997, LANL Deputy Laboratory Director, W. F. Miller approved the establishment of a Los Alamos branch of the Seaborg Institute, and in November 1997 David L. Clark was selected as the Director. PurposeThe purpose of the Seaborg Institute is to foster sustained excellence and enhanced external visibility in actinide science; to establish a broad intellectual community for actinide science in support of Laboratory missions; to establish a Laboratory resource for the education of present and future actinide scientists and engineers; and to attract and retain a future generation. The Los Alamos branch of the Institute serves to integrate research programs on the chemical, physical, nuclear, and metallurgical properties of the lighter actinide elements, with a special emphasis on plutonium, as well as their applications in nuclear energy, reactor technology, nuclear weapons stockpile stewardship, stockpile surveillance, nuclear waste management, and environmental science. The Institute provides a unique focus and mechanism for cooperation and collaboration between the national laboratories, university campuses, and the national and international transactinium science community. The Institute fosters closer ties with the outside community and the world through an extensive visitors program, workshops and conferences and encouraging graduate students, postdoctoral associates, university faculties, and collaborators to perform research at the Laboratory. In so doing, the institute serves as a catalyst to promote, expand, and strengthen basic and applied Research in transactinium science throughout Los Alamos and the U.S.
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