Construction Nearly Complete in Thin Film Lab

2/23/2009 Nitin Lakshman Rao

Written by Nitin Lakshman Rao

Construction Nearly Complete in Thin Film Lab

Brent Heuser, a professor in the Department of Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering (NPRE), and his graduate students have nearly finished the construction of a magnetron sputtering system that will be used to investigate nuclear fuel matrices for advanced burner reactors.

 

Members of Brent Heuser
Members of Brent Heuser's research group: (l to r) graduate students Hyunsu Ju, Eric Reside, Heuser, Harrison Pappas, Mohamed Elbakhshwan, and David Gennardo.

Starting in 2008, the Department of Energy (DOE) has provided $1 million annually for three years for this work, which involves a consortium of scientists lead by Heuser and NPRE Department Head Jim Stubbins. NPRE is using the funds to build within Talbot Laboratory a fabrication facility for thin films comprised of uranium and uranium surrogates.

 

The national initiative to develop advanced burner reactors has the goal of recycling spent nuclear fuel, thereby increasing efficiency and reducing wastes. The fuels to be used in these systems are a departure from current fuels in that they will include a number of transuranic isotopes. According to Heuser, the consortium's research will lead to less waste (minor actinides) by "burning" radioactive actinides contained within the fuel matrix. The goal of the research is to understand transport properties of the actinides within the fuel matrix.

The new thin film growth facility will employ reactive gas sputtering to grow uranium dioxide films containing actinide surrogates.

"The reason for growing thin films is that we can take advantage of a host of microanalytical techniques available on campus that work well with small amounts of sample. In addition, we will use x-ray based techniques such as EXAFS and SAXS at the APS," Heuser said.
 

NPRE Prof. Brent Heuser with the nearly constructed magnetron sputtering system.
NPRE Prof. Brent Heuser with the nearly constructed magnetron sputtering system.

The group spent six months designing the system and procuring the various components, then another four months building it. It is expected to be operational by the end of March.

 

"We could have gotten a turn-key system but, this way, we got everything the way we want it," said Heuser, who added there was an important educational aspect to building the system themselves.

NPRE graduate students working with Heuser are David Gennardo, Eric Reside, Harrison Pappas, Hyunsu Ju, and Mohamed Elbakhshwan.

Heuser's and Stubbins' groups are joined in the consortium by researchers from Illinois' physics and materials science and engineering departments. Other scientists involved represent the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Michigan, and South Carolina State University, a Historically Black College. Included as unfunded partners in this interdisciplinary work are Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago, and General Electric Corp.

Contact: Brent J. Heuser, Dept. Nuclear, Plasma, & Radiological Engineering, 217/333-9610.

Susan Mumm editor/alumni affairs coordinator, Department of Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering, 217/244-5382 (campus office), 217/821-6866 (cell) 217/347-2166 (home office).


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This story was published February 23, 2009.