MSE Colloquium: Tarik Saleh, Plutonium, an odd metal, and other radioactive things at Los Alamos National Laboratory

Abstract

The talk will cover mechanical and elastic property measurement of irradiated steels and plutonium metal at Los Alamos National Laboratory.  Special attention will be given to how samples are made, handled and measured in glove box and hot cell environments, as well as background information on plutonium, the oddest metal on the periodic table. Mechanical testing and elastic property data from plutonium research castings as a function of age and alloy type will be presented. The second part of the talk will discuss handling, machining and mechanical testing of irradiated beam windows from various accelerator facilities. 

Bio

Tarik Saleh received his PhD from the University of TN in 2006 specializing in non-destructive evaluation of loading and fatigue effects in nickel based superalloys. He has a Bachelor of Science in materials science and engineering from M.I.T, and a Master of Engineering in materials science from UC Berkeley. Saleh spent 5 years working between graduate degrees, both at a foundry and as a design engineer at Lawrence Berkeley Labs.  He came to Los Alamos in 2003 as a GRA working at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center, using neutron diffraction as a tool to evaluate damage in metals. He then transitioned to a post-doc position at TA-55 in MST-16, the nuclear materials science group, and was converted to staff in 2008.   Saleh currently specializes in mechanical testing and thermophysical property measurements of plutonium, oxide fuels and irradiated cladding material.  Other research interests include using resonant ultrasound spectroscopy and nonlinear acoustic techniques to characterize damage in materials.