University of Nevada, Las Vegas Transmutation Research Program: Annual Report Academic Year 2004-2005

It is my pleasure to present the UNLV Transmutation Research Program’s fourth annual report that highlights the academic year 2004 – 2005. Supporting this document are the many technical reports and scientific papers that have been generated over the past three years. In the fourth year of our program, we added 11 new research tasks and saw the conclusion of 8 of the initial 16 independent student research tasks started in 2001 and 2002. In all, the program has sponsored to their conclusion 28 M.S. and 2 Ph.D. degrees. The program supported 58 graduate students and 13 undergraduates in 6 academic departments across the UNLV scientific and engineering communities in the academic year 2004-2005. Our research tasks span the range of technology areas for transmutation, including separation of actinides from spent nuclear fuel, methods of fuel fabrication, reactoraccelerator coupled experiments, and corrosion of materials exposed to lead-bismuth eutectic