Dr. Ammon Williams
Staff Scientist
Idaho National Laboratory

Abstract

Molten salts have favorable properties and characteristics that are advantageous in nuclear applications like electrochemical reprocessing (pyroprocessing) and molten salt reactors (MSR) In recent years, there have been significant research and development occur within the national lab complex, universities, and industry to better utilize these advantages. However, with these advancements comes challenges for nuclear material accountancy, safeguards, and nonproliferation. When special nuclear materials (uranium & plutonium) are in molten salt form, they are difficult to quantify and track, leading to higher risks of proliferation and misuse. The Idaho National Laboratory has developed process monitoring and material accountancy technologies to measure and track special nuclear materials in molten salts to further advance liquid fueled MSRS and pyroprocessing approaches. This presentation will focus on the different safeguards technologies developed at INL and their applications in molten salts.

Biograph

Dr. Ammon Williams received a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2009 from Brigham Young University – Idaho. He then studied Chemical Engineering and earned a MS degree in 2012 from the University of Idaho.  Finally, Dr. Williams received his PhD in Nuclear and Mechanical Engineering from the Virginia Commonwealth University in 2016. For his PhD research he developed a novel molten salt aerosol monitoring approach using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) to measure uranium concentrations. Since graduation, he has worked as a research scientist at the Idaho National Laboratory in the Material Minimization, Security & International Safeguards department. At INL, Dr. Williams has focused on process monitoring and nuclear material accountancy in pyroprocessing technologies and liquid fueled molten salt reactors (MSRs). With this, he has worked with a wide array of technologies including voltammetry, optical/atomic spectroscopy, gamma & neutron spectroscopy, microcalorimetry, and bubbler approaches. He has been heavily involved in the Material Protection, Accountancy, Controls Technologies (MPACT) program and is currently the main point of contact for the MPACT program at INL.

Thursday, January 18. 2024
4:00 pm seminar

zoom link upon request