Radiochemistry Education and Research Program at the Pennsylvania State University

Abstract

A new Radiochemistry Education and Research Program was started at the Pennsylvania University, Radiation Science and Engineering Center. The program was initially supported by the Department of Energy, Radiochemistry Education Award Program (REAP). Using REAP funding as leverage we obtained support from the Los Alamos National Laboratory, Department of Homeland Security, Domestic Nuclear Detection Office, various internal funding from PSU and other entities. The PSU radiochemistry program primarily addresses radiochemistry education and secondarily nuclear and radiochemistry research. The education program consists of bolstering our existing radiochemistry and related courses; Nuclear and Radiochemistry, Radiation Detection and Measurement, Radiological Safety and developing new courses, e.g., Laboratory Experiments in Applied Nuclear and Radiochemistry, and Nuclear Methods in Science. A new laboratory has been created with state of the art equipment for the Laboratory Experiments in Applied Nuclear and Radiochemistry course. We also plan to revitalize the nuclear and radiochemistry research programs. We established a state‐of‐the‐art Neutron Activation Analysis Laboratory and a gamma ray spectroscopy laboratory that has 10 stations including state‐of‐the‐art nuclear spectroscopy hardware and software. In addition, we embarked on an expansion plan that included building a new neutron beam hall and neutron beam ports with a cold neutron source. One of the reasons to have a cold neutron source is for the development of a prompt gamma activation analysis facility. A detailed description of PSU radiochemistry education and research program will be given and the future plans will be discussed.