October 29 - November 05, 2024
WHAT IS A PIT?
Business & Education Bldg. Room 144 • 471 University Parkway Aiken, SC 29801 Organized by University of South Carolina AikenAbout this event
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Instructor: Chuck Goergen earned a BS in Chemistry from the University of Detroit. He spent his career of over 40 years at the Savannah River Site, working with nuclear materials in Laboratories, Production, Engineering, and Projects in numerous facilities across the site. He spent a year on loan to the DOE Office of Nuclear Weapons, has interfaced with many DOE sites, and has liaised with the IAEA. His international work took him to Japan, Austria, the UK, and Russia. He enjoys ancient and military history as well as coin collecting. Description: What is a Pit? Starting with the Manhattan Project, plutonium was created, purified, converted to metal, and cast into a “core” as part of the “Fat Man” atomic weapon. As nuclear weapon development progressed, the thermonuclear or “hydrogen” bomb used a plutonium core as the “trigger” or “primary.” These became hollow and began to be called a “pit.” This course will cover “pits,” their purpose, plutonium properties, pit aging, how a pit is made, and how the Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility (Pit) will function. The importance of replacing primaries in our stockpile will be discussed. The weapon systems in the Enduring Stockpile will be presented. Integration with the Stockpile Stewardship Program, including surveillance, will be discussed. Some basic physics and chemistry will be presented in “easy to understand” terms and concepts.
Location
Sessions
Price
$8.00
Media
1 Photos and Videos