DOE-EM; EMGFP) Post Masters Fellow - Chemistry of Tank Waste

Overview

At PNNL, our core capabilities are divided among major departments that we refer to as Directorates within the Lab, focused on a specific area of scientific research or other function, with its own leadership team and dedicated budget.

Our Science & Technology directorates include National Security, Integrated Discovery Sciences, and Energy and Environment. In addition, we have an Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, a Department of Energy, Office of Science user facility housed on the PNNL campus.

The Energy and Environment Directorate delivers science and technology solutions for the nation’s biggest energy and environmental challenges. Our more than 1,700 staff support the Department of Energy (DOE), delivering on key DOE mission areas including: modernizing our nation’s power grid to maintain a reliable, affordable, secure, and resilient electricity delivery infrastructure; research, development, validation, and effective utilization of renewable energy and efficiency technologies that improve the affordability, reliability, resiliency, and security of the American energy system;

and resolving complex issues in nuclear science, energy, and environmental management.

The Earth Systems Science Division, part of the Energy and Environment Directorate, provides leadership and solutions that advance Earth system opportunities for energy systems and national security. We are a multidisciplinary division connected by a shared commitment to innovate and collaborate towards solving complex problems in the dynamic Earth system.

DOE’s Office of Environmental Management Graduate Fellowship Program is seeking graduate fellows to work on some of the nation’s greatest cleanup efforts. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is a world-class research institution powered by a highly educated, diverse workforce committed to collaboration and work‑life balance. Every year, scores of dynamic, driven interns come to PNNL to work with renowned researchers on meaningful science, innovations and outcomes for the U.S. Department of Energy and other sponsors;

here is your chance to be one of them!

Cleanup of highly complex waste, contaminated soil, and groundwater is one of the Department of Energy’s most important environmental challenges. The Environmental Management (EM) Graduate Fellowship Program (EMGFP) provides recent graduates with an opportunity to conduct hands‑on research that supports the mission of DOE's Office of EM.

The Ion Dynamics in Radioactive Environments and Materials (IDREAM) Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC) is exploring the complex chemical phenomena to enable innovations in retrieving and processing radioactive tank waste. Our team works to master the fundamental chemistry in complex environments characterized by extremes in alkalinity, low‑water activity, and chemical phenomena driven far from equilibrium by ionizing radiation, all of which are characteristics of legacy radioactive tank waste.

The fundamental knowledge from IDREAM's efforts will aid in accelerating the processing of legacy radioactive waste stored in underground tanks at the DOE's Hanford and Savannah River Sites.

Central to IDREAM's work is determining the solubility, precipitation/dissolution mechanisms, and aggregation behavior of gibbsite, Al(OH)3, and other aluminum bearing mineral phases. In the tanks, aluminum is present in both the solid phase and the tank supernatant. Though it is not the most prominent element in the radioactive tank waste, aluminum presents a major problem due to its unpredictable precipitation and aggregation behavior, which becomes especially problematic upon removal of the waste from its storage tanks and transportation for final processing and…