Experimental studies of materials science. Farley's research group is studing the corrosion of steel by liquid metal (a eutectic* mixture of lead and bismuth).
The background: Yucca Mountain, Nevada (a hundred miles from Las Vegas) has been proposed as a permanent repository for the nation's radioactive waste. One intriguing possibility is to transmute the radioactive waste instead of merely burying it. Is it feasible on a huge scale? A total of 77,000 tons of waste are destined for Yucca Mountain. Materials questions are key to the feasibility of the project.
Students will learn to characterize
corrosion using techniques of surface microscopy. Students will use the Scanning
Electron Microscope (SEM) and X-ray Photoelectron Spectrometer (XPS), which reveal
the structure and elemental composition of material on the nanoscale.
*
A eutectic mixture melts a lower temperature than its constitutents. Lead-bismuth
eutectic (LBE) melts at 123 C, well below the melting points of lead ( 327 C)
or bismuth (271 C).