Los Alamos National Laboratory sits on top of a once-remote mesa in northern New Mexico with the Jemez mountains as a backdrop to research and innovation covering multi-disciplines from bioscience, sustainable energy sources, to plasma physics and new materials.
For more than 50 years, chemists and physicists have been searching for the plutonium-239 magnetic resonance signal. LOS ALAMOS, NEW MEXICO, May, 21, 2012—Plutonium is the most complex element in the periodic table, yet it is also one of the most poorly understood ones. But now a well-known scientific technique, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, may turn out to be the perfect tool for uncovering some of plutonium's mysteries. Scientists at LANL and the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) have detected the faint signal of plutonium-239's unique nuclear magnetic resonance signature. This signal promises to become a Rosetta stone for deciphering the complex atomic-scale electronic properties of this perplexing element. Their paper on the subject, "Observation of 239Pu Nuclear Magnetic Resonance,” was published in the May 18 issue of Science magazine. For more than 50 years, chemists and physicists have been searching for the plutonium-239 magnetic resonance signal.
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