Longtime Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist, Dr. Charles Bathke, visited the TEES Nuclear Security Science and Policy Institute on October 20th to interact with NSSPI students and give presentations. Bathke’s current work involves analyzing material attractiveness, which is the relative utility of different nuclear materials to an adversary looking to assemble a nuclear explosive device. He spoke on this topic during the nuclear nonproliferation and arms control (NUEN 650) class and at a meeting of the Texas A&M student chapter of the Institute for Nuclear Materials Management (INMM). He also interacted directly with NSSPI students during a roundtable session where students gave presentations on their research for further discussion.
Bathke is a staff member in the International and Nuclear Systems Engineering Group at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He worked on the Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative (AFCI) and its predecessor the Accelerator Transmutation of Waste (ATW) from 2000 through 2004, where he developed the Nuclear Fuel Cycle Simulation (NFCSim) code, which simulates the civilian nuclear fuel cycle from cradle (mine) to grave (waste repository). Bathke has been with LANL since 1978. Among his many awards, he was a co-recipient of the Los Alamos National Laboratory Distinguished Performance Award in 2009 for his work on material attractiveness.