How does plutonium behave in marine environments? - with Madison Williams-Hoffman

This episode of Nuclear Matters takes us to Montebello Island, a former UK nuclear weapons test site off the coast of Western Australia. Our guest is Madison Williams-Hoffman – or Maddy, for short. Maddy is a postdoctoral fellow at the Radinnovate ARC Training Centre for Radiation Innovation at ANU. She uses chemistry to explore how plutonium from the weapons tests carried out in that region have moved through the marine environment.

She has kindly joined us to talk us through what she’s found, and help us understand why it matters for our explorations of future uses of nuclear technologies.

Credits

Guest: Madison Williams-Hoffman

Host: Liz Williams

Audio producer: Martin Franklin (East Coast Studio)

Contacts

If you are interested in projects and wish to contact Maddy about collaborating or joining the group as a student, you can reach her via the email on this webpage.

Further reading

• The Guardian article on Maddy's work
• The paper mentioned in the article (with Maddy as lead author)

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Nanda Dasgupta for introducing us to Maddy.

Errata

Maddy flagged that the Plutonium ratio they usually look at is 240Pu/239Pu, rather than 239Pu/240Pu.

The usual end matter

Nuclear Matters is a production of the Australian National University College of Systems and Society. We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the lands on which this podcast is being recorded on or listened to, and pay our respects to their Elders – and all First Nations people.

If you want to send us some feedback on an episode, email us at nuclearmatterspodcast@anu.edu.au.

Keep in mind that this podcast is intended for information and education only. The views and opinions expressed in each episode are those of the individual speakers and do not represent the official policy or position of the Australian National University College of Systems and Society or the University as a whole.