Benjamin D Roach

Bio

Dr. Roach is an R&D analytical chemist in the Chemical and Isotopic Mass Spectrometry group, a group in the Nuclear Analytical Chemistry section of the Chemical Sciences Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Specializing in elemental separations, the handling of highly radioactive materials, mass spectrometry, and radiochemistry; Dr. Roach has over 10 years research experience in high precision analyses. Over the past 7 years, Dr. Roach has been involved in a large number of projects involving analytical method development, certification, and implementation for a wide variety of nuclear materials.  As the analytical task lead for a number of programs including: Cf-252 production, Pu-238 supply program, U-233 rescue program; Dr. Roach has extensive experience in handling freshly irradiated materials as well as the analytical methods required for their PIE. Dr. Roach’s ongoing work includes the dissolution and characterization of high burnup spent fuel, focusing on high precision, low uncertainty analyses of over 50 isotopes though a number of different mass- and counting-based radiochemical techniques. Dr. Roach has over 40 publications in the fields of separation science and analytical chemistry and is currently the chair of the ASTM subcommittee C26.05.03: Spectroscopic methods of test for the nuclear fuels cycle.