Earth and Environmental Sciences Area Logo Earth and Environmental Sciences Area Logo
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Logo
Menu
  • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Organizational Charts
    • Virtual Tours
    • EESA Strategic Vision
  • Our People
    • A-Z People
    • Alumni Network
    • Area Offices
    • Committees
    • Directors
    • IDEA Working Group
    • Paul A. Witherspoon
    • Postdocs & Early Careers
    • Search by Expertise
  • Careers & Opportunities
    • Careers
    • Intern Pilot w/CSUEB
    • Mentorship Program
    • Recognition & Funding Opps
    • EESA Mini Grants
    • S&E Metrics for Performance and Promotion
    • Student Opportunities
    • Supervisor EnRichment (SupER) Program
    • Promotion Metrics (Scientific)
  • Research
    • Our Divisions
    • Climate & Ecosystem Sciences Division
      • Environmental & Biological Systems Science
        • Programs
        • Environmental Remediation & Water Resources
        • Ecosystems Biology Program
        • Bioenergy
      • Biosphere-Atmosphere Interactions
        • Programs
        • Climate Modeling
        • Atmospheric System Research
        • Terrestrial Ecosystem Science
      • Climate & Atmosphere Processes
        • Programs
        • Climate Modeling
        • Atmospheric System Research
      • Earth Systems & Society
        • Programs
        • Climate Modeling
    • Energy Geosciences Division
      • Discovery Geosciences
        • Programs
        • Basic Energy Sciences (BES) Geophysics
        • Basic Energy Sciences (BES) Geochemistry
        • Basic Energy Sciences (BES) Isotope
      • Energy Resources
        • Programs
        • Geologic Carbon Sequestration
        • Hydrocarbon Resources
        • Geothermal Systems
        • Nuclear Energy & Waste
      • Resilient Energy, Water & Infrastructure
        • Programs
        • Water-Energy
        • Critical Infrastructure
        • Environmental Resilience
        • Grid-Scale Subsurface Energy Storage
    • Projects
    • Research at a Glance
    • Publication Lists
    • Centers and Resources
    • Technologies & National User Programs
  • Departments
    • Climate Sciences
    • Ecology
    • Geochemistry
    • Geophysics
    • Hydrogeology
    • Operations
  • News & Events
    • News
    • Events
    • Earth & Environment Newsletter
  • Intranet
  • COVID & Safety
    • EESA Safety
    • EESA COVID-19
  • Search

  • all
  • people
  • events
  • posts
  • pages
  • projects
  • publications

Tetsu K. Tokunaga

Hydrogeochemical Research Lab

Senior Scientist

Building 074, Room 0302

M/S 74R316C

Phone: 510-486-7176

Fax: 510-486-5686

[email protected]

Curriculum Vitae

  • Researcher ID
  • Google Scholar
  • Education
  • Experience
  • Patents
  • Boards & Committees
  • Scholarly Service
  • Additional Website

Biography

Tetsu Tokunaga is a Senior Scientist in the Energy Geosciences Division of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, studying the physicochemical basis of environmental transport processes. While conducting his graduate studies on gas diffusion in porous media at the University of California, Berkeley, he began working at LBNL on problems of unsaturated flow and transport from uranium mill tailings, and on reactive transport of selenium in contaminated wetland (Kesterson Reservoir). Upon graduation, he continued at LBNL conducting laboratory and field based studies on soil/geologic transport problems. In addition to his research at LBNL, he taught soil physics courses at the University of California, Berkeley. He currently has over 80 publications in peer-reviewed journals.

 

Publications

  • Researcher ID
  • Google Scholar

Research Interests

Tetsu Tokunaga’s research combines soil physics with related fields of hydrogeology and biogeochemistry. His research accomplishments include identifying the general free-path basis for gas diffusion in porous media, the importance of water film hydraulics in multiphase fluid flow, Boltzmann flux distributions in unsaturated rocks, limits for capillary hysteresis, the permeability-sorptivity scaling relation, the unsustainability of reduction-based remediation of uranium contamination, the role of uranyl vanadates in controlling uranium concentrations in oxidizing environments, modeling and measurements of brine film thicknesses under confinement by supercritical CO2, experimentally identifying limitations of scaling predictions of capillary pressure-saturation relations for supercritical CO2-brine in porous media, the potential acceleration of soil carbon sequestration through gypsum dissolution, measuring multiphase fluid equilibrium and flow in low permeability shales, and measuring solute diffusion through adsorbed water films.

Education

  • Ph.D. Soil Science, University of California, Berkeley, 1986, The temperature dependence of gas diffusivities in porous media.
  • B.A. Soil Resources, University of California, Berkeley, 1979

Experience

  • Senior Scientist, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), 2001-Present
  • Staff Scientist, LBNL, 1993-2001
  • Lecturer, Department of Soil Science, University of California, Berkeley, 1990, 1992
  • Scientist, LBNL-ESD, 1988-1993

Patents

  • Tokunaga, T.K., Y. Kim, and J.M. Wan. Aug. 20, 2013. Method of precipitating uranium from an aqueous solution and/or sediment., Unites States Patent # US 8,512,572 B1
  • Tokunaga, T.K., and D. Shuman. Aug. 23, 2010. A method to control low capillary pressure differences over arbitrarily high total pressures., Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Invention Disclosure IB-2931
  • Tokunaga, T.K., J. Wan, Y. Kim, W. Dong, G. Shi. April 5, 2012. Supercritical CO2 and water microemulsions stabilized with refractory natural organic macromolecules., Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Invention Disclosure IB-3242

Advisory Boards, Committees, and Councils

  • Professional Staff Committee, LBNL-Energy Geosciences Division (formerly Earth Sciences Division), 2001-Present
  • Staff Committee, LBNL, 2008-2011

Scholarly Service

  • Associate Editor, Water Resources Research, 2009-Present
  • Associate Editor, Vadose Zone Journal, 2008-Present

Additional Website

  • The Wan-Tokunaga Lab
  • Our People
    • Area Offices
    • Committees
    • Directors
    • Organizational Charts
    • Postdocs
    • Staff Only
    • Search by Expertise
  • Departments
    • Climate Sciences
    • Ecology
    • Geochemistry
    • Geophysics
    • Hydrogeology
  • Research
    • Climate & Ecosystem Sciences Division
    • Energy Geosciences Division
    • Program Domains
      • Programs
    • Projects
  • Contact
    • 510 486 6455
    • [email protected]
    • Our Identity

Earth and Environmental Sciences Area Logo DOE Earth and Environmental Sciences Area Logo UC

A U.S. Department of Energy National Laboratory Managed by the University of California

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory · Earth and Environmental Sciences Area · Privacy & Security Notice