Brookhaven Lab nuclear engineer Lap-Yan Cheng has been selected to co-chair a group helping to ensure that future nuclear reactors are designed to meet nonproliferation and national security goals.
Researchers must develop new methods to investigate nuclear fuel’s structural, thermodynamic and chemical characteristics. An S&T researcher has developed a mobile platform the size of a microwave that can see through and image the spent nuclear fuel using gamma radiation.
To ensure the continued security and safety of our nation’s nuclear enterprises, the Penn State College of Engineering is formally introducing a nuclear security option in its nuclear engineering master’s program.
The following statement is being issued by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility and Brookhaven National Laboratory—along with the Electron-Ion Collider User Group—in response to a report issued today by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine on the scientific case for a U.S.-based Electron-Ion Collider (EIC). Jefferson Lab and Brookhaven scientists are part of the vibrant community that has come together to tackle the scientific and technological challenges of designing and building a U.S.-based EIC, drawing on the expertise and existing infrastructure at the two labs.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced nearly $64 million in awards for advanced nuclear energy technology to DOE national laboratories, industry, and 39 U.S. universities in 29 states. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has been awarded $800,000 for analysis of nuclear power plants’ accident propagation and mitigation processes.
Sandia National Laboratories researchers have built a scaled test assembly that mimics a dry cask storage container for spent nuclear fuel to study how fuel temperatures change during storage and how the fuel’s peak temperatures affect the integrity of the metal cladding surrounding the spent fuel. Regulators could use the data to help verify computer simulations that show whether nuclear power utilities are complying with regulations that specify how much heat a dry cask can safely handle.
UPTON, NY—The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced funding for a new Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC) to be led by DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory. The Brookhaven EFRC, named “Molten Salts in Extreme Environments,” will focus on understanding the properties of a class of materials with potential applications in energy technologies—particularly in nuclear power.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) identified the need for a systematic platform where technically accurate and decision-making information could be easily shared across state, municipal and tribal jurisdictions. They contacted the DHS S&T – DHS’s research and development arm – for assistance.
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility (NIF) laser system has set a new record, firing 2.15 megajoules (MJ) of energy to its target chamber – a 15 percent improvement over NIF’s design specification of 1.8 MJ, and more than 10 percent higher than the previous 1.9 MJ energy record set in March 2012. Increasing NIF’s energy limit will expand the parameter space for stockpile stewardship experiments and provide a significant boost to the pursuit of ignition.
Competing in a fictitious high-stakes scenario, a group of scientists at Berkeley Lab bested two dozen other teams in a months-long, data-driven scavenger hunt for simulated radioactive materials in a virtual urban environment. The goal of this event was both to improve the detection methods that could be applied to actual threats involving nuclear materials, and to create a platform to virtually vet out these methods.
Transmitting signals through the concrete and steel of a nuclear power plant presents challenges even under normal conditions. But the loss of electric power at a nuclear plant following an accident would leave no way to send vital information into or out of the harsh environment of a containment building. Now, however, research at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory reveals that communicating through a containment building’s metal conduits is no pipe dream.
The program to extend the life of the W80 nuclear warhead recently passed a significant milestone when the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) gave passing grades to the plans to refurbish certain components and the proposed approach to developing component cost estimates.
Elegant techniques of trapping and polarizing atoms open vistas for beta-decay tests of fundamental symmetries, key to understanding the most basic forces and particles constituting our universe.
Three young scientists affiliated with Jefferson Lab win grants to support research for building better accelerators and for using Jefferson Lab’s recently upgraded accelerator and supercomputers to suss out new information about subatomic particles.
Scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory are exploring deep learning to interpret data related to national security, the environment, the cosmos, and breast cancer. In one project a deep neural network is interpreting data about nuclear events as well as – sometimes better than – today’s best automated methods or human experts.
An experimental campaign conducted at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) – the world’s largest and most energetic laser – has achieved a total fusion neutron yield of 1.9e16 (1.9x1016) and 54 KJ of fusion energy output – double the previous record. The experiments utilized a diamond capsule – a layer of ultra-thin high-density carbon containing the deuterium-tritium (DT) fusion fuel. In addition to increased yield, the experiments achieved unprecedented pressures, exceeding those found at the center of the Sun.
Argonne’s fellows in the Applied Research Experience program have a front-row view of entrepreneurship as they help the laboratory’s Chain Reaction Innovators achieve research goals.
News Release SEQUIM, Wash. — For the first time, researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and LCW Supercritical Technologies have created five grams of yellowcake — a powdered form of uranium used to produce fuel for nuclear power production — using acrylic fibers to extract it from seawater."This is a significant milestone," said Gary Gill, a researcher at PNNL, a Department of Energy national laboratory, and the only one with a marine research facility, located in Sequim, Wash.
Steven Cowley, newly named director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) effective July 1, has received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth “for services to science and the development of nuclear fusion.”