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From testing space shuttle tiles to making electricity from sunlight, the world’s first multimegawatt solar tower has contributed to energy research, space exploration, defense testing and solar energy commercialization since it was commissioned at Sandia National Laboratories in July 1978. The solar tower is a key component of a specific type of utility-scale solar energy technology that uses hundreds of large mirrors to reflect and concentrate sunlight onto a receiver on a tower. The heat from the concentrated sunlight is absorbed by either a liquid, gas or solid and stored or used immediately in a heat exchanger to generate electricity. This type of energy, called concentrating solar power, is appealing because it can supply renewable energy — even when the sun is not shining — without using batteries for storage. To mark the National Solar Thermal Test Facility’s 40th anniversary this month, present and past Sandia leaders and researchers, industry leaders and government represen

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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.

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Researchers from Sandia National Laboratories have developed a tiny silicon-based device that can harness what was previously called waste heat and turn it into DC power.

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Sandia National Laboratories has worked with Structural Monitoring Systems for over 15 years to turn science fiction smart bridges that can send out warnings when they’re damaged into science fact.

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Marine research could soon be possible without the risk of polluting either the air or the ocean. It’s thanks to a new ship design and feasibility study led by Sandia National Laboratories. Despite many advantages, the feasibility of a hydrogen-powered research vessel has never been studied or proven. Until now.

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A multicolor laser pointer you can use to change the color of the laser with a button click — similar to a multicolor ballpoint pen — is one step closer to reality thanks to a new tiny synthetic material made at Sandia National Laboratories. Research on the new light-mixing metamaterial was published in Nature Communications earlier today.

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Sandia National Laboratories is using its solar tower to help assess the impact of extreme temperature changes on materials.The tests, now in their second year, take advantage of the ability of Sandia’s National Solar Thermal Test Facility to simulate a very rapid increase in temperature followed by an equally rapid decrease. The testing is for the Air Force and will continue for at least another year.

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In a year-long project, researchers at Sandia and Los Alamos national laboratories teamed up with the City of New Orleans to analyze ways to increase community resilience and improve the availability of critical lifeline services during and after severe weather. The team used historical hurricane scenarios to model how storms cause localized flooding, disrupt the electrical system and cut off parts of the community from lifeline services. Sandia researchers then developed a tool to analyze and identify existing clusters of businesses and community resources in areas less prone to inundation — such as gas stations, grocery stores and pharmacies that could be outfitted with microgrids to boost resilience.

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Today with 3D printing you can make almost anything in a matter of hours. However, making sure that part works reliably takes weeks or even months. Until now.Sandia National Laboratories has designed and built a six-sided work cell, similar to a circular desk, with a commercial robot at its center that conducts high-throughput testing to quickly determine the performance and properties of the part.

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Sandia National Laboratories materials scientist David Enos has been elected a fellow of NACE International, the chief professional society for corrosion engineering. He is the first Sandia employee to receive the honor.

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Uniform powders produced at Sandia National Laboratories don’t just look nice, they outperform commercial varieties used to kick-start chemical reactions in solar cells and could be used to produce clean-burning hydrogen fuel. Their key ingredient: detergent.

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Sandia National Laboratories will receive $10.5 million from the Department of Energy to research and design a cheaper and more efficient solar energy system.The work focuses on refining a specific type of utility-scale solar energy technology that uses mirrors to reflect and concentrate sunlight onto a receiver on a tower.

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Jet fuel, pantyhose and plastic soda bottles are all products currently derived from petroleum. Sandia National Laboratories scientists have demonstrated a new technology based on bioengineered bacteria that makes it feasible to produce all three from renewable plant sources.

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A long-standing collaboration between Sandia National Laboratories and Imagion Biosystems produced precise magnetic nanoparticles for a breast cancer clinical trial later this year. The nanoparticles stick to breast cancer cells, allowing the detection and removal of even small metastases.

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Sandia National Laboratories won the Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer’s national 2018 Technology Focus Award for the first wind turbine blades made from a 3-D printed mold. The labs also won FLC’s Excellence in Technology Transfer Award for advanced nanomaterial window films.

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The Arctic is undergoing rapid change, with sea ice melting and temperatures rising at a faster pace than anywhere else in the world. Its changing environment affects global security, politics, the economy and the climate. Understanding these changes is crucial for shaping and safeguarding U.S. security in the future, Sandia scientists say. Sandia and the University of Alaska Fairbanks recently signed an umbrella Cooperative Research and Development Agreement to study these changes and partner on basic science, energy and security research in the Arctic.

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Shared fates and experiences in a community can help it withstand changes to water availability due to climate change, a recent study by Sandia National Laboratories researchers found.The work, part of Sandia’s energy-water nexus program to help safeguard resilient and sustainable energy-water systems in the interest of national and global security, was recently published in a special socio-hydrology issue of Water Resources Research. The research paired a dynamic systems model of an acequia community and its water system with a hydrology model of an upland water source to study how the community responds to changes in water availability and flow.

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A biologically inspired membrane intended to cleanse carbon dioxide almost completely from the smoke of coal-fired power plants has been developed by scientists at Sandia National Laboratories and the University of New Mexico.

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Sandia National Laboratories computer scientists Pat Finley and Drew Levin have been working to improve the U.S. biosurveillance system that alerts authorities to disease outbreaks by mimicking the human immune system.

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Late last year, Sandia researchers completed an eight-month, 14,500-mile triathlon-like test to gather data on the bumps and jolts spent nuclear fuel experiences during transportation.

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LIVERMORE, Calif. — Sandia National Laboratories researchers have identified key chemical mechanisms for the first time that add to the fundamental knowledge of combustion chemistry and might lead to cleaner combustion in engines.Sandia researcher Nils Hansen and former postdoctoral appointee Kai Moshammer focused on low-temperature oxidation of hydrocarbons and other alternative fuels.

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LIVERMORE, Calif. — Jacqueline Chen, a distinguished member of the technical staff at Sandia National Laboratories, has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering. Chen is among the 99 new members from around the globe in the 2018 class.Election to the National Academy of Engineering is the highest professional distinction for an engineer in the United States.

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A team of Sandia National Laboratories researchers has designed and synthesized metal-organic framework nanoparticles that glow red or near infrared for at least two days in cells. This could prove useful in tracking the spread of cancer cells.

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Sandia National Laboratories recently designed and produced new radiation detection equipment for New START Treaty monitoring. New START is a treaty between the United States and Russia that, among other limits, reduces the deployed nuclear warheads on both sides to 1,550 by Feb. 5.

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Sandia National Laboratories is developing specialized computer modeling and simulation methods to better understand how blasts on a battlefield could lead to traumatic brain injury and injuries to vital organs, like the heart and lungs.

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Sandia National Laboratories researchers want to use small magnetic sensors to image the brain in a way that’s simpler and less expensive than the magnetoencephalography system now used.

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Danny Bowman, a Sandia National Laboratories geophysicist, launched a fleet of five solar-powered hot air balloons last year. They reached a height of 13 to 15 miles, twice as high as commercial jets, and detected the infrasound from a test explosion. Infrasound is sound of very low frequencies, below 20 hertz, which is lower than humans can hear, and can be used to monitor explosions, including those caused by nuclear tests. Bowman is also working with NASA to explore the possibility of sending these balloons to Venus and Jupiter.

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Sandia National Laboratories and Montana Tech University have demonstrated an R&D 100 award-winning control system that smooths out inter-area oscillations using new smart grid technology in the western power grid. The new system allows utilities to push more electricity through transmission lines, leading to lower costs for utilities and consumers and greater stability for the grid.

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Solder isn’t the first thing that comes to mind as essential to a nuclear weapon. But since weapons contain hundreds of thousands of solder joints, each potentially a point of failure, Sandia National Laboratories has developed and refined computer models to predict their performance and reliability.

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LIVERMORE, Calif. – Research at Sandia National Laboratories has identified a major obstacle to advancing solid-state lithium-ion battery performance in small electronics: the flow of lithium ions across battery interfaces.Sandia’s three-year Laboratory Directed Research and Development project investigated the nanoscale chemistry of solid-state batteries, focusing on the region where electrodes and electrolytes make contact.

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Sandia National Laboratories and The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company have worked together for 25 years to create better tires and more advanced computational mechanics.

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Sandia researchers have created alternative realities to mislead cyberintruders and cast doubt upon their disclosures.

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Gene editing holds great promise for ‘deleting’ diseases from human bodies. Sandia National Laboratories is now working to make this technology safer and to ensure that one day it can be delivered into humans without triggering adverse immune system reactions or causing other undesirable side effects.

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A team of computer scientists and engineers from Sandia National Laboratories and Boston University recently won the Gauss Award at the International Supercomputing conference for their paper about using machine learning to automatically diagnose problems in supercomputers.

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A Sandia National Laboratories-led team has demonstrated faster, more efficient ways to turn discarded plant matter into chemicals worth billions. The team’s findings could help transform the economics of making fuels and other products from domestically grown renewable sources.

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Sandia National Laboratories has been helping the Army’s Product Directorate Contingency Base Infrastructure identify the best equipment for temporary bases overseas since 2013. For the first time, a Sandia-designed software tool is being used to recommend the core set of equipment for bases to be built in 2020 and beyond.

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A new optical device at Sandia National Laboratories that helps researchers image pollutants in combusting fuel sprays might lead to clearer skies in the future.An optical setup developed by researchers at Sandia’s Combustion Research Facility and the Technical University of Denmark can now quantify the formation of soot — particulate matter consisting primarily of carbon — as a function of time and space for a variety of combustion processes.

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Compared to wind and solar energy, wave energy has remained relatively expensive and hard to capture, but engineers from Sandia National Laboratories are working to change that by drawing inspiration from other industries. Sandia’s engineering team has designed, modeled and tested a control system that doubles the amount of power a wave energy converter can absorb from ocean waves, making electricity produced from wave energy less expensive.

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Sandia National Laboratories engineers have developed new fractal-like, concentrating solar power receivers for small- to medium-scale use that are up to 20 percent more effective at absorbing sunlight than current technology. The receivers were designed and studied as part of a Laboratory Directed Research and Development project and are also being applied to Sandia’s work for the Solar Energy Research Institute for India and the United States, or SERIIUS.

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Sandia National Laboratories' international peer mentoring program pairs experienced biosafety professionals from developed countries with their counterparts in the developing world.

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A new book by Sandia National Laboratories researchers describes shock physics research at the labs from its early history to today. Speeding bullets practically stand still compared to impact velocities achieved in shock physics studies.

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Sandia Labs team continues to quantify fatigue using wearablesLIVERMORE, Calif. – Can fatigue be predicted? Can life-threatening fatigue be differentiated from recoverable fatigue?A team of researchers led by Sandia National Laboratories is seeking answers to these questions through the Rim-to-Rim Wearables at the Canyon for Health, or R2R WATCH, study, a collaboration with the University of New Mexico and the National Park Service and funded by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency.

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Power plants draw more freshwater than any other consumer in the United States, accounting for more than 50 percent of the nation’s freshwater use at about 500 billion gallons daily. To help save this water, researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have developed a new silica filter for power plant cooling waters that decreases the amount of freshwater power plants consume by increasing the number of times cooling tower water can be reused and recycled.

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A “cool flame” may sound contradictory, but it’s an important element of diesel combustion — one that, once properly understood, could enable better engine designs with higher efficiency and fewer emissions.

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Microneedles are the first way to extract large volumes of pure interstitial fluid. This fluid can be used to track the physical conditions of athletes, soldiers, even diabetics but could also aid in diagnosing other diseases, including cancer.

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Sandia National Laboratories won five awards from the 2017 Federal Laboratory Consortium for its work to develop and commercialize innovative technologies.

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Sandia National Laboratories engineer Mark Tucker has spent much of the past 20 years thinking about incidents involving chemical or biological warfare agents, and the best ways to clean them up. Tucker’s current project focuses on cleaning up a subway system after the release of a biological warfare agent such as anthrax.

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A Sandia National Laboratories-led team has for the first time used optics rather than electronics to switch a nanometer-thick thin film device from completely dark to completely transparent, or light, at a speed of trillionths of a second.

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LIVERMORE, Calif. — When law enforcement officers and first responders arrive at an emergency involving radiation, they need a way to swiftly assess the situation to keep the public and environment safe. Having analysis tools that can quickly and reliably make sense of radiation data is of the essence.

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A partnership between Sandia National Laboratories and Santa Fe, New Mexico-based IR Dynamics is turning nano-size particles that reflect heat, or infrared radiation, into window films to keep offices, houses and cars cool.