Argonne researchers win defense programs award for nuclear safety work

Newswise — Award recognizes work carried out in collaboration with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory researchers to secure America’s stockpile.

A multi-laboratory team including researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory has received the 2021 Defense Programs Award of Excellence from the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).

Given for work directed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and performed in collaboration at Argonne’s Advanced Photon Source (APS), a DOE Office of Science user facility, the award recognizes classified experiments done to ensure the security and proper stewardship of America’s nuclear stockpile.

“The strong collaboration between the national labs and the use of national user facilities like the APS resulted in an enhancement of our stockpile stewardship and national security,” said Argonne interim classification officer Greg Robinson. ​“It shows the capabilities and what can be accomplished by collaborative work of the labs.”

Physicist Dayne Fratanduono of LLNL agrees. ​“Argonne and Livermore have partnered for many years to help realize a new capability to support the critical national security mission of the NNSA at the APS,” he said. ​“It’s been exciting and rewarding to help in this endeavor over the years. This research would not have been possible without Argonne’s continued support. I hope the recent collaboration between Livermore and Argonne marks a step in a long lasting collaboration to address future national security needs using the APS.”

Along with Robinson, other Argonne recipients of the award are Tracy Bennish, Keith Bradley (now at Los Alamos National Laboratory), Jonathan Lang, John Quintana, Eric Rod, Maddury Somayazulu, Sandy Schroeder, Jesse Smith and George Vukovich. The LLNL recipients are Nolan Bernal, Hyunchae Cynn, William Evans, Fratanduono, Sony Jacob, Zsolt Jenei, Earl O’Bannon, Daniel Sneed, Rick Sood and Nenad Velisavljevic.

Argonne National Laboratory seeks solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology. The nation’s first national laboratory, Argonne conducts leading-edge basic and applied scientific research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne researchers work closely with researchers from hundreds of companies, universities, and federal, state and municipal agencies to help them solve their specific problems, advance America’s scientific leadership and prepare the nation for a better future. With employees from more than 60 nations, Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit https://​ener​gy​.gov/​s​c​ience.