Feature Articles

ORNL produces Th-228 for the Department of Energy’s Isotope Program in large quantities as a byproduct of the process to produce actinium-227. Researchers hope studies looking at different medical applications for the isotope will grow customer demand for it.

While making materials samples to pursue their own research goals, scientists at Ames Laboratory discovered that an unwanted byproduct of their experiments was an extremely high-quality and difficult-to-obtain substance sought after by scientists researching layered materials.

As the United States transitions to clean energy, the country has an ambitious goal: cut carbon dioxide emissions in half by the year 2030, if not before. One of the solutions to help meet this challenge is found at Oak Ridge National Laboratory as part of the Better Plants Program.

Nuclear power is a significant source of steady carbon-neutral electricity, making the design and construction of new and next-generation nuclear reactors critical for achieving the U.S.’s green energy goals. A number of new nuclear reactor designs, such as small modular reactors and non-light water reactors, have been developed over the past 10 to 15 years. In order to help the Nuclear Regulatory Commission evaluate the safety of the next generation of reactors, fuel cycle facilities and fuel technologies, researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have been expanding their severe accident modeling computer code, called Melcor, to work with different reactor geometries, fuel types and coolant systems.

The “superheavy” elements are found only in labs. The small amounts of material available means chemists must use special techniques to study them. This research developed a new way to study the chemistry of metallic elements with extremely low concentrations of material. This may lead to better methods of recovering iridium, an element that is critical to national security and the economy.

Using X-rays to study batteries and electronics at nanometer scales requires extremely high resolution. Argonne scientists led an effort to build a new instrument and devise a new algorithm to greatly improve the resolution for nanotomography.

A discovery from PNNL and Washington State University could help reduce the amount of expensive material needed to treat vehicle exhaust by making the most of every precious atom.

Katie Sautter, a postdoctoral scientist at Argonne National Laboratory, is building new, exquisite, atomically engineered materials that will be used for quantum communication. Her work is part of Q-NEXT, a DOE National Quantum Information Science Research Center.