Feature Articles

The Summer Undergraduate Program for Exceptional Researchers (SUPER), run by the U.S. ATLAS collaboration, wrapped up a successful season with a new focus to broaden the program’s impact. The new initiative paired students from underrepresented minorities and minority serving institutions (MSIs) across the nation with mentors and projects at U.S. ATLAS member institutions.

Berkeley Lab researchers have completed a major expansion of one of the world’s most powerful laser systems, creating new opportunities in accelerator research. The expansion created a second beamline for the petawatt laser at the Berkeley Lab Laser Accelerator (BELLA) Center, enabling the development of next-generation particle accelerators for applications in science, medicine, security, and industry.

Highly-resolved microscopy technique helps show temperature-dependent phase transitions at tiny and fast scales.

Last year, Bill Gates was speaking at the Nuclear Energy Assembly’s virtual conference about his company’s plans to build an advanced reactor in Wyoming. Julian Colvin, a 22-year-old nuclear engineering student at North Carolina State University, was listening and posted a question in the chat: “I’m Julian. I go to NC State, and I wonder what a state like Kentucky could do to attract advanced nuclear projects?” Another attendee, Christine King, director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear (GAIN) responded in the chat, asking Colvin to contact GAIN, which is based at Idaho National Laboratory.

En route to record-breaking X-rays, SLAC’s Cryogenic team built a helium-refrigeration plant that lowers the LCLS-II accelerator to superconducting temperatures.

Idaho National Laboratory’s Center for Radiation Chemistry Research has developed a capability that supports the nuclear energy industry by researching radiation-induced effects in advanced reactors, fuels, coolants, materials and fuel recycling technologies while also training the next generation of radiation chemists.

Scientists have developed a machine learning method capable screening tens of thousands of compounds as solar absorbers. They used this method to identify the best candidate materials for further investigation.

A new solar material developed by Berkeley Lab scientists offers a simpler and more sustainable approach to solar cell manufacturing. The material’s lead-free formulation could also benefit the commercialization of perovskites, a promising solar material that requires much less energy to manufacture than silicon.