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The marketplace debut of Idaho National Laboratory’s Colorimetric Detection of Actinides, or CoDeAc, isn’t the finish to the award-winning technology’s story. According to its inventors and now investors, it’s just the beginning of a new chapter. “CoDeAc has a bright future,” INL Researcher and CoDeAc inventor Catherine Riddle said. “As it gains interest and expands, there will be new opportunities for future colorimetric detection products and a diverse range of new technologies geared towards rapid radionuclide detection.” Riddle, along with fellow INL researcher Rick Demmer, started developing CoDeAc in 2019 to help first responders, radiation specialists and nuclear operators detect uranium and plutonium when responding to an emergency nuclear event.

As nations work to eliminate carbon emissions, batteries will play a huge role. Electric vehicles powered by batteries seem likely to dominate the future of commercial and consumer transportation. Likewise, large stationary batteries will augment renewables like wind and solar by storing energy when production exceeds demand on the electrical grid, then sending that energy back to the grid when needed. But even today’s most advanced lithium-ion batteries don’t yet have the combination of economics, durability and energy density necessary to meet all future energy goals. To tackle this challenge, battery scientists from the U.S., the United Kingdom and Germany have proposed the Battery Data Genome, a central repository for battery test information that could be accessed by researchers around the world.

Kamrynn Schiller, an Idaho National Laboratory nuclear research facility engineer, has designed a robotic system to support post-irradiation examination work at INL’s Irradiated Materials Characterization Laboratory (IMCL).

Until now, most fundamental scientific research of quantum mechanics has focused on elements such as silicon because these materials are relatively inexpensive, easy to obtain and easy to work with. Now, Idaho National Laboratory researchers are planning to explore the frontiers of quantum mechanics with a new synthesis laboratory that can work with radioactive elements such as uranium and thorium.

It’s not uncommon in the scientific world for a process to have many unique applications. For example, Idaho National Laboratory researchers have taken a water treatment technology and adapted it for another environmentally important function – selectively separating rare earth elements and transition metals. This chemical process, recently described in a Nature Communications article, significantly reduces both the energy and product consumption involved with rare earth element recovery.

Ever since the Wright brothers innovated in the back of their bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio, aviation has been, at heart, a nuts-and-bolts endeavor. For all the sophisticated equipment Idaho National Laboratory’s Unmanned Aerial Systems team has at its disposal for testing high-tech cameras, radios and sensors, there is still a lot of gearhead ingenuity involved.

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.

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.

Idaho National Laboratory is perhaps best known for innovative research that helps shape the clean energy economies of today and tomorrow – and for good reason. But while much of the laboratory’s work is focused on building a sustainable future, INL is also doing its part to preserve the past. INL researchers recently imaged several fossils using a powerful X-ray microscope. The 3D images will be used to create exhibits for Wyoming’s Fossil Butte National Monument and help experts gain insight into the origins of these and other relics

The high energy density of lithium-sulfur batteries could lead to lighter, smaller batteries that can last longer on a single charge. Cogent Energy Systems, a small business in eastern Idaho, applied their technology — carbon nano-onions — to lithium-sulfur batteries as the sulfur host to improve the battery cycling performance.