Feature Articles

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.

Pioneering software called ACE3P was developed almost a quarter century ago to fine-tune the design of particle accelerators and their components. Now its latest incarnation is being adapted for scientific supercomputing and manufacturing design, thanks to partnerships between two companies and DOE's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.

Scientists have developed a fully recyclable and biodegradable printed circuit. The advance could divert wearable devices and other flexible electronics from landfill, and mitigate the health and environmental hazards posed by heavy metal waste.

Garret Suen is an associate professor of Bacteriology at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, who is researching how herbivores use the microbes in their stomachs to break down cellulose into smaller molecules that can be converted into biofuels and bioproducts.

Argonne’s industrial partnerships are instrumental in getting technology from the laboratory and into popular use.