Today, U.S. Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette announced a strategy for Restoring America's Competitive Nuclear Energy Advantage, a direct result of the efforts of the U.S. Nuclear Fuel Working Group established by President Trump in July 2019.
National lab partnerships speed nuclear deployment
“The tools of the academic designer are a piece of paper and a pencil with an eraser. If a mistake is made, it can always be erased and changed. If the practical-reactor designer errs, he...
Argonne assists advanced reactor development with award-winning safety software
Joint efforts of Argonne and private industry further nuclear reactor developments
The development of modern nuclear reactor technologies relies heavily on complex software codes and computer simulations to support the design, construction, and testing of physical hardware...
Deep geologic repository progress
Outside my office, there is a display case filled with rock samples from all over the world. It contains a disk of translucent, orange salt from the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad,...
50 minerals critical to our society
Last year, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) released its 2022 list of 50 minerals that are essential to the function of our society, especially the economy and national security. Whether...
Jumping hurdles: ARPA-E and the path to advanced reactor deployment
The Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E), a branch of the Department of Energy, is tasked with driving the research and development of cutting-edge energy technologies. The...
Cracking the code to transition a ‘paper reactor’ to a practical reactor
As global concerns about climate change and energy sustainability intensify, the need for cleaner and more efficient energy sources is more critical than ever. Nuclear power consistently...
Gas-cooled reactors and Fort St. Vrain
Gas-cooled reactors have roots that reach way back to the development of early experimental reactors in the United States and Europe. In the United States, early experimental reactors at Oak...
 2x1.jpg)
The U.S. nuclear fuel Gordian knot: From global supplier to vulnerable customer
This article is the second in a series about the domestic nuclear fuel crisis. The first in the series, “‘On the verge of a crisis’: The U.S. nuclear fuel Gordian knot,” was published...
On the verge of a crisis: The U.S. nuclear fuel Gordian knot
The naturalist John Muir is widely quoted as saying, “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.” While he was speaking of ecology,...
Locked in glass: The vitrification of LLW streams
Using GeoMelt ICV technology to treat and immobilize problematic low-level wastes at INL and WCS.
When it comes to managing nuclear waste, technology is transforming the way some of the most problematic waste is handled. The idea to transform nuclear waste into glass was developed back in...
