Research & Applications

On April 22, 1959, Rear Admiral George J. King, superintendent of the Maine Maritime Academy, announced that following the completion of the 1960 training cruise, cadets would begin the study of nuclear engineering. Courses at that time included radiation physics, reactor control and instrumentation, reactor theory and engineering, thermodynamics, shielding, core design, reactor maintenance, and nuclear aspects.

Researchers announced earlier this month that they have completed major construction of the Gamma-Ray Energy Tracking Array (GRETA), a precision tool for gamma ray spectroscopy that, according to Paul Fallon, a researcher at University of California–Berkeley and GRETA’s project director, will be 10 to 100 times more sensitive than previous nuclear science experiments. Fallon was quoted in an August 8 article published by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab)—where GRETA’s project leaders are based and GRETA was assembled.

The Department of Energy’s Office of Science has committed $20 million to the University of Missouri that—with a matching $20 million from the state government—will support construction of a Radioisotope Science Center (RSC) at the university’s Discovery Ridge research park in Columbia, Mo., projected for completion in early 2029. The new facility will pair the DOE’s Office of Isotope R&D and Production (IRP)—formerly known as the DOE Isotope Program—with the decades of expertise developed at the University of Missouri Research Reactor (MURR).

For the uninitiated, Dubai chocolate is a candy bar filled with pistachio and tahini cream and crispy pastry recently popularized by social media influencers. While it’s easy to dismiss as a viral craze now past its peak, the nutty green confection has spiked global pistachio demand, and growers and processors are ramping up production. That means more pistachios need to be tested for aflatoxins—a byproduct of a common crop mold.

As global interest in nuclear energy surges, the United States must remain at the forefront of research and development to ensure national energy security, advance nuclear technologies, and promote international cooperation on safety and nonproliferation. A crucial step in achieving this is analyzing how funding and resources are allocated to better understand how to direct future research and development. The Department of Energy has spearheaded this effort by funding hundreds of research projects across the country through the Nuclear Energy University Program (NEUP). This initiative has empowered dozens of universities to collaborate toward a nuclear-friendly future.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright will attend the opening of the Advanced Manufacturing Collaborative in Aiken, S.C., on August 7. Wright will deliver remarks and join Savannah River National Laboratory leadership and partners for a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

A report just released by Idaho National Laboratory reviews decades of radiation protection standards and research on the health effects of low-dose radiation and recommends that the current U.S. annual occupational dose limit of 5,000 mrem be maintained without applying ALARA—the “as low as reasonably achievable” regulatory concept first introduced in 1971—below that threshold.

Noting that epidemiological studies “have consistently failed to demonstrate statistically significant health effects at doses below 10,000 mrem delivered at low dose rates,” the report also recommends “future consideration of increasing this limit to 10,000 mrem/year with appropriate cumulative-dose constraints.”

The United States has tight new deadlines—18 months, max—for licensing commercial reactor designs. The Department of Energy is marshaling the nuclear expertise and high-performance computing assets of its national laboratories, in partnership with private tech companies, to develop generative AI tools and large-scale simulations that could help get nuclear reactor designs through the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s licensing process—or the DOE’s own reactor pilot program. “Accelerate” and “streamline” are the verbs of choice in recent announcements from Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Idaho National Laboratory, as they describe plans with Atomic Canyon, Microsoft, and Amazon.

Leaders from private companies, government, and national laboratories gathered at Argonne National Laboratory on July 17 and 18 for an exclusive AI x Nuclear Energy Executive Summit that the Department of Energy called a first-of-its-kind forum to “align next-generation nuclear systems with the needs of digital infrastructure.”

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology have developed a technique called cryogenic decay energy spectrometry capable of detecting single radioactive decay events from tiny material samples and simultaneously identifying the atoms involved. In time, the technology could replace characterization tasks that have taken months and could support rapid, accurate radiopharmaceutical development and used nuclear fuel recycling, according to an article published on July 8 by NIST.

Helical Fusion, a private fusion start-up based in Japan, announced it has closed its first round of venture capital financing, securing ¥2.3 billion ($15.6 million) in funding. According to Helical Fusion, this brings the company’s total capital investment—including grants and loans—to ¥5.2 billion ($35.3 million).

The University of Michigan’s Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences (NERS) has published a summary of a study on nuclear microreactors and machine learning (ML) that was conducted by researchers from NERS and Idaho National Laboratory. The full paper, “Nuclear Microreactor Transient and Load-Following Control with Deep Reinforcement Learning,” was featured in the July issue of Energy Conversion and Management: X.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has initiated a coordinated research project that will combine an “innovative, non-invasive, and scalable nuclear technique”—gamma-ray spectrometry (GRS)—with drones and satellite imagery to gather and analyze data that can reveal the quality of soil on agricultural lands around the world.

Meeting a deadline set in President Trump’s May 23 executive order “Reforming Nuclear Reactor Testing at the Department of Energy,” the DOE on June 30 updated information on its National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) rulemaking and published an interim final rule rescinding existing regulations alongside new implementing procedures.

The Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy announced the recipients of “first call” 2025 Nuclear Science User Facilities (NSUF) Rapid Turnaround Experiment (RTE) awards on June 26. The 23 proposals selected from industry, national laboratories, and universities will receive a total of about $1.4 million. While each project is led by a different principal investigator, some call the same organization home. A total of 17 companies, labs, and universities are represented.

Orano Group subsidiary Orano Med, a developer of targeted alpha therapies for oncology, inaugurated the expansion of its main research and development center located in Plano, Texas. The facility is used in the development of radiopharmaceuticals and for conducting preclinical research focused on targeted alpha therapies using lead-212, an alpha-emitting radioisotope that has shown promise in treating various types of cancer.

In an article just published by the Taking Measure blog of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Stephen Russek—who leads the Imaging Physics Project in the Magnetic Imaging Group at NIST and codirects the MRI Biomarker Measurement Service—describes his team’s work using phantom stand-ins for human tissue.

Plastic waste is polluting the oceans and entering the human body in the form of microplastics. According to the United Nations, without immediate action the amount of plastic finding a way into the oceans each year could reach 37 million metric tons by 2040, becoming a threat to marine and human life.

You could call it a power contest. Teams picked for a new research program from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) will compete to design radiovoltaic cells that can outperform others in measured power density and endure high-flux radiation from a U.S. Army Research Lab linear accelerator. The top teams will strive to make it through a second downselect based on the performance of cells sequestered in time capsules and subjected to even more punishing high-flux radiation. Concepts that make it to the bonus period have a chance to be built into radioisotope-fueled power systems uniquely suited to high-radiation regions of space or dark, remote places on Earth.

Details of the plan to test new reactor concepts under the Department of Energy’s authority but outside national laboratory boundaries—first outlined in one of the four executive orders on nuclear energy released on May 23—were just released in a request for applications issued by the DOE.