Research & Applications

A group of universities led by the American Association of Universities (AAU) acted swiftly to oppose a policy action by the Department of Energy that would cut the funds it pays to universities for the indirect costs of research under DOE grants. The group filed suit Monday, April 14, challenging a what it termed a “flagrantly unlawful action” that could “devastate scientific research at America’s universities.”

By Wednesday, the U.S. District Court judge hearing the case issued a temporary restraining order effective nationwide, preventing the DOE from implementing the policy or terminating any existing grants.

The Department of Energy’s National Isotope Development Center (NIDC) on March 31 announced the successful long-distance shipment in the United States of a biologically active compound labeled with the medical radioisotope astatine-211 (At-211). Because previous shipments have included only the “bare” isotope, the NIDC has described the development as “unleashing medical innovation.”

The Department of Energy announced March 31 that a new Molten Salt Flow Loop Test Bed at Idaho National Laboratory recently went through its inaugural test run. The closed-loop test system will allow for continuous monitoring and analysis of chloride-based molten salt reactor technology and instruments before the construction of the Southern Company/TerraPower Molten Chloride Reactor Experiment. MCRE—an experimental fast-spectrum molten salt research reactor—will be built at INL’s repurposed Zero Power Physics Reactor, which has been renamed LOTUS (Laboratory for Operation and Testing in the United States).

Savannah River National Laboratory said it has received a patent for its radially oriented honeycomb structures. The technology offers a solution to the deformation of cylindrical honeycomb structures when they are formed from flat panels, providing a way to create structures with greater wall thickness than traditional methods.

Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have demonstrated a new method to track chemical changes in molten salt, according to a March 17 announcement from the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy.

Scientists at Idaho National Laboratory continue to make progress on the Molten Chloride Reactor Experiment (MCRE), which entails research and development for the first operational advanced nuclear reactor to use a mixture of molten chloride salt and uranium as fuel and coolant. The experiment is evaluating the safety and physics of the molten chloride fast reactor that Southern Company and TerraPower are planning to build.

A research team led by scientists at Ohio State University has developed a prototype battery capable of being powered by the ambient gamma radiation given off by the radioisotopes in external nuclear waste.

A team from Idaho National Laboratory and the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy recently visited Carolina Fabricators Inc. (CFI) in West Columbia, S.C., to launch the fabrication process for the primary coolant system of the MARVEL microreactor. Battelle Energy Alliance, which manages INL, awarded the CFI contract in January.

In materials science, understanding the unseen—how materials behave internally under real-world conditions—has always been key to developing new materials and accelerating innovative technologies to market. Moreover, the tools that allow us to see into this invisible world of materials have often been game-changers. Among these, neutron imaging stands out as a uniquely powerful method for investigating the internal structure and behavior of materials without having to alter or destroy the sample. By harnessing the unique properties of neutrons, researchers can uncover the hidden behavior of materials, providing insights essential for advancing nuclear materials and technologies.

The world’s first carbon-14 diamond battery became a reality in a United Kingdom laboratory this past December when it was created by scientists from University of Bristol and the U.K. Atomic Energy Authority.

French nuclear energy company Framatome and Belgian particle accelerator technology company Ion Beam Applications (IBA) have signed a memorandum of understanding to advance the industrial-scale production of the alpha-emitting medical radioisotope astatine-211 across Europe and the United States.

New Strategic Understanding for Premier Education and Research (SUPER) agreements signed by Idaho National Laboratory, Boise State University, and University of Idaho will foster collaboration among the institutions in advanced energy and cybersecurity projects. The five-year agreements are designed to open doors for research and development opportunities, while advancing existing research and development initiatives, including projects in nuclear energy and high-performance computing.

Ontario Power Generation in Canada announced that Unit 1 of its Darlington nuclear power plant, which has returned to service from refurbishment, is now producing the medical isotope cobalt-60. During refurbishment activities, OPG made modifications to the unit to allow it to produce Co-60, which is used to sterilize 30 percent of the world’s single-use medical devices, such as syringes, gloves, and implants.

General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) has announced that it has subjected nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) fuel samples to several “high-impact” tests at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Ala. That news comes as NASA, the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, and multiple nuclear and space technology companies continue to build on recent progress in nuclear thermal rocket design and demonstration.

A growing number of institutional, national, and funder mandates are requiring researchers to make their published work immediately publicly accessible, through either open repositories or open access (OA) publications. In addition, both private and public funders are developing policies, such as those from the Office of Science and Technology Policy and the European Commission, that ask researchers to make publicly available at the time of publication as much of their underlying data and other materials as possible. These, combined with movement in the scientific community toward embracing open science principles (seen, for example, in the dramatic rise of preprint servers like arXiv), demonstrate a need for a different kind of publishing outlet.

The Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, home of the research institutes of New York’s Northwell Health, announced it has received a five-year, $2.9 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to investigate the potential of human ghrelin, a naturally occurring hormone, as a medical countermeasure against radiation-induced gastrointestinal syndrome (GI-ARS).

Plastic waste pollutes oceans, streams, and bloodstreams. Nations in Asia and the Pacific are working with the International Atomic Energy Agency through the Nuclear Technology for Controlling Plastic Pollution (NUTEC Plastics) initiative to tackle the problem. Launched in 2020, NUTEC Plastics is focused on using nuclear technology to both track the flow of microplastics and improve upstream plastic recycling before discarded plastic can enter the ecosystem. Irradiation could target hard-to-recycle plastics and the development of bio-based plastics, offering sustainable alternatives to conventional plastic products and building a “circular economy” for plastics, according to the IAEA.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory has for the first time designed, printed, and irradiated a specimen capsule—or rabbit capsule—for use in its High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR), the Department of Energy announced on January 15.

Westinghouse Electric Company announced last week that NASA and the Department of Energy have awarded the company a contract to continue developing a lunar microreactor concept for the Fission Surface Power (FSP) project.

The Department of Energy’s Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear (GAIN) has awarded four fiscal year 2025 vouchers to support the development of advanced nuclear technologies. Each company will get access to specific capabilities and expertise in the DOE’s national laboratory complex—in this round of awards both Idaho National Laboratory and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory are named—and will be responsible for a minimum 20 percent cost share, which can be an in-kind contribution.