Highlights
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Argonne
scientist participates in panel on expanding the use of nuclear energy
Argonne scientist Mark Peters (ESE) participated in a
panel discussion on the possibility of expanding the use of nuclear energy
hosted by the Heritage Foundation. Topics included the safety of geologic
storage, how recycling spent nuclear fuel could affect Yucca Mountain’s
long-term viability and the politics of nuclear power. Peters laid out
challenges with the waste management of nuclear materials, as well as different
approaches to spent fuel management
- Yucca Mountain Nuclear Repository (C-Span Video Library)
CNN
reports on Passive millimeter-wave spectroscopy (PmmWS)
CNN's "Situation Room" recently focused on Argonne
technologies with anti-terrorism applications. Passive millimeter-wave
spectroscopy is one of the technologies featured in the report.
The video clip is available on the CNN website:
Gopalsami
interviewed on security technology
Sami Gopalsami (NE) was interviewed on WDCB radio about
passive millimeter-wave spectroscopy, an award-winning invention that covertly
detects chemical plumes at great distances and may help thwart future chemical
or nuclear-based terrorist attacks.
- Visit the STD Department Multimedia Gallery to listen to the interview.
- 2007 R&D 100 Awards: Passive millimeter-wave spectroscopy (PmmWS) NE Awards
- New instrument covertly detects signals from illicit chemicals Argonne News Release (Aug. 31, 2007)
NE researchers win two R&D 100 Awards
NE researchers devised two of the world's top 100
scientific and technological innovations during 2006, as judged by R&D magazine.
William
J. Shack elected Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Advisory
Committee on Reactor Safeguards
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Advisory Committee on
Reactor Safeguards (ACRS) has elected William J. Shack as Chairman.
The ACRS advises the Commission independently from the NRC staff on the safety
and safeguards aspects of nuclear facilities and the adequacy of safety
standards.
Award-winning alloys could reduce costs for chemical and
petrochemical industries
Materials developed by scientists (NE's
Ken Natesan and Zuotao Zeng) at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne
National Laboratory could provide large cost and energy savings to the chemical
and petrochemical industries.
NE's
Hussein Khalil named co-director of the Center for Advanced Nuclear Fuel Cycles
NE's director Hussein Khalil has been named co-director of the
Center for Advanced Nuclear Fuel Cycles (CANF).
The CANF, is an initiative centered at Argonne to bring together nuclear
engineering faculty, scientists and students from Big 10 universities, The
University of Chicago and Argonne to perform research into key nuclear
fuel-cycle issues and technologies.
NE's Claude Reed in "Modern Marvels"
program
Argonne's Laser Applications Lab and researcher Claude
Reed (NE) appeared in the History Channel program "Modern Marvels: Drilling"
(May 10, 2006).
"Modern Marvels" relates the ingenuity, invention
and imagination behind everyday items, technological breakthroughs and man-made
wonders.
Reduced Enrichment for Research and Test Reactors
Argonne National Laboratory provides overall technical
integration for the
Reduced Enrichment for Research and Test Reactors
(RERTR) program (initiated in 1978), managed by the U.S.
Department of Energy's
National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to
convert research and test reactors across the globe to low
enriched uranium (LEU) fuel – a material that cannot be
diverted for direct use in nuclear weapons. The program's
primary objective is to develop the technology to minimize
and, to the extent possible, eventually eliminate the use
of highly enriched uranium (HEU) in civilian nuclear
applications worldwide.
- Reduced Enrichment for Research and Test Reactors Program
- RERTR program reduces use of enriched uranium in research reactors worldwide
Argonne News Release (Feb. 24, 2006)
Non-destructive examination technologies
Argonne researchers have developed many non-destructive
evaluation tools that enable engineers to detect flaws or
damage before use in items such as pistons and valves for
low-emission diesel engines and turbine blades and
combustors for gas turbines. Flawed or damaged components
can cause severe damage to engines if the components fail.
- Sensors, Instrumentation, and Nondestructive Evaluation: Overview
- Inspection technologies protect and enhance materials for power plants, Argonne News Release (Aug. 5, 2005)
Nondestructive evaluation technologies
In modern healthcare, doctors use imaging tools – such as
X-ray computed tomography, magnetic resonance, and
ultrasound – to see beneath the patient's skin without
making an incision. Researchers in
NE are adapting these
and other technologies to evaluate critical components of
modern energy systems that push the limits to achieve
maximum efficiency.
- Sensors, Instrumentation, and Nondestructive Evaluation: Overview
- Inspection technologies protect and enhance materials for power plants, Argonne News Release (Aug. 5, 2005)
NE
researcher honored by UofC
Michael Billone (Irradiation Performance Section) received a 2005 Distinguished
Performance Award from the University of Chicago. Billone
was recognized for his many contributions in fusion and
fission reactor development.
NE
researcher wins R&D100 Award
Researchers at Argonne (among them
NE's Dileep Singh) in
collaboration with Ohio State have developed a compact
sensor to monitor combustion processes in coal-fire power
plants, petrochemical plants, blast furnaces, glass
processing equipment, and even inside internal combustion
engines. The high-temperature potentiometer oxygen sensor
can withstand the heat inside combustion chambers,
allowing monitoring at the source in real time.
- Sensors, Instrumentation, and Nondestructive Evaluation: Overview
- Argonne wins four R&D 100 Awards for scientific, technological innovation, Argonne News Release (July 8, 2005)
- NE Awards List
Export control helps prevent WMD proliferation
A reference booklet developed by the NSNP Program is helping
customs inspectors around the world stop illicit
trafficking of materials and equipment needed for weapons
of mass destruction.
- National Security and Nonproliferation Program, and
- Export control helps prevent WMD proliferation
Argonne News Release (Feb. 4, 2005)
NE helps prepare shuttle for
return flight
When the
space shuttle Discovery rocketed into orbit in the late spring
of 2004, NE engineers had done their part to ensure a
safe return to flight. A team led by Bill Ellingson used a
locally designed and built high-resolution CAT scanner to
characterize the damage caused when chunks of insulating
foam impact space shuttle wing surfaces in test
situations.
Hwang wins ANS award for
resonance theory
NE’s
Richard Hwang has been honored by his selection as the
2004 Eugene P. Wigner Award winner. The award is the
American Nuclear Society's highest honor for a reactor
physicist. The award recognizes Hwang's work on neutron
resonance theory, a body of theory that helps nuclear
engineers build computer models to predict the complicated
behavior of neutron-induced reactions inside a nuclear
reactor.
- NE Awards List
- Hwang wins award for resonance theory, Argonne News Release (Feb. 28, 2005)
NE Awards List
NASA honors NE's Ellingson
Bill
Ellingson was honored in 2004 by NASA for his work on
ceramic composite components. Ellingson and colleagues
from the Department of Energy and Oak Ridge National
Laboratory were the recipients of NASA's Turning Goals
Into Reality Award. The award celebrates the year's most
significant accomplishments that add to the NASA legacy
and honors recipients for their contributions to the
advancement of aviation and space technology.
Space Shuttle Safety
NE is
collaborating with NASA to develop a nondestructive
analysis method for inspecting the leading edge thermal
protection system on the space shuttle wings. This work is
part of NASA’s effort to examine the cause of the Columbia
accident.
"Ice Slurry" Heart Treatment
A
promising new approach to saving cardiac arrest victims –
injecting them with an ice slurry – is being expanded
under a new grant from the National Institutes of Health.
In collaboration with the University of Chicago's
Emergency Resuscitation Research Center, we will develop
ways to use the high-fluidity ice particle mixture for
rapid cooling of the blood to sustain the heart and brain
cells after cardiac arrests.
Tiny
device can detect hidden nuclear weapons, materials
A small, portable detector for finding concealed nuclear
weapons and materials has been developed by the U.S.
Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory. When
fully developed, the device could assist international
inspectors charged with preventing smuggling and
unauthorized use of nuclear weapons and materials.
- Sensors, Instrumentation, and Nondestructive Evaluation: Overview
- Tiny device can detect hidden nuclear weapons, materials Argonne News Release (Jun. 21, 2002)
Nondestructive evaluation
tool for improved gas turbines
NE
scientists have developed sophisticated, nondestructive
evaluation techniques based on thermal imaging. These
techniques have application in assuring the reliable
operation of natural-gas-fired turbines—the nation’s
fasting growing producer of electric power.



