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Nuclear, Chem, and Isotopic S&T
Weapons Physics & Design ACT awards drive university partnerships and research
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has announced five research teams selected for awards through the Lab’s FY26 Academic Collaboration Team (ACT) annual call for proposals. Awards support university research partners for up to three years to perform research in collaboration with Lab scientists and offer an important way to build long-term connections with…
Grad student Wyatt Larrinaga explores how proteins bind to radioactive elements for fellowship at LLNL
As a fifth-year graduate student at the Pennsylvania State University, Wyatt Larrinaga investigates how proteins can be used to separate lanthanides. These elements, plus two others, make up the rare earth elements that are critical for technology, defense and a robust domestic energy supply. But somewhere along the way, Larrinaga grew interested in branching out. Or,…
LLNL delivers advanced gamma-ray spectrometer for NASA’s Dragonfly mission to explore Titan
Hundreds of millions of miles away from Earth, the landscape of Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, bears a striking resemblance to our own planet — but with dunes of hydrocarbon sands rather than silica sands, and rain, rivers, lakes and seas of liquid methane and ethane rather than liquid water. The NASA Dragonfly mission is set to explore this world in unprecedented detail…
Cryogenic micro-calorimetry offers a novel material-dating method for nuclear forensics and safeguards
The moment nuclear material is produced, processed or purified, it sets off a hidden countdown, marked by the half-life of its radioactive atoms as they begin to decay. For scientists tracking the origins of these substances, decoding this natural clock is crucial for verifying material histories in support of global security efforts. In a new study published in the…
Keeping the public safe at the big game: LLNL’s RAP team deploys to Santa Clara, California
As thousands of fans streamed toward Levi’s Stadium for the Super Bowl between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots, vendors hawked memorabilia, the scent of garlic fries filled the air and security officers checked clear bags beneath white tents. Somewhere in that crowd, walking the same sidewalks and concourses, were a handful of team members carrying gear…
Americium, curium and californium — oh my! Crystallizing the rarest elements at LLNL
Actinides are a group of heavy, radioactive elements that include uranium, plutonium, americium, curium, berkelium and californium. Understanding how these elements bond with other atoms (known as coordination chemistry), how they behave in water and how they can be separated from one another is crucial for safer nuclear waste management, new reactor technologies and…
NNSA Administrator Williams visits LLNL to discuss stockpile modernization, AI and future deterrence
U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Under Secretary for Nuclear Security and Administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Brandon Williams visited Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) Feb. 9 for briefings and tours focused on stockpile modernization, AI, supercomputing and the future of deterrence. During the visit, Williams met with LLNL…
LLNL researchers discover new way to ‘cage’ plutonium
Plutonium (Pu) exhibits one of the most diverse and complex chemistries of any element in the periodic table. Since its discovery in 1940, scientists have synthesized and studied many different types of plutonium-containing compounds using tools that reveal both their atomic structures and how they interact with light. Not only does plutonium have numerous alloys and…
Fentanyl or phony? Machine-learning algorithm learns to pick out opioid signatures
New forms of fentanyl are created every day. For law enforcement, that poses a challenge: how do you identify a chemical you’ve never seen before? Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) aim to answer that question with a machine-learning model that can distinguish opioids from other chemicals with an accuracy over 95% in a laboratory setting. The…
Meet the strangest particle in physics in the latest episode of the Big Ideas Lab podcast
There are particles in our universe so unique and so strange that they can shift form mid-flight. They’re as old as time, coming from the beginning of the universe, stars, nuclear reactions and the earth. And they’re everywhere — even passing through you at this very second: neutrinos. Studying these mysterious particles may unlock answers to some of humanity’s most…
Measuring nuclear reactions found inside stars
Radiochemistry experts at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) recently made the first experimental measurements of nuclear reactions in high-energy-density plasma environments, which are similar to conditions found in stars, as well as thermonuclear explosions. According to John Despotopulos, an LLNL radiochemist who leads the research team, the ability to…
Precision and partnership: JASPER surpasses 200 experimental shots
The Joint Actinide Shock Physics Experimental Research (JASPER) facility recently surpassed 200 full-containment experimental shots, marking more than two decades of precision operations, scientific advancement and collaboration in support of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) stockpile modernization programs. Since its first actinide experiment in 2003,…
Satellite pierces through space to discover unexpected winds and sloshing intergalactic gas
The X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM), a Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and NASA collaboration with European Space Agency (ESA) participation, was built to study the most extreme environments in the cosmos. From space, the satellite collects X-rays to probe the universe’s hottest regions, largest structures and strongest gravity wells. In four…
LLNL’s Rebecca Toomey recognized with Division of Nuclear Physics’ Distinguished Service Award
Rebecca Toomey, a postdoctoral research scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), has been recognized with the American Physical Society (APS) Division of Nuclear Physics’ (DNP) Distinguished Service Award. The honor is intended to recognize those who have made substantial and extensive contributions to the nuclear physics community through the activities…
LZ dark matter experiment sets a world’s best and spots neutrinos from the sun’s core
There’s more to the universe than meets the eye. Dark matter, the invisible substance that accounts for 85 percent of the mass in the universe, is hiding all around us — and figuring out exactly what it is remains one of the biggest questions about how our world works. The newest results from LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) extend the experiment’s search for low-mass dark matter and set…
Undergraduate interns explore nuclear physics research at LLNL
Scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) recently helped launch a new internship program aimed at connecting with undergraduate students at two nearby California State University (CSU) campuses and inspiring them to consider a science-focused research career. The new program, which started in early 2025, involves multiple staff and postdocs from the Lab…
Energy-efficient process delivers rare-earth element for magnets
Neodymium is a rare-earth element essential for producing the strongest permanent magnets, which are widespread in defense technologies, hard drives, medical imaging devices, electric vehicle motors, wind turbines and more. Despite its designation in the U.S. as a critical material, neodymium is primarily mined and refined overseas. China controls much of the supply chain,…
Turning wastewater into valuable fertilizer
Almost half of the planet’s population depends on synthetic fertilizers to grow the food they eat. But that fertilizer comes at a cost — about two percent of the world’s energy budget. Improving efficiency and cutting costs of producing fertilizer would have big, global impacts. To that end, researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) are developing a…
LLNL conducts milestone nuclear survivability experiment at NIF, moving weapons modernization forward
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has conducted an experiment at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) to assess the ability of U.S. nuclear weapons to survive encounters with adversary missile defenses and reach their targets. This experiment demonstrated a new capability to analyze nuclear materials under extreme conditions, advancing stockpile modernization…
From inception to ignition and beyond: Suhas Bhandarkar’s target fabrication career
Tiny parts and absolute meticulousness define Suhas Bhandarkar’s award-winning 20-year career at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). As group leader for Target Fabrication Science and Technology (S&T), he leads a team that helps transform LLNL’s physicists’ bold ideas into reality at the National Ignition Facility (NIF). Bhandarkar’s path began with a B.S…
