Public Invited to Live, Behind-the-Scenes Tours of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

For the first time ever, PNNL is opening its doors and inviting the public to free, live, virtual tours of numerous labs on its Richland campus. Researchers from across PNNL will be your hosts as you discover the spaces and instruments behind our science and impact. Learn about nuclear explosion monitoring, the science and hardware behind machine learning and artificial intelligence, our work in nuclear energy and environmental management, and so much more. Visit the Glass Lab at our Applied Process Engineering Laboratory, get a behind-the-scenes look at grid operations in our Electricity Infrastructure Operations Center, and get a look at one of five nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometers in the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory.

All tours are one-hour and accessible via Zoom. During the tour, you are encouraged to submit questions to your hosts (researchers at PNNL) via Zoom’s chat function. The tours are open to all ages.

Past Live Lab Tour Recordings

	Detecting Nuclear Explosions: PNNL's Role in Making the World Safer — July 28 Since the first nuclear explosion in 1945, the world remains concerned about the threat nuclear weapons may pose to future health and safety, especially in the wrong hands. International treaties and extreme secrecy surround nuclear testing, and some with nuclear aspirations have hidden such operations deep underground in remote areas. Learn about nuclear explosions and PNNL’s quest to develop the world’s most sensitive detectors to help end nuclear testing. View a recording of this live tour.
	Supercomputers: Solving Big Science Problems — Aug. 4 Supercomputers are critical tools for advancing science across many disciplines, from physics and chemistry to drug discovery and the future of energy. Over the past decade, developments in machine learning and novel computing have yielded programs that outperform humans at complex analyses, reasoning, and strategic games. Learn how PNNL is working to unleash the potential of supercomputing to speed scientific advancement and meet national energy, security, and environmental goals. View a recording of this live tour.
	Developing Efficient Solutions for the Nation’s Nuclear Waste — Aug. 11 More than 75 years after the "Nuclear Age" of the 1940s, researchers at PNNL continue to enable the future of nuclear energy and the safe management of radioactive waste from energy generation and past weapons production. On this tour, learn how PNNL is advancing glass waste forms and robotic waste inspection systems to support Hanford Site cleanup operations and integrated waste management for the nuclear power industry. View a live recording of this tour. (Note: due to technical difficulties, the final 10 minutes of Q&A were not recorded.)
	The Invisible Catalysts in Your Life: How Playing with Atoms is Key to a Better Tomorrow — Aug. 18 Catalysis touches everyone’s life, from the catalytic converter in your vehicle, to how you clean your contact lenses, to creating your plastic water bottle. Catalysts make it easier for a chemical reaction to occur. But how and why do catalysts work? Discover how PNNL scientists are exploring catalysts at the atomic level to make them work harder and smarter. This could lead to a sustainable future—and more! View of live recording of this tour.
	Cloudy with a Chance of Particles — Aug. 25 Understanding particles, clouds, and their influence on Earth’s climate requires specialized facilities and field study. Explore PNNL’s active research in this area with two stops in the Atmospheric Measurement Laboratory: the space where researchers prepare and test meteorological radars for worldwide deployment to support the U.S. Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility and the Environmental Chamber where we reproduce and study atmospheric processes. View a live recording of this tour.
	More Power to You: Charging Ahead with Better Energy Storage and a Smarter Grid — Sept. 1 Researchers at PNNL are working toward a carbon-free energy future while making the electric grid more reliable and resilient. Look inside the Electricity Infrastructure Operations Center, a functional utility control room where we study volumes of real electricity grid data and explore next-generation tools for managing and controlling the energy system. Then, visit the Life Sciences Laboratory where robots help accelerate new energy storage materials discovery for better batteries. View a live recording of this tour.
	PNNL and National Security: 20 Years of Mission Impact — Sept. 8 After 9/11, PNNL and other U.S. Department of Energy national laboratories were immediately called upon to help. The newly formed Department of Homeland Security required expertise across many areas, from radiation and explosives detection to imaging and data analytics and beyond. Visit two facilities at PNNL that have provided the Department of Homeland Security with world-class solutions in airport security scanning and radiation detection at U.S. ports of entry. View a live recording of this tour.
	SynBio Capabilities at PNNL — Sept. 15 Microbes have evolved into exquisite chemists that catalyze thousands of reactions happening in nature. Learning to harness these processes is vital to building a sustainable economy, environmental security, and energy independence. How can biology lead the next industrial revolution and save the planet? Learn how PNNL is leading advanced research on microbiome engineering to obtain energy from industrial wastes and improve bioenergy crop health to make this future a reality. View a live recording of this tour.