On the looming 10th anniversary of the Fukushima disaster at the Daiichi Power Station in Japan, PNNL looks back at the science and solidarity it has shared with Fukushima and its nuclear cleanup effort.
Innovative technology combines continuous, remote, real-time testing and monitoring of byproduct gasses, paving the way for faster advanced reactor development and testing.
A special issue of the Marine Technology Society Journal, titled “Utilizing Offshore Resources for Renewable Energy Development,” focuses on research and development efforts including those at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL).
PNNL researchers say that offshore wind energy can add value to the electric grid, beyond just the power it can produce, if locations and strategies are optimized.
Magazine cover article—“Combating corrosion in the world’s nuclear reactors”—features PNNL research leaders Mark Nutt, Aaron Diaz, and Mychailo Toloczko.
PNNL deployed two research buoys in waters off the West Coast for the first time in deep water, supporting a DOE and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management effort to gather measurements that support offshore wind locations and technologies.
PNNL ocean engineer Alicia Gorton was invited to serve on the advisory board of the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Ocean Engineering at the Stevens Institute of Technology.
An international team used PNNL microscopy to answer questions about how uranium dioxide—used in nuclear power plants—might behave in long-term storage.
Mama and calf humpback whales—considered a vulnerable species that might be entangled in underwater equipment—star in a new animation video that depicts the marine mammals’ scale and movements relative to floating offshore wind farms.
Steve Short, a nuclear engineer at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, has been selected as a fellow of the National Society of Professional Engineers.
On October 22, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)granted Tennessee Valley Authority's (TVA's) Watts Bar Nuclear Generating Station a 40-year operating license for its new Unit 2 reactor. This is the first nuclear reactor to be granted an operating license by the NRC in two decades.
Pressurized water nuclear reactors in the United States generate about 13 percent of U.S. electricity. Though efficient, these reactors face a unique challenge with stress corrosion cracking (SCC). This type of corrosion is one of the primary life-limiting degradation mechanisms of nickel-base alloy pressure boundary components, such as instrumentation and control rod nozzles, the welds that attach these nozzles to the reactor vessel, and welds that connect feedwater piping to the reactor vessel. As interest grows in a more sustainable and efficient fleet of nuclear reactors across the world, there is increasing interest in characterizing SCC initiation response.
