PNNL's Richard Moss will be chairing the Advisory Committee for the Sustained National Climate Assessment, newly appointed by NOAA to assist the nation in preparing for the impacts of climate change.
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has been named to lead the Northwest Regional Manufacturing Center as part of the national Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute.
A dozen clean energy technologies that enable everything from lightweight, fuel-sipping cars to the expansion of renewable energy and cleaner fossil fuel use are getting a boost at PNNL, thanks to $4.4 million from DOE's Technology Commercialization Fund.
In fast-neutron reactors, fuel is sealed in ~7 millimeter diameter steel tubes called cladding. When a high-energy "fast" neutron strikes an atom in the steel, it can knock the atom out of place, like a cue ball striking another billiard ball. This leaves two types of damage in the metal: an empty spot where the atom was, and the displaced atom wedged between other atoms. Over time, these defects typically drive undesirable rearrangement of the microstructure, potentially reducing the life of the cladding.
