Fuel Cycle Research
PNNL draws on a decade of innovation and experience in the nuclear fuel cycle. Scientists and engineers develop and evaluate new safer and economically improved fuels; improve methods for fuel fabrication; and evaluate alternative means of recycling, storing, and transporting spent nuclear fuel. Much of this work is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy (NE) and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), in partnership with the nuclear industry and other national laboratories.
Dark Matter
Physicists are quite literally in the dark about most of the universe. There is more matter in the universe than we can see—nearly 5 times more.
High-Performance Computing
At PNNL, High-Performance Computing (HPC) encompasses multiple research areas with impact on both computer science and a broad array of domain sciences.
Water + Hydropower Planning
PNNL is developing modeling tools to predict and evaluate water characteristics like temperature and flow, impacting hydropower generation, flexibility, and operations.
Soil Microbiome
PNNL soil scientists are tackling the biochemical complexity of soil microbiomes complexity to gain fundamental knowledge essential to predict how a shifting environment will impact key functions in the microbiome.
Synthetic Biology
Biological systems are complex, but when broken down into smaller parts, we can better understand how and why those parts operate the way they do and decide if we can use them in a different way. Doing synthetic biology with microorganisms beyond standard bacteria or yeast is where PNNL researchers are making their mark.