Reactor Licensing
Since the 1980s, PNNL has worked with federal agencies to provide scientifically credible, legally defensible, and consistently useful documentation for the licensing and siting of nuclear power reactor facilities in the United States and internationally.
Reactor Operations
The nation’s existing fleet of commercial nuclear reactors must continue to operate safely, reliably, and with economic efficiency throughout their lifetimes—and after that, be decommissioned—meeting environmental and safety standards.
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.
Advanced Reactors
PNNL conducts research and development to support the commercialization and licensing of advanced nuclear reactors, including small modular reactors. Small modular reactors and other advanced reactors are expected to reduce economic, security, technical, perceived safety, and regulatory barriers to the accelerated establishment in the U.S. of the next generation of nuclear power.
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.
Building-Grid Integration
PNNL develops new concepts and technologies that connect buildings and the power grid for a better energy future.
Advanced Lighting
DOE’s Building Technologies Office, which manages the Solid-State Lighting Program, is focused on research to realize these tremendous additional energy savings, with the goal to cut U.S. lighting-related energy use by 75 percent by 2035, while improving lighting quality, functionality, and service. PNNL is supporting DOE’s mission through research that informs new lighting metrics and methods of measurement adopted by industry standards organizations such as Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), American National Standards Institute, and the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES).
Waste Processing
What to do with Hanford’s 56 million gallons of radioactive and chemical waste stored in 177 underground tanks, which already are past their expected lifetime? In partnership with DOE and site contractors, PNNL researchers are leading the development of the chemical and engineering processes to determine the mixture in each tank, the safest way to remove it, and the most efficient way to treat and store it.
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.