Radiation waste cleanup was in the public eye this year following the huge earthquake and tsunami in Fukushima, Japan. Sandia National Laboratories has a history of helping to solve challenging problems related to radioactive waste cleanup as part of the long-term effort to remediate radioactive waste at both government sites and nuclear power plants. Sandia [...]
Sandia has signed a pair of umbrella cooperative research and development agreements (CRADAs) with Northrop Grumman Information Systems and General Electric Global Research that will broadly add to the Labs’ research. “These strategic agreements envision long-term partnerships,” said Brooke Garcia, a Sandia business development specialist who helped negotiate the CRADAs. The Northrop-Grumman CRADA includes research [...]
This artist's concept features NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover, a mobile robot for investigating Mars' past or present ability to sustain microbial life. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech) Ron Lipinski has to imagine everything that can go wrong in a system. When he’s examining the Mars Curiosity Rover’s plutonium power generator, or a safety analysis for [...]
Power generation plants are often located near large sources of fresh water that they use as coolant for the power-generation cycle. This cycle looses efficiency as the ambient temperature rises. A blistering summer this year has brought the energy-water nexus into sharp focus: how much power generation depends on water, and how much [...]
Sandia National Laboratories is seeking an industry partner to market a turbine system that could substantially improve energy efficiency in small modular nuclear reactors. The system uses carbon dioxide in a closed-loop “Brayton-cycle” turbine to crank up electric conversion from heat, said Gary Rochau, manager of the advanced nuclear concepts group at Sandia’s [...]
Sandia has more than a dozen scientists and managers attending and participating in the ARPA-E summit's sessions and events. A recent highlight was the on-stage discussion between Energy Secretary Stephen Chu and Bill Gates, who is now involved in several energy innovation ventures, on how America can meet and prosper from 21st century [...]
