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Trump says Venezuela will send up to 50M barrels of oil to U.S., with proceeds controlled by his administration.
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Tag: Department of Energy
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Trump’s Genesis Mission aims to build a centralized AI platform to power scientific breakthroughs
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President Donald Trump has issued a new Executive Order that launches the “Genesis Mission,” an AI-focused initiative that will be led by the Department of Energy. It will “harness the current AI and advanced computing revolution to double the productivity and impact of American science and engineering within a decade,” the DOE explained. One of the mission’s main goals is to build a centralized platform that will house a huge collection of datasets collected “over decades of federal investments,” as well as datasets from academic institutions and partners from the private sector.
Those datasets will then be used to train scientific foundation models and to create AI agents, automate research workflows and accelerate scientific breakthroughs, the administration said in its announcement. “The platform will connect the world’s best supercomputers, AI systems, and next-generation quantum systems with the most advanced scientific instruments in the nation,” the Energy department said.
Based on that statement, the platform will be linked to the two sovereign AI supercomputers the agency is building at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, its famous research and development center. The machines, to be built by Hewlett Packard Enterprises, are meant to be the Trump AI Action Plan’s flagship supercomputers. The DOE previously revealed that the machines will be powered by AMD chips and will help tackle the biggest challenges in energy, medicine, health and national security.
“The Genesis Mission marks a defining moment for the next era of American science. We are linking the nation’s most advanced facilities, data, and computing into one closed-loop system to create a scientific instrument for the ages, an engine for discovery that doubles R&D productivity and solves challenges once thought impossible,” said Dr. Darío Gil, the Under Secretary for Science and Genesis Mission Director.
In the next four months, the Energy department must identify its initial set of data and model assets for the Genesis platform. The department must be able to demonstrate “an initial operating capability of the platform for at least one of the national science and technology challenges” the government has identified within nine months. While the list of challenges is pretty long, the Genesis Mission will focus on addressing three key challenges overall. First, it aims to accelerate nuclear and fusion energy, as well as to modernize the energy grid using AI. It also aims to power scientific discoveries for decades to come. Finally, it aims to create advanced AI technologies for the purpose of national security, such as systems that can ensure the reliability of America’s nuclear weapons and can accelerate the development of materials for defense.
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Mariella Moon
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This Atom-Splitting Startup Just Hit a Critical Milestone
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An advanced nuclear startup just achieved a milestone as it races to meet an ambitious Department of Energy goal.
Founded just over two years ago in July 2023, El Segundo-based Valar Atomics announced it had achieved what is known as “cold criticality” during a November test at Los Alamos National Laboratory, the New Mexico site best known for its role in the Manhattan Project.
Cold criticality occurs when uranium-235, the isotope used as nuclear fuel, achieves a self-sustaining reaction, but without reaching full operational temperature or producing power, according to Valar. Valar used a special fuel that was originally made by General Atomics and sourced through the DOE, and equipment from Los Alamos National Laboratory. Valar contributed the reactor core and general configuration, which was meant to mimic the design of its Ward 250 reactor, but at a smaller scale.
Valar Atomics CEO and founder Isaiah Taylor says the benchmark is a crucial step for data gathering as the company pushes toward the bigger goal of achieving criticality (that actually produces power) in a full-scale test reactor.
“All of these things give us a ton of data that we can then go use and make sure that we understand our full scale Ward 250 core before we go take that critical and actually make some power in it next year,” Taylor says.
Following the achievement on Monday, Taylor took to social media platform X to trumpet that Valar “became the first startup in history to split the atom,” and doubled down in a press release, saying Valar secured “the first criticality ever achieved by a venture-backed company.”
The exuberant announcement sparked some backlash online, including from nuclear consultant Nick Touran, who has a PhD in nuclear engineering from the University of Michigan.
“Having the institutional capability to relatively quickly get first in line at the Los Alamos critical facility and get some of your stuff in there and test it, I think that’s impressive,” Touran says. “But they certainly are not the first startup to split the atom.”
Touran also runs the educational resource whatisnuclear.com, and spent 15 years at Bill Gates-backed TerraPower. He noted that TerraPower already tested fuel in a test reactor that splits atoms at a high rate. TerraPower did not respond to requests for comment by publication time.
In a conversation with Inc., Taylor narrowed the scope of his claim, saying that what Valar was the first to do was achieve zero-power criticality using a startup-built reactor core.
“Other startups have built fuel and have tested fuel in other reactors, but no startup has ever built a core and taken a core critical,” Taylor says.
Touron also notes that cold criticality experiments are no longer quite so common, given advancements in computing that render cold criticals effectively unnecessary: “Our computer simulations can predict what a cold critical test tells you.” But Taylor pushed back, arguing that nuclear engineering tends “to massively overweight our mathematical models” and that real world, precise data is still crucial.
The news follows the August kickoff of the Department of Energy’s Nuclear Reactor Pilot Program. Valar’s project was one of 11 advanced nuclear projects from 10 different companies (two projects from Oklo were chosen) selected by the DOE in an effort to construct, operate and achieve test reactor criticality in at least three reactors by July 4, 2026.
The Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act created incentives for nuclear power, as well as allocating funding toward a domestic supply chain for fuel production and infrastructure improvements at labs like Los Alamos. The bipartisan ADVANCE Act, passed in 2024, also kicked off reforms within the Nuclear Regulatory Commission meant to accelerate licensing. The Trump administration’s program, Touran notes, is building on that progress by opening up resources and streamlining regulation for these startups in an effort to accelerate innovation: “They basically are asking the nuclear industry to throw down and actually build stuff.”
Nuances of Valar’s milestone aside, Touran adds there is value from an innovation standpoint in having more companies participate more quickly in such experiments. The ultimate prize, however, is still a ways off.
“I think we’ll see a bunch of people doing relatively simple criticality experiments, and that’s better than nothing. Even if they all go critical, none of them are anywhere near having an economical, reliable power plant,” Touran says. “But everybody’s excited to get going and see if all this talk actually means anything.”
As for Valar, a lot has to happen between now and the July 2026 goalpost for taking its test reactor critical. Taylor says the company already has a version of its high-temperature gas reactor built at a facility in Los Angeles, but still has to build up the Utah test facility where it broke ground in September. Valar is one of a number of companies working to develop small modular reactors (SMRs), which are meant to be less expensive and faster to build than today’s larger scale reactors.
“It is much easier to achieve a zero power criticality than to actually make power in a reactor. There’s a huge technical gap between those things,” Taylor says. “But I certainly wouldn’t underestimate the value of the data that we’re going to get out of this test.”
The final deadline for the 2026 Inc. Regionals Awards is Friday, December 12, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply now.
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Chloe Aiello
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Trump DOE decides to keep at least one Biden-era energy program | TechCrunch
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The Department of Energy said Thursday that it had finalized a $1.6 billion loan guarantee to upgrade around 5,000 miles of transmission lines.
The grid upgrades would ease the flow of electricity in Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, and West Virginia. The project, which will address lines owned by American Electric Power (AEP), won’t add any new routes, but it will help existing ones carry more power.
AEP is one of the largest utilities and transmission line owners in the U.S., with operations spanning 11 states. The 5,000 miles that will be upgraded represent around 13% of the company’s total network.
The loan guarantee was initiated under the Biden administration just days before President Trump was inaugurated. Previously, the Trump administration has cited approvals occurring between Election Day and Inauguration Day as justification for canceling projects.
It’s unclear what distinguished this grid modernization project from others that the Trump administration is considering canceling or in the process of canceling.
In Minnesota, the Department of Energy is moving to cancel a $467 million grant that would have helped unlock 28 gigawatts of new generating capacity, most of which would have been solar and wind. Another in Oregon would have issued $250 million in grants to connect half a dozen renewable projects.
But the largest transmission project the Trump administration wants to axe is a $630 million grant to modernize California’s grid. In many ways, it’s similar to the AEP project, looking to wring more out of the existing grid to ease congestion. As planned, the California project would test advanced conductors and dynamic line rating devices, both of which would allow old rights-of-way to carry more electricity. That’s frequently a cheaper option than building new power lines.
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October 27-29, 2025The AEP project will also rewire the lines with new conductors. The loan guarantee will allow the utility giant to secure a lower interest rate, saving the company at least $275 million, which it says will benefit its customers.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright said that the loan will “ensure lower electricity costs across the Midwestern region of the United States.” Already, the states included in the project have among the lowest electricity rates in the nation.
The loans are to be issued from the Loan Programs Office, which the GOP has renamed the Energy Dominance Financing Program. The office was established under the Energy Policy Act in 2005. Historically, the office had focused on clean energy and manufacturing projects. The loss rate on its loans is around 3%, far below that of private sector lenders.
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Tim De Chant
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Exclusive: Trump’s DOE proposes cutting billions in grants for GM, Ford, and lots of startups | TechCrunch
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The Department of Energy is looking to cut billions more in federal funding, and many promising startups as well as automakers Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis could be affected by the Trump administration’s decision.
The proposed cuts would cancel more than $500 million of contracts awarded to more than a dozen startups, according to a TechCrunch analysis of an internal document that has not become public yet. All of the proposed cuts are grants that had been awarded under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The proposed cancellations, many of which have not been reported before, come on top of more than $7.5 billion in contracts the Trump administration said it would cut last week.
Startups might not be the only losers. Other companies slated to lose grants worth hundreds of millions of dollars include Daimler Trucks North America, Ford, General Motors, Harley-Davidson, Mercedes-Benz Vans, Stellantis, and Volvo Technology of America, according to the document viewed by TechCrunch. Sources confirmed with TechCrunch these are proposed cuts.
General Motors could lose at least $500 million in grant money issued from a federal Domestic Manufacturing Conversion Grant program. The money was going to be used to retool the Lansing Grand River Assembly Plant in Michigan. The automaker announced in July 2024 it planned to produce electrified vehicles, including hybrids, at the plant.
Some of the awards are significant and, if cut, will undoubtedly affect the startups’ operations. Several were included in a list of proposed cuts that leaked last week, but many are new and have yet to be announced. TechCrunch has reached out to several of the companies and will update this article if they reply.
Two awards on the chopping block topped $100 million, including a $189 million award granted to materials startup Brimstone. Those funds would have helped the company build a plant to produce Portland cement, alumina, and other materials using less carbon dioxide.
The other went to Anovion, a Chicago-based startup that is working to build a factory to produce a domestic supply of synthetic graphite for lithium-ion batteries. Currently, Chinese companies dominate the graphite market.
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October 27-29, 2025Battery materials startup Li Industries received $55.2 million under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to recycle LFP batteries in an attempt to wrest part of that supply chain from China.
Other cement startups are on the list, too. Somerville, Massachusetts-based Sublime Systems was given an award for $86.9 million to build an ultra-low-carbon cement plant. Mountain View-based Furno, which is making a novel, modular cement kiln, would lose its $20 million grant to build a demonstration plant in Chicago.
Several building materials companies were also on the list. CleanFiber and Hempitecture, which make insulation for homes and commercial buildings, are at risk of losing $10 million and $8.4 million, respectively. Skyven Technologies, which makes industrial heat pumps, and Luxwall, which makes super-insulated windows, would lose $15 million and $31 million, respectively.
At least one of the proposed cancelations seemingly cuts against the administration’s goals of energy and AI dominance. TS Conductor, which could lose $28.2 million in grant money, makes advanced conductors for electric lines that promise to double or triple capacity on existing transmission lines. The technology could reduce bottlenecks on the grid and improve data centers’ likelihood of receiving power sooner.
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Tim De Chant
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Leaked doc reveals the chaotic politics behind Trump Energy Department cuts | TechCrunch
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This week, the Department of Energy canceled nearly $8 billion worth of awards — a move touted by the Trump administration as an effort to protect fossil fuels at the expense of renewables. But documents obtained by TechCrunch show that the reality is more complex than that simple message.
The agency has not released a list of the cancelled awards, but TechCrunch has obtained a copy and has analyzed the 321 contracts that the DOE is seeking to undo.
Not all projects focused on renewable energy, though.
Two listed in the document, one for $300 million to Colorado State University and another for $210 million to the Gas Technology Institute, would have helped oil and gas producers large and small reduce methane emissions from their wells.
The Gas Technology Institute is a research and development organization that mostly caters to the natural gas industry. The group had a dozen awards canceled, according to the document, totaling $417 million.
Carbon capture and removal also took a hit, with 10 of the 21 projects canceled totaling around $200 million. Many are in Harris-voting states, though that rubric doesn’t explain the entire picture.
“Three categories are popping up,” Erin Burns, executive director at Carbon180, told TechCrunch. “Where are they located? Who are the partners in it? Were these projects going to move forward?”
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October 27-29, 2025It’s true that states which voted for Kamala Harris in the last presidential election were hit hardest by the move. California lost the most, with at least $2.2 billion worth of contracts cancelled. Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Oregon each have around half a billion dollars worth of awards that were killed, with New York State losing at least $309 million.
Those that voted for Trump tended to have contracts canceled worth single-digit millions of dollars.
One of the largest awards canceled was granted to the state of Minnesota for $467 million. Awarded as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in 2021, the money was intended to revamp electrical grid interconnections throughout seven states in the Midwest. When complete, it would have unlocked around 28 gigawatts of new generating capacity, mostly solar and wind. For context, the world’s data center fleet draws 58 gigawatts, according to Goldman Sachs.
Another worth $630 million would have likewise revamped California’s electrical grid, testing advanced conductors and dynamic line rating devices to increase transmission capacity. The project effectively would have been a showcase for grid modernization that could be applied throughout the country.
Yet another grid modernization project would have installed a transmission line to the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs in Oregon. The tribes have roughly half a dozen renewable projects waiting on a better grid connection, which the now-canceled $250 million award would have enabled. The project would also have strung fiber-optic lines along the transmission line’s path, bringing high-speed data to a rural part of the state.
“The recipients who have survived in blue states are perhaps more aligned with the administration and participating in industries that are more of a priority for this administration,” said Courtni Holness, managing policy advisor at Carbon180.
Some of the smaller awards might have been nixed anyway. “That’s just how the US approaches energy innovation in general,” Burns said. “Take a lot of shots on goal because you’re not sure what’s going to move forward regionally, technologically, economically. And so you take a bunch of shots on goal at a lower cost.”
Still others appear to be pulling up stakes to move where government support and policies are going to be more predictable, like Canada. “You’re going to see more of that, and it’s having impact on private sector investments,” Burns said.
“I think it’s a bigger question,” Holness added, “about the stability of our Department of Energy and their ability to be a partner to U.S. businesses and have some form of predictability.”
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Tim De Chant
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The White House thinks taking partial ownership of a Canadian mining company will reduce the national debt
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Since being reelected, President Donald Trump has falsely claimed his tariffs will reduce the national debt. Trump is now taking this marketing pitch to sell another one of his economic policies: government ownership in private companies.
On Wednesday, the Energy Department announced that the government will be taking a 5 percent stake in Canadian mining firm Lithium Americas and a 5 percent stake in Thacker Pass, the company’s lithium mining project in Nevada. This equity stake builds on a $2.26 billion loan from the Biden administration Energy Department to the company last year to “help finance the construction of facilities for manufacturing lithium carbonate” at Thacker Pass, which has the largest confirmed lithium reserves in North America. The deal, according to Energy Secretary Chris Wright, will ensure “better stewardship of American taxpayer dollars.”
The White House has taken this messaging further. “This is a creative solution by the president of the United States to tackle our nation’s crippling debt crisis,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Wednesday. “The president is focused on how can the United States government make more money, how can we make our country wealthy and rich again? Cutting some of these unique, creative deals with companies around the world and here at home is just one way that the president is seeking to do that.”
These types of “creative deals” have become a hallmark of the second Trump administration. Since Trump’s return to the White House, the federal government has taken a “golden share” of U.S. Steel, granted export licenses to American chipmakers in exchange for a cut of the revenue generated from their sales, and, more recently, became the largest shareholder of Intel by taking a 10 percent stake in the company (worth about $9 billion at the time of acquisition and $17 billion today).
The deals have been justified as a way to protect America’s economic and national security interests, and the Lithium Americas announcement is no different. “It’s in America’s best interest to get that mine built,” Wright told Bloomberg. “Lithium Americas needs to raise some more capital so the mine is financially sound….We’re leaning in with a large amount of debt capital, so it’s just a more commercial transaction.”
Like the other government stakes before it, the economic justification for this deal is flimsy. At the time of the initial Energy Department loan in 2024, global lithium demand was experiencing unprecedented growth, which has continued and is expected to continue as the use of semiconductors, electric vehicles, and renewable energy sources becomes ubiquitous. With the mine expected to produce 400,000 metric tons of battery-grade lithium carbonate each year and generate over $2 billion in revenue (according to a January estimate), there is no reason why taxpayers need to finance a project that the market seems to think will be profitable.
The White House’s argument that this will tackle the “crippling debt crisis” could be even flimsier. Scott Lincicome, vice president of general economics at the Cato Institute, tells Reason that taking a 5 percent stake in a $2 billion project is a “rounding error for our debt problem.” The national debt currently stands at over $30 trillion held by the public. Lincicome points out that “the only way to get money back is by selling the stake, which [the Energy Department] doesn’t plan on doing.” At the end of the day, he adds, this deal has less to do with addressing the national debt and “everything to do with exercising more control over private businesses.”
The White House has made several questionable claims to justify Trump’s takeover of the economy. Arguing that a government stake in an already federally backed project will shrink the national debt could be its weakest argument yet.
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Jeff Luse
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Department of Energy cancels $7.5B of clean energy projects in mostly blue states | TechCrunch
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The Department of Energy said Wednesday night it was canceling 321 awards worth $7.56 billion that were largely focused on clean energy.
The agency hasn’t publicly released a list of the affected projects and, at the time of publication, it had not provided one to TechCrunch. According to E&E News and Heatmap, which have obtained the list, the majority of the cuts have hit states that went for Kamala Harris in the last presidential election, though some were in “red” states that voted for President Trump.
Direct air capture and hydrogen hub projects appear to have been wiped out as a result. California Gov. Gavin Newsom said that one of the canceled projects included $1.2 billion for the state’s hydrogen hub, the Alliance for Renewable Clean Hydrogen Energy Systems, and E&E News is reporting that hubs in Texas and Louisiana were also on the chopping block.
At least 10 direct air capture (DAC) projects totaling $47.3 million were cut, though those in Alaska, Kentucky, Louisiana, and North Dakota have survived. The oil and gas industry has been supportive of DAC projects because the captured CO2 can be injected into underperforming oil wells to boost production.
Other states affected by the billions in canceled contracts include Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Tennessee, Vermont, and Washington.
The Harris-voting states with canceled projects were confirmed in a tweet from Russell Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget. He teased the cancellations earlier yesterday in an apparent effort to deepen partisanship during the shutdown, adding that “the Left’s climate agenda is being cancelled.”
All 16 states that he listed voted for Kamala Harris in the last presidential election, and many are controlled by Democrats at the state level. Conspicuously, Vought omitted Trump-voting states that were on the list.
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October 27-29, 2025The awards were originally granted by the office for Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, Clean Energy Demonstrations, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Fossil Energy, Grid Deployment, and Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains.
The Department of Energy said 26% of the awards were granted between Election Day and Inauguration Day in January; the president’s authority doesn’t end after Election Day, but runs until Inauguration Day.
The awardees have 30 days to appeal the decision.
The Trump administration has made no secret that it wants to undermine any transition away from fossil fuels. Last week, the Department of Energy banned staffers from using certain words, including “climate change” and “emissions.”
In May, the agency canceled $3.7 billion worth of clean energy and manufacturing awards. Those cancellations spanned a broad list of industries, from metal manufacturing and cement companies to power plant operators and chemical plants run by fossil fuel giants.
The Trump administration’s aggressive cancellations have prompted many awardees to sue the government to retain the awards. The Environmental Protection Agency, which was quick to cancel contracts worth $20 billion, has been an early target of legal action. So far, the plaintiffs have had mixed success.
While a federal district court said the EPA’s actions were “arbitrary and capricious,” an appellate court ruled in favor of the agency, saying that the contract cancellations were valid and showed the government exercising “proper oversight and management.”
In the instance of the recent DOE cancellations, several award recipients have already appealed the decision, the agency confirmed.
Update: The article and headline have been updated to include further details about which states and programs are affected.
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Tim De Chant
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Radiant First Developer to Sign DOE Contract for HALEU Fuel, on Track for Test Next Spring
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Radiant scheduled to be the first to test a new reactor design at Demonstration of Microreactor Experiments (DOME) facility
EL SEGUNDO, Calif., August 21, 2025 (Newswire.com)
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Radiant, the company pioneering the world’s first portable, mass-produced nuclear microreactor, announced today it has officially signed a contract with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to receive High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium (HALEU) fuel.The agreement follows the DOE’s April 9th announcement naming five HALEU awardees. Each awardee still needed to successfully negotiate a contract to receive HALEU. Radiant is the first to finalize such an agreement. Over the past couple of months, Radiant worked closely with DOE and other federal and private partners to negotiate specific terms and conditions.
“This agreement means the HALEU fuel can now officially be transferred, which keeps us on schedule to begin testing our Kaleidos Demonstration Unit at the DOME facility next year,” said Dr. Rita Baranwal, Chief Nuclear Officer at Radiant. “It also keeps the country on track to deliver on the President’s four executive orders signed in May to unleash America’s energy independence and innovation.”
Radiant is scheduled to be first to test a new reactor design at the National Reactor Innovation Center DOME facility next spring – marking the first test of a U.S.-designed advanced reactor at Idaho National Laboratory in almost 50 years. With this fuel agreement in place, Radiant continues to lead the field in delivering flexible, advanced nuclear technology to power American energy independence and national security.
For more information on Radiant, visit www.radiantnuclear.com.
About Radiant
Radiant is building the world’s first mass-produced nuclear microreactors that can go anywhere they’re needed, whenever they’re needed and without constant refueling. The company’s first reactor, Kaleidos, is a 1 MW failsafe microreactor that can be transported anywhere power is needed. Founded in 2020, Radiant plans to test its first reactor in 2026, with initial customer deployments beginning in 2028. Radiant’s mission is to mass produce the most economical and reliable portable reactors.
Source: Radiant Industries, Incorporated
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Radiant Selected by Department of Energy as First New Nuclear Reactor Design to Be Tested in DOME
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Reactor installation and testing scheduled to begin in Spring 2026
EL SEGUNDO, Calif., July 2, 2025 (Newswire.com)
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Radiant, the company on the forefront of pioneering the world’s first portable mass-produced nuclear microreactor, announced today that it has been conditionally selected by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to conduct the first test of its Kaleidos microreactor in the National Reactor Innovation Center’s Demonstration of Microreactor Experiments (DOME) testbed at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). The demonstration reactor installation and testing is scheduled to begin in Spring 2026 and would be the first new U.S. nuclear reactor design to be tested in DOME.Radiant was competitively selected and is currently working through the multi-phase DOE authorization process to support the design, fabrication, construction, and testing of their fueled reactor experiment at DOME. The DOME facility is being established at INL to accelerate deployment of advanced microreactor technologies.
“Radiant and the Department of Energy are now a team with a combined mission: Just nine months from now we will have the opportunity to put the 53rd reactor in INL’s long history into the DOME,” said Doug Bernauer, Radiant Founder and CEO. “In short order, we will fuel, go critical, and operate, leading to the mass production of portable reactors which will jumpstart American nuclear energy dominance.”
Radiant’s Kaleidos reactor is designed to be built on an assembly line and deliver more than 1 MW of electricity in a portable package. Fueled by TRISO fuel particles, Kaleidos is designed for deployment anywhere it’s needed without the need to refuel for years.
This latest news comes on the heels of Radiant’s previous conditional selection by DOE to receive an allocation of high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) fuel for the Kaleidos test – a critical enabler of next year’s demonstration.
For more information on Radiant and the Kaleidos microreactor, visit www.radiantnuclear.com. To join Radiant on their mission, follow them on Linkedin.
About Radiant
Radiant is building the world’s first mass-produced nuclear microreactors. The company’s first reactor, Kaleidos, is a 1 MW failsafe microreactor that can be transported anywhere power is needed. Founded in 2020, Radiant plans to test its first reactor in 2026, with initial customer deployments beginning in 2028. Radiant’s mission is to mass produce the most economical and reliable portable reactors.
Source: Radiant Industries, Incorporated
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General Atomics Completes SiGA Cladded Nuclear Fuel Rod Irradiation Testing
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Online, December 4, 2024 (Newswire.com)
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General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) announced today that unfueled nuclear fuel rods using the company’s SiGA® fuel cladding successfully survived a 120-day irradiation testing period in the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) located at Idaho National Laboratory. Testing was conducted to validate the robustness and integrity of the SiGA cladding after exposure to high neutron flux in a pressurized water reactor environment. Following the test, SiGA cladded rods remained intact and showed no significant mass change, indicating promising performance. More detailed examinations are underway to further evaluate post-test data to validate individual rod integrity to remain gas-tight, with no evidence of degradation, leaking or structural change.“The testing results offer critical, quantifiable, and independent validation that our SiC cladding technology is on the right path to provide a safe, suitable, accident tolerant fuel cladding solution for the nuclear fleet,” said Scott Forney, president of GA-EMS. “This success is a key milestone on SiGA cladding’s development path to enhance the safety of the existing U.S. fleet of light water reactors, particularly during an unlikely event of an accident. It could also do the same for the future generation of advanced nuclear power systems.”
SiGA is a silicon carbide (SiC) composite material that forms the basis for the development of nuclear reactor fuel rods that can survive temperatures far beyond that of current materials. SiGA’s multi-layered SiC composite cladding structure is sealed with a fully-SiC joining process, enabling exceptional stability during operational temperature cycling. This material provides greater stability and safety at temperatures up to 1900° C, well beyond that of metal fuel rod claddings. SiGA cladding would also enable higher powers and longer fuel lifetimes, thereby enhancing overall reactor performance and economics. GA-EMS has been under contract with the Department of Energy (DOE) to support the Accident Tolerant Fuel Program and advance GA-EMS’s silicon carbide fuel cladding technology for future deployment in U.S. nuclear reactors.
“We look forward to continuing our partnership with the DOE and the national labs to accelerate the irradiation testing to demonstrate the performance of fueled SiGA cladded rods. The planned test series progressively builds up performance data to show that SiGA cladding can effectively contain the fuel and any gasses that are produced when subjected to irradiation and high temperature,” said Dr. Christina Back, vice president of GA-EMS Nuclear Technologies and Materials. “In parallel, we are scaling up to full-size, 12-foot-long SiGA rods and will then be doing the irradiation testing in actual commercial reactors, with deployment targeted for the mid-2030 timeframe. We remain committed to bringing SiGA’s unique safety and efficiency benefits to the nation’s nuclear fleet.”
Press release is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (Office of Nuclear Energy); Idaho National Lab; and Oak Ridge National Lab, Award DE-NE0009235, “SiC Cladding Development.” Neither the U.S. Government, nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information disclosed.
Source: General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems
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Machine Learning Techniques Enhance the Discovery of Excited Nuclear Levels in Sulfur-38
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The Science
Newswise — Fixed numbers of protons and neutrons – the building blocks of nuclei – can rearrange themselves within a single nucleus. The products of this reshuffling include electromagnetic (gamma ray) transitions. These transitions connect excited energy levels called quantum levels, and the pattern in these connections provide a unique “fingerprint” for each isotope. Determining these fingerprints provides a sensitive test of scientists’ ability to describe one of the fundamental forces, the strong (nuclear) force that holds protons and neutrons together. In the laboratory, scientists can initiate the movement of protons and neutrons through an injection of excess energy using a nuclear reaction. In this study, researchers successfully used this approach to study the fingerprint of sulfur-38. They also used machine learning and other cutting-edge tools to analyze the data.
The Impact
The results provide new empirical information on the “fingerprint” of quantum energy levels in the sulfur-38 nucleus. Comparisons with theoretical models may lead to important new insights. For example, one of the calculations highlighted the key role played by a particular nucleon orbital in the model’s ability to reproduce the fingerprints of sulfur-38 as well as neighboring nuclei. The study is also important for its first successful implementation of a specific machine learning-based approach to classifying data. Scientists are adopting this approach to other challenges in experimental design.
Summary
Researchers used a measurement that included a machine learning (ML) assisted analysis of the collected data to better determine the unique quantum energy levels – a “fingerprint” formed through the rearrangement of the protons and neutrons – in the neutron-rich nucleus sulfur-38. The results doubled the amount of empirical information on this particular fingerprint. They used a nuclear reaction involving the fusion of two nuclei, one from a heavy-ion beam and the second from a target, to produce the isotope and introduce the energy needed to excite it into higher quantum levels. The reaction and measurement leveraged a heavy-ion beam produced by the ATLAS Facility (a Department of Energy user facility), a target produced by the Center for Accelerator and Target Science (CATS), the detection of electromagnetic decays (gamma-rays) using the Gamma-Ray Energy Tracking Array (GRETINA), and the detection of the nuclei produced using the Fragment Mass Analyzer (FMA).
Due to complexities in the experimental parameters – which hinged between the production yields of the sulfur-38 nuclei in the reaction and the optimal settings for detection – the research adapted and implemented ML techniques throughout the data reduction. These techniques achieved significant improvements over other techniques. The ML-framework itself consisted of a fully connected neural network which was trained under supervision to classify sulfur-38 nuclei against all other isotopes produced by the nuclear reaction.
Funding
This work was supported by the Department of Energy Office of Science, Office of Nuclear Physics and by the National Research Council of Canada.
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Department of Energy, Office of Science
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Scientists Probe the Emergent Structure of the Carbon Nucleus
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The Science
Newswise — The element carbon is critical to organic chemistry and life as we know it. The physics of its most common isotope, carbon-12, are extremely complex. Many experimental and theoretical investigations have been devoted to determining the energies and underlying structures of the nuclear states of carbon-12. In this work, researchers computed these states from first principles—the most basic components of physics theory. The approach used supercomputers and nuclear lattice simulations to calculate the three-dimensional shape formed by the protons and neutrons comprising the nucleus. The results show that all of the low-lying energy states of carbon-12 have a substructure where the six protons and six neutrons cluster together into alpha particles. Alpha particles are helium-4 nuclei, which contain two protons and two neutrons.
The Impact
One well-known nuclear state of carbon-12 is the Hoyle state. This state has an energy that sits near the energy threshold for three alpha particles or helium nuclei. This energy thereby greatly enhances the production of carbon in helium-burning stars. This helps to explain the presence of carbon in the Universe. The results obtained in this research show that the Hoyle state is composed of a “bent arm” or obtuse triangular arrangement of alpha particles. All the low-lying energy states of carbon-12 have an intrinsic shape composed of three alpha particles forming either an equilateral triangle or an obtuse triangle. The new results give information about the possible geometrical shapes of nuclear states.
Summary
The carbon atom provides the backbone for the complex organic chemistry composing the building blocks of life. The physics of the carbon nucleus in its predominant isotope, carbon-12, are also full of complexity. Researchers from the University of Bonn, Forschungszentrum Jülich in Germany, the Gaziantep Islamic Science and Technology University in Turkey, the Graduate School of China Academy of Engineering Physics, Tbilisi State University, and the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams at Michigan State University calculated the structure of the nuclear states of carbon-12 using the ab initio framework of nuclear lattice effective field theory.
The research found that all the low-lying states of carbon-12 have an intrinsic shape composed of three alpha clusters forming either an equilateral triangle or an obtuse triangle. The states with the equilateral triangle shape also have a dual description in terms of particle-hole excitations in a mean-field picture. The results agree with experimental data and provide the first model-independent density map of the nuclear states of carbon-12. The results help to explain the origins of carbon from the helium and hydrogen that made up the Universe shortly after the Big Bang.
Funding
This research was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (the German Research Foundation), the National Natural Science Foundation of China , the Chinese Academy of Sciences President’s International Fellowship Initiative, the National Security Academic Fund of China, Volkswagen Stiftung, the European Research Council, the Department of Energy, and the Nuclear Computational Low-Energy Initiative SciDAC-4 project, as well as computational resources provided by the Gauss Centre for Supercomputing e.V. and the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility.
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Department of Energy, Office of Science
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Nature Inspires a New Wave of Biotechnology
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The Science
Newswise — Biological molecules called peptides play a key role in many biological activities, including the transport of oxygen and electrons. Peptides consist of short chains of amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. They are also the inspiration for new kinds of biotechnology. Researchers are developing a synthetic form of a peptide that self-assembles into nanoscale fibers that conduct electricity when combined with heme. Heme is a substance that helps proteins in nature move electrons from one place to another. The researchers determined how electrical conductivity of their peptide nanofibers was affected by the length of the sequence of amino acids in the peptide and their identity
The Impact
Structural parameters of peptides in nature determine their function and their promise for biotechnology. These parameters include sequence length—the length of the peptide segments that make up complete peptide chains. They also include how some amino acids are arranged in a peptide. This study’s results help researchers design peptide assemblies that form nanoscale fibers and transport electrons over long distances, which could make these fibers useful in medical devices, biosensors for a wide range of applications, and robotics. They also have promise in the development of new enzymes, which companies use to make and improve things such as medical-grade and household cleaning products.
Summary
Fields in materials and biochemistry research explore protein and peptide nanostructures found in nature. These nanostructures show great promise as bioelectronic materials. The development of a synthetic analog capable of forming one-dimensional (1D) nanostructures would greatly improve scientists’ understanding of the natural system and provide a platform for developing new materials. Researchers in the Center for Nanoscale Materials at Argonne National Laboratory investigated a series of peptides that self-assemble into 1D layered nanostructures. The peptides PA-(Kx)n are denoted simply as PA-Kxn, where PA is c16-AH with c16-A being modified alanine (A) and H is histidine, K is lysine, n is the sequence repeat length (1-4), and x is the amino acid leucine (L), isoleucine (I), or phenylalanine (F).
The team determined how the length of the peptide sequence (n) and the identity of the hydrophobic amino acid affect key factors: the binding affinity of heme to pre-assembled peptides, the heme density, and the electronic properties. With a sequence length of 2, the peptide assembly yielded the greatest binding affinity. The resulting nanoscale assemblies produced ordered arrays of the electroactive molecule heme. All the peptides, with the exception of PA-KL1, had nanofibers with a long aspect ratio regardless of repeat unit length and sequence. Such structures have potential utility as supramolecular bioelectronic materials useful in biomedical sensing and the development of enzymatic materials.
Funding
Research at the Center for Nanoscale Materials, a Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science user facility, was supported by DOE Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences.
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Department of Energy, Office of Science
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Secret Warnings About Wuhan Research Predated the Pandemic
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“Delete That Comment”
In late October 2017, a US health official from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) arrived at the Wuhan Institute of Virology for a glimpse of an eagerly anticipated work in progress. The WIV, a leading research institute, was putting the finishing touches on China’s first biosafety level 4 (BSL-4) laboratory. Operating with the highest safeguards, the lab would enable scientists to study some of the world’s most lethal pathogens.
The project had support from Western governments seeking a more robust partnership with China’s top scientists. France had helped design the facility. Canada, before long, would send virus samples. And in the US, NIAID was channeling grant dollars through an American organization called EcoHealth Alliance to help fund the WIV’s cutting-edge coronavirus research.
That funding allowed the NIAID official, who worked out of the US embassy in Beijing, to become one of the first Americans to tour the lab. Her goal was to facilitate cooperation between American and Chinese scientists. Nevertheless, says Asha M. George, executive director of the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense, a nonprofit that advises the US government on biodefense policy, “If you want to know what’s going on in a closed country, one of the things the US has done is give them grant money.”
In emails obtained by Vanity Fair, the NIAID official told her superiors what she’d gleaned from the technician who’d served as her guide. The lab, which was not yet fully operational, was struggling to develop enough expertise among its staff—a concern in a setting that had no tolerance for errors. “According to [the technician], being the first P4 [or BSL-4] lab in the country, they have to learn everything from zero,” she wrote. “They rely on those scientists who have worked in P4 labs outside China to train the other scientists how to operate.”
She’d also learned something else “alarming” from the technician, she wrote. Researchers at the WIV intended to study Ebola, but Chinese government restrictions prevented them from importing samples. As a result, they were considering using a technique called reverse genetics to engineer Ebola in the lab. Anticipating that this information would set off alarm bells in the US, the official cautioned, “I don’t want the information particularly using reverse genetics to create viruses to get out, which would affect the ability for our future information gain,” meaning it would impair the collaboration between NIAID and the WIV.
There was good reason to fear that such a revelation could derail the fledgling partnership. One year earlier, the US Department of Energy had warned other agencies, including NIAID’s parent entity, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), that advanced genetic engineering techniques could be misused for malign ends. The Energy Department had developed a classified proposal, reported on here for the first time, to ramp up safeguards against that possibility and develop tools to better detect evidence of genetic engineering. The proposal, which was not implemented in its suggested form, prompted a heated interagency battle, six people with knowledge of the debate tell Vanity Fair.
On January 10, 2018, as the NIAID official prepared her official trip report for the US embassy in Beijing, she wrote to colleagues, “I was shocked to hear what he said [about reverse engineering Ebola]. I also worry the reaction of people in Washington when they read this. The technician is only a worker, not a decision maker nor a [principal investigator]. So how much we should believe what he said?” She concluded, “I don’t feel comfortable for broader audience within the government circle. It could be very sensitive.”
Among the recipients of that email was F. Gray Handley, then NIAID’s associate director for international research affairs. Handley agreed with the official’s assessment and advised her: “As we discussed. Delete that comment.”
On January 19, the US embassy in Beijing issued a sensitive but unclassified cable that included concerning details from the NIAID official’s tour. It said that WIV scientists themselves had noted the “serious shortage of appropriately trained technicians and investigators needed to safely operate” the lab, according to an unredacted copy obtained by Vanity Fair. But the cable did not include the information that her NIAID colleagues apparently found most worrying.
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Katherine Eban
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Probing the Intricate Structures of 2D Materials at the Nanoscale
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The Science
Two-dimensional (2D) materials are just a single or a few layers of atoms thick. These materials often have exotic properties that may be useful for next-generation technologies. When layers of these materials are stacked, the electronic properties that emerge can be manipulated by, for example, twisting the layers with respect to one another. To fully understand these properties and correlate them with the twist angle, scientists need advanced microscopy techniques. Researchers developed a novel operating mode for the interferometric four-dimensional scanning transmission electron microscopy (4D-STEM) technique. This special technique allows researchers to measure the atomic-scale structural distortions, twist angle, and interlayer spacings that influence the unique electronic properties of layered 2D materials.
The Impact
Layered 2D materials have special properties that can advance technology beyond existing capabilities. For example, they could lead to faster and more energy efficient computers or more reliable electricity storage. The individual layers that make up these materials may each be oriented differently. This creates challenges in fully understanding their 3D atomic structures with existing microscopy techniques. Interferometric 4D-STEM can reveal the relative positions of atoms within separate layers of stacked and twisted 2D materials. The technique opens avenues to the design and development of materials with useful properties.
Summary
Layered 2D materials have attracted considerable attention due to their interesting electronic properties, which can be modified by changing the twist angle of bilayer materials, the stacking sequence of trilayer materials, or other factors. To fully understand and control the properties of these materials, researchers need to study their atomic structures. However, visualizing the atomic structure of few-layered materials is often challenging using conventional microscopy techniques, such as when working with materials composed of light elements or when 3D information is needed. Researchers need new techniques to improve precision and locally measure distortions and interlayer spacings in twisted materials composed of two or three layers, especially when they contain light elements or high twist angles.
Researchers developed a new interferometric 4D-STEM modality that can provide information about local structural deformations within layers, twist direction and magnitude between layers, and interlayer distances for few-layered 2D materials. This new operating mode of 4D-STEM is still based on Bragg interferometry but uses a defocused electron probe to directly provide information about the relative positions of atoms within separate layers, as demonstrated in this study in bilayer and trilayer graphene. The technique sheds new light on the interplay between electronic properties and the precise structural arrangements of few-layer 2D materials.
Funding
The research was supported by the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, a DOE Office of Science user facility, and by the DOE Office of Science Early Career Award Program. Additional support was provided by the European Research Council and resources at the Vienna Scientific Cluster.
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Department of Energy, Office of Science
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‘America funded it’: Rand Paul blasts Fauci and the media for suppressing the lab leak theory
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Remember when Sen. Rand Paul (R–Ky.) accused then–White House COVID-19 adviser Anthony Fauci of funding China’s Wuhan virus lab?
Fauci replied, “Senator Paul, you do not know what you’re talking about.”
The media loved it. Vanity Fair smirked, “Fauci Once Again Forced to Basically Call Rand Paul a Sniveling Moron.”
But now the magazine has changed its tune, admitting, “In Major Shift, NIH Admits Funding Risky Virus Research in Wuhan” and “Paul might have been onto something.”
Then what about question two: Did COVID-19 occur because of a leak from that lab?
When Paul confronted Fauci, saying, “The evidence is pointing that it came from the lab!” Fauci replied, “I totally resent the lie that you are now propagating.”
Was Paul lying? What’s the truth?
The media told us COVID came from an animal, possibly a bat.
But in my new video, Paul points out there were “reports of 80,000 animals being tested. No animals with it.”
Now he’s released a book, Deception: The Great Covid Cover-Up, that charges Fauci and others with funding dangerous research and then covering it up.
“Three people in the Wuhan lab got sick with a virus of unknown origin in November of 2019,” says Paul. The Wuhan lab is 1,000 kilometers away from where bats live.
Today the FBI, the Energy Department, and others agree with Paul. They believe COVID most likely came from a lab.
I ask Paul, “COVID came from evil Chinese scientists, in a lab, funded by America?”
“America funded it,” he replies, “maybe not done with evil intentions. It was done with the misguided notion that ‘gain-of-function’ research was safe.”
Gain-of-function research includes making viruses stronger.
The purpose is to anticipate what might happen in nature and come up with vaccines in advance. So I push back at Paul, “They’re trying to find ways to stop diseases!”
He replies, “Many scientists have now looked at this and said, ‘We’ve been doing this gain-of-function research for quite a while.’ The likelihood that you create something that creates a vaccine that’s going to help anybody is pretty slim to none.”
Paul points out that Fauci supported “gain-of-function” research.
“He said in 2012, even if a pandemic occurs…the knowledge is worth it.” Fauci did write: “The benefits of such experiments and the resulting knowledge outweigh the risks.”
Paul answers: “Well, that’s a judgment call. There’s probably 16 million families around the world who might disagree with that.”
Fauci and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) didn’t give money directly to the Chinese lab. They gave it to a nonprofit, EcoHealth Alliance. The group works to protect people from infectious diseases.
“They were able to accumulate maybe over $100 million in U.S. taxpayer dollars, and a lot of it was funneled to Wuhan,” says Paul.
EcoHealth Alliance is run by zoologist Peter Daszak. Before the pandemic, Daszak bragged about combining coronaviruses in Wuhan.
Once COVID broke out, Daszak became less eager to talk about these experiments. He won’t talk to me.
“Peter Daszak has refused to reveal his communications with the Wuhan lab,” complains Paul. “I do think that ultimately there is a great deal of culpability on his part.… They squelched all dissent and said, ‘You’re a conspiracy theorist if you’re saying this [came from a lab],’ but they didn’t reveal that they had a monetary self-incentive to cover this up,” says Paul.
“The media is weirdly uncurious about this,” I say to Paul.
“We have a disease that killed maybe 16 million people,” Paul responds. “And they’re not curious as to how we got it?”
Also, our NIH still funds gain of function research, Paul says.
“This is a risk to civilization. We could wind up with a virus…that leaks out of a lab and kills half of the planet,” Paul warns.
Paul’s book reveals much more about Fauci and EcoHealth Alliance. I will cover more of that in this column in a few weeks.
COPYRIGHT 2023 BY JFS PRODUCTIONS INC.
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John Stossel
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Scientists Amplify Superconducting Sensor Arrays Signals Near the Quantum Limit
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The Science
Newswise — Understanding how energy moves in materials is fundamental to the study of quantum phenomena, catalytic reactions, and complex proteins. Measuring how energy moves involves shining special X-ray light onto a sample to start a reaction. Detectors then collect the radiation the reaction emits. Conventional sensors usually lack the sensitivity needed for these studies. One solution is to use superconducting sensors. But amplifying the signals from these sensors is a major challenge. Building on advances from quantum computing, researchers added a special type of amplifiers, superconducting traveling-wave parametric amplifiers. While most amplifiers add noise to the measurement, these amplifiers are almost noiseless. In a major advance, researchers recently showed that the amplifiers can operate at 4 Kelvin, which is considered relatively high operating temperatures.
The Impact
Reducing the noise that is added during signal processing can improve a sensor’s performance. Amplification allows each sensor to operate faster and be more sensitive. Recent experiments have shown that parametric amplifiers can potentially analyze signals from many superconducting sensors at the same time. Superconducting sensors work at very low temperatures. At these temperatures, parametric amplifiers have very good noise performance, close to the limit of quantum mechanics. The advance paves the way to integrate such amplifiers with a variety of sensor technologies.
Summary
A superconducting sensor consists of a superconducting thermometer and an absorber. When X-rays are stopped in the absorber, they change the superconducting state of the sensor. This generates a small current in an electrical circuit. To make the detector more sensitive, many sensors are arranged into an array, like in a digital camera. Superconducting sensors operate at very cold temperatures (approximately 0.09 Kelvin), so they require specialized readout electronics and amplifiers. These amplifiers need to combine the signals from multiple sensors on a single readout line. Combining signals is known as multiplexing. One efficient way to do this is to couple each sensor in an array to a resonator. All of the resonators are coupled to a single output line. The current produced by an absorbed photon shifts the resonant frequency in a unique way for each sensor.
Because these resonators work in microwave frequencies, the electronic chip that contains all the resonators as well as the output feedline is called the microwave multiplexer. Researchers are preparing to measure the signals from an array of sensors and a microwave multiplexer with a readout chain whose first amplifier is a kinetic-inductance traveling-wave parametric amplifier instead of a conventional semiconductor amplifier. Using the parametric amplifier will reduce readout noise and enable larger arrays of faster sensors.
Funding
This work was funded by the Department of Energy Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences Accelerator and Detector Research Program, the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Innovations in Measurement Science Program, and NASA.
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Department of Energy, Office of Science
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Scientists Discover a New Phase of High-Density, Ultra-Hot Ice
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The Science
Newswise — The outer planets of our solar system, like Uranus and Neptune, are water-rich gas giants. These planets have extreme pressures of 2 million times the Earth’s atmosphere. They also have interiors as hot as the surface of the Sun. Under these conditions, water exhibits exotic, high-density ice phases. Researchers recently observed one of these phases, called Ice XIX, for the first time using high-power lasers to reproduce the necessary extreme conditions. They measured the Ice XIX structure using the Matter at Extreme Conditions instrument at the Linac Coherent Light Source, a pioneering X-ray laser facility, to show that oxygen atoms pack in a body-centered cubic structure, while the hydrogen atoms move freely like a fluid, dramatically increasing conductivity.
The Impact
Voyager II, a NASA solar system exploration spacecraft launched in 1977, measured highly unusual magnetic fields around Uranus and Neptune. Scientists considered exotic states of so-called superionic ice as a possible explanation due to these states’ increased electrical conductivity. This work demonstrates the existence of the previously undiscovered Ice XIX phase. It shows that this phase could form at the right depths and help explain the Voyager II magnetic data.
Summary
Water–a compound that is ubiquitous in our solar system and necessary for life–exhibits an exceptionally complex pressure-temperature phase diagram with 18 crystalline ice phases already identified. Nowhere are dense ice phases more important than in the interiors of gas giants like Uranus and Neptune. Scientists hypothesize that these planets’ complex magnetic fields are produced by exotic high-pressure states of water ice with superionic properties. However, the structure of ice at these extreme conditions is notoriously challenging to measure.
Using the Matter at Extreme Conditions instrument at the Linac Coherent Light Source, an ultrafast X-ray Free Electron Laser and a Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science user facility, to probe the ice structure during laser-driven dynamic compression, researchers found the first direct evidence of a new phase of high-density, ultra-hot water ice. At 200 GPa (2 million atmospheres) and 5,000 K (8,500 degrees Fahrenheit) this new high-pressure ice phase, deemed Ice XIX, has a body-centered cubic (BCC) lattice structure. Though other structures have been theorized to be stable at these conditions, Ice XIX’s BCC structure would enable an increase in the electrical conductivity much deeper into the interiors of ice giants than previously thought. The results provide an important and compelling origin of the multi-polar magnetic fields as measured by the Voyager II spacecraft for Uranus and Neptune.
Funding
Funding for this research included the DOE National Nuclear Security Administration; the DOE Office of Science, Fusion Energy Science; the Laboratory Directed Research & Development program of Los Alamos National Laboratory; and the National Science Foundation. The experimental measurements were conducted at the Matter at Extreme Conditions instrument (operated by the DOE Office of Science, Fusion Energy Science program) of the Linac Coherent Light Source, a DOE Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences user facility operated by SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.
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Department of Energy, Office of Science
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New Material Enables an Ultrafast Electron Diffraction Probe for Quantum Materials
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Newswise — The Science
Quantum materials have a host of exotic electronic, magnetic, and optical properties that make them prime candidates for use in future computing and energy technologies. Their properties arise from a complex interaction of their electrons and atomic nuclei. Researchers can observe these interactions as they happen using short pulses of X-rays or electron beams. These pulses last less than a trillionth of a second. Using new materials that emits a narrow electron probe, researchers have developed an ultrafast electron beam technique to probe small, thin pieces of quantum materials with very high resolution.
The Impact
Scientists so far cannot create many newly emerging quantum materials as large crystals. Instead, these materials form crystals only one-tenth as wide as a human hair. This poses a challenge for researchers probing these materials using ultrafast electron beam accelerators, as electron beam quality often limits how small an area these beams can focus on. In this study, researchers used a specialized source of electrons to produce a substantial improvement in electron beam quality. This enables crisp images of samples only a few microns wide and of processes that take place in less than a trillionth of a second. This work could lead to a clearer image and understanding of how quantum materials function at atomic space and time scales.
Summary
These accelerators typically generate ultrafast electron pulses via a process called photoemission, wherein laser light knocks electrons out of a material, usually a simple metal like copper. If the laser pulse is short in duration, the emitted electron beam will also be short. One challenge with typical photoemission sources is that the electrons emitted do not all travel in the same direction. This spread in emission angle can ultimately limit researchers’ ability to focus the electron beam on a small spot.
In this work, researchers developed a photoemission-based electron accelerator with an advanced, in-house grown photoemission material that produces many electrons with a much smaller spread in emission angle. Using this source in conjunction with precise electron focusing optics, the researchers performed proof-of-principle ultrafast electron diffraction experiments which showed the ability to resolve subtle atomic details in samples as small as just a few microns in size.
Funding
This research was supported by the Department of Energy Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences and by the National Science Foundation.
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Department of Energy, Office of Science
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