- Number 396 |
- September 2, 2013
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PPPL and Princeton scientists developing a novel system for verifying nuclear warheads
Scientists at Princeton University and DOE's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) are developing a unique process to verify that nuclear weapons to be dismantled or removed from deployment contain true warheads. The system could confirm this without measuring classified information that could lead to nuclear proliferation if the data were to leak.
The novel verification process draws upon principles used in cryptography, the science of disguising secret information. “The goal is to prove with as high confidence as required that an object is a true nuclear warhead while learning nothing about the materials and design of the warhead itself,” said physicist Robert Goldston, a co-principal investigator for the project and professor of astrophysical sciences at Princeton, and a fusion researcher and former director of PPPL. -
New catalyst dives into water to produce hydrogen
Few catalysts are energy efficient, highly active, stable, and operate in water, but a nickel-based catalyst designed at the Center for Molecular Electrocatalysis at DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory quickly produces hydrogen molecules in solutions with 75 percent water. This catalyst contains tailored relays that allow the catalyst to quickly shuttle protons from the solution to the heart of the catalyst, where they are added to electrons. The catalyst is known to be energy efficient, stable and highly active. With the modified design, it now operates in water, producing up to 170,000 hydrogen molecules per second. The study on this catalyst appeared on the cover and was highlighted as a hot article in Chemical Communications.
"We've moved from pure organic solvents to solutions with increasing amounts of water," said Dr. Monte Helm, Deputy Director of the Center for Molecular Electrocatalysis, an Energy Frontier Research Center. "We found that our catalyst performed better with water than in an organic solvent alone." -
Designer glue improves lithium-ion battery life
When it comes to improving the performance of lithium-ion batteries, no part should be overlooked – not even the glue that binds materials together in the cathode, researchers at DOE's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University have found.
Tweaking that material, which binds lithium sulfide and carbon particles together, created a cathode that lasted five times longer than earlier designs, according to a report published last month in Chemical Science. The research results are some of the earliest supported by the Department of Energy's Joint Center for Energy Storage Research.
"We were very impressed with how important this binder was in improving the lifetime of our experimental battery," said Yi Cui, an associate professor at SLAC and Stanford who led the research. -
3D Earth model pinpoints source of earthquakes, explosions
During the Cold War, U.S. and international monitoring agencies could spot nuclear tests and focused on measuring their sizes. Today, they’re looking around the globe to pinpoint much smaller explosives tests.
Under the sponsorship of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation R&D, DOE's Sandia National Laboratories and Los Alamos National Laboratory have partnered to develop a 3-D model of the Earth’s mantle and crust called SALSA3D, or Sandia-Los Alamos 3D. The purpose of this model is to assist the US Air Force and the international Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) in Vienna, Austria, more accurately locate all types of explosions.
The model uses a scalable triangular tessellation and seismic tomography to map the Earth’s “compressional wave seismic velocity,” a property of the rocks and other materials inside the Earth that indicates how quickly compressional waves travel through them and is one way to accurately locate seismic events, Sandia geophysicist Sandy Ballard said. Compressional waves — measured first after seismic events — move the particles in rocks and other materials minute distances backward and forward between the location of the event and the station detecting it. -
Video: Why does particle physics matter?
Particle physicists dedicate their lives to understanding the fundamental nature of energy, matter, space and time. Why do they do it? Why is it important for the rest of us?
Symmetry asked them to explain, and a couple of dozen bravely stepped forward to do so on camera. This 2-minute compilation video brings together the voices of 19 scientists from 13 institutions, including Fermilab, Argonne, Brookhaven and SLAC national laboratories.
Recorded at the 2013 Snowmass Community Summer Study meeting in Minneapolis, the 19 scientists explain how particle physics’ impacts go beyond the laboratory and the textbook to make significant impacts on other fields of science, improve daily life for people around the world, and train a new generation of scientists and computing professionals.
See the full range of explanations on symmetry’s YouTube channel.