Through its commitment to international nuclear nonproliferation — a mission focused on limiting the spread of nuclear weapons and sensitive technology while working to promote peaceful use of nuclear science and technology — the United States maintains a constant vigilance aimed at reducing the threat of nuclear and radiological terrorism worldwide.
With extensive research into both basic and applied uranium science, as well as internationally deployed operational solutions, the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory is uniquely positioned to contribute its comprehensive capabilities toward advancing the U.S. nonproliferation mission.
In 1943, seemingly overnight, ORNL emerged from a rural Tennessee valley as the site of the world’s first continuously operating nuclear reactor, in support of U.S. efforts to end World War II. ORNL’s mission soon shifted into peacetime applications, harnessing nuclear science for medical treatments, power generation and breakthroughs in materials, biological and computational sciences.
Eight decades later, dedicated professionals fan out across the globe to further the U.S. nuclear nonproliferation mission. Today, this mission includes countering the threat of the nefarious use of nuclear materials, and the foundational science required to advance this mission begins at ORNL.
DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration works to impede nuclear proliferation by preventing, countering and responding to threats. At ORNL, researchers pursue materials characterization, uranium processing and applied sciences in support of these nonproliferation missions.
“In the broader context of uranium science, ORNL has been leaned upon historically for our expertise, from the fundamental materials to the processing methods,” said Jared Johnson, director of the lab’s Nonproliferation Program Office.
Working with various domestic and international agencies, ORNL scientists examine and perform experiments with uranium samples to learn about the origins of nuclear materials and their probable processing history.
“When we talk about the nonproliferation mission, what we’re talking about is a broad suite of topics, but it can vary from understanding the origin of a material, helping to supply information from samples collected from the IAEA, to even understanding how we could detect nefarious operations that haven’t been declared,” Johnson said. “The expertise in understanding uranium compounds at a very fundamental level in terms of chemistry, structure, morphology and isotopic information is critical for the nonproliferation missions we support.”
This Oak Ridge National Laboratory news article "ORNL researchers translate foundational uranium science into active nonproliferation solutions" was originally found on https://www.ornl.gov/news
