Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory collected five awards and Los Alamos National Laboratory received four awards— both totals include an award shared by the labs for a jointly developed technology. Researchers at the Y-12 National Security Complex were recognized with one award.
“The R&D 100 Awards celebrate the innovative minds behind these groundbreaking technologies, each of which will have a lasting positive impact for generations,” said Craig Albert, president of Bechtel National, Inc., Bechtel’s government services business. “These dedicated men and women continue to open new scientific frontiers, demonstrating the important contributions each of these sites provide for the safety and security of this country and the world.”
Winning project technologies include:
- A new technology at Livermore that improves the screening of harmful laser pulses at the National Ignition Facility, reducing screening time from 12 hours to less than one second, saving hundreds of thousands of dollars each year. A revolutionary imaging technique at Livermore that captures material and biological process in action at a nanoscale-level of detail.
- A digital X-ray imaging system at Los Alamos that is battery-powered, self-contained, lightweight, and portable. The device will aid efforts in homeland security, inspection and testing, disaster relief and medicine.
- A scanning device developed by a team including Los Alamos researchers that uses particles from cosmic rays to detect nuclear and radiological threats, explosives, and other threatening contraband.A single-crystalline semiconductor used in nuclear and security applications that Y-12 designed to be more compact and more efficient than previous models.
- The laboratories and Y-12 are part of NNSA’s nuclear security enterprise of facilities that carry out the agency’s mission of ensuring the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile. The three sites conduct cutting-edge research related to energy, environment, infrastructure, health, and global non-proliferation.