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Tag Archives: fusion

World’s fastest burst-mode X-ray camera hits the road

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Nuclear reactions are fast. Really fast. Faster than billionths of a second. Your best shot at catching one is with a high-speed X-ray camera that can only be obtained from the Department of Energy’s Sandia National Laboratories. But these cameras could soon become more widely available. Sandia has partnered with Albuquerque-based startup Advanced […]

Record neutron numbers at Sandia Labs’ Z machine fusion experiments

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— A relatively new method to control nuclear fusion that combines a massive jolt of electricity with strong magnetic fields and a powerful laser beam has achieved its own record output of neutrons — a key standard by which fusion efforts are judged — at Sandia National Laboratories’ Z pulsed power facility, the most […]

Machine-learning technique from Sandia Labs could improve fusion energy outputs

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Machine-learning techniques, best known for teaching self-driving cars to stop at red lights, may soon help researchers around the world improve their control over the most complicated reaction known to science: nuclear fusion. Fusion reactions are typically hydrogen atoms heated to form a gaseous cloud called a plasma that releases energy as […]

Three Sandia engineers recognized for contributions to advancing women in STEM

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Three Sandia National Laboratories engineers have been recognized by the Society of Women Engineers as part of its annual awards program for their support in the enrichment and advancement of women in engineering. Janet Williams won the Distinguished Service Award, which recognizes members who have made significant contributions to SWE for at […]

Sandia plasma-materials researcher wins DOE Early Career Award

LIVERMORE, Calif. — Sandia National Laboratories researcher Robert Kolasinski has received a $2.5 million, five-year Early Career Research Program award from the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science to support his work on how intense fusion plasmas interact with the interior surfaces of fusion reactors. Kolsinski’s research will develop the scientific foundations needed to […]

‘Iron Sun’ is not a rock band, but a key to how stars transmit energy

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M — Working at temperatures matching the interior of the sun, researchers at Sandia National Laboratories’ Z machine have been able to determine experimentally, for the first time in history, iron’s role in inhibiting energy transmission from the center of the sun to near the edge of its radiative band — the section of […]

Sandia magnetized fusion technique produces significant results

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories’ Z machine have produced a significant output of fusion neutrons, using a method fully functioning for only little more than a year. The experimental work is described in a paper to be published in the Sept. 24 Physical Review Letters online. A theoretical PRL paper to be […]

Sandia physicist wins two national awards

Albuquerque, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories senior manager Mark Herrmann has garnered two national awards for his work in high-energy-density science. In September, the American Physical Society elected him a Fellow, an honor limited to 0.5 percent of the society’s membership in any given year. The citation, formally presented at the recent annual meeting of […]