News By Location

The Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory today was awarded a Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing, or SciDAC, grant to develop a computer model that can simulate biogeochemical processes on multiple scales. This computational advancement would enable researchers to make more accurate predictions of the movement and fate of contaminants in groundwater so that appropriate cleanup and human safety measures can be applied to the problem.

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has been recognized with five 2006 R&D 100 awards for a new cancer treatment method, a process that reduces the rate of post-surgical infection, and technologies that have reduced energy use, and led to improvements in the health and materials fields.

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has led a team of community partners in using a grant from the U.S. Small Business Administration to hire AngelouEconomics to develop marketing and land-use plans for the 1,600 acres of property in north Richland known as the Research District.

IsoRay is a company that started as a good idea and, in less than a decade, has grown into a publicly traded corporation. "IsoRay literally started in Lane Bray's basement, with about three employees," said Larry Greenwood, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory technical lead for the IsoRay project.

The pace was intense as data flowed in from sources across the world -- a spike in radiation from a ground-based indicator in Pakistan, an unexplained outbreak of plague in India, and a disturbing convergence of travel plans among suspected terrorists. Information Analysis Center analysts agreed the evidence indicated a well planned terrorist attack was imminent in downtown Seattle. Local law enforcement was quickly dispatched, capturing the suspected terrorists as they attempted to smuggle a chemical and radiation dispersing bomb into the city.

In efforts to shorten the long road to fuel efficiency, researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory are working to develop cost-effective, high-strength, lightweight materials that will reduce vehicle weight without compromising cost, performance or safety.

About 60 percent of the things we wear or use are produced by processes that depend on catalysis. Catalysts are substances that modify chemical reaction rates and remain unchanged afterward. Catalyst technologies affect nearly all areas of the chemical and petroleum industries with an economic impact estimated at more than $10 trillion per year worldwide. Now more than ever, innovative and improved catalyst technologies are in demand for new energy production processes to ease the United States' dependence on imported resources.

Although turbines have generated power at hydroelectric dams for many years, not much is known about how water flowing through the turbines may harm fish. In efforts to design more "fish-friendly" turbines, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory researchers conducted laboratory experiments to examine the relationship between water velocities within the turbine chambers and injuries to fish.