Harness Emerging Technology R&D for Security
Emerging and disruptive technologies offer opportunities to enhance U.S. prosperity and security. SSS scientists and engineers with deep knowledge of national security missions reach across Argonne to identify ways to harness R&D in these cutting-edge technologies – and unique Argonne facilities – to strengthen national security. We:
- Transform discovery science breakthroughs into unique solutions to national security challenges;
- Identify opportunities to integrate multiple emerging technology innovations for rapid development of solutions to address national security needs;
- Pair AI innovations with national security-related S&T domains to advance U.S. technology leadership; and
- Leverage one-of-a-kind Office of Science user facilities to enhance nuclear forensics with new signatures and capabilities and discover and harness new nuclear material properties.
Using Argonne’s Premiere User Facilities for Groundbreaking Security Research
We utilize Argonne’s world-class U.S. Department of Energy user facilities, such as the Argonne Tandem Linac Accelerator System (ATLAS), to discover previously unknown nuclear signatures. In one collinear resonance ionization spectroscopy experiment at ATLAS’s ATLANTIS beamline, we detected small spectral shifts between isomers of the same isotope as nuclear size and shape evolved. This improves our understanding of how isomers – which are important for nuclear astrophysics, nuclear reactions, and nonproliferation efforts – may be separated as pure samples for critical reference standards.
Developing Biological Signatures of Radiation Exposure
In a cross-directorate collaboration, we are studying how low levels of radiation affect living beings so they can build biological “signatures” and detect exposure and estimate risk. In the Low‑Dose Understanding, Cellular Insights, Molecular Discoveries (LUCID) study, our experts exposed human cells to radiation for nine weeks and tracked gene activity over time. The cells showed early stress, then a pause, then recovery, and finally different paths depending on the amount of radiation: some returned to normal; others showed signs of damage. At some rates, DNA mutation levels did not rise. This work is ongoing, and our scientists are continuing to test different conditions to improve accuracy.