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Research Highlight

ORNL researchers receive NNSA Joule Award

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From left to right are Larry Satkowiak, Cole Hexel, Lee Trowbridge, NNSA’s Barbara Hoffheins, Debra Bostick, Hal Jennings, and Brian Ticknor.

On November 26, 2018, researchers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory received the Joule Award from Barbara Hoffheins of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Office of International Nuclear Safeguards. The ORNL team received the award jointly with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, “in recognition of outstanding contributions made for transferring a single use destructive assay coupon to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).” 

The technology allows the IAEA to collect UF6 samples during onsite facility inspections and convert it into a safe, chemically stable uranium compound that is significantly easier to handle and transport than existing gas sampling methods. The technology was field tested at ORNL. The ORNL team was led by Lee Trowbridge of the Isotope and Fuel Cycle Technology Division (IFCTD). Other ORNL team members cited in the award are IFCTD’s Darrell Simmons, Hal Jennings, and Chris Boring, and the Chemical Sciences Division's Debra Bostick, Brian Ticknor, and Cole Hexel. The project was funded by the Safeguards Technology Development Program in the NNSA Office of International Nuclear Safeguards (NA-241).

The Joule award is one of five awarded across the DOE complex each year by NA-241 in recognition of technologies that are successfully transferred to the IAEA or member states.