Research for secure, sustainable energy
Americans consume more energy per person than any other country in the world. At PNNL, we believe there can be no energy solutions without associated environmental solutions. From grid modernization and building controls to providing scientifically-defensible solutions for legacy waste, our researchers are helping deliver secure, sustainable energy.
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Imaging Goes Underground at the Hanford Site
"It's sort of like using infrared goggles to see heat signatures in the dark, except this is underground." PNNL researchers worked with CHPRC to successfully implement a state-of-the-art approach for monitoring the process of remediating residual uranium found in the soil at Hanford’s 300 Area near the Columbia River.
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Climate Events Create Compound Challenges for Electricity Planning
As part of an international effort to better understand how future water availability could influence energy supplies, researchers from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory focused on regional hydropower. Their case study used a model called GENESYS to simulate the performance of the Pacific Northwest power system under modest climate scenarios for the year 2035.
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Motkuri Joins Inorganic Chemistry Editorial Advisory Board
Radha Motkuri, a PNNL senior research scientist, has been invited to serve on the editorial advisory board of the American Chemical Society's journal Inorganic Chemistry.
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SOCRATES Extracts Wisdom from Groundwater Data
To help Hanford site managers make informed cleanup decisions, PNNL developed a set of online software tools that perform multiple types of analyses on environmental data collected from over 2,000 groundwater monitoring wells. This suite of tools, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy's Deep Vadose Zone Program, is called SOCRATES (Suite Of Comprehensive Rapid Analysis Tools for Environmental Sites).
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Radiological Microscopy Suite Enables Innovative Nuclear Science
A suite addition brings a new flavor of nuclear research capabilities to PNNL's Radiochemical Processing Laboratory.
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New Collaborative Emerges to Help Advance Energy Storage
The Energy Storage Safety Collaborative seeks to forge stronger collaboration among all stakeholders associated with energy storage technology, from development and deployment to incident response and more.
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Thom Elected President of Washington State Academy of Sciences
Ron Thom, staff scientist emeritus at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's Marine Sciences Laboratory in Sequim, Washington, has been elected president of the Washington State Academy of Sciences.
Core Research Areas
We are organized into core research areas that align with customers' mission needs.
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Clean Fossil Energy
Enabling safe and sustainable fossil fuel exploration, production, transportation, conversion, and end use.
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Electricity Infrastructure
Transforming the U.S. power grid to meet consumer, economic, environmental, and security priorities for the 21st century.
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Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
Delivering distinctive science and technology solutions for efficient and sustainable energy.
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Environmental Health and Remediation
Reducing the cost and risk to resolve the most challenging legacy waste issues.
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Nuclear
Mobilizing interdisciplinary teams to advance safe and reliable nuclear power.
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