LAB REPORT

The third international conference on negative CO₂ emissions, held recently in Oxford, focused on the latest science, policy gaps and methods of carbon dioxide removal. Jennifer Pett-Ridge from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory outlined the findings of a recent report on the options for carbon dioxide removal (CDR) in the U.S. 

The report, put together by almost 70 scientists and 13 institutions, looks at regional possibilities for CDR and storage. Pett-Ridge said the U.S. can reduce 1 billion tons of CO₂ from the atmosphere each year by 2050 using CDR methods, at an annual cost of $129 billion. 

She said it is sensible to initially focus on forestry and soils. Biomass conversion also has big potential, she said. The researchers also analyzed issues in inequity and justice as part of their analysis.

In an effort to assess the impact of climate change on water sources, CalTrout has teamed with Lawrence Livermore and other collaborators to study spring water and learn more about how they have been affected by recent drought and other climate change impacts.

In 2023, CalTrout and partners embarked on a three-year study to provide a scientifically based toolset to better understand, manage, and advance the protection of the cold, clean spring waters in the Upper Sacramento Basin.  

Building on past efforts to assess baseline conditions of springs in the Mount Shasta region, this study will define and quantify source areas and flows, assess ecosystem sensitivity to climate change and determine how these systems support the diverse life history of wild cold-water fish.

Now at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory lies a piece of ancient history; extremely ancient history.

The material, at just 120 milligrams, will provide information about the early solar system, planetary formation, and potentially, even life on Earth.

LLNL scientists have recently received and will analyze samples from the asteroid Bennu that will help explain how it formed and from where it came.

Bennu is a small, carbon-rich near-Earth asteroid that passes close to Earth about every six years. It was the target of NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission to collect an asteroid sample and bring it to Earth. The spacecraft returned to Earth last fall, landing in Utah, with approximately 120 grams of Bennu tucked away on board.

A team of researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has made advancements in understanding and resolving the long-standing “drive-deficit” problem in indirect-drive inertial confinement fusion (ICF) experiments. This discovery could pave the way for more accurate predictions and improved performance in fusion energy experiments at the National Ignition Facility (NIF).

The study, led by physicist Hui Chen, Tod Woods and a team of experts at LLNL, focused on the discrepancies between predicted and measured X-ray fluxes in laser-heated hohlraums at NIF.

“Significant effort has been invested over the years to pinpoint the physical cause of the radiation drive-deficit problem,” Chen said. “We are excited about this discovery as it helps resolve a decade-long puzzle in ICF research. Our findings point the way to an improvement in the predictive capabilities of simulations, which is crucial for the success of future fusion experiments.”

In NIF experiments, scientists use a device called a hohlraum — approximately the size of a pencil eraser — to convert laser energy into X-rays, which then compress a fuel capsule to achieve fusion.

Molecular compounds with heavy elements, like americium, curium and others can now be synthesized in a streamlined and efficient way thanks to a new technique developed by Lawrence Livermore researchers.

The new pathway can help scientists perform serial chemistry with radioactive elements and could be used to speed up R&D for nuclear waste management and radiopharmaceuticals. LLNL scientists describe how the new technique will lead to innovative ways of separating elements and studying properties of difficult-to-study radioisotopes.

The research highlights the creation of a large series of new compounds (20 new crystal structures), including the first trivalent americium polyoxometalate compound and two new compounds with curium. Curium has remained an elusive element, with only seven crystal structures of curium molecular compounds reported from its discovery in 1944 to 2020. LLNL scientists discovered five new ones in the past two years.

“We have a new chemical platform to make and study compounds containing pretty much any actinide,” said LLNL postdoctoral researcher Ian Colliard “We use a thousand times less materials (micrograms vs. milligrams), so we can go faster, make many more new compounds and it costs less to the Department of Energy.”

Though the Deep Purple telescope is no bigger than a shoebox, its optical capabilities could help scientists find out which stars might support extraterrestrial life in space, or peer through smoke and fog on Earth, among other potential uses.

Planned for launch aboard SpaceX’s Transporter-11 mission this month, the project demonstrates how Lawrence Livermore can build custom, low-cost telescopes under tight deadlines.

The telescope was developed in under a year for less than $1 million with specific capabilities: it had to be compact, lightweight and it needed to detect both short-wave infrared (SWIR) and ultraviolet (UV) light. This range of detection is unusual, since there are only a handful of telescopes that have UV functionality, the Hubble Telescope being one of them. So, the project was named Deep Purple both in reference to the famous rock band and how purple is the closest color on the visible light spectrum to ultraviolet.

Jordan Smilo, principal investigator and space hardware lead mechanical engineer, said: “Deep Purple really showcases the best we can do, in terms of science and engineering coupled with commercial technologies that are mass produced at lower costs.” He referred to the telescope as part of “responsive space,” which is a field that focuses on making tools to explore space based on specific needs or concerns.