18 NNSA Lab Projects Chosen as R&D 100 Awards Finalists

Eighteen projects from National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) labs have been chosen by an independent panel of judges as finalists for R&D Magazine’s annual R&D 100 Awards, which recognizes “the 100 most innovative technologies and services of the past year,” the NNSA announced last week. Several Los Alamos National Laboratory projects are finalists, including the lab’s LARS radiography device that “can provide continuous high-speed x-ray imaging of spontaneous dynamic events, such as explosions, reaction-front propagation and material failure” and the Structural Health Monitoring Tools software that can detect damage of critical structures, “from aircraft and buildings to bridges and mechanical infrastructure.” Other finalists include the Nevada National Security Site’s Argus Fisheye Velocimetry Probe, which “measures the velocity distribution of an imploding surface along many lines of sight” and can be applied to shock physics experiments, and the Y-12 National Security Complex’s Chemical Identification by Magneto-Elastic Sensing chemical sensor that detects “chemical and biological warfare agents, toxic industrial chemicals, explosives and illegal drugs.” Award winners will be honored in November in Las Vegas.