Berkeley Lab
Bringing Science Solutions to the World

Nuclear Science Division

Recent News

  • Berkeley Lab researchers contribute to the most precise measurement of double beta decay rate in Mo-100 

    In a new paper published in Physical Review Letters, the CUPID-Mo Collaboration reports on the most precise measurements of the two-neutrino double beta (2νββ) decay rate and the spectral shape in Mo-100. 

    Read More

  • André Walker-Loud elected as one of this year’s APS Fellows

    Congratulations to André Walker-Loud who has been announced as one of this year’s APS Fellows for definitive contributions to fundamental symmetries in nucleons and nuclei, utilizing lattice QCD and Effective Field Theory, including the high-precision computation of the nucleon axial coupling.

    Read More

  • Berkeley Lab to Test New Approach to Making Superheavy Elements

    Nuclear Science Division researchers are starting to test techniques and equipment for a potential attempt at creating element 120 using the lab’s 88-Inch Cyclotron.

    Read More

  • NSD’s Lee Bernstein and Brian Quitter Recognized with Director’s Awards

    Congratulations to Lee Bernstein and Brian Quitter, part of the Physical Sciences Area staff members who have received 2023 Berkeley Lab Director’s Awards.

    Read More

  • Making Rad Maps With Robot Dogs

    In 2013, researchers carried a Microsoft Kinect camera through houses in Japan’s Fukushima Prefecture. The device’s infrared light traced the contours of the buildings, making a rough 3D map. On top of this, the team layered information from an early version of a hand-held gamma-ray imager, displaying the otherwise invisible nuclear radiation from the Fukushima…

    Read More

  • The Nuclear Science Division helps roll out the U.S. 2023 Long Range Plan for Nuclear Science

    The Nuclear Science Division hosted a launch event for the U.S. 2023 Long Range Plan for Nuclear Science on Friday, October 6, one of over 20 simultaneous events held across the country at various Nuclear Science Advisory Committee (NSAC) participating organizations. 

    Read More

  • Fragments

    NSD has received two DOE NP funding awards for two-year projects focussed on artificial intelligence and machine learning. Heather Crawford of the Low Energy Nuclear Physics program will continue to lead a project developing new methods to optimize the performance of the GRETA spectrometer and the VENUS ion source, while Peter Jacobs from the Relativistic…

    Read More

  • Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accountability Moments

    IDEA-Related Efforts and Resources within NSD Periodically, it is worthwhile to highlight some of the ongoing efforts within the Nuclear Science Division addressing IDEA topics, and the resources available in NSD and at LBNL more broadly.  With each year our staff are engaged more and more in bringing IDEA principles to the forefront of our…

    Read More

  • Semiconductor Detector Lab Reaches for the Stars

    For decades, the LBNL Semiconductor Detector Lab (SDL) has been at the forefront of advancements in gamma-ray detector technology. Amongst the technologies pioneered at the SDL are double-sided high-purity germanium (HPGe) strip detectors with amorphous germanium (a-Ge) contacts [1] (Fig. 1). These devices find application in a range of areas including basic science, nuclear security,…

    Read More

  • Connecting Nuclear Quark Distributions to Dense Configurations in Nuclei

    The strong interactions between protons and neutrons (nucleons) in the dense interior of heavy nuclei are believed to be responsible for modifying the internal quark structure of the nucleon. This modification, known as the “EMC effect” [1,2], was observed to scale with nuclear density, yielding a modest A dependence in medium-to-heavy nuclei. Measurements of the…

    Read More