nuclear-physics

Iran war negotiations are putting the country’s uranium enrichment program back under scrutiny

MIT researchers think they've worked out exactly how Russia's Burevestnik nuclear-powered missile flies. "It's almost certainly a terrible idea," one analyst said. "But it's not an impossible idea."

Scientists studying particle collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) usually capture what happens when atomic nuclei smash into one another at nearly the speed of light. But even when the nuclei don't collide, interesting things can happen. In a new paper just published in Physical Review Letters, members of RHIC's STAR collaboration describe a new way to use near-miss collisions…

Just a quick one to paste verbatim the message from Michael Thoennessen from Michigan State University.  He heads up a project which tracks discovery of isotopes, and he has spotted a new slew of first observations as follows: Dear Isotope Friends, Five new proton-rich and seventeen new neutron-rich nuclides were observed with the RI-Beam Factory at RIKEN, Japan. In the article " First Observatio…

By using a rare thorium nucleus as a timekeeper, physicists have demonstrated the first working nuclear clock, a device that could lead to even more precise clocks and new ways to search for dark matter.

Scientific Reports, Published online: 16 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41598-026-57115-y Causal multi-fidelity surrogate forward and inverse models for ICF implosions

Norbert Holtkamp is a physicist and science administrator who has served as director of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) since January 2026. He previously held senior leadership roles at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and the ITER fusion project, where he focused on large-scale accelerator and scientific infrastructure development. [This interview was edited for leng…

On nuclear physics via chiral perturbation theory/quantum hadrodynamics: On skyrmions: Ismail Zahed, Gerald E. Brown The Skyrme model, Physics Reports 142 1–2 (1986) 1-102 [doi:10.1016/0370-1573(86)90142-0] Mannque Rho, Ismail Zahed (eds.) The Multifaceted Skyrmion, World Scientific 2016 (doi:10.1142/9710) On the Cheshire cat principle of the quark bag model: On nucleons as Skyrmions in quantum h…

In the next few decades, many physicists are hopeful that nuclear fusion could become a realistic source of practically limitless energy. But before this can happen, it will be critical to ensure that reactors cannot be covertly misused to produce materials for nuclear weapons. Through new analysis published in Physical Review Applied, a team led […]

First dreamed up decades ago, the world’s first nuclear clocks are set to improve quickly, becoming more precise and aiding the hunt for dark matter.

When a nuclear accident happens, it’s vital that scientists have accurate fallout models.

How does the universe create gold? The answer may lie in a rare nuclear process that researchers have only now been able to observe in unprecedented detail.

A clock based on radioactive thorium atoms realises a long-held ambition, demonstrating a technology that could eventually beat the accuracy of today’s best atomic clocks

Immediately following the annual meeting of scientists who conduct research at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) and the Alternating Gradient Synchrotron (AGS), the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory hosted a science symposium to commemorate the end of RHIC operations. The two-day event, held May 14 and 15, celebrated more than 25 years of discovery science …

Scientists conducting research at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), Alternating Gradient Synchrotron (AGS), and the supporting accelerator complex at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory gathered at the Lab May 11-13 for the annual RHIC & AGS Users' Meeting.

First dreamed up decades ago, the world's first nuclear clocks are set to improve quickly, becoming more precise and aiding the hunt for dark matter.

The reboot highlights a dire problem for the country's nuclear program. Japan is running out of space to store spent nuclear fuel and lacks plans for radioactive waste disposal.

Controlled nuclear fusion, recognized as the ultimate solution to humanity's energy crisis, has failed to achieve sustained stable operation with an energy gain factor Q > 10 after 70 years of research. The traditional research paradigm treats plasma and confinement fields as two opposing entities, trapping itself in a vicious cycle of "more complex technology, more instabilities". Based on the u…

During the Manhattan Project, Los Alamos scientists needed a diagnostic tool. Like an x-ray confirming a broken leg bone, the researchers wanted to be able to see into the smoke cloud of detonation products. They needed to verify that the implosion remained symmetric to ensure an efficient detonation.