NNSA’s Innovation Day helps Y-12 make connections

Daniel Riddick, Y‑12 Technology Transfer program manager, engaged with potential partners at NNSA’s Innovation Day in Arlington, VA.

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) established Innovation Day to enhance future collaborations, technology transfer, and mission‑critical capabilities. The widely attended event offered opportunities for business owners, inventors, and Nuclear Security Enterprise (NSE) labs, plants, and sites to connect on potential collaborations. Y‑12 National Security Complex was able to build new connections and further develop current ones by attendance at the forum.

“NNSA carries forward the legacy of the Manhattan Project, which represents the starting point for leveraging academia and the private sector for defense innovation,” said Jahleel Hudson, director of NNSA’s Technology and Partnerships Office. “NNSA Innovation Day brought together potential commercial partners and our NSE laboratories, plants, and sites to identify synergies that can enhance our national security and economic prosperity. We appreciate the participation of our NSE sites, such as Y‑12, who brought their expertise to Innovation Day and featured their technologies invented in the course of nuclear security mission work that can transition to commercial solutions to stimulate business growth and improve our daily lives.”

NNSA’s Innovation Day in Arlington, VA. (Photo by Grant Allard.)

Innovation Day was beneficial for Y‑12, with staff making 19 industry connections and receiving a number of inquiries on potential partnership opportunities. Y‑12 Partnerships and Technology Transfer leadership also engaged with DOE and NNSA to share Y‑12’s approach of using technology transfer for mission work, employing data analytics, and integrating technology transfer into the site’s university partnerships portfolio.

“Attending events like Innovation Day and establishing connections is crucial,” said Daniel Riddick, Y‑12 Technology Transfer program manager. “We created positive momentum and developed connections with potential partners. We’re grateful that NNSA provided us this opportunity.”

Y‑12 manages a portfolio of 148 patented technologies that are available for government and commercial licensing, 120 of which have at least 5 years before expiration. Technology transfer benefits Y‑12’s core nuclear production mission by providing opportunities to accelerate technology maturity through private industrial investment. Some of Y‑12’s technologies featured at NNSA Innovation Day include:

• The Modulated Tool‑Path (MTP) Chip‑Breaking System — a cost‑saving solution for machining operations that creates continuous chips in a significantly safer environment
• Chemical Identification by Magneto‑Elastic Sensing (ChIMES) — a new, low‑cost sensor technology developed in collaboration with the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, that uses target response materials (TRMs) as actuators in magneto‑elastic sensors

Collaborating with industry partners to mature and commercialize technology is essential to building an industrial base that supports the NSE’s labs, plants, and sites and maximizes value for the taxpayers.

If you are interested in exploring a potential collaboration with Y‑12, please email OTCP@y12nsc.doe.gov.