Investment in new facilities expands critical isotope supply chains

There was a nuclear engineer with a passion for teaching students in a tiny, rural Missouri town in the 1980s.

There was a grad-school opportunity to work at a national lab, and a chance target station failure that cemented his career path.

There were leaps of faith that moved Ferguson and his family to the New Mexico desert, then later to the foothills of East Tennessee.

Along the way, there were friends, teachers, mentors and coworkers. Ferguson learned something from each one.

And he's still learning.

"The quest to understand what makes things work, why things are the way they are - it never goes away," said Ferguson, who now has 35 years, and counting, in the nuclear field. "It's a constant itch."

'You get to go to work' at national lab

Ferguson's itch for understanding started as a high-school student in Potosi, Missouri, where his science teacher was a master's-level nuclear engineer who taught high school chemistry and physics for a "side hobby."

Thirty years ago, STEM education wasn't the buzzword it was today. His teacher simply had a passion for hooking the next generation on science.

"He was one of the originals," Ferguson said. "He got ahold of me, invested in me and we started doing science projects."

Ferguson earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in nuclear engineering from the University of Missouri and was working on his doctoral degree when his advisers found him a summer internship at Los Alamos National Laboratory. That summer, the lab's target station broke.

"They told me, 'We could go out and hire an engineer and bring them in and train them - but you're sitting here. If you'll help us, we'll invest in your education,'" Ferguson said. "And they trained me, paid for the rest of my PhD, and made sure I had a job when I finished school."

Ferguson stayed at Los Alamos more than a decade, making a home working on spallation physics in an academic environment that "fed that quest for knowledge." Only a chance to do something groundbreaking could lure him away - and that happened in 2000, when he joined ORNL as a staff scientist to help design the physics of the Spallation Neutron Source, a DOE Office of Science user facility. ORNL had competed with Los Alamos and Argonne national labs to build the 1-megawatt neutron source, the most powerful in the world.

Researchers come from around the world to use the SNS, which produces neutrons with an accelerator-based system that delivers microsecond proton pulses to a steel target filled with liquid mercury. Those neutrons then power state-of-the-art instruments that unleash a range of capabilities to researchers in physics, chemistry, biology and materials science.

"I came in not exactly on the ground floor, but relatively close to it," Ferguson said. "The prevailing opinion was that you get to wake up in the morning and go to work. These were really exciting times, and we were doing great things together."

Material Plasma Exposure eXperience and after

His time at SNS and Los Alamos prepared Ferguson for his first project manager position. Ferguson, who by that time had spent six years as director of the ORNL Fusion Energy Division of what was then the Nuclear Science and Engineering Directorate, was tapped in 2019 to manage the Material Plasma Exposure eXperiment project (MPEX). Tagged "a building block" for fusion reactors, MPEX will advance American fusion research by enabling scientists to test the next generation of materials capable of withstanding the harshest conditions in fusion reactors; produce high-density plasmas similar to those expected to occur in future fusion devices; and use instruments to better understand the physics that takes place when plasma hits the components of the particle "exhaust system" of future fusion reactors. This simulation of lifetime exposures will take place in just two weeks, giving scientists years of information in a short time.

MPEX had struggled with cost and schedule, and despite time and effort by dedicated scientists, sponsor investment had been slow to come. Tensions mounted, and after a meeting in Washington, D.C., to discuss the project's progress and future, Ferguson got an offer he couldn't refuse: to be project director.

During his tenure, Ferguson addressed these issues and curated trust with the sponsor, resulting in increased funding and support. The project is on track for completion in 2028 and is generating excitement.

Ferguson was still MPEX project director when he took the new Isotope Science and Enrichment Directorate, or ISED, position. He had until Nov. 1, 2024, to transition away from MPEX, but is still emotionally invested.

"MPEX is someone's creative idea for something that no one else had ever done in the world, and we got to take that scientist's vision and make it real," Ferguson said.

Each project, Ferguson said, "is like one of my children. It's hard to lose MPEX, but now I have four children in ISED to care for."

Stable Isotope Production Facility

The Stable Isotope Production Facility, funded by DOE's Office of Isotope R&D and Production (DOE IRP) and completed in Spring 2025, uses a gas centrifuge cascade to enrich the stable isotope xenon-129, which is in short supply. Gas centrifuge cascades are suitable for enriching large quantities of isotopes needed for medicine, industrial manufacturing, nuclear and physical science research, and homeland security. Xe-129 provides increased resolution and sensitivity in lung imaging without ionizing radiation, so it can be used for repeated imaging throughout the course of treatment.

ORNL hasn't enriched stable isotopes on such a large scale since the closure of the calutrons at Y-12 in the late 1990s. The newer technology promises to be more efficient than the enormous calutrons, which required vast manpower to operate. SIPF will enable America to again dominate stable isotope production, securing a domestic supply chain and eliminating dependence on foreign sources.

"Really, with SIPF, we're regaining our heritage," Ferguson said. "The calutrons are part of ORNL's history, and we're looking at lessons learned. Now we understand the importance of this technology to helping the United States have its own supply chains"

Ferguson, coming in near the end of the project, complimented the ORNL team, led by Tom Kollie, whose members have shepherded the 7-year project.

"Essentially, I came on just in time to get a piece of cake and say congratulations," Ferguson said.

Stable Isotope Production and Research Center

Next is the Stable Isotope Production and Research Center, which DOE IRP is constructing now, with a goal of starting some operations by 2030 and completing the facility by 2032.

The implications of the electromagnetic isotope separation equipment (EMIS), with a decade of innovative research and design behind it, are vast, Ferguson said. EMIS can enrich isotopes across the periodic table, albeit in small quantities. It will open opportunities for research into new applications for rare and underused isotopes, as well as producing isotopes already in demand, and help establish U.S. isotope independence and dominance.

SIPRC's potential reaches into nearly every aspect of stable isotope use, including diagnostic medical tests, disease treatment, industry, materials science and national security.

Radioisotope Processing Facility

The proposed Radioisotope Processing Facility, now in the planning stages, will have the same reach into the vast world of radioisotope applications, enabling production at ORNL of larger quantities and more types of radioisotopes. It will help ORNL meet increasing demand for radioisotopes; in just the last three years, the number of radioisotopes DOE IRP sees a need to produce long-term has doubled. Yet the aging facilities at ORNL, which produces more isotopes than anywhere else in the country, are at capacity.

Collocated with the High Flux Isotope Reactor, RPF would be the first nuclear facility constructed at ORNL in more than six decades and would ensure the U.S. stays competitive in the global arena of radioisotope production.

"We think of Oak Ridge as a nuclear lab, and yet the newest nuclear facilities are as old as I am," Ferguson said. "We have to change that. We can't build today's cutting-edge solutions and the solutions of tomorrow in buildings built in 1951. We can do it much better and more efficiently when we have buildings that are purpose-built for those applications."

Much work has gone into the conceptual design of RPF, planned to have a series of bays that can be filled with modular steel hot cells where radioactive materials can be safely handled. The hot cells could be reconfigured as needed to adapt to the changing isotopic landscape.

"We will keep growing and expanding and understanding new uses for radioisotopes, so we have to be creative in our ability to produce those radioisotopes − because what we need 10 years from now will not be what we use today," Ferguson said. "We have to build a structure that can adapt and accommodate later needs."

'Invest in others'

Ferguson said the variety of roles he's held has taught him it's imperative for a project manager to have a keen awareness of the shortness of time.

"We have to remind everyone that we do have dates, we have to meet those dates, and we have to do the best that we can without compromising safety," he said.

He's also learned listening is key. "I have one mouth and two ears, so I should listen twice as much as I talk," Ferguson said. "I never learn anything when I talk. When I listen, I learn from others."

Having broad input is crucial to a project's success.

"It's one of the true statements that the smartest person in the room is the room itself," Ferguson said. "We need completely different backgrounds, experiences, as much information as we can possibly get."

And no manager is indispensable - nor should they be.

"There's a great team around every project, and we tend to think that we are irreplaceable," Ferguson said. "Other people need opportunities, and you never know what someone is capable of unless you provide them those opportunities. My advice is to invest in others around you. Help them know and understand what you're doing, why you're doing it and why it's important."

Ferguson is committed to overseeing these projects. But his goal is that, if one day he's not there, the teams will continue seamlessly, confident that they made the decisions they thought were right and did their best work.

"Don't be afraid to fail," Ferguson said. "Be afraid to not even try."

UT-Battelle manages ORNL for DOE's Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. DOE's Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit energy.gov/science.