The Department of Energy will award $49.3 million in funding grants to support 58 nuclear technology projects. The projects range from nuclear energy research efforts, crosscutting technology development, facility access and infrastructure projects in 25 states, DOE said Thursday.

DOE will provide over $28.5 million to 40 university-led research and development projects to sustain U.S. nuclear efforts through the Nuclear Energy University Program. Five projects on the other hand will land $4.5 million in cumulative value to develop sensors, instrumentation and manufacturing methods for nuclear reactors and fuel usage. DOE will also provide $14.5 million for five projects to allow nuclear facility access, ion irradiation and experimental neutron tests. 

“Nuclear energy is a critical part of our all-of-the-above energy strategy, and early-stage research can help ensure it will continue to be a clean, reliable, and resilient source of electricity for a long time to come,” said Ed McGinnis, principal deputy assistant secretary for nuclear energy at DOE.

Sue Gordon, principal deputy director of national intelligence, said the intelligence community is expanding its use of artificial intelligence to accelerate data analysis, facilitate the decision-making process and keep ahead of adversaries, Nextgov reported Thursday. “We are going to have to make machines integrated into all our processes,” Gordon said on Thursday during the Defense One Tech Summit.

Gordon, a 2019 Wash100 Award winner, noted that national security will depend on how quickly countries can generate insights from information. “This is a world where the threats are to and through information. Every technology is available to everyone, and the one that can put it to clever use faster is the one that’s going to win,” she added.

She also discussed the role of machine learning and other data analysis platforms in helping intelligence agencies manage large data workloads as well as IC’s efforts to consolidate decision-making and data analysis initiatives.

Department of Health and Human Services officials discussed the potential role of artificial intelligence and data sharing in the prevention and treatment of diseases during a panel discussion on Tuesday at the AI World Government Conference, Federal Times reported Thursday.

“[It’s] a way of thinking about how health information flows across the country and the first step is getting it in digital format,” said Paula Braun, entrepreneur-in-residence at HHS’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Alison Oelschlaeger, director and chief data officer at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, cited CMS’ use of AI and data to assess the impact of policy changes on the health of beneficiaries, program utilization and spending.

Kristen Finne, director of HHS emPOWER program and senior analysis at HHS’ office of emergency management and medical operations, ASPR, discussed how data collection and sharing could facilitate care delivery during emergencies. “We realized how we can actually take federal health data, using machine learning and data analytics, and bring it to our public health authorities,” said Finne. 

Naval Information Warfare Systems Command has applied new updates to its Network Integration Engineering Facility, a site working to integrate off-the-shelf products into military operations. NAVWAR said Wednesday that its NIEF offers an environmentally controlled facility, updated integration capability and accelerated shipboard installation services.

The facility supports application pre-loading and collaborative work between military, government and industry parties. NIEF also tests the environmental qualification of developed technologies. The Navy held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the updated facility on June 20. NAVWAR’s Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific manages NIEF from San Diego.

“Thanks to our team across the NAVWAR enterprise and the Navy, the NIEF directly supports our mission to identify, develop, deliver and sustain information warfare capabilities and services for the fleet,” said Rear Adm. Christian Becker, who commands NAVWAR.

The Department of Energy’s office of fossil energy is set to award $44.5 million in funding grants to 12 research and development projects to support the recovery of oil and natural resources. Efforts under the funding opportunity are intended to help the industry reinforce manufacturing efforts for domestic energy sources, DOE said Wednesday.

“These projects will help expand our ability to do that and, in the process, help strengthen our energy, economic, and national security,” said Steven Winberg, assistant secretary for the office of fossil energy at DOE. 

Aside from recovery initiatives, the projects also hopes to provide an understanding of emerging unconventional methods in the use of gas resources. DOE noted that natural gas and crude oil production reached 57 percent in 2018.