A new PROSPECT for national security — via neutrinos

Yale is a key partner in the Precision Reactor Oscillation and Spectrum (PROSPECT) experiment, a prominent neutrino detection collaboration located at the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. PROSPECT studies electron antineutrinos being emitted from nuclear decays within the reactor. The goal is to detect a new form of matter — so-called “sterile antineutrinos.”

YaleNews spoke with Karsten Heeger, professor and chair of physics, director of the Wright Lab, and principal investigator for PROSPECT, about how the experiment may be able to provide a new tool for safeguarding nuclear reactors.