In 2020, Brian Anderson became director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s newly formed Enrichment Science and Engineering Division, part of the Isotope Science and Enrichment Directorate.
Its purpose was twofold: to advance enrichment technologies, and to explore stable isotope production and applications.
“We had a bit of a startup feel as an organization when we formed the division,” Anderson said. “We had a lot of excitement and energy around finally having an identity. The most exciting thing is seeing staff engaged in solving these problems for the benefit of the nation.”
Since its launch, ESED has nearly tripled, from 95 staff to more than 250, with additional growth planned for 2026.
That’s in large part because ESED plays a foundational role in East Tennessee’s nuclear resurgence and strengthening the U.S. supply chain for stable isotopes.
The division oversees cutting-edge isotope separation technology essential to national security, medicine, industry and research. It recently completed the Department of Energy’s Stable Isotope Production Facility (SIPF) and is building the Stable Isotope Production and Research Center (SIPRC), which will implement multiple types of enrichment technologies developed at ORNL over the past decade.
ESED also manages the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Domestic Uranium Enrichment Centrifuge Experiment (DUECE) project, which is working to develop and deploy groundbreaking centrifuge technology to resupply the nation’s enriched uranium stockpile for security needs.
Together, these efforts will reestablish the nation’s ability to produce enriched uranium for defense purposes, absent since operations in Paducah, Kentucky, shut down in 2013.
The DUECE project is developing an industry partnership with BWX Technologies, which plans to establish a pilot plant in East Tennessee. ORNL will serve as the long-term design authority for the centrifuge equipment, ensuring national security needs for decades.
ESED also stewards the nation’s supply of stable isotopes, putting them in unique and valuable forms for customers’ uses, and engaging in research toward new production methods and applications for these rare materials.
ORNL, with the expertise of ESED, is uniquely positioned for these missions, Anderson said.
“We’ve got experimental programs that are discovering things we weren’t expecting, and we’re having to figure out how to solve those technical challenges,” Anderson said. “That’s part of research and development; that’s why we do things here, at a national lab. If it were easy, we wouldn’t be doing it here at Oak Ridge. It’s exciting for the lab, because we’re doing what was done back in the Cold War era, in terms of standing up new capabilities and subject matter expertise to meet national needs.”
ESED’s rapid growth in staff mirrored the scale of its missions – but it also presented challenges in building the division’s culture. Anderson said the division had to blend different research backgrounds and develop leadership skills among staff moving from technical to management roles – skills he once had to learn himself.
“I’m a scientist by training, and a personal challenge for me is figuring out what weeds to get into and when to stay out and let staff do the science,” he said. “I had to learn how to lead without dictating the technical work, because it’s not my role to do that. But I am interested and like to ask questions, so I had to learn to communicate in a way that allows people to voice what they think without seeming as though I’m trying to drive toward a particular result. I’m used to being in charge of my own science; it’s hard to take a step back and not be an individual contributor. I am still learning this and trying to improve every day.”
Anderson has spent the past 15 years at ORNL, serving as a group leader in nuclear security and heading up the establishment of the Ultra-Trace Forensic Science Center, among other roles. He previously worked in nonproliferation technologies at Savannah River National Laboratory and held research positions with Cargill Inc. and Westinghouse Savannah River Company.
Before ESED’s establishment, he spent a year conducting an in-depth assessment of ORNL’s enrichment science program.
Anderson said the variety in his own career has prepared him to lead a new division with multiple missions – and with so much at stake.
“The technical work’s been important in terms of understanding how to lead experiments and how to do technology development and deploy advancements in a way that makes an impact,” Anderson said. “My experience in national security and nonproliferation and looking at the nuclear fuel cycle from an analytical and material perspective has helped me ask better questions. I think I have a good handle, based on experience, on when to ask questions, how to dive into problems, how to help folks understand – maybe – the right approach to solving a technical problem.”
We’ve got experimental programs that are discovering things we weren’t expecting, and we’re having to figure out how to solve those technical challenges. That’s part of research and development; that’s why we do things here, at a national lab. If it were easy, we wouldn’t be doing it here at Oak Ridge.
ESED required similar business systems other divisions, but in a classified environment to comply with government requirements.
“Some of these things didn’t exist in the form we needed them,” Anderson said. “We’re piloting some things the laboratory may later do on a larger scale. We’re always wanting to try something new that will help us, and if it helps the lab as a whole, that’s even better.”
This required collaboration across the division and with subcontractors, industry partners and ORNL staff in the National Security Sciences, Computing and Computational Sciences, and Information Technology and Services directorates.
“We’re trying to develop a culture of collaboration and teaming where maybe that’s not natural, because as we scale up our work to be a deployable technology that industry can take and move forward with, it requires a lot of hands and a lot more people engaged and collaborating,” he said.
Anderson emphasizes positive conflict resolution – encouraging accountability while preserving relationships and building trust.
“We want to ask hard questions in a way that drives innovation and drives good conversations,” he said. “We want to demonstrate the type of behaviors we want to encourage. We can have differences of opinion, but how you come out of those differences is key.”
He said that it can be hard to stay laser-focused on a critical mission while also being cognizant of what others need from you. Mistakes too, require patience – pausing to wait for more information before acting.
“I’ve had to learn to slow down my reactions to allow the information to be ingested before I make a decision someone is asking me to make,” Anderson said. “It can be hard to ask questions and look at the impact when all you want to do is go take action.”
Anderson reminds himself and his team not to overlook milestones already met.
“While we’re doing all this problem-solving, we need to pick our heads up and look at what we’ve actually done already,” Anderson said. “Being proud of that is very important. We’ve accomplished a lot; we’re just not there yet.”
Anderson sees a strong future for ESED as its technology matures and moves into mission-critical deployment, such as the DUECE technology slotted for BWXT’s facility in five years.
“I’m excited to see the concepts and the experimental work and the demonstrations and modeling we’ve done make it out and produce low-enriched uranium for the United States government to enhance and shore up our capabilities as a country,” he said.
He also looks forward to expanded stable isotope production and research, as SIPF and SIPRC begin to efficiently generate isotopes for the DOE Office of Isotope R&D and Production.
“Seeing our work go beyond concept and beyond lab scale, seeing it move into production, you can see the arc of the impact,” he said.
“It’s a testament to being mission-focused and trying, in earnest, to deliver for the U.S. government on a long-term mission. That’s what’s gratifying. We’ve generated a capability that is long-lasting, and I’m excited to see how it goes in the next 10 to 15 years.”
UT-Battelle manages ORNL for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. The Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science.
