Chris Ritter was on vacation in Nevada, 30 minutes from Las Vegas, hiking Red Rock Canyon during the day and returning to a resort with pools at night, when he got a call about the end of science as we know it.
Or rather: its acceleration.
Ritter is division director for scientific computing and artificial intelligence at the Idaho National Laboratory, one of 17 national laboratories that will soon be folded into what the Trump administration has dubbed the Genesis Mission.
“There is great excitement,” he said of the mood at INL. “A great level of excitement and drive to accomplish the mission and work together.” He paused. “We are ready to seize the moment.”
The moment came on November 24, when President Trump signed an executive order launching a national effort that Secretary of Energy Chris Wright called “similar in urgency and ambition to the Manhattan Project.”
The Genesis Mission aims to double U.S. research and development productivity within a decade by building an integrated platform that connects supercomputers, AI systems and quantum technologies with the federal government’s collected scientific data – data that commercial models like ChatGPT cannot access.
Undersecretary of Science Darío Gil will lead the initiative and coordinate approximately 40,000 DOE scientists, engineers and technicians around the world. 17 national laboratories.
The executive order identifies three core mission areas: U.S. energy dominance, discovery science, and national security.
For Wyoming, the emphasis on energy development will come from DOE, the University of Wyoming, the companies pursuing energy development and INL providing expert guidance on nuclear energy.
INL has already announced strategic partnerships to accelerate nuclear development using AI. A partnership with Amazon Web Services uses cloud infrastructure and foundational models to build nuclear power AI models at scale.
A Microsoft partnership focuses on streamlining permitting and licensing applications using Azure cloud computing.
“Imagine being able to use this to help you build the design documentation, development documentation and the licensing packages,” Ritter said. “A human will still judge all these things, but the idea is that computer tools will help you with that.”
The lab has also announced a partnership with Atomic Alchemy to build benchmarks – a way to assess which AI models perform better when processing nuclear information. It is the first comprehensive suite for large language models specifically aimed at the nuclear domain.
When asked if INL is working with nuclear companies doing business in Wyoming – Terrapower, BWX Technologies, Radiant – Ritter said, “Genesis is still in its early stages, so we don’t have anything to announce yet in terms of nuclear partnerships. But I can say that INL is actively working with just about every company you can think of.”
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University of Wyoming scientists will work closely with the Genesis Mission, President Donald Trump’s new sweeping artificial intelligence initiative to boost scientific breakthroughs. (Courtesy of photo) -
Trump’s Genesis mission will connect national laboratories, artificial intelligence and quantum technology to accelerate scientific breakthroughs, especially in the energy field. The University of Wyoming and the Idaho National Lab hope to spur nuclear innovation, research and jobs. (Courtesy of photo) -
Two points people for the recently announced Genesis Mission: Chris Ritter, left, at the Idaho National Lab and Jeff Hamerlinck at the University of Wyoming.
Laramie’s part
Jeff Hamerlinck is an associate director and senior research scientist at the University of Wyoming’s School of Computing. He sees the Genesis Mission as a confirmation of the investments that the university has been making for years.
“As I understand it, what the executive order basically sets out is a commitment to quite a large-scale new investment in bringing artificial intelligence and scientific computation into really all the different ways that we do research in the country,” Hamerlinck said. “It is designed to be built around the strengths of the national laboratories, but a lot of that is also done in collaboration with both industry and academia.”
In August 2024, UW received a three-year, $3.9 million award from the National Science Foundation to purchase a specialized high-performance computing testbed: twenty-four nodes of NVIDIA Grace Hopper Superchips with four hundred terabytes of data storage.
The technology was previously not available anywhere in the Rocky Mountain region.
The university will control 75 percent of the system’s capacity, with Colorado State University receiving 15 percent and the Rocky Mountain Advanced Computing Consortium – a group of 33 institutions – 10 percent.
“This is already changing as research becomes more computational,” Hamerlinck said. “We’ve been trying to prepare for that here at UW. We’ve already made some investments in developing our own internal infrastructure to support AI-driven research. Some of that has been supported by the state legislature, but also tied to industry resources.”
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Summer Wasson demonstrates where the cold water goes to keep the Derecho supercomputer cool at the NCAR Wyoming Supercomputing Center. (Matt Idler for Cowboy State Daily) -
The Cheyenne supercomputer was in use for seven years but is now being dismantled for relocation after being sold at auction to a mystery buyer for $480,000. The setup still impresses with speeds of 5.34 teraflopw, or about 5.3 quadrillion calculations per second. (Matt Idler for Cowboy State Daily)
Build capacity
The changes at UW extend beyond hardware. The university is transforming its faculty hiring criteria, seeking researchers with AI and computational expertise and adding research staff to support faculty and students.
UW maintains existing relationships with Idaho National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
“For a university of our size, I think we are very well positioned to benefit from this new investment at the federal level,” said Hamerlinck.
For those unfamiliar with AI-driven research, Hamerlinck offered a practical example.
“One way this could work is if there are companies doing research on critical minerals,” he said. “A platform like this would allow people in that industry to access these different data sets and the AI models built from those data sets to help them search for these types of resources.”
In addition to research, Hamerlinck also sees economic benefits for businesses throughout Wyoming.
“I think it’s going to create opportunities for university researchers to get more support to be able to commercialize their research,” he said. “So that supports economic development in the state. I think it’s also going to create opportunities for our students, for experiential learning opportunities through scholarships and internships and things like that.”
Under the executive order, the Secretary of Energy must demonstrate initial operational capability for at least one national science and technology challenge within 270 days.
The old model of scientific collaboration, Ritter explained, involved researchers working independently and sharing results at conferences or through publications.
“The new way, the way Genesis will enable this single integrated platform,” he said. “So what I’m working on today at Idaho National Laboratory would be compatible with what someone at Argonne National Laboratory or Oak Ridge National Laboratory, or NREL, which is near Colorado, would be compatible talking to someone else’s model.”
He added, “The combination of Wyoming’s Advanced Reactor Operational Demonstration Project (at Kemmerer), uranium reserves in the country, experienced energy workforce and of course R&D and education from the University of Wyoming – I think this positions the state as a key enabler for the Genesis Mission technologies.”
David Madison can be reached at [email protected].
