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News Releases

ORNL's Communications team works with news media seeking information about the laboratory. Media may use the resources listed below or send questions to news@ornl.gov.
The agreement builds upon years of collaboration, including a 2016 effort using modeling tools developed at ORNL to predict the first six months of operations of TVA’s Watts Bar Unit 2 nuclear power plant. Credit: Andrew Godfrey/Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy

OAK RIDGE, Tenn., Feb. 19, 2020 — The U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Tennessee Valley Authority have signed a memorandum of understanding to evaluate a new generation of flexible, cost-effective advanced nuclear reactors.

Data scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have completed a study of long-term trends in the relationship between the timing of tree leafing and rising temperatures in the United States. The information is being incorporated into DOE’s Energy Exascale Earth System Model. Photo Credit: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy

A team of scientists led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory found that while all regions of the country can expect an earlier start to the growing season as temperatures rise, the trend is likely to become more variable year-over-year in hotter regions.

ORNL's Battery Manufacturing Facility

Energy storage startup SPARKZ Inc. has exclusively licensed five battery technologies from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory designed to eliminate cobalt metal in lithium-ion batteries. The advancement is aimed at accelerating the production of electric vehicles and energy storage solutions for the power grid.

Closely spaced hydrogen atoms could facilitate superconductivity in ambient conditions

An international team of researchers has discovered the hydrogen atoms in a metal hydride material are much more tightly spaced than had been predicted for decades — a feature that could possibly facilitate superconductivity at or near room temperature and pressure.

Gobet_Advincula Portrait

Rigoberto “Gobet” Advincula has been named Governor’s Chair of Advanced and Nanostructured Materials at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee.

Gina Tourassi, left, has been appointed as director of the National Center for Computational Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Tourassi replaces NCCS director Jim Hack, who will transition to a strategic leadership role in CCSD. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL

Gina Tourassi has been appointed as director of the National Center for Computational Sciences, a division of the Computing and Computational Sciences Directorate at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Five companies to collaborate with ORNL

OAK RIDGE, Tenn., Dec. 12, 2019 — Oak Ridge National Laboratory and five leading building equipment industries will collaborate to improve the energy performance of heating, air conditioning and ventilation systems and investigate climate-friendly alternative refrigerants.

Burak Ozpineci

Burak Ozpineci, a researcher at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has been elevated to fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

ORNL researcher Henriette Jager has been elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Henriette Jager, senior research scientist in the Environmental Sciences Division at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has been elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Kathy McCarthy

Kathy McCarthy has been named director of the US ITER Project Office at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, effective March 2020.