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When a neutron star forms, compression creates heat that generates neutrinos. When the star’s core collapses, a shock wave propagates around the star but stalls. Credit: ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy; created by J.A. Harris.

The Big Bang began the formation and organization of the matter that makes up ourselves and our world. Nearly 14 billion years later, nuclear physicists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and their partners are using America’s most powerful supercomp...

ORNL’s 2017 Molten Salt Reactor Workshop offered a wide range of talks on advanced reactors, including modeling and simulation techniques, commercial licensing strategies and the Department of Energy’s efforts to work with industry on developing designs.

The third annual Molten Salt Reactor Workshop allowed leading voices on advanced reactors—including scientists from the national laboratory system, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, reactor design firms and universities—to discuss current efforts in molten salt reactor work and pu...

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For many scientists and engineers, the first real test of their mettle comes not in a classroom, but in a lab or the field, where hands-on experience can teach volumes. For Susan Hogle, that hands-on experience just happened to be with material that was too hot to handle—literally....

conventional sedan

It’s common knowledge that driving aggressively can dent gas mileage, but it’s difficult to determine exactly how much gas drivers waste. A new study by researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has quantified the impact speeding and slamming on the brakes has on fuel economy and consumption. They found that aggressive behavior behind the wheel can lower gas mileage in light-duty vehicles by about 10 to 40 percent in stop-and-go traffic and roughly 15 to 30 percent at highway speeds. This can equate to losing about $0.25 to $1 per gallon.

Ctherm on Biomass CSLM

With the licensing to Enchi Corporation of a microbe custom-designed to produce ethanol efficiently, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and the BioEnergy Science Center (BESC) mark the culmination of 10 years’ research into ways to improve biofuels production. Enchi ha...

Former University of Tennessee football coach Phillip Fulmer (right) helps ORNL celebrate $858,000 of contributions to this year’s United Way campaign.
Former University of Tennessee football coach Phillip Fulmer praised UT-Battelle employees at Oak Ridge National Laboratory during a Leadership Givers Breakfast for contributing $858,000 to this year’s United Way campaign. Fulmer, who is involved with several U...
Rick Raines

Richard “Rick” Raines has been on the forefront of protecting critical communications systems from attack since before the term “cyber” was in vogue, and he is bringing that leadership to bear as he takes on the role of director for the Electrical and Electronics Systems Research Division (EESRD) at...

Baldwin with the HERMIES III robot at ORNL in 1988. Photo courtesy, ORNL.

Michelle Baldwin’s engineering work has taken her from the public to the private sector and back again, although it was not certain early in her academic career that she would pursue a technical field at all. Baldwin applies her technical programming expertise to several proj...

Niyanth Sridharan's research at Oak Ridge National Laboratory has contributed to understanding the unexpected behavior of irradiated alloys.

Niyanth Sridharan grew up in a family that indulged his questions by using real-world examples to explain scientific concepts. That natural curiosity still drives the materials researcher today as he explores additive manufacturing techniques at the Department of Energy's Oak Ri...

Arjun Shankar

The field of “Big Data” has exploded in the blink of an eye, growing exponentially into almost every branch of science in just a few decades. Sectors such as energy, manufacturing, healthcare and many others depend on scalable data processing and analysis for continued in...