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: Quantity of CCR and, if applicable, water held in the unit as of 2020/2021.

ORNL scientists contributed to a DOE technical study that found transitioning coal plants to nuclear power plants would create high-paying jobs at the converted plants and hundreds of new jobs locally. 

Testing with ORNL tribology equipment found that new ionic liquid-based lubricant additives developed for water turbines significantly reduced friction and equipment wear. Credit: Genevieve Martin, ORNL/U.S. Dept. of Energy

Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed lubricant additives that protect both water turbine equipment and the surrounding environment.

The transportation and industrial sectors together account for more than 50% of the country’s carbon footprint. Defossilization could help reduce new emissions from these and other difficult-to-electrify segments of the U.S. economy.

Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and six other Department of Energy national laboratories have developed a United States-based perspective for achieving net-zero carbon emissions. 

The EPA approved the registration and use of a renewable gasoline blendstock developed by Vertimass LLC and Oak Ridge National Laboratory that can significantly reduce vehicle emissions when added to conventional fuels. Credit: Adam Malin/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has approved the registration and use of a renewable gasoline blendstock developed by Vertimass LLC and ORNL that can significantly reduce the emissions profile of vehicles when added to conventional fuels.

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Three ORNL intellectual property projects with industry partners have advanced in DOE's Office of Technology Transitions Making Advanced Technology Commercialization Harmonized, or Lab MATCH, prize, which encourages entrepreneurs to find actionable pathways that bring lab-developed intellectual property to market. 

3D printed “Frankenstein design” collimator show the “scars” where the individual parts are joined

Scientists at ORNL have developed 3-D-printed collimator techniques that can be used to custom design collimators that better filter out noise during different types of neutron scattering experiments

Astrophysicists at the State University of New York, Stony Brook, and University of California, Berkeley created 3D simulations of X-ray bursts on the surfaces of neutron stars. Two views of these X-ray bursts are shown: the left column is viewed from above while the right column shows it from a shallow angle above the surface.

Astrophysicists at the State University of New York, Stony Brook and University of California, Berkeley, used the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility’s Summit supercomputer to compare models of X-ray bursts in 2D and 3D. 

Three staff members in Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Fusion and Fission Energy and Science Directorate (FFESD) have moved into newly established roles facilitating communication and program management with sponsors of the directorate’s Nuclear Energy and Fuel Cycle Division.

Three staff members in ORNL’s Fusion and Fission Energy and Science Directorate have moved into newly established roles facilitating communication and program management with sponsors of the directorate’s Nuclear Energy and Fuel Cycle Division. 

2023 Top Science Achievements at SNS & HFIR

The 2023 top science achievements from HFIR and SNS feature a broad range of materials research published in high impact journals such as Nature and Advanced Materials.

From left, researchers Syed Islam and Ramesh Bhave discuss the nickel sulfate recovered from end-of-life lithium-ion batteries using the membrane solvent extraction process they co-invented at ORNL. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Scientists at ORNL have developed a technique for recovering and recycling critical materials that has garnered special recognition from a peer-reviewed materials journal and received a new phase of funding for research and development.