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Arial view of the Atchafalaya Basin

In the wet, muddy places where America’s rivers and lands meet the sea, scientists from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory are unearthing clues to better understand how these vital landscapes are evolving under climate change.

Man in blue suit and blue and white button down with brown air and brown facial hair smiles for a photo with a green and teal background. Plus a quote

As a data scientist, Daniel Adams uses storytelling to parse through a large amount of information to determine which elements are most important, paring down the data to result in the most efficient and accurate data set possible.

Woman in a tan blazer is standing at a podium presenting to a room full of people.

SCALE users from 85 organizations across 21 countries gathered online and in person at Oak Ridge National Laboratory from June 5 to June 7 for the Eighth Annual SCALE Users Group Workshop. The meeting included 32 presentations and 14 hands-on tutorials on impactful and innovative applications of SCALE. 

Man in red and white stripe button down shirt with dark brown hair poses for photo in front of blue/grey background.

Andrew Conant from ORNL's nuclear nonproliferation division is collaborating with national laboratories to analyze isotopes generated in nuclear reactors. This research aims to glean insights into the operations and objectives of these reactors. ORNL, renowned for its leadership in nuclear research, maintains its legacy by promoting the peaceful utilization of nuclear energy worldwide.

Redish orange sample of material, round in size and small (taking up only a quarter of the image). There is a dark grey floor and blue light background

Despite strong regulations and robust international safeguards, authorities routinely interdict nuclear materials outside of regulatory control. Researchers at ORNL are exploring a new method that would give authorities the ability to analyze intercepted nuclear material and determine where it originated. 

Man in a blue polo is standing over blue water

ORNL researchers completed successful testing of a gallium nitride transistor for use in more accurate sensors operating near the core of a nuclear reactor. This is an important technical advance particularly for monitoring new, compact.

Three team members looking at plants stand in front of a mountain scene, two are in orange safety vests.

When Oak Ridge National Laboratory's science mission takes staff off-campus, the lab’s safety principles follow. That’s true even in the high mountain passes of Washington and Oregon, where ORNL scientists are tracking a tree species — and where wildfires have become more frequent and widespread.

Man in blue shirt and grey pants holds laptop and poses next to a green plant in a lab.

John Lagergren, a staff scientist in Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Plant Systems Biology group, is using his expertise in applied math and machine learning to develop neural networks to quickly analyze the vast amounts of data on plant traits amassed at ORNL’s Advanced Plant Phenotyping Laboratory.

People in a large convention room networking before a presentation

Vanderbilt University and ORNL announced a partnership to develop training, testing and evaluation methods that will accelerate the Department of Defense’s adoption of AI-based systems in operational environments.

Man in a beard holding tweezers, showing a bead if space glass closer to the screen.

Researchers set a new benchmark for future experiments making materials in space rather than for space. They discovered that many kinds of glass have similar atomic structure and arrangements and can successfully be made in space. Scientists from nine institutions in government, academia and industry participated in this 5-year study.