![This photo is of a male scientist sitting at a desk working with materials, wearing protective glasses.](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_square_large/public/2024-07/2023-P08173.jpg?h=c6980913&itok=LnJLvflD)
Filter News
Area of Research
- Advanced Manufacturing (3)
- Biological Systems (1)
- Biology and Environment (36)
- Biology and Soft Matter (1)
- Clean Energy (59)
- Computational Biology (1)
- Electricity and Smart Grid (1)
- Fusion and Fission (20)
- Fusion Energy (4)
- Isotopes (17)
- Materials (24)
- Materials for Computing (1)
- National Security (16)
- Neutron Science (13)
- Nuclear Science and Technology (16)
- Supercomputing (31)
News Type
News Topics
- (-) 3-D Printing/Advanced Manufacturing (42)
- (-) Artificial Intelligence (48)
- (-) Biomedical (29)
- (-) Clean Water (14)
- (-) Decarbonization (46)
- (-) Grid (25)
- (-) Isotopes (27)
- (-) Nuclear Energy (55)
- (-) Security (11)
- (-) Space Exploration (12)
- Advanced Reactors (8)
- Big Data (27)
- Bioenergy (51)
- Biology (60)
- Biotechnology (11)
- Buildings (19)
- Chemical Sciences (25)
- Climate Change (50)
- Composites (8)
- Computer Science (87)
- Coronavirus (17)
- Critical Materials (4)
- Cybersecurity (14)
- Education (1)
- Emergency (2)
- Energy Storage (29)
- Environment (104)
- Exascale Computing (27)
- Fossil Energy (4)
- Frontier (25)
- Fusion (31)
- High-Performance Computing (45)
- Hydropower (5)
- ITER (2)
- Machine Learning (22)
- Materials (43)
- Materials Science (46)
- Mathematics (7)
- Mercury (7)
- Microelectronics (2)
- Microscopy (20)
- Molten Salt (1)
- Nanotechnology (16)
- National Security (39)
- Net Zero (8)
- Neutron Science (47)
- Partnerships (18)
- Physics (29)
- Polymers (8)
- Quantum Computing (21)
- Quantum Science (30)
- Renewable Energy (1)
- Simulation (32)
- Software (1)
- Statistics (1)
- Summit (31)
- Sustainable Energy (47)
- Transformational Challenge Reactor (3)
- Transportation (27)
Media Contacts
![Suman Debnath is using simulation algorithms to accelerate understanding of the modern power grid and enhance its reliability and resilience. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2021-01/Suman%20Debnath%20Square.jpg?h=439d043c&itok=1umME5uH)
Planning for a digitized, sustainable smart power grid is a challenge to which Suman Debnath is using not only his own applied mathematics expertise, but also the wider communal knowledge made possible by his revival of a local chapter of the IEEE professional society.
![Sandra Davern performs cell based assays to evaluate cell death and DNA damage in response to radiation in order to gain a better understanding of how radioisotope nanoparticles affect the human body.](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-10/2020-P15712.jpg?h=036a71b7&itok=6cpxN4v2)
When Sandra Davern looks to the future, she sees individualized isotopes sent into the body with a specific target: cancer cells.
A collaboration between the ORNL and a Florida-based medical device manufacturer has led to the addition of 500 jobs in the Miami area to support the mass production of N95 respirator masks.
![Water from local creeks now flows through these simulated streams in the Aquatic Ecology Laboratory, providing new opportunities to study mercury pollution and advance solutions. Credit: ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-10/img_3692.jpg?h=77bd3ecb&itok=dM1eszup)
New capabilities and equipment recently installed at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory are bringing a creek right into the lab to advance understanding of mercury pollution and accelerate solutions.
![Emma Betters Thumbnail](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-10/emma%20betters_sized.jpg?h=e91a75a9&itok=k1X4xVjl)
Growing up in Florida, Emma Betters was fascinated by rockets and for good reason. Any time she wanted to see a space shuttle launch from NASA’s nearby Kennedy Space Center, all she had to do was sit on her front porch.
![These fuel assembly brackets, manufactured by ORNL in partnership with Framatome and Tennessee Valley Authority, are the first 3D-printed safety-related components to be inserted into a nuclear power plant. Credit: Fred List/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-10/FramatomeCB1.jpg?h=7c790887&itok=oVGkqZYZ)
The Transformational Challenge Reactor, or TCR, a microreactor built using 3D printing and other new advanced technologies, could be operational by 2024.
![Xunxiang Hu, a Eugene P. Wigner Fellow in ORNL’s Materials Science and Technology Division, designed this machine to produce large, crack-free pieces of yttrium hydride to be used as a moderator in the core of ORNL’s Transformational Challenge Reactor and other microreactors. Credit: Xunxiang Hu/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-09/HuYHxphoto.jpg?h=eef83f16&itok=7KfkqQLh)
About 60 years ago, scientists discovered that a certain rare earth metal-hydrogen mixture, yttrium, could be the ideal moderator to go inside small, gas-cooled nuclear reactors.
![A selfie from the Curiosity rover as it explores the surface of Mars. Like many spacecraft, Curiosity uses a radioisotope power system to help fuel its mission. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-09/Curiousity_1.jpg?h=86a9dded&itok=Jo0vD321)
Radioactive isotopes power some of NASA’s best-known spacecraft. But predicting how radiation emitted from these isotopes might affect nearby materials is tricky
![Innovation Network for Fusion Energy, or INFUSE](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-09/INFUSE-thumb.jpg?h=10c96a29&itok=_nmt5JT4)
The Department of Energy announced awards for 10 projects with private industry that will allow for collaboration with DOE national laboratories in accelerating fusion energy development.
![This photo shows the interior of the vessel of the General Atomics DIII-D National Fusion Facility in San Diego, where ORNL researchers are testing the suitability of tungsten to armor the inside of a fusion device. Credit: General Atomics](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-08/X2001140_Tungsten_DIIID_GeneralAtomics_Bumpus_jnj_0.jpg?h=fa422108&itok=9R1Nn6B_)
The inside of future nuclear fusion energy reactors will be among the harshest environments ever produced on Earth. What’s strong enough to protect the inside of a fusion reactor from plasma-produced heat fluxes akin to space shuttles reentering Earth’s atmosphere?