Skip to main content
ytterbium

ORNL’s electromagnetic isotope separator, or EMIS, made history in 2018 when it produced 500 milligrams of the rare isotope ruthenium-96, unavailable anywhere else in the world. 

Marm Dixit, a Weinberg Distinguished Staff Fellow at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, was honored for his work on imaging techniques for solid state batteries. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Marm Dixit, a Weinberg Distinguished Staff Fellow at ORNL has received the 2023 Rosalind Franklin Young Investigator Award.

This newly manufactured fixed guide vane of a hydropower turbine system was printed at the DOE Manufacturing Demonstration Facility at ORNL. Credit: Genevieve Martin/ORNL, U.S Dept. of Energy

A new report published by ORNL assessed how advanced manufacturing and materials, such as 3D printing and novel component coatings, could offer solutions to modernize the existing fleet and design new approaches to hydropower.

Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory developed an eco-friendly foam insulation for improved building efficiency. Credit: Chad Malone/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Scientists at ORNL developed a competitive, eco-friendly alternative made without harmful blowing agents.

The licensing and leadership team behind AMIGO. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

A technology developed at ORNL and used by the U.S. Naval Information Warfare Systems Command, or NAVWAR, to test the capabilities of commercial security tools has been licensed to cybersecurity firm Penguin Mustache to create its Evasive.ai platform. The company was founded by the technology’s creator, former ORNL scientist Jared M. Smith, and his business partner, entrepreneur Brandon Bruce.

Isostatic pressing illustration

Following months of promising test results, battery researchers at ORNL are recommending that the solid-state battery industry focus on a technique known as isostatic pressing as it looks to commercialize next-generation batteries.

Through the Honnold Foundation and Casa Pueblo, solar panels are installed in Adjuntas, Puerto Rico, and hooked to microgrids with battery storage. ORNL researchers are developing a microgrid orchestrator to manage the microgrids together for increased long-term electrical reliability. Credit: Fabio Andrade

ORNL researchers Ben Ollis and Max Ferrari will be in Adjuntas to join the March 18 festivities but also to hammer out more technical details of their contribution to the project: making the microgrids even more reliable.

UKAEA will provide novel fusion materials to be irradiated in ORNL’s HFIR facility over the next four years. From left, Kathy McCarthy, Jeremy Busby, Mickey Wade, Prof Sir Ian Chapman (UKAEA CEO), Cynthia Jenks and Yutai Kato will represent this new partnership. Not pictured: Dr. Amanda Quadling, UKAEA’s Director of Materials Research Facility. Credit: Genevieve Martin/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

ORNL has entered a strategic research partnership with the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority, or UKAEA, to investigate how different types of materials behave under the influence of high-energy neutron sources. The $4 million project is part of UKAEA's roadmap program, which aims to produce electricity from fusion.

Heat is typically carried through a material by vibrations known as phonons. In some crystals, however, different atomic motions — known as phasons — carry heat three times faster and farther. This illustration shows phasons made by rearranging atoms, shown by arrows. Credit: Jill Hemman/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Warming a crystal of the mineral fresnoite, ORNL scientists discovered that excitations called phasons carried heat three times farther and faster than phonons, the excitations that usually carry heat through a material.

ORNL researchers have developed a way to manage car batteries of different types and sizes as energy storage for the power grid. Credit: Andy Sproles/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

When aging vehicle batteries lack the juice to power your car anymore, they may still hold energy. Yet it’s tough to find new uses for lithium-ion batteries with different makers, ages and sizes. A solution is urgently needed because battery recycling options are scarce.