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For the first time in 25 years, scientists will use deuterium and tritium to create a plasma inside the chamber of the Joint European Torus in the United Kingdom to study nuclear fusion. As in the earlier experiments, diagnostics systems developed by ORNL will play a key role in monitoring the plasma. Credit: EUROfusion

Equipment and expertise from Oak Ridge National Laboratory will allow scientists studying fusion energy and technologies to acquire crucial data during landmark fusion experiments in Europe. 

An algorithm developed and field-tested by ORNL researchers uses machine learning to maintain homeowners’ preferred temperatures year-round while minimizing energy costs. Credit: ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers designed and field-tested an algorithm that could help homeowners maintain comfortable temperatures year-round while minimizing utility costs.

ORNL and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientists studied the formation of amorphous ice like the exotic ice found in interstellar space and on Jupiter’s moon, Europa. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Researchers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory successfully created amorphous ice, similar to ice in interstellar space and on icy worlds in our solar system. They documented that its disordered atomic behavior is unlike any ice on Earth.

ORNL researchers developed an innovative insulation system that uses sensors and controls to exchange heat or coolness between a building and its thermal energy storage system, which maximizes energy savings. Credit: Andrew Sproles and Michelle Lehman/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed a novel envelope system that diverts heat or coolness away from a building and stores it for future use.

ORNL’s green solvent enables environmentally friendly recycling of valuable Li-ion battery materials. Credit: Andy Sproles/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed a solvent that results in a more environmentally friendly process to recover valuable materials from used lithium-ion batteries, supports a stable domestic supply chain for new batteries

ORNL’s non-disruptive air leak detector captures air escaping from exterior walls and uses refractive imaging to calculate the leakage flow rate. Credit: ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

A team of researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory has developed a method to detect and measure air leaking from a building’s walls and roof that is quicker, cheaper and less disruptive to occupants.

Scientists genetically engineered bacteria for itaconic acid production, creating dynamic controls that separate microbial growth and production phases for increased efficiency and acid yield. Credit: NREL

A research team led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory bioengineered a microbe to efficiently turn waste into itaconic acid, an industrial chemical used in plastics and paints.

ORNL researchers used fiber reinforcements made of steel, glass and carbon to develop a concrete mix that demonstrated high early strength within six hours of production, which is needed for the precast concrete industry. Credit: ORNL/U.S. Dept. of Energy

A team of researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee have developed a concrete mix that demonstrated high early strength within six hours of mixing, potentially doubling the production capacity for the precast industry.

Transition metals stitched into graphene with an electron beam form promising quantum building blocks. Credit: Ondrej Dyck, Andrew Lupini and Jacob Swett/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Oak Ridge National Laboratory scientists demonstrated that an electron microscope can be used to selectively remove carbon atoms from graphene’s atomically thin lattice and stitch transition-metal dopant atoms in their place.

The pressure cell uses two gem-quality synthetic opposing diamonds to exert extreme pressures on materials, providing fundamental insights into materials that only neutrons can reveal. Credit: Genevieve Martin/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Spallation Neutron Source have developed a diamond anvil pressure cell that will enable high-pressure science currently not possible at any other neutron source in the world.