![Sphere that has the top right fourth removed (exposed) Colors from left are orange, dark blue with orange dots, light blue with horizontal lines, then black. Inside the exposure is green and black with boxes.](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_square_large/public/2024-06/slicer.jpg?h=56311bf6&itok=bCZz09pJ)
Filter News
Area of Research
- (-) Nuclear Science and Technology (13)
- Advanced Manufacturing (22)
- Biology and Environment (30)
- Biology and Soft Matter (1)
- Building Technologies (1)
- Clean Energy (109)
- Electricity and Smart Grid (1)
- Functional Materials for Energy (1)
- Fusion and Fission (27)
- Fusion Energy (13)
- Materials (33)
- Materials for Computing (5)
- National Security (5)
- Neutron Science (9)
- Supercomputing (11)
- Transportation Systems (1)
News Topics
- (-) 3-D Printing/Advanced Manufacturing (4)
- (-) Decarbonization (1)
- (-) Fusion (8)
- Advanced Reactors (11)
- Bioenergy (1)
- Biomedical (2)
- Computer Science (2)
- Coronavirus (1)
- Cybersecurity (1)
- Environment (1)
- Isotopes (5)
- Materials Science (3)
- Molten Salt (4)
- Neutron Science (5)
- Nuclear Energy (36)
- Physics (2)
- Space Exploration (5)
- Sustainable Energy (1)
- Transformational Challenge Reactor (3)
Media Contacts
![The agreement builds upon years of collaboration, including a 2016 effort using modeling tools developed at ORNL to predict the first six months of operations of TVA’s Watts Bar Unit 2 nuclear power plant. Credit: Andrew Godfrey/Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-02/wb2_xenon_1.png?h=19940d61&itok=Da4pDLde)
OAK RIDGE, Tenn., Feb. 19, 2020 — The U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Tennessee Valley Authority have signed a memorandum of understanding to evaluate a new generation of flexible, cost-effective advanced nuclear reactors.
![Argon pellet injection text](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2019-11/13966_Ar_20degree_enhanced_0.jpg?h=8450e950&itok=tmff0GX_)
As scientists study approaches to best sustain a fusion reactor, a team led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory investigated injecting shattered argon pellets into a super-hot plasma, when needed, to protect the reactor’s interior wall from high-energy runaway electrons.
![Pellet selector Pellet selector](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/news/images/Fusion%20pellet%20art%202.jpg?itok=4KhWRcQt)
When it’s up and running, the ITER fusion reactor will be very big and very hot, with more than 800 cubic meters of hydrogen plasma reaching 170 million degrees centigrade. The systems that fuel and control it, on the other hand, will be small and very cold. Pellets of frozen gas will be shot int...