![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
- (-) Materials (51)
- (-) Nuclear Science and Technology (40)
- Advanced Manufacturing (3)
- Biological Systems (2)
- Biology and Environment (101)
- Biology and Soft Matter (1)
- Building Technologies (1)
- Clean Energy (79)
- Climate and Environmental Systems (3)
- Computational Biology (2)
- Computational Engineering (3)
- Computer Science (15)
- Electricity and Smart Grid (1)
- Fuel Cycle Science and Technology (1)
- Functional Materials for Energy (1)
- Fusion and Fission (30)
- Fusion Energy (13)
- Isotope Development and Production (1)
- Isotopes (5)
- Materials for Computing (7)
- Mathematics (1)
- National Security (34)
- Neutron Science (24)
- Nuclear Systems Modeling, Simulation and Validation (2)
- Quantum information Science (7)
- Sensors and Controls (1)
- Supercomputing (143)
News Topics
- (-) Advanced Reactors (14)
- (-) Bioenergy (12)
- (-) Climate Change (5)
- (-) Computer Science (19)
- (-) Exascale Computing (2)
- (-) Frontier (3)
- (-) High-Performance Computing (4)
- (-) Nuclear Energy (49)
- (-) Security (2)
- 3-D Printing/Advanced Manufacturing (26)
- Artificial Intelligence (9)
- Big Data (2)
- Biology (4)
- Biomedical (8)
- Buildings (5)
- Chemical Sciences (32)
- Clean Water (3)
- Composites (9)
- Coronavirus (5)
- Critical Materials (13)
- Cybersecurity (5)
- Decarbonization (8)
- Energy Storage (34)
- Environment (16)
- Fusion (15)
- Grid (5)
- Irradiation (1)
- Isotopes (16)
- ITER (1)
- Machine Learning (5)
- Materials (73)
- Materials Science (79)
- Mathematics (1)
- Microscopy (27)
- Molten Salt (7)
- Nanotechnology (39)
- National Security (3)
- Net Zero (1)
- Neutron Science (38)
- Partnerships (11)
- Physics (31)
- Polymers (17)
- Quantum Computing (3)
- Quantum Science (11)
- Renewable Energy (1)
- Simulation (1)
- Space Exploration (7)
- Summit (2)
- Sustainable Energy (14)
- Transformational Challenge Reactor (5)
- Transportation (14)
Media Contacts
![Nuclear – Finally, a benchmark](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-05/67051_0.jpg?h=add82d74&itok=xR-EnPtz)
In the 1960s, Oak Ridge National Laboratory's four-year Molten Salt Reactor Experiment tested the viability of liquid fuel reactors for commercial power generation. Results from that historic experiment recently became the basis for the first-ever molten salt reactor benchmark.
![Coronavirus graphic](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-04/covid19_jh_0.png?h=d1cb525d&itok=PyngFUZw)
In the race to identify solutions to the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory are joining the fight by applying expertise in computational science, advanced manufacturing, data science and neutron science.
![Kat Royston](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-04/Kat%20Royston%20profile_0.jpg?h=036a71b7&itok=WTyE2n4S)
As a teenager, Kat Royston had a lot of questions. Then an advanced-placement class in physics convinced her all the answers were out there.
![Nuclear — Seeing inside particles](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-04/Kernels-nuclear%20materials-2_0.jpg?h=ae51ec69&itok=_AWiopZz)
Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers working on neutron imaging capabilities for nuclear materials have developed a process for seeing the inside of uranium particles – without cutting them open.
![VERA’s tools allow a virtual “window” inside the reactor core, down to a molecular level.](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-03/core.png?h=dc920c3f&itok=BggaFrQA)
A software package, 10 years in the making, that can predict the behavior of nuclear reactors’ cores with stunning accuracy has been licensed commercially for the first time.
![Postdoctoral researcher Nischal Kafle positions a component for a portable plasma imaging diagnostic device at ORNL in February. The device, a project for ARPA-E, is built of off-the-shelf parts. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-03/2020-P00808.jpg?h=8f9cfe54&itok=TGI-lQiS)
The techniques Theodore Biewer and his colleagues are using to measure whether plasma has the right conditions to create fusion have been around awhile.
![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.
![Closely spaced hydrogen atoms could facilitate superconductivity in ambient conditions](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-02/Closely_spaced_hydrogen_atoms-correct.png?h=6a4c2577&itok=GBnxpWls)
An international team of researchers has discovered the hydrogen atoms in a metal hydride material are much more tightly spaced than had been predicted for decades — a feature that could possibly facilitate superconductivity at or near room temperature and pressure.
![ORNL-developed cryogenic memory cell circuit designs fabricated onto these small chips by SeeQC, a superconducting technology company, successfully demonstrated read, write and reset memory functions. Credit: Carlos Jones/Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-01/2019-P17636.png?h=39b94f55&itok=udTwXJwT)
Scientists at have experimentally demonstrated a novel cryogenic, or low temperature, memory cell circuit design based on coupled arrays of Josephson junctions, a technology that may be faster and more energy efficient than existing memory devices.
![Image caption: An ORNL research team lead is developing a universal benchmark for the accuracy and performance of quantum computers based on quantum chemistry simulations. The benchmark will help the community evaluate and develop new quantum processors. (Below left: schematic of one of quantum circuits used to test the RbH molecule. Top left: molecular orbitals used. Top right: actual results obtained using the bottom left circuit for RbH).](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-01/qcomp_0_0.jpg?h=933930d9&itok=iHNCdTb8)
Researchers at ORNL have developed a quantum chemistry simulation benchmark to evaluate the performance of quantum devices and guide the development of applications for future quantum computers.