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Media Contacts
![ORNL seismic researcher Chengping Chai placed seismic sensors on the ground at various distances from an ORNL nuclear reactor to learn whether they could detect its operating state. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-06/2023-P03398.jpg?h=3e43625b&itok=TXK8tthh)
Like most scientists, Chengping Chai is not content with the surface of things: He wants to probe beyond to learn what’s really going on. But in his case, he is literally building a map of the world beneath, using seismic and acoustic data that reveal when and where the earth moves.
![The Fuel Pellet Fueling Laboratory at ORNL is part of a suite of fusion energy R&D capabilities and provides test equipment and related diagnostics for carrying out experiments to develop pellet injectors for plasma fueling applications. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-06/2021-P02876_0.jpg?h=c6980913&itok=8fqWlX5k)
ORNL will team up with six of eight companies that are advancing designs and research and development for fusion power plants with the mission to achieve a pilot-scale demonstration of fusion within a decade.
![Paul Langan will oversee ORNL's research directorate focused on biological and environmental systems science. Credit: ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2022-12/2019-P15617_0.jpg?h=bf9cb32e&itok=4n50VPVf)
Paul Langan will join ORNL in the spring as associate laboratory director for the Biological and Environmental Systems Science Directorate.
![Vittorio Badalassi, left, of Oak Ridge National Laboratory leads the Fusion Energy Reactor Models Integrator, or FERMI, project, and collaborates with ORNL computational physicist David Green. FERMI applies fission platforms to fusion reactor design. Credit: Commonwealth Fusion Systems and Colby Earles/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2021-05/FERMI_v3_web_art_for_landing_page_carousel_2021_04_20_1.jpg?h=d1cb525d&itok=y2KEq11p)
Oak Ridge National Laboratory expertise in fission and fusion has come together to form a new collaboration, the Fusion Energy Reactor Models Integrator, or FERMI
![Fuel pellets sometimes degrade to a sandlike consistency and can disperse into the reactor core if a rod’s cladding bursts. ORNL researchers are studying how often this happens and what impact it has, in order to let reactors operate as long as possible without increasing risk.](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-08/X2001338_FuelFragmentation_GraphicUpdate_Bumpus_jnj-02_0.jpg?h=049a2720&itok=mzNfF2cS)
A developing method to gauge the occurrence of a nuclear reactor anomaly has the potential to save millions of dollars.
![Using the ASGarD mathematical framework, scientists can model and visualize the electric fields, shown as arrows, circling around magnetic fields that are colorized to represent field magnitude of a fusion plasma. Credit: David Green/ORNL](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-08/Max1_t5e-1_EB_0.png?h=35bae166&itok=iRtx2TVM)
Combining expertise in physics, applied math and computing, Oak Ridge National Laboratory scientists are expanding the possibilities for simulating electromagnetic fields that underpin phenomena in materials design and telecommunications.
![ORNL scientists are currently using Proto-MPEX to perform necessary research and development that is needed to build MPEX. Credit: Genevieve Martin/Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-06/2019-P15057.jpg?h=c6980913&itok=OMsMVnNV)
Temperatures hotter than the center of the sun. Magnetic fields hundreds of thousands of times stronger than the earth’s. Neutrons energetic enough to change the structure of a material entirely.
![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.
![This simulation of a fusion plasma calculation result shows the interaction of two counter-streaming beams of super-heated gas. Credit: David L. Green/Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-02/Fusion_plasma_simulation.jpg?h=d0852d1e&itok=CDWgjLPL)
The prospect of simulating a fusion plasma is a step closer to reality thanks to a new computational tool developed by scientists in fusion physics, computer science and mathematics at ORNL.
![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.