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Media Contacts
![Technicians John Dyer and T. Dyer use a manipulator arm in a shielded cave in ORNL’s Radiochemical Engineering Development Center to separate concentrated Pm-147 from byproducts generated through the production of Pu-238.](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2021-03/Promethium%20feature_0.jpg?h=a1f525db&itok=6XSsJdot)
A new method developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory proves one effort’s trash is another’s valuable isotope. One of the byproducts of the lab’s national plutonium-238 production program is promethium-147, a rare isotope used in nuclear batteries and to measure the thickness of materials.
![Oak Ridge National Laboratory entrance sign](/themes/custom/ornl/images/default-thumbnail.jpg)
Balendra Sutharshan, deputy associate laboratory director for operational systems at DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, has joined ORNL as associate laboratory director for the Isotope Science and Engineering Directorate.
![The Perseverance rover](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-07/pia23492_0.jpg?h=d1cb525d&itok=A5U6cgBE)
On Feb. 18, the world will be watching as NASA’s Perseverance rover makes its final descent into Jezero Crater on the surface of Mars. Mars 2020 is the first NASA mission that uses plutonium-238 produced at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
![ORNL welder Devin Johnson uses a new orbital welder to seal a hollow target in a glovebox in the lab’s Radiochemical Engineering Development Center. The new welder makes a clean seam on the metal target, eliminating the need for hand-finishing afterward. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2021-01/2021-P00359.jpg?h=8f9cfe54&itok=_g8_FpZZ)
A better way of welding targets for Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s plutonium-238 production has sped up the process and improved consistency and efficiency. This advancement will ultimately benefit the lab’s goal to make enough Pu-238 – the isotope that powers NASA’s deep space missions – to yield 1.5 kilograms of plutonium oxide annually by 2026.
![Brian Damiano](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-12/2016-P04442.jpg?h=49ab6177&itok=lPIC-H6L)
Brian Damiano, head of the Centrifuge Engineering and Fabrication Section, has been elected fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
![Porter Bailey started and will end his 33-year career at ORNL in the same building: 7920 of the Radiochemical Engineering Development Center.](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2021-01/2020-P17836.jpg?h=4cdfc2d0&itok=2rFoZlS6)
Porter Bailey started and will end his 33-year career at ORNL in the same building: 7920 of the Radiochemical Engineering Development Center.
![asset management](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-05/Picture9.png?h=cf4f3851&itok=rVU02eNT)
East Tennessee occupies a special place in nuclear history. In 1943, the world’s first continuously operating reactor began operating on land that would become ORNL.
![Sandra Davern performs cell based assays to evaluate cell death and DNA damage in response to radiation in order to gain a better understanding of how radioisotope nanoparticles affect the human body.](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-10/2020-P15712.jpg?h=036a71b7&itok=6cpxN4v2)
When Sandra Davern looks to the future, she sees individualized isotopes sent into the body with a specific target: cancer cells.
![The first neutron structure of the SARS-CoV-2 main protease enzyme revealed unexpected electrical charges in the amino acids cysteine (negative) and histidine (positive), providing key data about the virus’s replication. Credit: Jill Hemman/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-10/20-G01620_Protease_PR_proof2_0.jpg?h=3e3883a3&itok=XB_ZEDFQ)
To better understand how the novel coronavirus behaves and how it can be stopped, scientists have completed a three-dimensional map that reveals the location of every atom in an enzyme molecule critical to SARS-CoV-2 reproduction.
![Enzyme activity during organophosphate poisoning](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-08/anecdote1_0.png?h=d1cb525d&itok=wpYYilBI)
Pick your poison. It can be deadly for good reasons such as protecting crops from harmful insects or fighting parasite infection as medicine — or for evil as a weapon for bioterrorism. Or, in extremely diluted amounts, it can be used to enhance beauty.