![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
- (-) Clean Energy (57)
- (-) Isotopes (27)
- Advanced Manufacturing (4)
- Biological Systems (2)
- Biology and Environment (76)
- Climate and Environmental Systems (1)
- Computational Biology (2)
- Computational Engineering (1)
- Computer Science (2)
- Energy Frontier Research Centers (1)
- Fuel Cycle Science and Technology (1)
- Fusion and Fission (30)
- Fusion Energy (10)
- Isotope Development and Production (1)
- Materials (103)
- Materials for Computing (11)
- National Security (28)
- Neutron Science (40)
- Nuclear Science and Technology (40)
- Nuclear Systems Modeling, Simulation and Validation (1)
- Quantum information Science (4)
- Supercomputing (72)
News Topics
- (-) Bioenergy (26)
- (-) Biomedical (11)
- (-) Cybersecurity (8)
- (-) Exascale Computing (2)
- (-) Isotopes (25)
- (-) Mercury (3)
- (-) Nanotechnology (8)
- (-) Nuclear Energy (10)
- (-) Physics (1)
- (-) Space Exploration (7)
- 3-D Printing/Advanced Manufacturing (78)
- Advanced Reactors (6)
- Artificial Intelligence (8)
- Big Data (5)
- Biology (11)
- Biotechnology (4)
- Buildings (36)
- Chemical Sciences (14)
- Clean Water (8)
- Climate Change (22)
- Composites (17)
- Computer Science (26)
- Coronavirus (12)
- Critical Materials (9)
- Decarbonization (33)
- Energy Storage (73)
- Environment (55)
- Fossil Energy (2)
- Frontier (2)
- Fusion (1)
- Grid (40)
- High-Performance Computing (6)
- Hydropower (2)
- Irradiation (1)
- Machine Learning (7)
- Materials (39)
- Materials Science (28)
- Mathematics (2)
- Microelectronics (1)
- Microscopy (8)
- Molten Salt (1)
- National Security (6)
- Net Zero (3)
- Neutron Science (11)
- Partnerships (12)
- Polymers (11)
- Quantum Science (2)
- Renewable Energy (1)
- Security (7)
- Simulation (4)
- Statistics (1)
- Summit (4)
- Sustainable Energy (69)
- Transformational Challenge Reactor (3)
- Transportation (65)
Media Contacts
![Former ORNL Director Thom Mason presents Tom Kollie with a National Intelligence Meritorious Unit Citation on behalf of James Clapper, former director of national intelligence, and the national intelligence community in June 2017. Credit: Jason Richards/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2021-09/2017-P04637_1.jpg?h=b6236d98&itok=Riz5mhDe)
A 25-year career with the U.S. Navy, commanding combat missions overseas, brought Tom Kollie back to where he came from — ready to serve his country in a new way.
![Summer Widner, Stephanie Timbs, James Gaugler and James Avenell of ORNL are part of a team that processes thorium-228, a byproduct of actinium-227. As new uses for thorium are realized, particularly in medicine, the lab expects the demand for the radioisotope to grow.](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2021-08/Part%20of%20Th-228%20Team_1.jpg?h=09b6d1d3&itok=1_l1hx2l)
As a medical isotope, thorium-228 has a lot of potential — and Oak Ridge National Laboratory produces a lot.
![ORNL used novel additive manufacturing techniques to 3D print channel fasteners for Framatome’s boiling water reactor fuel assembly. Four components, like the one shown here, were installed at the TVA Browns Ferry nuclear plant. Credit: Framatome](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2021-08/3D-printed%20channel%20fastener_0.jpg?h=17d1be53&itok=xLToVHZi)
Four first-of-a-kind 3D-printed fuel assembly brackets, produced at the Department of Energy’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, have been installed and are now under routine operating
![A 3D printed thermal protection shield, produced by ORNL researchers for NASA, is part of a cargo spacecraft bound for the International Space Station. The shield was printed at the Department of Energy’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility at ORNL. Credit: ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2021-07/Sanded5.jpg?h=dce12e0c&itok=_8wzeG94)
A research team at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have 3D printed a thermal protection shield, or TPS, for a capsule that will launch with the Cygnus cargo spacecraft as part of the supply mission to the International Space Station.
![Initially, Kevin Gaddis’s adapted HPIC will be used only for the fourth of six separations in actinium-225 processing, but he hopes it will later be used for other separations — and other isotopes. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2021-07/2021-P03893_1.jpg?h=c6980913&itok=DU6L5EUx)
An Oak Ridge National Laboratory researcher has invented a version of an isotope-separating device that can withstand extreme environments, including radiation and chemical solvents.
![Balendra Sutharshan](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2021-06/2021-P01348.jpg?h=d33ebf6f&itok=qwQNPmu1)
In the mid-1980s, Balendra Sutharshan moved to Canada from the island nation of Sri Lanka. That move set Sutharshan on a path that had him heading continent-spanning collaborations and holding leadership posts at multiple Department of Energy
![Aviation contributes about 2.5% of global carbon dioxide emissions. To greatly reduce its emissions, the U.S. commercial aviation sector needs new methods of making sustainable aviation fuel. Credit: Ross Parmly/Unsplash](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2021-06/ross-parmly-rf6ywHVkrlY-unsplash_0.jpg?h=fee4874d&itok=BEdQYEQ2)
ORNL’s Zhenglong Li led a team tasked with improving the current technique for converting ethanol to C3+ olefins and demonstrated a unique composite catalyst that upends current practice and drives down costs. The research was published in ACS Catalysis.
![Brenda Smith, shown here working with a gas viscometer in her research lab, is one of several people concurrently researching the thermophysical properties of feedstock gas. Their research will support computational researchers who are designing processes to separate isotopes. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, US Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2021-05/2021-P01103_0.jpg?h=13f436e5&itok=lMLI1EqU)
For years Brenda Smith found fulfillment working with nuclear batteries, a topic she’s been researching as a chemist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
![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](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2021-05/Putida_forAdam_2clr_2.jpg?h=71f44bf2&itok=8u0ZVufx)
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.
![Heavy-duty vehicles contribute 23% of transportation emissions of greenhouse gases and account for almost one-quarter of the fuel consumed annually in the U.S. Credit: Chris Bair/Unsplash](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2021-04/highways_stock_0.jpg?h=1cbed347&itok=0cBMibFU)
Through a consortium of Department of Energy national laboratories, ORNL scientists are applying their expertise to provide solutions that enable the commercialization of emission-free hydrogen fuel cell technology for heavy-duty