![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
News Topics
- (-) Fusion (27)
- 3-D Printing/Advanced Manufacturing (26)
- Advanced Reactors (10)
- Artificial Intelligence (10)
- Big Data (2)
- Bioenergy (11)
- Biology (5)
- Biomedical (8)
- Buildings (5)
- Chemical Sciences (34)
- Clean Water (3)
- Climate Change (5)
- Composites (9)
- Computer Science (19)
- Coronavirus (4)
- Critical Materials (13)
- Cybersecurity (4)
- Decarbonization (9)
- Energy Storage (35)
- Environment (17)
- Exascale Computing (3)
- Fossil Energy (1)
- Frontier (4)
- Grid (6)
- High-Performance Computing (6)
- Hydropower (1)
- Irradiation (1)
- Isotopes (14)
- ITER (6)
- Machine Learning (5)
- Materials (74)
- Materials Science (80)
- Mathematics (1)
- Microscopy (27)
- Molten Salt (3)
- Nanotechnology (39)
- National Security (3)
- Net Zero (2)
- Neutron Science (34)
- Nuclear Energy (42)
- Partnerships (13)
- Physics (30)
- Polymers (17)
- Quantum Computing (3)
- Quantum Science (11)
- Renewable Energy (1)
- Security (4)
- Simulation (4)
- Space Exploration (3)
- Summit (2)
- Sustainable Energy (17)
- Transformational Challenge Reactor (3)
- Transportation (16)
Media Contacts
![Associate Laboratory Director Kathy McCarthy heads the ORNL directorate that manages proto-MPEX, a linear plasma device that informs the development of the MPEX tool for study of fusion materials. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2021-02/mccarthy1_0.jpg?h=cfe8fbc5&itok=uUbxVL8T)
From the helm of a one-of-a-kind organization that brings nuclear fusion and fission expertise together to pave the way to expanding carbon-free energy, Kathy McCarthy can trace the first step of her engineering career back to
![INFUSE logo](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-12/infuse_logo-011.jpg?h=f46fb64e&itok=Yrutrfll)
The INFUSE fusion program announced a second round of 2020 public-private partnership awards to accelerate fusion energy development.
![Chuck Kessel](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-11/ChuckKesselProfile_0.jpg?h=8f9cfe54&itok=pTBVa7QK)
Chuck Kessel was still in high school when he saw a scientist hold up a tiny vial of water and say, “This could fuel a house for a whole year.”
![MPEX ribbon cutting](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-10/2020-P16074.jpg?h=c6980913&itok=kTWA3sZU)
Department of Energy Under Secretary for Science Paul Dabbar joined Oak Ridge National Laboratory leaders for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark progress toward a next-generation fusion materials project.
![Tungsten tiles for fusion](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2019-07/EBM-tungsten_tiles_ORNL.png?h=0c890573&itok=XgIsl0tA)
Using additive manufacturing, scientists experimenting with tungsten at Oak Ridge National Laboratory hope to unlock new potential of the high-performance heat-transferring material used to protect components from the plasma inside a fusion reactor. Fusion requires hydrogen isotopes to reach millions of degrees.
![An ORNL-developed graphite foam, which could be used in plasma-facing components in fusion reactors, performed well during testing at the Wendlestein 7-X stellarator in Germany.](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2019-02/W7-XPlasmaExposure_0.jpg?h=d5d04e3b&itok=uKiauhdF)
Scientists have tested a novel heat-shielding graphite foam, originally created at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, at Germany’s Wendelstein 7-X stellarator with promising results for use in plasma-facing components of fusion reactors.
![Lauren Garrison Lauren Garrison](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2015-P03829.jpg?itok=7aYmdo0N)
The materials inside a fusion reactor must withstand one of the most extreme environments in science, with temperatures in the thousands of degrees Celsius and a constant bombardment of neutron radiation and deuterium and tritium, isotopes of hydrogen, from the volatile plasma at th...