![Weyl semimetal](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_square_large/public/2024-08/Picture4.jpg?h=b38bf506&itok=nYXXiLDs)
Filter News
Area of Research
- (-) Materials (44)
- Biology and Environment (91)
- Biology and Soft Matter (1)
- Clean Energy (55)
- Climate and Environmental Systems (5)
- Computational Engineering (1)
- Computer Science (1)
- Electricity and Smart Grid (1)
- Functional Materials for Energy (1)
- Fusion and Fission (3)
- Isotopes (1)
- Materials for Computing (1)
- Mathematics (1)
- National Security (6)
- Neutron Science (17)
- Nuclear Science and Technology (3)
- Quantum information Science (1)
- Supercomputing (28)
News Topics
- (-) Environment (15)
- (-) Physics (29)
- (-) Renewable Energy (1)
- 3-D Printing/Advanced Manufacturing (23)
- Advanced Reactors (4)
- Artificial Intelligence (9)
- Big Data (2)
- Bioenergy (11)
- Biology (4)
- Biomedical (7)
- Buildings (5)
- Chemical Sciences (32)
- Clean Water (3)
- Climate Change (5)
- Composites (9)
- Computer Science (17)
- Coronavirus (4)
- Critical Materials (13)
- Cybersecurity (4)
- Decarbonization (7)
- Energy Storage (34)
- Exascale Computing (2)
- Frontier (3)
- Fusion (7)
- Grid (5)
- High-Performance Computing (4)
- Irradiation (1)
- Isotopes (13)
- ITER (1)
- Machine Learning (5)
- Materials (73)
- Materials Science (78)
- Mathematics (1)
- Microscopy (27)
- Molten Salt (3)
- Nanotechnology (39)
- National Security (3)
- Net Zero (1)
- Neutron Science (33)
- Nuclear Energy (16)
- Partnerships (11)
- Polymers (17)
- Quantum Computing (3)
- Quantum Science (11)
- Security (2)
- Simulation (1)
- Space Exploration (2)
- Summit (2)
- Sustainable Energy (13)
- Transformational Challenge Reactor (3)
- Transportation (14)
Media Contacts
![ORNL’s organocatalyst deconstructs mixed plastics at different temperatures, which facilitates recovering their individual monomers separately, in reusable form. Credit: Jill Hemman/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-10/23-G05683_MixedPlasticRecycling_proof2_0.png?h=27870e4a&itok=jjYga9GD)
Little of the mixed consumer plastics thrown away or placed in recycle bins actually ends up being recycled. Nearly 90% is buried in landfills or incinerated at commercial facilities that generate greenhouse gases and airborne toxins. Neither outcome is ideal for the environment.
![Photo collage with text that reads " A New era of discovery"](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-10/LRP%20Image_0.png?h=d1cb525d&itok=m-0J8hDE)
ORNL, a bastion of nuclear physics research for the past 80 years, is poised to strengthen its programs and service to the United States over the next decade if national recommendations of the Nuclear Science Advisory Committee, or NSAC, are enacted.
![ORNL’s David Sholl is director of the new DOE Energy Earthshot Non-Equilibrium Energy Transfer for Efficient Reactions center to help decarbonize the industrial chemical industry. Credit: Genevieve Martin, ORNL/U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-09/2021-P04915.David_.Sholl_.jpg?h=c6980913&itok=qT7ZMJX2)
ORNL has been selected to lead an Energy Earthshot Research Center, or EERC, focused on developing chemical processes that use sustainable methods instead of burning fossil fuels to radically reduce industrial greenhouse gas emissions to stem climate change and limit the crisis of a rapidly warming planet.
![Conceptual art depicts an atomic nucleus and merging neutron stars, respectively, areas of study in ORNL-led projects called NUCLEI and ENAF within the Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing, or SciDAC, program. Credit: Adam Malin/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-09/atomic-space-graphic-2_1920_72dpi_0.jpg?h=8a33d6d1&itok=caY64a8z)
ORNL is leading two nuclear physics research projects within the Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing, or SciDAC, program from the Department of Energy Office of Science.
![A beam of excited sodium-32 nuclei implants in the FRIB Decay Station initiator is used to detect decay signatures of isotopes. Credit: Gary Hollenhead, Toby King and Adam Malin/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-08/render_03_0.jpg?h=8f74817f&itok=AZQPthBf)
Timothy Gray of ORNL led a study that may have revealed an unexpected change in the shape of an atomic nucleus. The surprise finding could affect our understanding of what holds nuclei together, how protons and neutrons interact and how elements form.
![ORNL researchers Michael Smith, Steven Pain and Kelly Chipps use JENSA, a unique gas jet system, for laboratory studies of nuclear reactions that also occur in neutron stars in binary systems. Credit: Steven Pain/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-05/20160213_182909aa.jpg?h=5c7e1372&itok=p13IVvRC)
Led by Kelly Chipps of ORNL, scientists working in the lab have produced a signature nuclear reaction that occurs on the surface of a neutron star gobbling mass from a companion star. Their achievement improves understanding of stellar processes generating diverse nuclear isotopes.
![Kelly Chipps of Oak Ridge National Laboratory has been appointed to the Nuclear Sciences Advisory Committee, which advises the Department of Energy and National Science Foundation. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-05/2023-P04798_1.jpg?h=8f9cfe54&itok=YXG6JZyW)
Kelly Chipps, a nuclear astrophysicist at ORNL, has been appointed to the Nuclear Science Advisory Committee, or NSAC. The committee provides official advice to DOE and the National Science Foundation, or NSF, about issues relating to the national program for basic nuclear science research.
![Image of outerspace](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-04/Dark%20Matter%20Thumbnail.png?h=c673cd1c&itok=vaZLUOBP)
Few things carry the same aura of mystery as dark matter. The name itself radiates secrecy, suggesting something hidden in the shadows of the Universe.
![Andrea Delgado, Distinguished Staff Fellow at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, uses quantum computing to help elucidate the fundamental particles of the universe. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-04/Andrea%20Delgado%20Thumbnail.png?h=c6980913&itok=PSWgGpfa)
Andrea Delgado is looking for elementary particles that seem so abstract, there appears to be no obvious short-term benefit to her research.
![Frances Pleasonton seals a vacuum chamber in 1951.](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-03/Pleasonton20616_16x9_1678989753589_0.jpg?h=d1cb525d&itok=s-itGaqM)
The old photos show her casually writing data in a logbook with stacks of lead bricks nearby, or sealing a vacuum chamber with a wrench. ORNL researcher Frances Pleasonton was instrumental in some of the earliest explorations of the properties of the neutron as the X-10 Site was finding its postwar footing as a research lab.