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Media Contacts
![ORNL physicist Libby Johnson demonstrated a new control panel at ORNL’s Bulk Shielding Facility in 1957. Among the first females to operate a nuclear reactor, Johnson blazed trails for women. Credit: ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2022-09/Johnson_1.jpg?h=06ac0d8c&itok=JUg5qoxV)
Oak Ridge National Laboratory physicist Elizabeth “Libby” Johnson (1921-1996), one of the world’s first nuclear reactor operators, standardized the field of criticality safety with peers from ORNL and Los Alamos National Laboratory.
![Bobby Sumpter. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2022-08/sumptersummit_0.jpg?h=8f9cfe54&itok=UScKP4yF)
ORNL Corporate Fellow and Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences researcher Bobby Sumpter has been named fellow of two scientific professional societies: the Institute of Physics and the International Association of Advanced Materials.
![Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Leah Broussard shows a neutron-absorbing "wall" that stops all neutrons but in theory would allow hypothetical mirror neutrons to pass through. Credit: Genevieve Martin/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2022-06/2019-P14931_0.jpg?h=c6980913&itok=CrsmDVzv)
To solve a long-standing puzzle about how long a neutron can “live” outside an atomic nucleus, physicists entertained a wild but testable theory positing the existence of a right-handed version of our left-handed universe.
![Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Mitch Allmond works with the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams Decay Station initiator, which combined diverse detectors for FRIB’s first experiment. Credit: Robert Grzywacz/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2022-06/FRIB1.jpg?h=429981e8&itok=sFq0uTlk)
Two decades in the making, a new flagship facility for nuclear physics opened on May 2, and scientists from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have a hand in 10 of its first 34 experiments.
![A team of fusion scientists and engineers stand in front of ORNL’s Helium Flow Loop device. From back left to front right: Chris Crawford, Fayaz Rasheed, Joy Fan, Michael Morrow, Charles Kessel, Adam Carroll, and Cody Wiggins. Not pictured: Dennis Youchison and Monica Gehrig. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL.](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2022-05/2022-P01898.jpg?h=c6980913&itok=SoSOip2u)
To achieve practical energy from fusion, extreme heat from the fusion system “blanket” component must be extracted safely and efficiently. ORNL fusion experts are exploring how tiny 3D-printed obstacles placed inside the narrow pipes of a custom-made cooling system could be a solution for removing heat from the blanket.
![Physicist Charles Havener uses the NASA end station at ORNL’s Multicharged Ion Research Facility to simulate the origin of X-ray emissions from space. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2022-05/2021-P08920_0.jpg?h=c6980913&itok=zfXx31gD)
Scientists are using Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Multicharged Ion Research Facility to simulate the cosmic origin of X-ray emissions resulting when highly charged ions collide with neutral atoms and molecules, such as helium and gaseous hydrogen.
![With seismic and acoustic data recorded by remote sensors near ORNL’s High Flux Isotope Reactor, researchers could predict whether the reactor was on or off with 98% accuracy. Credit: Nathan Armistead/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2022-05/Seismo%20acoustic%20draft%20v3_0.jpg?h=2e111cc1&itok=0oLpYDc8)
An Oak Ridge National Laboratory team developed a novel technique using sensors to monitor seismic and acoustic activity and machine learning to differentiate operational activities at facilities from “noise” in the recorded data.
![High voltage power lines carry electricity generated by the Tennessee Valley Authority to ORNL. Credit: Dobie Gillispie/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2022-02/Powerlines_resized.jpg?h=c74750f6&itok=33NqDqGh)
ORNL and the Tennessee Valley Authority, or TVA, are joining forces to advance decarbonization technologies from discovery through deployment through a new memorandum of understanding, or MOU.
![An international team of researchers used Summit to model spin, charge and pair-density waves in cuprates, a type of copper alloy, to explore the materials’ superconducting properties. The results revealed new insights into the relationships between these dynamics as superconductivity develops. Credit: Jason Smith/ORNL](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2022-02/MaierSpinBanner.png?h=ae114f5c&itok=rdZETb8v)
A study led by researchers at ORNL used the nation’s fastest supercomputer to close in on the answer to a central question of modern physics that could help conduct development of the next generation of energy technologies.
![Caption: This computer-generated image of the JET tokamak shows what one would see if its walls were transparent, revealing the plasma inside. Credit: UK Atomic Energy Authority](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2022-02/JET%20transparent.png?h=8f74817f&itok=YMkZ38O3)
A new fusion record was announced February 9 in the United Kingdom: At the Joint European Torus, or JET, the team documented the generation of 59 megajoules of sustained fusion energy, more than doubling the