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Media Contacts
![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.
![New virtual tours of ORNL facilities include the Building Technologies Research and Integration Center, shown in dollhouse view. Credit: ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-11/BTRIC_1.png?h=e0f61ee9&itok=M5tq8BIL)
ORNL has added 10 virtual tours to its campus map, each with multiple views to show floor plans, rotating dollhouse views and 360-degree navigation. As a user travels through a map, pop-out informational windows deliver facts, videos, graphics and links to other related content.
![Water from local creeks now flows through these simulated streams in the Aquatic Ecology Laboratory, providing new opportunities to study mercury pollution and advance solutions. Credit: ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-10/img_3692.jpg?h=77bd3ecb&itok=dM1eszup)
New capabilities and equipment recently installed at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory are bringing a creek right into the lab to advance understanding of mercury pollution and accelerate solutions.
![A selfie from the Curiosity rover as it explores the surface of Mars. Like many spacecraft, Curiosity uses a radioisotope power system to help fuel its mission. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-09/Curiousity_1.jpg?h=86a9dded&itok=Jo0vD321)
Radioactive isotopes power some of NASA’s best-known spacecraft. But predicting how radiation emitted from these isotopes might affect nearby materials is tricky
![Pu-238 pellet drawing](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-07/Plutonium_Illustration_Blur.png?h=b6236d98&itok=wvSAbP64)
After its long journey to Mars beginning this summer, NASA’s Perseverance rover will be powered across the planet’s surface in part by plutonium produced at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
![Solid radium sulfate sits in the bottom of a flask during the recovery process. Credit: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-06/Ac227%202.jpg?h=479d286c&itok=AiNceGva)
Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers have discovered a better way to separate actinium-227, a rare isotope essential for an FDA-approved cancer treatment.
![Alex Johs at ORNL's Spallation Neutron Source](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2019-06/2019-p01807.jpg?h=f8570409&itok=KBUOueeI)
Sometimes solutions to the biggest problems can be found in the smallest details. The work of biochemist Alex Johs at Oak Ridge National Laboratory bears this out, as he focuses on understanding protein structures and molecular interactions to resolve complex global problems like the spread of mercury pollution in waterways and the food supply.
![ORNL alanine_graphic.jpg ORNL alanine_graphic.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/ORNL%20alanine_graphic.jpg?itok=iRLfcOw-)
OAK RIDGE, Tenn., Jan. 31, 2019—A new electron microscopy technique that detects the subtle changes in the weight of proteins at the nanoscale—while keeping the sample intact—could open a new pathway for deeper, more comprehensive studies of the basic building blocks of life.
![Physics_silicon-detectors.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/Physics_silicon-detectors.jpg?h=c920d705&itok=Q1fP5ZTi)
Physicists turned to the “doubly magic” tin isotope Sn-132, colliding it with a target at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to assess its properties as it lost a neutron to become Sn-131.
![Two neutron diffraction experiments (represented by pink and blue neutron beams) probed a salty solution to reveal its atomic structure. The only difference between the experiments was the identity of the oxygen isotope (O*) that labeled nitrate molecules Two neutron diffraction experiments (represented by pink and blue neutron beams) probed a salty solution to reveal its atomic structure. The only difference between the experiments was the identity of the oxygen isotope (O*) that labeled nitrate molecules](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/news/images/ORNL%202018-G01254-AM-01.jpg?itok=WXkmqIs1)
Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory used neutrons, isotopes and simulations to “see” the atomic structure of a saturated solution and found evidence supporting one of two competing hypotheses about how ions come