Skip to main content
Daryl Yang standing on a bridge overlooking a pond covered in water lillies

Daryl Yang is coupling his science and engineering expertise to devise new ways to measure significant changes going on in the Arctic, a region that’s warming nearly four times faster than other parts of the planet. The remote sensing technologies and modeling tools he develops and leverages for the Next-Generation Ecosystem Experiments in the Arctic project, or NGEE Arctic, help improve models of the ecosystem to better inform decision-making as the landscape changes.

Gage Slacum looks at a circuit board through a microscope. Credit: Josie Fellers/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Summer interns at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory recently dove into various smart devices to better understand cybersecurity vulnerabilities posed by technology meant to simplify a user’s life.

Hard drive being pulled and put in recycle container.

The Summit supercomputer, once the world’s most powerful, is set to be decommissioned by the end of 2024 to make way for the next-generation supercomputer. Over the summer, crews began dismantling Summit’s Alpine storage system, shredding over 40,000 hard drives with the help of ShredPro Secure, a local East Tennessee business. This partnership not only reduced costs and sped up the process but also established a more efficient and secure method for decommissioning large-scale computing systems in the future.

ORNL uses old radiation detectors repurposed into plaques

On Feb. 15, 2024, the one billionth item, also known as an “occupancy,” was scanned at the Port of Aqaba, Jordan, one of the early sites where radiation detection equipment was installed. This milestone shows the extent of countries committed to preventing the spread of radioactive material through the amount of data volunteered to ORNL for continuous improvement. As adversaries push the limits of smuggling dangerous material, this collaboration pushes back through science-backed analysis. 

ORNL scientists used molecular dynamics simulations, exascale computing, lab testing and analysis to accelerate the development of an energy-saving method to produce nanocellulosic fibers.

A team led by scientists at ORNL identified and demonstrated a method to process a plant-based material called nanocellulose that reduced energy needs by a whopping 21%, using simulations on the lab’s supercomputers and follow-on analysis.

Wavy photo representing high performance computing

Office of Science to announce a new research and development opportunity led by ORNL to advance technologies and drive new capabilities for future supercomputers. This industry research program worth $23 million, called New Frontiers, will initiate partnerships with multiple companies to accelerate the R&D of critical technologies with renewed emphasis on energy efficiency for the next generation of post-exascale computing in the 2029 and beyond time frame.

Illustration of oscillating UCI3 bonds

Researchers for the first time documented the specific chemistry dynamics and structure of high-temperature liquid uranium trichloride salt, a potential nuclear fuel source for next-generation reactors. 

The Frontier supercomputer simulated magnetic responses inside calcium-48, depicted by red and blue spheres. Insights into the nucleus’s fundamental forces could shed light on supernova dynamics.

Nuclear physicists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory recently used Frontier, the world’s most powerful supercomputer, to calculate the magnetic properties of calcium-48’s atomic nucleus. 

ORNL intern Elton Aba

Elton Aba, an intern at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, collaborated with researchers to explore an intriguing intersection: how biology can inform cybersecurity. Aba shared some of his findings on how biomimicry could help secure our nation’s critical infrastructure. 

Mohamad Zineddin

Mohamad Zineddin, a distinguished researcher in nuclear and radiological engineering, recently received the Roger Howsley Award for Excellence in Nuclear Security.