Fission Nuclear Science and Technology

Nuclear Energy

Nuclear power provides a significant clean energy source for our nation and the world. Oak Ridge National Laboratory provides science and technology to address issues facing the current and future utilization of nuclear reactors and the supporting nuclear systems infrastructure. ORNL is committed to leadership class research and development that integrates our comprehensive staff expertise, strategic resources, and facility capabilities to address the needs and interests of a diverse set of sponsors.

Our recent science and technology activities include research in computational methods and their application to nuclear systems design and safety; design and performance of irradiation and thermal-hydraulic experiments; instrumentation and controls; and regulatory research and support. The nuclear safety expertise and the computational, experiment, and technology development capabilities within ORNL are also applied to other R&D areas such as nuclear security and fusion and accelerator systems.