News Highlights - Historic

May 2008
New titanium manufacturing process saves energy, helps protect troops

Whether for stopping cars or bullets, titanium is the material of choice, but it has always been too expensive for all but the most specialized applications.  More ...

Audio Spot: Energy -- Rubber hits the road…

Tractor-trailers operating with single wider tires recorded improved fuel efficiency numbers when compared to rigs operating on dual tires.  More ...

Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles may have unexpected value

The plug-in hybrid electric vehicle envisioned by DOE would be plugged at night into a home wall outlet, connecting the car to a local electrical distribution system that would recharge the battery.  More ...

April 2008
Directors named for two new ORNL divisions

Johney Boyd Green Jr. has been named director for the Energy and Transportation Science Division while Ken Tobin Jr. has been named director of the Measurement Science and Systems Engineering Division  More ...

March 2008
ORNL study shows hybrid effect on power distribution

A recent ORNL study examined how an expected increase in ownership of hybrid electric cars and trucks will affect the power grid depending on what time of day or night the vehicles are charged.  More ...

ORNL part of project to help power developing nations

With a proposed fiscal year 2009 budget of $20 million, the effort by ORNL and partners to develop grid-appropriate reactors is gaining steam.  More ...

Latin American Imports Help U.S. Meet Energy Goals

Latin American nations could become important suppliers of ethanol for world markets in coming decades, according to a recently released ORNL study.  More ...

January 2008
Oak Ridge to lead auto supplier R&D partnership

ORNL will lead research and development work for the automotive supplier industry initiated through the USAutoPARTs collaborative.  More ...

December 2007
Nevada company, ORNL develop potential lifesaver

A Las Vegas business and ORNL are improving the odds for people medically at risk from dehydration or congestive heart failure.  More ...

ORNL super water repellent could cause big wave in market

A water repellent developed by researchers at ORNL outperforms nature at its best and could open a floodgate of commercial possibilities.  More ...

November 2007
Vinod Sikka honored as ORNL's top scientist for 2007

Vinod Sikka has received the UT-Battelle Director's Award for Outstanding Individual Accomplishment in Science and Technology. He was also honored with ORNL's Inventor of the Year Award.  More ...

October 2007
ORNL Partnership Reaches Across Atlantic

The Global Lab has been established as part of the AtlanTICC Alliance, a sustainable energy research consortium comprising Imperial College London, Georgia Institute of Technology and ORNL.  More ...

ORNL's Saed Mirzadeh Wins Seaborg Medal Award

Saed Mirzadeh whose work has led to development of new treatments for cancer and other diseases, is the recipient of the American Nuclear Society's 2007 Seaborg Medal Award  More ...

September 2007
Solar experts gather at ORNL for summit

Researchers, engineers, architects and other renewable energy experts from the region convene at ORNL Oct. 24-25 for the first Southeast Solar Summit.  More ...

August 2007
New roof system means savings for homeowners

Homeowners could see their summer utility bills fall by 8 percent or more with a new roof and attic system being developed at ORNL.  More ...

July 2007
Losing Weight

The Department of Energy's current goal for 2020 is to develop materials and manufacturing technologies that, if implemented in high volume, could reduce the average weight of vehicle structure and subsystems by 50%.  More ...

Fuel cell development bolstered by agreement

An agreement between ORNL and Research Centre Julich in Germany could ultimately lead to lower cost, higher performance fuel cells for transportation and portable power applications.  More ...

ORNL wins six R&D 100 Awards

Researchers at ORNL have won six R&D 100 Awards, pushing ORNL's total to 134. The awards are given annually by R&D Magazine to the year's most technologically significant new products.  More ...

June 2007
Energy—New Life for Reactors

Comprehensive risk analysis provided by ORNL researchers plays a crucial role in keeping billions of dollars of electricity generation on line—without compromising safety.  More ...

Sensors for Energy Security

Thousands of fuel storage tanks across the country could be protected from sabotage with an integrated wireless sensor system developed by engineers at ORNL and industry partners.  More ...

Hybrid solar lighting earns national technology transfer award

An ORNL developed technology has earned an Excellence in Technology Transfer Award from the Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer.  More ...

May 2007
Laser-based device offers alternative to video surveillance

Surveillance systems take on a new look with a technology developed by researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.  More ...

April 2007
ORNL part of team to win 2006 Ohio Governor's Award

For the second year in a row, ORNL researchers have been part of industry teams to win the Ohio Governor's Award for Energy Efficiency.  More ...

March 2007
ORNL researcher earns prestigious award for paper

Fusion Energy Division's Masanori Murakami has won the Nuclear Fusion Award from the IAEA for a co-authored paper.  More ...

February 2007
Head of U.S. ITER project named IEEE Fellow

Oak Ridge physicist Ned Sauthoff has been named a Fellow of the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers.  More ...

Energy—Hot savings...

Homeowners could see their electric bills reduced considerably with Oak Ridge National Laboratory's integrated heat pump.  More ...

January 2007
Materials—Lasers in a stir...

Researchers at ORNL have developed a hybrid process where they use a laser in combination with friction-stir welding (FSW).  More ...

ORNL aids diesel parts manufacturers

Researchers at the HTML help diesel engine and parts manufacturers develop technologies to meet tough new emissions regulations for 2007.  More ...

Polymer material may ease hydrogen flow for future service stations

Fiber-reinforced polymer material to construct pipelines that will transport hydrogen to service stations is being developed.  More ...

December 2006
Engineering — Real World Stress

To see if your system or instrument will stand up to real-world stresses, put it through its paces in Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Environmental Effects Laboratory.  More ...

Electricity — Power to spare

With thousands of substation power transformers around the nation operating on borrowed time, ORNL and partners are focusing on materials for a new generation of transformers.  More ...

November 2006
Science for the Long Haul

Scientists at the National Transportation Research Center are applying state-of-the-art technology and instrumentation to making the trucking industry more efficient.  More ...

October 2006
Ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel

New low-sulfur diesel available at gas stations and travel centers across the nation has Oak Ridge National Laboratory research behind it.  More ...

Checking the Grid

ORNL researchers, in a partnership with TVA, have developed a visualization system that gives responders a real-time sense of the state of a power grid before, during and after a potentially catastrophic storm or other emergency.  More ...

September 2006
ORNL helps introduce new superconducting cable

Twenty thousand households in Columbus, Ohio, are about to receive electricity through a high temperature superconducting cable developed at ORNL  More ...

U.S. ITER Project Completes Management Team

A team of scientists and engineers has been chosen to manage the United States' role in a multinational project to harness the power of fusion.  More ...

August 2006
ORNL hybrid lighting technology gaining momentum around nation

With five hybrid solar lighting systems already in place and another 20 scheduled to be installed in the next couple of months, the forecast is looking sunny for a technology developed at ORNL.  More ...

July 2006
ORNL wins its first Nano 50 award

ORNL's high-temperature superconducting (HTS) wire technology "HTS Wires Enabled via 3D Self- Assembly of Insulating Nanodots" has been named a winner in the second annual Nanotech Briefs Nano 50 Awards.  More ...

June 2006
Three ORNL scientists recognized for patent milestone

Three Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers have been honored as Battelle Distinguished Inventors for obtaining 14 or more patents during their careers at the Laboratory.  More ...

EESD scientist receives Science Spectrum honor

Justin Baba of ORNL's Engineering Science and Technology Division is the recipient of Science Spectrum magazine's 2006 Most Promising Scientist Award.  More ...

ORNL engineers take page out of nature's playbook

Designing complex systems such as nuclear reactors for space applications is a daunting task, but Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers have made it less so by borrowing from nature.  More ...

May 2006
Christensen Named EES Director

Dr. Dana C. Christensen has been named as Associate Laboratory Director for the Energy and Engineering Sciences Directorate effective 6/5/2006.  More ...

Reducing industrial energy costs

A new DOE initiative is helping large industrial plants and factories to quickly assess and identify how they can operate with greater energy efficiency. DOE's Save Energy Now program, introduced in the fall of 2005 by Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman, has scheduled Energy Savings Assessments to be conducted in 2006 at 200 large industrial sites in 39 states. The effort is being managed by a group headed by Tony Wright of Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Engineering Science and Technology Division. During a time when companies are facing a period of tightening supplies and rising energy costs, the assessments already conducted in 2006 have resulted in recommendations equivalent to $95 million in annual saved energy costs. The funding source is DOE's Industrial Technologies Program.

[Contact: Fred Strohl; 865.574.4165; strohlhf@ornl.gov]

April 2006
ORNL uses nanodots to boost superconductivity

Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers have demonstrated a way to sustain high supercurrents in wires in the presence of a large applied magnetic field -- a step which could greatly expand practical applications of superconductors.  More ...

March 2006
Carbon fiber cars could put U.S. on highway to efficiency

Highways of tomorrow might be filled with lighter, cleaner and more fuel-efficient automobiles made in part from recycled plastics, lignin from wood pulp and cellulose.  More...

February 2006
ORNL contributes to developing fuel cell technology

Advancing hydrogen fuel cell technology as an alternative energy source to power automobiles is the goal of researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory.  More...

Infrared technology finds hidden art work

An infrared imaging technology used to study the composition of materials has been used by a researcher at the DOE's Oak Ridge National Laboratory to find a hidden sketch covered over by an 1880s painting of a Civil War general.  More...

U.S. ITER Project Office relocating to ORNL

The U.S. project office for ITER, a major international fusion experiment, is relocating from Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory to Oak Ridge National Laboratory.  More...

January 2006
Early Skin Cancer Detector

Preliminary results of an optical sensing technique for early detection of melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, are encouraging, according to developer Justin Baba of Oak Ridge National Laboratory. While traditional techniques involve cost-intensive physical examinations and often unnecessary tissue biopsies, this technique is non-invasive and would provide rapid and efficient early detection of skin cancer.

A prototype version of the instrument, which utilizes multiple wavelengths of polarized light, was used to image nine consenting patients at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. Researchers were evaluating the ability of the instrument to distinguish between cancerous and non-cancerous lesions. Data gathered during this recent trial will serve as the basis for a National Institutes of Health proposal for further instrumentation development and miniaturization of the device.

Each year, melanoma accounts for about 7,600 deaths in the United States alone.

[Media Relations Contact: Ron Walli; (865) 576-0226; wallira@ornl.gov]

Rushton Named to Lead Nuclear Science & Technology Division

Dr. James E. Rushton has been named to lead ORNL's Nuclear Science and Technology Division effective immediately. Dr. Rushton brings more than 30 years of experience in advanced nuclear technology to the position. More...

November 2005
Duraloy Technologies and ORNL license agreement will improve U.S. steel mills

Technology developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory that dramatically improves efficiency and operation of steel mills has been licensed to Duraloy Technologies, a Scottdale, Pa.,-based foundry and fabricator of high alloy steels. More...