Some less-often-told tales from ORNL's colorful past.
"This wonderful old reactor." Veterans celebrated the Graphite Reactor's 50th anniversary in 1993.
Presidential visit, 1992: George H.W. Bush visited ORNL to sign a CRADA.
When Tiger Teams prowled: Tom Row spearheaded the controvers...
Others claim credit for generating the first electricity through nuclear power, but it happened at ORNL first, a few years after the accomplishment of the Manhattan Project mission at X-10 and the end of World War II. Einstein's famous letter to FDR mentioned "vast amounts of power" from uranium,...
When the end of the Holifield Radioactive Ion Beam Facility was ordained in 2012, it came as a surprise to many. The facility had just completed nearly $10 million in upgrades and researchers were looking forward to new experiments at the facility that provides ORNL with its most recognizable landma...
Over its three-quarters of a century history ORNL has employed many people in the area. It stands to reason several families have contributed more than one member to the Lab's work force -- in some cases multiple generations of the same families. This year's 75th Anniversary planners asked staff mem...
The presidential primaries preceding the Election of 1992 were just cranking up when word came the incumbent, George H.W. Bush, would come to ORNL on Feb. 19 for the signing of a cooperative R&D agreement between the Laboratory, Y-12 and Coors Structural Ceramics Company.
Word of the impendin...
A film crew from Thailand visited ORNL in 2015, retracing the steps of that nation's revered King Bhumbidol Adulyadej. ORNL was a stop on the young king's high-level U.S. tour in 1960; photos from the visit show him touring the Oak Ridge Research Reactor with an attentive Atomic Energy Commission an...
In 1994 the Soviet Union had dissolved and the Cold War was considered over. A resulting and obviously debatable line of thought held that the national laboratory system, which was considered by many a Cold War appliance for winning the nuclear arms race, was obsolete. Even less informed ideas we...