Accelerating our research impact
During fiscal year 2021, researchers across our directorate – fusion, fission, US ITER and MPEX – increased their publication accomplishments. The impact of these research efforts was one of the highlights of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm’s virtual visit at ORNL (see internal link to access video) on September 28 as the fiscal year drew to a close. Let’s take a moment to celebrate our successes.
—Kathy McCarthy, Associate Laboratory Director, October/November 2021
Jason Harp, group leader of nuclear fuel element performance, was one of FFESD’s staff who published a paper in a high-impact journal. His paper “Cr-doped U3Si2 composite fuels under steam corrosion” was in the journal Corrosion Science, which has an impact factor of 7.2.
Improving the quantity and quality of our R&D
During FY 2021, fusion and fission staff contributed to or led research presented in 235 journal articles, 174 conference papers, 350 ORNL technical reports, and six book chapters. This resulted in increased publication tallies across our directorate – for the Fusion Energy Division, for the Nuclear Energy Fuel Cycle Division, and for US ITER.
“I think that the increase in quantity and quality that we saw in research publications came from more staff being engaged in the writing and publishing process,” said Jeremy Busby, Division Director of Nuclear Energy and Fuel Cycle. “In nuclear energy, for example, more than 95% of our RP and PD staff were active this last year, and we published articles in eight high-impact journals.”
The impact of our directorate’s research often has global implications, as demonstrated by fusion research on disruption mitigation that led to five lead author papers at the 2021 IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) Fusion Energy Conference. The papers presented ORNL experts’ accomplishments in developing disruption mitigation techniques with cryogenic shattered pellets on US and international tokamaks in support of the international ITER fusion experiment. This injector technology developed by ORNL was tested on tokamaks in the United Kingdom and South Korea as well as the United States, with the results extrapolated with modeling to support the design of the ITER disruption mitigation system.
“In addition to leading to the publication of five papers, this research also enabled ORNL to execute a DOE notable outcome milestone and a critical ITER research task,” said Mickey Wade, Division Director of the Fusion Energy Division.
As we increased the quantity and quality of our number of research publications, we also saw strong metrics in patent applications and software licenses. These indicators demonstrate our success in moving our research projects toward industry adoption.
“These are good and encouraging signs for the impact we’re making and legacy we’re leaving,” Busby said.