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![By producing 50 grams of plutonium-238, Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers have demonstrated the nation’s ability to provide a valuable energy source for deep space missions. By producing 50 grams of plutonium-238, Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers have demonstrated the nation’s ability to provide a valuable energy source for deep space missions.](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/front_page_slide_assets/2015-P07524.jpg?itok=MEy22Na3)
With the production of 50 grams of plutonium-238, researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have restored a U.S. capability dormant for nearly 30 years and set the course to provide power for NASA and other missions.
![Default image of ORNL entry sign](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-09/default-thumbnail.jpg?h=553c93cc&itok=N_Kd1DVR)
![ORNL Image](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2015-P01929_article.jpg?itok=zGsgfBWv)
From the bluebird painting propped against her office wall and the deer she mentions seeing outside her office window, Linda Lewis might be mistaken for a wildlife biologist at first glance. But rather than trailing animal tracks, Lewis, a researcher at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, is more interested in marks left behind by humans.
![Default image of ORNL entry sign](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-09/default-thumbnail.jpg?h=553c93cc&itok=N_Kd1DVR)
Less than 1 percent of Earth’s water is drinkable. Removing salt and other minerals from our biggest available source of water—seawater—may help satisfy a growing global population thirsty for fresh water for drinking, farming, transportation, heating, cooling and industry. But desalination is an energy-intensive process, which concerns those wanting to expand its application.
![Default image of ORNL entry sign](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-09/default-thumbnail.jpg?h=553c93cc&itok=N_Kd1DVR)
Graphene, a strong, lightweight carbon honeycombed structure that’s only one atom thick, holds great promise for energy research and development. Recently scientists with the Fluid Interface Reactions, Structures, and Transport (FIRST) Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC), led by the US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, revealed graphene can serve as a proton-selective permeable membrane, providing a new basis for streamlined and more efficient energy technologies such as improved fuel cells.
![ORNL Image](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/legacy_files/Image%20Library/Main%20Nav/ORNL/News/News%20Releases/2014/CdTe_300.jpg?itok=drHmul6L)
Treating cadmium-telluride (CdTe) solar cell materials with cadmium-chloride improves their efficiency, but researchers have not fully understood why.