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Frontier’s exascale power enables the Energy, Exascale and Earth System Model-Multiscale Modeling Framework — or E3SM-MMF — project to run years’ worth of climate simulations at unprecedented speed and scale. Credit: Mark Taylor/Sandia National Laboratories, U.S. Dept. of Energy

The world’s first exascale supercomputer will help scientists peer into the future of global climate change and open a window into weather patterns that could affect the world a generation from now.

Christian Salvador is studying natural and manmade aerosols at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to improve our understanding of how atmospheric pollutants affect ecosystems and the Earth’s climate. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

While completing his undergraduate studies in the Philippines, atmospheric chemist Christian Salvador caught a glimpse of the horizon. What he saw concerned him: a thin, black line hovering above the city.

An electromagnetic pulse, or EMP, can be triggered by a nuclear explosion in the atmosphere or by an electromagnetic generator in a vehicle or aircraft. Here’s the chain of reactions it could cause to harm electrical equipment on the ground. Credit: Andy Sproles/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Researchers at ORNL have been leading a project to understand how a high-altitude electromagnetic pulse, or EMP, could threaten power plants.

ORNL scientists developed a method that improves the accuracy of the CRISPR Cas9 gene editing tool used to modify microbes for renewable fuels and chemicals production. This research draws on the lab’s expertise in quantum biology, artificial intelligence and synthetic biology. Credit: Philip Gray/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Scientists at ORNL used their expertise in quantum biology, artificial intelligence and bioengineering to improve how CRISPR Cas9 genome editing tools work on organisms like microbes that can be modified to produce renewable fuels and chemicals.

Hilda Klasky

Hilda Klasky, an R&D staff member in the Scalable Biomedical Modeling group at ORNL, has been selected as a senior member of the Association of Computing Machinery, or ACM.

Seeing the difference Ac-225 could make to cancer patients made Raina Setzer want to come to ORNL to directly work with the isotope. Credit: Allison Peacock/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Raina Setzer knows the work she does matters. That’s because she’s already seen it from the other side. Setzer, a radiochemical processing technician in Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Isotope Processing and Manufacturing Division, joined the lab in June 2023.

ORNL researchers Ganesh Ghimire, Sudershan Gangrade, Shih-Chieh Kao and Michael Kelleher

ORNL researchers tested a new modeling framework that simulates a flood event from precipitation to inundation.

The sun sets behind the ORNL Visitor Center in this aerial photo from April 2023. Credit: Kase Clapp/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

In fiscal year 2023 — Oct. 1–Sept. 30, 2023 — Oak Ridge National Laboratory was awarded more than $8 million in technology maturation funding through the Department of Energy’s Technology Commercialization Fund, or TCF.

ORNL’s organocatalyst deconstructs mixed plastics at different temperatures, which facilitates recovering their individual monomers separately, in reusable form. Credit: Jill Hemman/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Little of the mixed consumer plastics thrown away or placed in recycle bins actually ends up being recycled. Nearly 90% is buried in landfills or incinerated at commercial facilities that generate greenhouse gases and airborne toxins. Neither outcome is ideal for the environment.

Steven Campbell’s technical expertise supports integration of power electronics innovations from ORNL labs to the electrical grid. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Steven Campbell can often be found deep among tall cases of power electronics, hunkered in his oversized blue lab coat, with 1500 volts of electricity flowing above his head. When interrupted in his laboratory at ORNL, Campbell will usually smile and duck his head.