Filter News
Area of Research
News Topics
- (-) 3-D Printing/Advanced Manufacturing (35)
- (-) Artificial Intelligence (10)
- (-) Bioenergy (18)
- (-) Clean Water (3)
- (-) Exascale Computing (5)
- (-) Physics (24)
- (-) Transportation (24)
- Advanced Reactors (15)
- Big Data (14)
- Biology (7)
- Biomedical (25)
- Biotechnology (2)
- Buildings (1)
- Chemical Sciences (5)
- Climate Change (11)
- Composites (5)
- Computer Science (61)
- Coronavirus (23)
- Critical Materials (7)
- Cybersecurity (9)
- Decarbonization (1)
- Energy Storage (24)
- Environment (39)
- Frontier (1)
- Fusion (19)
- Grid (10)
- High-Performance Computing (3)
- Isotopes (14)
- Machine Learning (8)
- Materials (2)
- Materials Science (50)
- Mathematics (2)
- Mercury (5)
- Microscopy (14)
- Molten Salt (6)
- Nanotechnology (26)
- National Security (2)
- Neutron Science (41)
- Nuclear Energy (42)
- Polymers (12)
- Quantum Science (17)
- Security (10)
- Space Exploration (4)
- Summit (19)
- Sustainable Energy (24)
- Transformational Challenge Reactor (5)
Media Contacts
![ORNL researchers and energy storage startup Sparkz have developed a cobalt-free cathode material for use in lithium-ion batteries Credit: Ilias Belharouak/Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-10/cobalt-sparkz_0.jpg?h=cd715a88&itok=vTU2FKUY)
Four research teams from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and their technologies have received 2020 R&D 100 Awards.
![Oak Ridge National Laboratory entrance sign](/themes/custom/ornl/images/default-thumbnail.jpg)
![Oak Ridge National Laboratory entrance sign](/themes/custom/ornl/images/default-thumbnail.jpg)
Rufus Ritchie came from Kentucky coal country, a region not known for producing physicists.
![EERE Assistant Secretary Daniel Simmons, center right, with ORNL’s Xin Sun, EERE Deputy Assistant Secretary Alex Fitzsimmons and ORNL’s Moe Khaleel, helped launch new capabilities to advance connected and automated vehicle technologies at the DOE National Transportation Research Center at ORNL. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-10/25acbb45-a7e5-43e8-844d-598afb8150c4_0.jpg?h=165596a9&itok=5Bt--mUR)
ORNL and Department of Energy officials dedicated the launch of two clean energy research initiatives that focus on the recycling and recovery of advanced manufacturing materials and on connected and
![The n-helium-3 precision experiment, conducted at ORNL, measured the weak force between protons and neutrons by detecting the tiny electrical signal produced when a neutron and a helium-3 nucleus combine and then decay as they move through the helium gas target cell. Credit: Andy Sproles/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-10/3b864f25-612d-4d38-bb34-62f65072f45f_0.jpg?h=40d6a7d7&itok=08P4u7m8)
Through a one-of-a-kind experiment at ORNL, nuclear physicists have precisely measured the weak interaction between protons and neutrons. The result quantifies the weak force theory as predicted by the Standard Model of Particle Physics.
![ORNL scientists used new techniques to create long lengths of a composite copper-carbon nanotube material with improved properties for use in electric vehicle traction motors. Credit: Andy Sproles/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-09/nano_cu_08noLabels_0.jpg?h=4d70cb2a&itok=iFR0YlTM)
Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory used new techniques to create a composite that increases the electrical current capacity of copper wires, providing a new material that can be scaled for use in ultra-efficient, power-dense electric vehicle traction motors.
![An interactive visualization shows potential progression of BECCS to address carbon dioxide reduction goals. Credit: ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-09/BECCSMap_0.png?h=9697e475&itok=garhzl6i)
The combination of bioenergy with carbon capture and storage could cost-effectively sequester hundreds of millions of metric tons per year of carbon dioxide in the United States, making it a competitive solution for carbon management, according to a new analysis by ORNL scientists.
![Zhenglong Li, an ORNL scientist in the Energy and Transportation Science Division, holds a sample of a catalyst material used to covert ethanol into butene-rich mixed olefins, important intermediates that can then be readily processed into aviation fuels. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-09/2020-P12928_0.jpg?h=a6967b5f&itok=qFl1qJuz)
Prometheus Fuels has licensed an ethanol-to-jet-fuel conversion process developed by researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The ORNL technology will enable cost-competitive production of jet fuel and co-production of butadiene for use in renewable polymer synthesis.
![Xunxiang Hu, a Eugene P. Wigner Fellow in ORNL’s Materials Science and Technology Division, designed this machine to produce large, crack-free pieces of yttrium hydride to be used as a moderator in the core of ORNL’s Transformational Challenge Reactor and other microreactors. Credit: Xunxiang Hu/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-09/HuYHxphoto.jpg?h=eef83f16&itok=7KfkqQLh)
About 60 years ago, scientists discovered that a certain rare earth metal-hydrogen mixture, yttrium, could be the ideal moderator to go inside small, gas-cooled nuclear reactors.