![White car (Porsche Taycan) with the hood popped is inside the building with an american flag on the wall.](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_square_large/public/2024-06/2024-P09317.jpg?h=8f9cfe54&itok=m6sQhZRq)
Filter News
Area of Research
News Topics
- (-) Advanced Reactors (2)
- (-) Frontier (4)
- (-) Isotopes (12)
- (-) Mathematics (1)
- (-) Space Exploration (6)
- 3-D Printing/Advanced Manufacturing (27)
- Artificial Intelligence (7)
- Big Data (5)
- Bioenergy (13)
- Biology (23)
- Biomedical (10)
- Biotechnology (5)
- Buildings (13)
- Chemical Sciences (7)
- Clean Water (8)
- Climate Change (11)
- Composites (6)
- Computer Science (30)
- Coronavirus (10)
- Critical Materials (5)
- Cybersecurity (5)
- Decarbonization (7)
- Energy Storage (22)
- Environment (39)
- Exascale Computing (2)
- Fusion (9)
- Grid (11)
- High-Performance Computing (19)
- ITER (4)
- Machine Learning (1)
- Materials (32)
- Materials Science (24)
- Mercury (3)
- Microscopy (10)
- Nanotechnology (10)
- National Security (7)
- Net Zero (1)
- Neutron Science (18)
- Nuclear Energy (9)
- Physics (3)
- Polymers (5)
- Quantum Computing (5)
- Quantum Science (12)
- Security (3)
- Statistics (1)
- Summit (9)
- Sustainable Energy (35)
- Transportation (21)
Media Contacts
![ORNL welder Devin Johnson uses a new orbital welder to seal a hollow target in a glovebox in the lab’s Radiochemical Engineering Development Center. The new welder makes a clean seam on the metal target, eliminating the need for hand-finishing afterward. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2021-01/2021-P00359.jpg?h=8f9cfe54&itok=_g8_FpZZ)
A better way of welding targets for Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s plutonium-238 production has sped up the process and improved consistency and efficiency. This advancement will ultimately benefit the lab’s goal to make enough Pu-238 – the isotope that powers NASA’s deep space missions – to yield 1.5 kilograms of plutonium oxide annually by 2026.
![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.
![Processing plutonium-238 Processing plutonium-238](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/news/images/Pu-238%20art.jpg?itok=3k_Y0YT_)
Since its 1977 launch, NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft has travelled farther than any other piece of human technology. It is also the only human-made object to have entered interstellar space. More recently, the agency’s New Horizons mission flew past Pluto on July 14, giving us our first close-up lo...