Filter News
Area of Research
News Topics
- (-) Bioenergy (1)
- (-) Composites (2)
- (-) Environment (3)
- (-) Frontier (1)
- (-) Fusion (7)
- (-) Molten Salt (1)
- 3-D Printing/Advanced Manufacturing (4)
- Advanced Reactors (2)
- Artificial Intelligence (1)
- Biomedical (2)
- Buildings (3)
- Chemical Sciences (17)
- Climate Change (3)
- Computer Science (1)
- Coronavirus (1)
- Critical Materials (4)
- Decarbonization (5)
- Energy Storage (5)
- Exascale Computing (1)
- Grid (2)
- High-Performance Computing (1)
- Irradiation (1)
- Isotopes (4)
- Materials (40)
- Materials Science (7)
- Microscopy (3)
- Nanotechnology (3)
- Net Zero (2)
- Neutron Science (8)
- Nuclear Energy (12)
- Partnerships (7)
- Physics (9)
- Polymers (4)
- Quantum Computing (2)
- Quantum Science (1)
- Renewable Energy (1)
- Simulation (3)
- Sustainable Energy (1)
- Transportation (2)
Media Contacts
Two fusion energy leaders have joined ORNL in the Fusion and Fission Energy and Science Directorate, or FFESD.
ORNL is leading three research collaborations with fusion industry partners through the Innovation Network for FUSion Energy, or INFUSE, program that will focus on resolving technical challenges and developing innovative solutions to make practical fusion energy a reality.
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.
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.
In a finding that helps elucidate how molten salts in advanced nuclear reactors might behave, scientists have shown how electrons interacting with the ions of the molten salt can form three states with different properties. Understanding these states can help predict the impact of radiation on the performance of salt-fueled reactors.
ORNL will lead three new DOE-funded projects designed to bring fusion energy to the grid on a rapid timescale.
ORNL has been selected to lead an Energy Earthshot Research Center, or EERC, focused on developing chemical processes that use sustainable methods instead of burning fossil fuels to radically reduce industrial greenhouse gas emissions to stem climate change and limit the crisis of a rapidly warming planet.
Creating energy the way the sun and stars do — through nuclear fusion — is one of the grand challenges facing science and technology. What’s easy for the sun and its billions of relatives turns out to be particularly difficult on Earth.
ORNL will team up with six of eight companies that are advancing designs and research and development for fusion power plants with the mission to achieve a pilot-scale demonstration of fusion within a decade.
As renewable sources of energy such as wind and sun power are being increasingly added to the country’s electrical grid, old-fashioned nuclear energy is also being primed for a resurgence.