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The transportation and industrial sectors together account for more than 50% of the country’s carbon footprint. Defossilization could help reduce new emissions from these and other difficult-to-electrify segments of the U.S. economy.

Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and six other Department of Energy national laboratories have developed a United States-based perspective for achieving net-zero carbon emissions. 

ORNL’s Erin Webb is co-leading a new Circular Bioeconomy Systems Convergent Research Initiative focused on advancing production and use of renewable carbon from Tennessee to meet societal needs. Credit: Genevieve Martin/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

ORNL’s Erin Webb is co-leading a new Circular Bioeconomy Systems Convergent Research Initiative focused on advancing production and use of renewable carbon from Tennessee to meet societal needs. 

Chuck Greenfield, former assistant director of the DII-D National Fusion Program at General Atomics, has joined ORNL as ITER R&D Lead.

Chuck Greenfield, former assistant director of the DIII-D National Fusion Program at General Atomics, has joined ORNL as ITER R&D Lead. 
 

ORNL

Two different teams that included Oak Ridge National Laboratory employees were honored Feb. 20 with Secretary’s Honor Achievement Awards from the Department of Energy. This is DOE's highest form of employee recognition. 

In a win for chemistry, inventors at ORNL have designed a closed-loop path for synthesizing an exceptionally tough carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer, or CFRP, and later recovering all of its starting materials.

In a win for chemistry, inventors at ORNL have designed a closed-loop path for synthesizing an exceptionally tough carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer, or CFRP, and later recovering all of its starting materials.

NSBP Annual Conference attendees came to ORNL on Nov. 10, 2023. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

ORNL and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, co-hosted the 2023 National Society of Black Physicists Annual Conference with the theme "Frontiers in Physics: From Quantum to Materials to the Cosmos.” As part of the three-day conference held near UT, attendees took a 30-mile trip to the ORNL campus for facility tours, science talks and workshops.

ORNL’s Tomás Rush examines a culture as part of his research into the plant-fungus relationship that can help or hinder ecosystem health. Credit: Genevieve Martin/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

New computational framework speeds discovery of fungal metabolites, key to plant health and used in drug therapies and for other uses. 
 

Researchers at Corning have found that understanding the stability of the rings of atoms in glass materials can help predict the performance of glass products.

Corning uses neutron scattering to study the stability of different types of glass. Recently, researchers for the company have found that understanding the stability of the rings of atoms in glass materials can help predict the performance of glass products.

Pictured is Venugopal Koikal Varma, group leader for ORNL’s Remote Systems group. ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

ORNL will lead a new DOE-funded project designed to accelerate bringing fusion energy to the grid. The Accelerate award focuses on developing a fusion power plant design concept that supports remote maintenance and repair methods for the plasma-facing components in fusion power plants.

Howard Wilson and Gary Staebler

Two fusion energy leaders have joined ORNL in the Fusion and Fission Energy and Science Directorate, or FFESD.