Filter News
Area of Research
- (-) Isotopes (3)
- Advanced Manufacturing (2)
- Biological Systems (1)
- Biology and Environment (36)
- Clean Energy (39)
- Computational Biology (1)
- Computer Science (1)
- Electricity and Smart Grid (1)
- Fusion and Fission (20)
- Fusion Energy (4)
- Materials (33)
- Materials for Computing (5)
- National Security (17)
- Neutron Science (36)
- Nuclear Science and Technology (17)
- Quantum information Science (4)
- Supercomputing (33)
Media Contacts
![Plutonium oxide is loaded onto a truck for shipping. Adam Parkison/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-09/PXL_20230620_120836896_0.jpg?h=2848f5af&itok=Nh31DLuy)
In June, ORNL hit a milestone not seen in more than three decades: producing a production-quality amount of plutonium-238
![The Perseverance rover](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-07/pia23492_0.jpg?h=d1cb525d&itok=A5U6cgBE)
On Feb. 18, the world will be watching as NASA’s Perseverance rover makes its final descent into Jezero Crater on the surface of Mars. Mars 2020 is the first NASA mission that uses plutonium-238 produced at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
![asset management](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-05/Picture9.png?h=cf4f3851&itok=rVU02eNT)
East Tennessee occupies a special place in nuclear history. In 1943, the world’s first continuously operating reactor began operating on land that would become ORNL.