Filter News
Area of Research
News Topics
- (-) Fusion (28)
- (-) Machine Learning (21)
- 3-D Printing/Advanced Manufacturing (35)
- Advanced Reactors (8)
- Artificial Intelligence (45)
- Big Data (21)
- Bioenergy (49)
- Biology (57)
- Biomedical (28)
- Biotechnology (10)
- Buildings (17)
- Chemical Sciences (21)
- Clean Water (14)
- Climate Change (47)
- Composites (6)
- Computer Science (80)
- Coronavirus (17)
- Critical Materials (1)
- Cybersecurity (14)
- Decarbonization (43)
- Education (1)
- Emergency (2)
- Energy Storage (28)
- Environment (100)
- Exascale Computing (24)
- Fossil Energy (4)
- Frontier (23)
- Grid (23)
- High-Performance Computing (42)
- Hydropower (5)
- Isotopes (25)
- ITER (2)
- Materials (40)
- Materials Science (42)
- Mathematics (5)
- Mercury (7)
- Microelectronics (2)
- Microscopy (20)
- Molten Salt (1)
- Nanotechnology (16)
- National Security (33)
- Net Zero (8)
- Neutron Science (46)
- Nuclear Energy (52)
- Partnerships (14)
- Physics (26)
- Polymers (8)
- Quantum Computing (18)
- Quantum Science (28)
- Renewable Energy (1)
- Security (10)
- Simulation (29)
- Software (1)
- Space Exploration (12)
- Summit (30)
- Sustainable Energy (43)
- Transformational Challenge Reactor (3)
- Transportation (27)
Media Contacts
![ORNL scientists are currently using Proto-MPEX to perform necessary research and development that is needed to build MPEX. Credit: Genevieve Martin/Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-06/2019-P15057.jpg?h=c6980913&itok=OMsMVnNV)
Temperatures hotter than the center of the sun. Magnetic fields hundreds of thousands of times stronger than the earth’s. Neutrons energetic enough to change the structure of a material entirely.
![Coronavirus graphic](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-04/covid19_jh_0.png?h=d1cb525d&itok=PyngFUZw)
In the race to identify solutions to the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory are joining the fight by applying expertise in computational science, advanced manufacturing, data science and neutron science.
![Kat Royston](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-04/Kat%20Royston%20profile_0.jpg?h=036a71b7&itok=WTyE2n4S)
As a teenager, Kat Royston had a lot of questions. Then an advanced-placement class in physics convinced her all the answers were out there.
![Postdoctoral researcher Nischal Kafle positions a component for a portable plasma imaging diagnostic device at ORNL in February. The device, a project for ARPA-E, is built of off-the-shelf parts. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-03/2020-P00808.jpg?h=8f9cfe54&itok=TGI-lQiS)
The techniques Theodore Biewer and his colleagues are using to measure whether plasma has the right conditions to create fusion have been around awhile.
![Catherine Schuman during Hour of Code](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2019-12/IMG_0136_0.jpg?h=71976bb4&itok=56CtnbAH)
ORNL computer scientist Catherine Schuman returned to her alma mater, Harriman High School, to lead Hour of Code activities and talk to students about her job as a researcher.
![A conceptual illustration of proton-proton fusion in which two protons fuse to form a deuteron. Image courtesy of William Detmold. A conceptual illustration of proton-proton fusion in which two protons fuse to form a deuteron. Image courtesy of William Detmold.](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/news/images/ppfusion%5B2%5D%20R1.png?itok=i8NTzm-5)
Nuclear physicists are using the nation’s most powerful supercomputer, Titan, at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility to study particle interactions important to energy production in the Sun and stars and to propel the search for new physics discoveries Direct calculatio...
![The interior of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT’s) Alcator C-Mod tokamak. A team led by Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory’s C.S. Chang recently used the Titan supercomputer The interior of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT’s) Alcator C-Mod tokamak. A team led by Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory’s C.S. Chang recently used the Titan supercomputer](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/Chang1%20copy_0.jpg?itok=4mDUjXsj)
The same fusion reactions that power the sun also occur inside a tokamak, a device that uses magnetic fields to confine and control plasmas of 100-plus million degrees. Under extreme temperatures and pressure, hydrogen atoms can fuse together, creating new helium atoms and simulta...
![Pellet selector Pellet selector](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/news/images/Fusion%20pellet%20art%202.jpg?itok=4KhWRcQt)
When it’s up and running, the ITER fusion reactor will be very big and very hot, with more than 800 cubic meters of hydrogen plasma reaching 170 million degrees centigrade. The systems that fuel and control it, on the other hand, will be small and very cold. Pellets of frozen gas will be shot int...
![ORNL Image](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/legacy_files/Image%20Library/Main%20Nav/ORNL/News/Features/2014/iter_3d_300.jpg?itok=7DLRz2SC)
ITER, the international fusion research facility now under construction in St. Paul-lez-Durance, France, has been called a puzzle of a million pieces. US ITER staff at Oak Ridge National Laboratory are using an affordable tool—desktop three-dimensional printing, also known as additive printing—to help them design and configure components more efficiently and affordably.