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ORNL researcher Louise Evans is working to ensure safeguards approaches and verification technologies are integrated early in the design process of advanced reactor technologies. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Researchers tackling national security challenges at ORNL are upholding an 80-year legacy of leadership in all things nuclear. Today, they’re developing the next generation of technologies that will help reduce global nuclear risk and enable safe, secure, peaceful use of nuclear materials, worldwide.

With support from the Quantum Science Center, a multi-institutional research team analyzed the potential of particles that show promise for quantum applications. Credit: Pixabay

A team of researchers including a member of the Quantum Science Center at ORNL has published a review paper on the state of the field of Majorana research. The paper primarily describes four major platforms that are capable of hosting these particles, as well as the progress made over the past decade in this area.

Frontier supercomputer sets new standard in molecular simulation

When scientists pushed the world’s fastest supercomputer to its limits, they found those limits stretched beyond even their biggest expectations. In the latest milestone, a team of engineers and scientists used Frontier to simulate a system of nearly half a trillion atoms — the largest system ever modeled and more than 400 times the size of the closest competition.

From left, J.D. Rice, Trevor Michelson and Chris Seck look at a monitor in Seck’s lab. The three are wearing safety glasses to protect against the laser beams used by the scanning vibrometer, which is helping Seck quantify vibration of an appliance in his lab. Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

ORNL scientists are working on a project to engineer and develop a cryogenic ion trap apparatus to simulate quantum spin liquids, a key research area in materials science and neutron scattering studies.

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. 

Researchers relied on support from ORNL’s Quantum Computing User Program to simulate a key quantum state at one of the largest scales reported. The findings could mark a step toward improving quantum simulations.  Credit: Getty Images

Researchers simulated a key quantum state at one of the largest scales reported, with support from the Quantum Computing User Program, or QCUP, at ORNL. 

Applications for the U.S. Quantum Information Science Summer School are open until March 15, 2024. Credit: Laddy Fields/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

From July 15 to 26, 2024, the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory will host the second U.S. Quantum Information Science, or QIS, Summer School.

ORNL’s Nagi Rao discusses the lab’s deployed “dark fiber” testbed for quantum networking at SC23 in Denver, Colorado. Credit: Mariam Kiran/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

ORNL’s successes in QIS and its forward-looking strategy were recently recognized in the form of three funding awards that will help ensure the laboratory remains a leader in advancing quantum computers and networks.

2023 Top Science Achievements at SNS & HFIR

The 2023 top science achievements from HFIR and SNS feature a broad range of materials research published in high impact journals such as Nature and Advanced Materials.

QSC Director Travis Humble, who gave a lunchtime talk on transitioning good ideas to device development, learns about one of the many quantum research efforts featured at the poster session. Credit: Alonda Hines/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

On Nov. 1, about 250 employees at Oak Ridge National Laboratory gathered in person and online for Quantum on the Quad, an event designed to collect input for a quantum roadmap currently in development. This document will guide the laboratory's efforts in quantum science and technology, including strategies for expanding its expertise to all facets of the field.