Filter News
Area of Research
- (-) Isotopes (4)
- (-) Nuclear Science and Technology (12)
- Advanced Manufacturing (10)
- Biology and Environment (36)
- Building Technologies (2)
- Clean Energy (89)
- Computer Science (3)
- Electricity and Smart Grid (1)
- Energy Sciences (1)
- Functional Materials for Energy (1)
- Fusion and Fission (8)
- Fusion Energy (4)
- Isotope Development and Production (1)
- Materials (87)
- Materials Characterization (1)
- Materials for Computing (17)
- Materials Under Extremes (1)
- National Security (6)
- Neutron Science (26)
- Quantum information Science (1)
- Supercomputing (26)
- Transportation Systems (1)
News Topics
- (-) Materials Science (5)
- (-) Molten Salt (4)
- (-) Space Exploration (9)
- (-) Sustainable Energy (1)
- 3-D Printing/Advanced Manufacturing (4)
- Advanced Reactors (11)
- Bioenergy (1)
- Biomedical (7)
- Climate Change (1)
- Computer Science (3)
- Coronavirus (1)
- Cybersecurity (1)
- Decarbonization (1)
- Energy Storage (1)
- Environment (2)
- Fusion (8)
- Irradiation (1)
- Isotopes (29)
- Materials (4)
- National Security (1)
- Neutron Science (5)
- Nuclear Energy (39)
- Physics (2)
- Security (1)
- Transformational Challenge Reactor (3)
Media Contacts
In June, ORNL hit a milestone not seen in more than three decades: producing a production-quality amount of plutonium-238
More than 50 current employees and recent retirees from ORNL received Department of Energy Secretary’s Honor Awards from Secretary Jennifer Granholm in January as part of project teams spanning the national laboratory system. The annual awards recognized 21 teams and three individuals for service and contributions to DOE’s mission and to the benefit of the nation.
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.
A better way of welding targets for Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s plutonium-238 production has sped up the process and improved consistency and efficiency. This advancement will ultimately benefit the lab’s goal to make enough Pu-238 – the isotope that powers NASA’s deep space missions – to yield 1.5 kilograms of plutonium oxide annually by 2026.
The combination of bioenergy with carbon capture and storage could cost-effectively sequester hundreds of millions of metric tons per year of carbon dioxide in the United States, making it a competitive solution for carbon management, according to a new analysis by ORNL scientists.
Radioactive isotopes power some of NASA’s best-known spacecraft. But predicting how radiation emitted from these isotopes might affect nearby materials is tricky
After its long journey to Mars beginning this summer, NASA’s Perseverance rover will be powered across the planet’s surface in part by plutonium produced at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Scientists at the Department of Energy Manufacturing Demonstration Facility at ORNL have their eyes on the prize: the Transformational Challenge Reactor, or TCR, a microreactor built using 3D printing and other new approaches that will be up and running by 2023.
In the 1960s, Oak Ridge National Laboratory's four-year Molten Salt Reactor Experiment tested the viability of liquid fuel reactors for commercial power generation. Results from that historic experiment recently became the basis for the first-ever molten salt reactor benchmark.
If humankind reaches Mars this century, an Oak Ridge National Laboratory-developed experiment testing advanced materials for spacecraft may play a key role.