![White car (Porsche Taycan) with the hood popped is inside the building with an american flag on the wall.](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_square_large/public/2024-06/2024-P09317.jpg?h=8f9cfe54&itok=m6sQhZRq)
Filter News
Area of Research
- (-) Materials (53)
- (-) Nuclear Science and Technology (41)
- Advanced Manufacturing (3)
- Biological Systems (1)
- Biology and Environment (38)
- Building Technologies (1)
- Clean Energy (100)
- Climate and Environmental Systems (2)
- Computational Biology (2)
- Computational Engineering (3)
- Computer Science (15)
- Fuel Cycle Science and Technology (1)
- Fusion and Fission (29)
- Fusion Energy (11)
- Isotope Development and Production (1)
- Isotopes (9)
- Materials for Computing (13)
- Mathematics (1)
- National Security (26)
- Neutron Science (30)
- Nuclear Systems Modeling, Simulation and Validation (1)
- Quantum information Science (6)
- Supercomputing (104)
- Transportation Systems (2)
News Topics
- (-) Biomedical (8)
- (-) Computer Science (19)
- (-) Molten Salt (7)
- (-) Nuclear Energy (49)
- (-) Transportation (14)
- 3-D Printing/Advanced Manufacturing (26)
- Advanced Reactors (14)
- Artificial Intelligence (9)
- Big Data (2)
- Bioenergy (12)
- Biology (4)
- Buildings (5)
- Chemical Sciences (32)
- Clean Water (3)
- Climate Change (5)
- Composites (9)
- Coronavirus (5)
- Critical Materials (13)
- Cybersecurity (5)
- Decarbonization (8)
- Energy Storage (34)
- Environment (16)
- Exascale Computing (2)
- Frontier (3)
- Fusion (15)
- Grid (5)
- High-Performance Computing (4)
- Irradiation (1)
- Isotopes (16)
- ITER (1)
- Machine Learning (5)
- Materials (73)
- Materials Science (79)
- Mathematics (1)
- Microscopy (27)
- Nanotechnology (39)
- National Security (3)
- Net Zero (1)
- Neutron Science (38)
- Partnerships (11)
- Physics (31)
- Polymers (17)
- Quantum Computing (3)
- Quantum Science (11)
- Renewable Energy (1)
- Security (2)
- Simulation (1)
- Space Exploration (7)
- Summit (2)
- Sustainable Energy (14)
- Transformational Challenge Reactor (5)
Media Contacts
![ORNL’s Sergei Kalinin and Rama Vasudevan (foreground) use scanning probe microscopy to study bulk ferroelectricity and surface electrochemistry -- and generate a lot of data. Credit: Jason Richards/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2021-05/KalininVasudevan_2017-P03014_0.jpg?h=1116cd87&itok=KEEOB4hi)
At the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, scientists use artificial intelligence, or AI, to accelerate the discovery and development of materials for energy and information technologies.
![Distinguished Inventors](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-12/inventors.jpg?h=4631f1c1&itok=xhAGY0kv)
Six scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory were named Battelle Distinguished Inventors, in recognition of obtaining 14 or more patents during their careers at the lab.
![Six ORNL scientists have been elected as fellows to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, or AAAS. Credit: ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-11/AAASfellows.jpg?h=d761c044&itok=opKRkA17)
Six ORNL scientists have been elected as fellows to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, or AAAS.
![ORNL scientists used new techniques to create long lengths of a composite copper-carbon nanotube material with improved properties for use in electric vehicle traction motors. Credit: Andy Sproles/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-09/nano_cu_08noLabels_0.jpg?h=4d70cb2a&itok=iFR0YlTM)
Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory used new techniques to create a composite that increases the electrical current capacity of copper wires, providing a new material that can be scaled for use in ultra-efficient, power-dense electric vehicle traction motors.
![Xunxiang Hu, a Eugene P. Wigner Fellow in ORNL’s Materials Science and Technology Division, designed this machine to produce large, crack-free pieces of yttrium hydride to be used as a moderator in the core of ORNL’s Transformational Challenge Reactor and other microreactors. Credit: Xunxiang Hu/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-09/HuYHxphoto.jpg?h=eef83f16&itok=7KfkqQLh)
About 60 years ago, scientists discovered that a certain rare earth metal-hydrogen mixture, yttrium, could be the ideal moderator to go inside small, gas-cooled nuclear reactors.
![A selfie from the Curiosity rover as it explores the surface of Mars. Like many spacecraft, Curiosity uses a radioisotope power system to help fuel its mission. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-09/Curiousity_1.jpg?h=86a9dded&itok=Jo0vD321)
Radioactive isotopes power some of NASA’s best-known spacecraft. But predicting how radiation emitted from these isotopes might affect nearby materials is tricky
![Fuel pellets sometimes degrade to a sandlike consistency and can disperse into the reactor core if a rod’s cladding bursts. ORNL researchers are studying how often this happens and what impact it has, in order to let reactors operate as long as possible without increasing risk.](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-08/X2001338_FuelFragmentation_GraphicUpdate_Bumpus_jnj-02_0.jpg?h=049a2720&itok=mzNfF2cS)
A developing method to gauge the occurrence of a nuclear reactor anomaly has the potential to save millions of dollars.
![Hector J. Santos-Villalobos, left, and Oscar A. Martinez](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-08/henaac20.jpg?h=158d9140&itok=-NxooIrE)
Two staff members at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have received prestigious HENAAC and Luminary Awards from Great Minds in STEM, a nonprofit organization that focuses on promoting STEM careers in underserved
![This photo shows the interior of the vessel of the General Atomics DIII-D National Fusion Facility in San Diego, where ORNL researchers are testing the suitability of tungsten to armor the inside of a fusion device. Credit: General Atomics](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-08/X2001140_Tungsten_DIIID_GeneralAtomics_Bumpus_jnj_0.jpg?h=fa422108&itok=9R1Nn6B_)
The inside of future nuclear fusion energy reactors will be among the harshest environments ever produced on Earth. What’s strong enough to protect the inside of a fusion reactor from plasma-produced heat fluxes akin to space shuttles reentering Earth’s atmosphere?
![3D-printed 316L steel has been irradiated along with traditionally wrought steel samples. Researchers are comparing how they perform at various temperatures and varying doses of radiation. Credit: Jaimee Janiga/ORNL](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-08/X2001337_TCR_IrradiatedMaterials_Bumpus_jnj-04.jpg?h=e3a8e2b5&itok=pXslTCBN)
It’s a new type of nuclear reactor core. And the materials that will make it up are novel — products of Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s advanced materials and manufacturing technologies.