Filter News
Area of Research
- (-) Fuel Cycle Science and Technology (1)
- (-) Isotopes (26)
- (-) Materials (110)
- (-) National Security (9)
- Advanced Manufacturing (6)
- Biology and Environment (10)
- Clean Energy (41)
- Computer Science (4)
- Electricity and Smart Grid (1)
- Functional Materials for Energy (1)
- Fusion and Fission (31)
- Fusion Energy (10)
- Isotope Development and Production (1)
- Materials Characterization (1)
- Materials for Computing (18)
- Materials Under Extremes (1)
- Neutron Science (31)
- Nuclear Science and Technology (40)
- Nuclear Systems Modeling, Simulation and Validation (1)
- Quantum information Science (9)
- Supercomputing (42)
- Transportation Systems (1)
News Topics
- (-) Isotopes (33)
- (-) Materials Science (79)
- (-) Molten Salt (3)
- (-) Nuclear Energy (25)
- (-) Polymers (17)
- (-) Quantum Science (12)
- 3-D Printing/Advanced Manufacturing (25)
- Advanced Reactors (5)
- Artificial Intelligence (21)
- Big Data (7)
- Bioenergy (14)
- Biology (8)
- Biomedical (12)
- Biotechnology (1)
- Buildings (6)
- Chemical Sciences (32)
- Clean Water (3)
- Climate Change (9)
- Composites (9)
- Computer Science (34)
- Coronavirus (6)
- Critical Materials (13)
- Cybersecurity (21)
- Decarbonization (9)
- Energy Storage (35)
- Environment (20)
- Exascale Computing (2)
- Frontier (3)
- Fusion (8)
- Grid (11)
- High-Performance Computing (8)
- Irradiation (2)
- ITER (1)
- Machine Learning (16)
- Materials (74)
- Mathematics (1)
- Microscopy (27)
- Nanotechnology (39)
- National Security (36)
- Net Zero (1)
- Neutron Science (35)
- Partnerships (14)
- Physics (29)
- Quantum Computing (3)
- Renewable Energy (1)
- Security (12)
- Simulation (2)
- Space Exploration (5)
- Summit (4)
- Sustainable Energy (16)
- Transformational Challenge Reactor (3)
- Transportation (16)
Media Contacts
![Symposium guests view posters in the poster competition. Credit: Laetitia Delmau/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2024-01/symposium%20better.jpg?h=92229be0&itok=KZ6tVYQi)
The 21st Symposium on Separation Science and Technology for Energy Applications, Oct. 23-26 at the Embassy Suites by Hilton West in Knoxville, attracted 109 researchers, including some from Austria and the Czech Republic. Besides attending many technical sessions, they had the opportunity to tour the Graphite Reactor, High Flux Isotope Reactor and both supercomputers at ORNL.
![Conceptual art depicts machine learning finding an ideal material for capacitive energy storage. Its carbon framework (black) has functional groups with oxygen (pink) and nitrogen (turquoise). Credit: Tao Wang/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-11/Press%20release%20image_0.jpg?h=706c9a24&itok=zX1lC5ud)
Guided by machine learning, chemists at ORNL designed a record-setting carbonaceous supercapacitor material that stores four times more energy than the best commercial material.
![ORNL researcher Anne Campbell will present a paper in Korea next year on materials support of carbon-free nuclear energy. Credit: Adam Malin, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-11/nuclear-future-72dpi_0.jpg?h=d1cb525d&itok=HCXlz2mw)
Anne Campbell, a researcher at ORNL, recently won the Young Leaders Professional Development Award from the Minerals, Metals & Materials Society, or TMS, and has been chosen as the first recipient of the Young Leaders International Scholar Program award from TMS and the Korean Institute of Metals and Materials, or KIM.
![Seeing the difference Ac-225 could make to cancer patients made Raina Setzer want to come to ORNL to directly work with the isotope. Credit: Allison Peacock/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-11/rs_0.jpg?h=71976bb4&itok=nFsgqwUT)
Raina Setzer knows the work she does matters. That’s because she’s already seen it from the other side. Setzer, a radiochemical processing technician in Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Isotope Processing and Manufacturing Division, joined the lab in June 2023.
![Group image](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-10/2023-P11446_0.jpg?h=8f9cfe54&itok=bk8wRZSk)
In response to a renewed international interest in molten salt reactors, researchers from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed a novel technique to visualize molten salt intrusion in graphite.
![When exposed to radiation, electrons produced within molten zinc chloride, or ZnCl2, can be observed in three distinct singly occupied molecular orbital states, plus a more diffuse, delocalized state. Credit: Hung H. Nguyen/University of Iowa](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-10/bernard-wide_0.png?h=dba5e3ef&itok=DgnYZ_Vy)
In a finding that helps elucidate how molten salts in advanced nuclear reactors might behave, scientists have shown how electrons interacting with the ions of the molten salt can form three states with different properties. Understanding these states can help predict the impact of radiation on the performance of salt-fueled reactors.
![Photo collage with text that reads " A New era of discovery"](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-10/LRP%20Image_0.png?h=d1cb525d&itok=m-0J8hDE)
ORNL, a bastion of nuclear physics research for the past 80 years, is poised to strengthen its programs and service to the United States over the next decade if national recommendations of the Nuclear Science Advisory Committee, or NSAC, are enacted.
![Connecting wires to the interface of the topological insulator and superconductor enables probing of novel electronic properties. Researchers aim for qubits based on theorized Majorana particles. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-09/2023-P04516.jpg?h=c6980913&itok=BoCZtfwR)
Quantum computers process information using quantum bits, or qubits, based on fragile, short-lived quantum mechanical states. To make qubits robust and tailor them for applications, researchers from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory sought to create a new material system.
![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
![Ken Engle portrait](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-08/engle%20profile.jpg?h=72898f5b&itok=ZIKd9Gn1)
It was reading about current nuclear discoveries in textbooks that first made Ken Engle want to work at a national lab. It was seeing the real-world impact of the isotopes produced at ORNL