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Media Contacts
![Karen White](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-12/karen-white.png?h=82115ee8&itok=oxhQuzGO)
Karen White, who works in ORNL’s Neutron Science Directorate, has been honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
![ORNL researchers found that a polyelectrolyte additive can improve the stability and performance of a salt hydrate PCM, enhancing the potential for use in heat pumps. Credit: ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-11/HP_liquid_storytip02%5B97%5D_0.jpg?h=d1cb525d&itok=iGZRyRQC)
ORNL researchers demonstrated that an additive made from polymers and electrolytes improves the thermal performance and stability of salt hydrate phase change materials, or PCMs, a finding that could advance their integration into carbon-reducing heat pumps.
![An electromagnetic pulse, or EMP, can be triggered by a nuclear explosion in the atmosphere or by an electromagnetic generator in a vehicle or aircraft. Here’s the chain of reactions it could cause to harm electrical equipment on the ground. Credit: Andy Sproles/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-11/EMP_illust04_0.png?h=21cd0a81&itok=M9UNd-n0)
Researchers at ORNL have been leading a project to understand how a high-altitude electromagnetic pulse, or EMP, could threaten power plants.
![The sun sets behind the ORNL Visitor Center in this aerial photo from April 2023. Credit: Kase Clapp/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-10/sunset_visitor-center_0.png?h=10d202d3&itok=jLImPT0R)
In fiscal year 2023 — Oct. 1–Sept. 30, 2023 — Oak Ridge National Laboratory was awarded more than $8 million in technology maturation funding through the Department of Energy’s Technology Commercialization Fund, or TCF.
![ORNL’s organocatalyst deconstructs mixed plastics at different temperatures, which facilitates recovering their individual monomers separately, in reusable form. Credit: Jill Hemman/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-10/23-G05683_MixedPlasticRecycling_proof2_0.png?h=27870e4a&itok=jjYga9GD)
Little of the mixed consumer plastics thrown away or placed in recycle bins actually ends up being recycled. Nearly 90% is buried in landfills or incinerated at commercial facilities that generate greenhouse gases and airborne toxins. Neither outcome is ideal for the environment.
![ORNL’s David Sholl is director of the new DOE Energy Earthshot Non-Equilibrium Energy Transfer for Efficient Reactions center to help decarbonize the industrial chemical industry. Credit: Genevieve Martin, ORNL/U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-09/2021-P04915.David_.Sholl_.jpg?h=c6980913&itok=qT7ZMJX2)
ORNL has been selected to lead an Energy Earthshot Research Center, or EERC, focused on developing chemical processes that use sustainable methods instead of burning fossil fuels to radically reduce industrial greenhouse gas emissions to stem climate change and limit the crisis of a rapidly warming planet.
![As a scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tugba Turnaoglu is investigating new thermal energy storage materials and ways to incorporate them into cost-effective and energy-efficient heat pump designs. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-09/2023-P11283.jpg?h=c6980913&itok=vr7C7cTK)
The common sounds in the background of daily life – like a refrigerator’s hum, an air conditioner’s whoosh and a heat pump’s buzz – often go unnoticed. These noises, however, are the heartbeat of a healthy building and integral for comfort and convenience.
![Steve Nolan, left, who manages many ORNL facilities for United Cleanup Oak Ridge, and Carl Dukes worked closely together to accommodate bringing members of the public into the Oak Ridge Reservation to collect distant images from overhead for the BRIAR biometric recognition project. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-09/2023-P09038.jpg?h=036a71b7&itok=76hibHXl)
Carl Dukes’ career as an adept communicator got off to a slow start: He was about 5 years old when he spoke for the first time. “I’ve been making up for lost time ever since,” joked Dukes, a technical professional at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
![Buildings technologies researcher Philip Boudreaux uses a camera and a technique known as background-oriented schlieren photography to identify air leak sources in a concrete block wall mock-up. Credit: ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-08/2022-P02087.jpg?h=b6d03109&itok=IAUsD8K_)
Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have created a new detection system that allows home energy auditors to see air leaking from a building in real time with the help of a camera.
![Bryan Maldonado, a researcher in the Buildings and Transportation Science Division at ORNL, will receive the 2023 Most Promising Engineer Award from the Hispanic Engineer National Achievements Awards Conference. Credit: ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-08/2023-P00405_0.jpg?h=8f9cfe54&itok=SPEjXVNj)
Bryan Maldonado, a dynamic systems and controls researcher at ORNL, has been recognized by the 2023 Hispanic Engineer National Achievements Awards Conference, or HENAAC, with the Most Promising Engineer Award.