![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
- (-) Clean Energy (9)
- (-) Materials (7)
- Advanced Manufacturing (1)
- Biology and Environment (21)
- Computational Biology (2)
- Computational Engineering (1)
- Computer Science (2)
- Electricity and Smart Grid (1)
- Functional Materials for Energy (1)
- Fusion and Fission (2)
- National Security (4)
- Neutron Science (2)
- Nuclear Science and Technology (3)
- Supercomputing (38)
News Topics
- (-) High-Performance Computing (9)
- (-) Transformational Challenge Reactor (5)
- 3-D Printing/Advanced Manufacturing (89)
- Advanced Reactors (9)
- Artificial Intelligence (13)
- Big Data (7)
- Bioenergy (30)
- Biology (12)
- Biomedical (10)
- Biotechnology (4)
- Buildings (36)
- Chemical Sciences (33)
- Clean Water (10)
- Climate Change (23)
- Composites (19)
- Computer Science (36)
- Coronavirus (14)
- Critical Materials (19)
- Cybersecurity (10)
- Decarbonization (34)
- Energy Storage (86)
- Environment (64)
- Exascale Computing (3)
- Fossil Energy (2)
- Frontier (3)
- Fusion (7)
- Grid (41)
- Hydropower (2)
- Irradiation (1)
- Isotopes (13)
- ITER (1)
- Machine Learning (10)
- Materials (94)
- Materials Science (90)
- Mathematics (3)
- Mercury (3)
- Microelectronics (1)
- Microscopy (29)
- Molten Salt (3)
- Nanotechnology (41)
- National Security (6)
- Net Zero (3)
- Neutron Science (42)
- Nuclear Energy (22)
- Partnerships (16)
- Physics (29)
- Polymers (21)
- Quantum Computing (3)
- Quantum Science (12)
- Renewable Energy (1)
- Security (7)
- Simulation (4)
- Space Exploration (5)
- Statistics (1)
- Summit (6)
- Sustainable Energy (71)
- Transportation (69)
Media Contacts
![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.
![Researcher Chase Joslin uses Peregrine software to monitor and analyze a component being 3D printed at the Manufacturing Demonstration Facility at ORNL. Credit: Luke Scime/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy.](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-08/Peregrine%20Chase%20Joslin_0.jpg?h=51c7b451&itok=4Hc6PNwu)
Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers have developed artificial intelligence software for powder bed 3D printers that assesses the quality of parts in real time, without the need for expensive characterization equipment.
![At the U.S. Department of Energy Manufacturing Demonstration Facility at ORNL, this part for a scaled-down prototype of a reactor was produced for industry partner Kairos Power.](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-05/Kairos%20PI%201_0.jpg?h=71976bb4&itok=EYVPB9H3)
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.
![Transformational Challenge Reactor Demonstration items](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-03/Press_release_image.jpg?h=b707efd5&itok=-Sxbmt8D)
Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory are refining their design of a 3D-printed nuclear reactor core, scaling up the additive manufacturing process necessary to build it, and developing methods