Filter News
Area of Research
- (-) Fusion and Fission (32)
- (-) Materials (93)
- Advanced Manufacturing (9)
- Biology and Environment (28)
- Clean Energy (90)
- Computational Biology (1)
- Computational Engineering (1)
- Computer Science (9)
- Electricity and Smart Grid (3)
- Fuel Cycle Science and Technology (1)
- Functional Materials for Energy (2)
- Fusion Energy (13)
- Isotope Development and Production (1)
- Isotopes (8)
- Materials Characterization (2)
- Materials for Computing (11)
- Materials Under Extremes (1)
- National Security (35)
- Neutron Science (26)
- Nuclear Science and Technology (38)
- Nuclear Systems Modeling, Simulation and Validation (2)
- Quantum information Science (1)
- Sensors and Controls (2)
- Supercomputing (58)
News Topics
- (-) Advanced Reactors (10)
- (-) Artificial Intelligence (10)
- (-) Grid (6)
- (-) Machine Learning (5)
- (-) Materials (74)
- (-) Nuclear Energy (42)
- (-) Renewable Energy (1)
- (-) Security (4)
- 3-D Printing/Advanced Manufacturing (26)
- Big Data (2)
- Bioenergy (11)
- Biology (5)
- Biomedical (8)
- Buildings (5)
- Chemical Sciences (34)
- Clean Water (3)
- Climate Change (5)
- Composites (9)
- Computer Science (19)
- Coronavirus (4)
- Critical Materials (13)
- Cybersecurity (4)
- Decarbonization (9)
- Energy Storage (35)
- Environment (17)
- Exascale Computing (3)
- Fossil Energy (1)
- Frontier (4)
- Fusion (27)
- High-Performance Computing (6)
- Irradiation (1)
- Isotopes (14)
- ITER (6)
- Materials Science (80)
- Mathematics (1)
- Microscopy (27)
- Molten Salt (3)
- Nanotechnology (39)
- National Security (3)
- Net Zero (2)
- Neutron Science (34)
- Partnerships (13)
- Physics (30)
- Polymers (17)
- Quantum Computing (3)
- Quantum Science (11)
- Simulation (4)
- Space Exploration (3)
- Summit (2)
- Sustainable Energy (17)
- Transformational Challenge Reactor (3)
- Transportation (16)
Media Contacts
![Three staff members in Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Fusion and Fission Energy and Science Directorate (FFESD) have moved into newly established roles facilitating communication and program management with sponsors of the directorate’s Nuclear Energy and Fuel Cycle Division.](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2024-02/3_people_spacing.jpg?h=08ef668f&itok=33PRJFyS)
Three staff members in ORNL’s Fusion and Fission Energy and Science Directorate have moved into newly established roles facilitating communication and program management with sponsors of the directorate’s Nuclear Energy and Fuel Cycle Division.
![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.
![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.
![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.
![Photo 1: Event organizers from the Nuclear Energy Fuel Cycle Division. Credit: Carol Morgan/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-10/2023-p15692.jpg?h=c6980913&itok=ommiWsy2)
The heat is on at this year’s Molten Salt Reactor Workshop – where top research and industry minds are melding to advance development on molten salt technology – at ORNL.
![Professional women in the IAEA’s Lise Meitner Programme 2023 cohort and supporters assembled at ORNL. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-10/2023-P14921.jpg?h=8f9cfe54&itok=EUxRbkj2)
The Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory hosted the second 2023 cohort of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Lise Meitner Programme in October.
![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.
![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.
![The OpeN-AM experimental platform, installed at the VULCAN instrument at ORNL’s Spallation Neutron Source, features a robotic arm that prints layers of molten metal to create complex shapes. This allows scientists to study 3D printed welds microscopically. Credit: Jill Hemman, ORNL/U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-10/VULCAN_welding_1.png?h=68c90eda&itok=gvwAQCpN)
Using neutrons to see the additive manufacturing process at the atomic level, scientists have shown that they can measure strain in a material as it evolves and track how atoms move in response to stress.