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This illustration demonstrates how atomic configurations with an equiatomic concentration of niobium (Nb), tantalum (Ta) and vanadium (V) can become disordered. The AI model helps researchers identify potential atomic configurations that can be used as shielding for housing fusion applications in a nuclear reactor. Credit: Massimiliano Lupo Pasini/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

A study led by the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory details how artificial intelligence researchers created an AI model to help identify new alloys used as shielding for housing fusion applications components in a nuclear reactor. The findings mark a major step towards improving nuclear fusion facilities.

Four thermometers are pictured across the top of the image with an image of a city in the bottom left, with a color block version of that city in the bottom right.

Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed free data sets to estimate how much energy any building in the contiguous U.S. will use in 2100. These data sets provide planners a way to anticipate future energy needs as the climate changes.

Sarah Walters portrait

Walters is working with a team of geographers, linguists, economists, data scientists and software engineers to apply cultural knowledge and patterns to open-source data in an effort to document and report patterns of human movement through previously unstudied spaces.

With seismic and acoustic data recorded by remote sensors near ORNL’s High Flux Isotope Reactor, researchers could predict whether the reactor was on or off with 98% accuracy. Credit: Nathan Armistead/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

An Oak Ridge National Laboratory team developed a novel technique using sensors to monitor seismic and acoustic activity and machine learning to differentiate operational activities at facilities from “noise” in the recorded data.

ORNL’s Jason DeGraw, a mechanical engineer and indoor air quality expert, uses numerical equations powered by high-performance computing to analyze and solve problems related to the dispersion patterns of biological pathogens as well as chemical irritants in buildings. Credit: ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Long before COVID-19’s rapid transmission led to a worldwide pandemic, Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Jason DeGraw was performing computer modeling to better understand the impact of virus-laden droplets on indoor air quality