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ORNL’s Askin Guler Yigitoglu presents during the 2024 Molten Salt Reactor Workshop in Knoxville with a green and blue background

ORNL’s annual workshop has become the premier forum for molten salt reactor, or MSR, collaboration and innovation, convening industry, academia and government experts to further advance MSR research and development. This year’s event attracted a record-breaking 365 participants from across the country, highlighting the momentum to bring MSRs online.

The 2024 IAEA Nuclear Energy Management School cohort gathers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Three flights, five thousand miles and half a dozen clearances and permissions stood between Tetiana Maltseva and the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory. When she finally arrived at the lab to represent Ukraine at the 2024 Nuclear Energy Management School, her vision was clear. 

Illustration of oscillating UCI3 bonds

Researchers for the first time documented the specific chemistry dynamics and structure of high-temperature liquid uranium trichloride salt, a potential nuclear fuel source for next-generation reactors. 

Male student wearing clear safety goggles peering through a 3D-printed item.

A group of high school graduates and community college students visited ORNL to meet staff and find out just what goes on at a DOE national laboratory. The Job Shadow Day was arranged by tnAchieves, a student support organization that works to increase higher educational opportunities for students across Tennessee through scholarships and mentorship. 
 

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

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.

Susan Hubbard, ORNL’s deputy for science and technology and Quincy Quick, TSU’s associate vice president for Research and Sponsored Programs, sign a memorandum of understanding to strengthen research cooperation and provide diverse undergraduate students enriching educational research opportunities at the lab. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

The Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Tennessee State University have signed a memorandum of understanding to strengthen research cooperation and provide diverse undergraduate students enriching educational research opportunities at the lab.

Susan Hubbard, ORNL’s deputy for science and technology and Can (John) Saygin, senior vice president for research and dean of the graduate college at UTRGV, sign a memorandum of understanding to strengthen research cooperation and establish a collaborative program for undergraduate research and education. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

ORNL and the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, known as UTRGV, have signed a memorandum of understanding to strengthen research cooperation and establish a collaborative program for undergraduate research and education, further cementing hi

Susan Hubbard, diputada de Ciencia y Tecnología en ORNL, Can (John) Saygin, vicepresidente mayor de investigación y decano del Colegio de la Escuela de Postgrados en UTGRV, firman un Memorándum de Entendimiento comprometiéndose a fortalecer la cooperación en la investigación científica y establecer un programa colaborativo para estudiantes de pregrado. Crédito de la fotografía: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Susan Hubbard, diputada de Ciencia y Tecnología en ORNL, Can (John) Saygin, vicepresidente mayor de investigación y decano del Colegio de la Escuela de Postgrados en UTGRV, firman un Memorándum de Entendimiento comprometiéndose a fortalecer

Distinguished Inventors

Six scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory were named Battelle Distinguished Inventors, in recognition of obtaining 14 or more patents during their careers at the lab.

Nuclear – Finally, a benchmark

In the 1960s, Oak Ridge National Laboratory's four-year Molten Salt Reactor Experiment tested the viability of liquid fuel reactors for commercial power generation. Results from that historic experiment recently became the basis for the first-ever molten salt reactor benchmark.