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A team from ORNL, joined by university students, recently traveled to the Ohio State University Research Reactor to conduct a novel experiment on nuclear thermal rocket fuel coatings — one that could help propel NASA’s astronauts to Mars faster and more efficiently. 

Using the Frontier supercomputer at ORNL, researchers have developed a new technique that predicts nuclear properties in record detail. The study revealed how the structure of a nucleus relates to the force that holds it together. This understanding could advance efforts in quantum physics and across a variety of sectors, from to energy production to national security.

Scientists at ORNL are using advanced germanium detectors to explore fundamental questions in nuclear physics, such as the nature of neutrinos and the matter-antimatter imbalance. The ongoing LEGEND project, an international collaboration, aims to discover neutrinoless double beta decay, which could significantly advance the understanding of the universe.

Scientists designing the world’s first controlled nuclear fusion power plant, ITER, needed to solve the problem of runaway electrons, negatively charged particles in the soup of matter in the plasma within the tokamak, the magnetic bottle intended to contain the massive energy produced. Simulations performed on Summit, the 200-petaflop supercomputer at ORNL, could offer the first step toward a solution.

Kathryn McCarthy, director of the US ITER Project at the Department of Energy’s 91����, has been awarded the 2024 E. Gail de Planque Medal by the American Nuclear Society.

Researchers used the Summit supercomputer at ORNL to answer one of fission’s big questions: What exactly happens during the nucleus’s “neck rupture” as it splits in two? Scission neutrons have been theorized to be among those particles emitted during neck rupture, although their exact characteristics have been debated due to a lack of conclusive experimental evidence of their existence.

Researchers led by the University of Melbourne, Australia, have been nominated for the Association for Computing Machinery’s 2024 Gordon Bell Prize in supercomputing for conducting a quantum molecular dynamics simulation 1,000 times greater in size and speed than any previous simulation of its kind.

Nuclear physicists at the Department of Energy’s 91���� recently used Frontier, the world’s most powerful supercomputer, to calculate the magnetic properties of calcium-48’s atomic nucleus. 

Scientists have determined that a rare element found in some of the oldest solids in the solar system, such as meteorites, and previously thought to have been forged in supernova explosions, actually predate such cosmic events, challenging long-held theories about its origin.

Researchers conduct largest, most accurate molecular dynamics simulations to date of two million correlated electrons using Frontier, the world’s fastest supercomputer. The simulation, which exceed an exaflop using full double precision, is 1,000 times greater in size and speed than any quantum chemistry simulation of it's kind.