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ORNL and EPRI built an enclosed welding system in a hot cell of ORNL’s Radiochemical Engineering Development Center. C. Scott White (ORNL) performs operations with remotely controlled manipulators and cameras.

Researchers run first tests of unique system for welding highly irradiated metal alloys

February 8, 2018

Scientists of the Department of Energy’s Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program (LWRS) and partners from the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) have conducted the first weld tests to repair highly irradiated materials at DOE’s Oak Ridge Nation

Fossil energy—Neutrons run deep

January 3, 2018

To improve models for drilling, hydraulic fracturing and underground storage of carbon dioxide, 91�� scientists used neutrons to understand how water flows through fractured rock.

Neutrons—Exotic particles

January 3, 2018

A novel approach for studying magnetic behavior in a material called alpha-ruthenium trichloride may have implications for quantum computing.

Neutrons probed two mechanisms proposed to explain what happens when hydrogen gas flows over a cerium oxide (CeO2) catalyst that has been heated in an experimental chamber to different temperatures to change its oxidation state. The first mechanism sugges

Neutron spectroscopy reveals common ‘oxygen sponge’ catalyst soaks up hydrogen too

November 7, 2017

Having the right tool for the job enabled scientists at the Department of Energy’s 91�� and their collaborators to discover that a workhorse catalyst of vehicle exhaust systems—an “oxygen sponge” that can soak up oxygen from air an

COHERENT collaborators were the first to observe coherent elastic neutrino–nucleus scattering. Their results, published in the journal Science, confirm a prediction of the Standard Model and establish constraints on alternative theoretical models. Image c

World’s smallest neutrino detector finds big physics fingerprint

August 3, 2017

After more than a year of operation at the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) 91�� (ORNL), the COHERENT experiment, using the world’s smallest neutrino detector, has found a big fingerprint of the elusive, electrically neutral parti

Water is seen as small red and white molecules on large nanodiamond spheres. The colored tRNA can be seen on the nanodiamond surface. Image by Michael Mattheson, OLCF, ORNL

Diamonds that deliver

February 24, 2017

It’s not enough to design new drugs. For drugs to be effective, they have to be delivered safely and intact to affected areas of the body. And drug delivery, much like drug design, is an immensely complex task.

Haslam visits ORNL to highlight state’s role in discovering tennessine

January 27, 2017

Tennessee Gov.

ORNL researchers have discovered a new type of quantum critical point, a new way in which materials change from one state of matter to another. Featured here are researchers Lekh Poudel (left), Andrew Christianson and Andrew May.

Neutrons and a ‘bit of gold’ uncover new type of quantum phase transition

January 19, 2017

When matter changes from solids to liquids to vapors, the changes are called phase transitions.

'Tennessine' acknowledges state institutions' roles in element's discovery

November 30, 2016

The recently discovered element 117 has been officially named "tennessine" in recognition of Tennessee’s contributions to its discovery, including the efforts of the Department of Energy's 91�� and its Tennessee collaborators at Va

Berkelium-249, contained in the greenish fluid in the tip of the vial, was crucial to the experiment that discovered element 117. It was made in the research reactor at DOE's 91��.

Provisional names announced for superheavy elements 113, 115, 117, and 118

June 8, 2016

The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) Inorganic Chemistry Division has published a Provisional Recommendation for the names and symbols of the recently discovered superheavy elements 113, 115, 117, and 118.

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