Feature Stories

Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory are helping to enable the next generation of abundant, affordable nuclear energy by combining 80 years of know-how with the latest scientific techniques, facilities and equipment. The lab’s longstanding expertise in degradation of materials in the harsh environments of nuclear reactors make it the go-to place for a resurgence of interest in liquid metals and molten salts for both advanced fission and fusion reactors. 

Energy is fundamentally important — researchers have linked a lack of reliable energy to poor physical health, poor mental health and higher mortality rates. But when astronauts push the boundaries of space exploration, energy is a matter of life and death.

In a long-running collaboration with GE Aerospace, researchers at the University of Melbourne in Australia have been steadily working to improve the performance of high-pressure turbine (HPT) engines through computer simulations on leadership-class computing systems. Using ORNL's Frontier supercomputer, the Melbourne team investigated how the surface degradation of turbine blades affects their aerothermal performance with unprecedented simulations of 10 to 20 billion grid points in size,

Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed a deep learning algorithm that analyzes drone, camera and sensor data to reveal unusual vehicle patterns that may indicate illicit activity, including the movement of nuclear materials.

The Idaho National Laboratory (INL) is addressing one of the nation’s most urgent challenges: securing a reliable domestic supply of critical materials. These materials are essential for technologies such as smartphones, satellites and advanced weapons systems that drive the economy and ensure national security.

From satellites and surveillance systems to precision-guided munitions and fighter jet engines, critical materials are at the foundation of America’s military strength. Yet most critical materials are extracted and processed overseas, leaving the U.S. vulnerable to supply chain disruptions that could jeopardize everyday life, economic stability and national security.

For more than 30 years, Oak Ridge National Laboratory has helped shape the future of high-temperature alloys, translating fundamental materials research into industrial impact. That expertise proved pivotal for Duraloy Technologies, whose long-standing partnership with ORNL transformed the company’s trajectory and set a benchmark for sustained public-private collaboration.

Researchers at the University of Maine and the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) are collaborating on a new way to dry non-aggregated cellulose nanofiber—a material that could replace plastics in a wide range of products.

Researchers from the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory have unveiled a new additive manufacturing technology that uses an innovative nozzle to multiplex, or combine, multiple smaller extruders into one stream to achieve the same high output of a single large extruder.

When a swat team trains multiple times a week, running repeated live-fire drills, the noise can be intense. Even with premium hearing protection, the sound and pressure can damage hearing over time, contributing to traumatic brain injuries for officers and disorienting civilians nearby. If only there were a way to curb that danger.

Those kinds of problems are exactly what the New Mexico Small Business Assistance program has helped tackle for 25 years with support from Sandia National Laboratories and, since 2007, Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The program, created in the year 2000 helps small businesses solve critical challenges by providing technical assistance and expertise that they don’t have access to anywhere else, at no cost to them.

This year, two of the businesses Sandia helped aim to make the nation safer with their products: Ridgeline Engineering and Manufacturing, which is working to reduce hearing damage from firearms, and Aperi Computational Mechanics Consulting, which is making critical engineering simulations faster and more affordable.