Feature Articles

The International Standards Organization has put its stamp of approval on 18 nuclear analytical chemistry methods at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory. These testing and calibration methods have received ISO 17025 accreditation. “Accreditation serves DOE missions in environmental stewardship, isotope production and nuclear security,” said Joe Giaquinto, head of ORNL’s Nuclear Analytical Chemistry section.

Over the past decade, teams of engineers, chemists and biologists have analyzed the physical and chemical properties of cicada wings, hoping to unlock the secret of their ability to kill microbes on contact. If this function of nature can be replicated by science, it may lead to products with inherently antibacterial surfaces that are more effective than current chemical treatments.

The third iteration of the GeoAI leadership gathering focused on combining and scaling the many methods required to visualize and understand the Earth’s surface and how humans interact with it.

Accurately predicting subseasonal weather conditions can help communities better prepare for emergency response in the event of strong storms or unprecedented flooding. This subseasonal to seasonal prediction capability is of particular interest to agencies such as the Air Force Weather, or AFW, program, which relies on accurate predictions to conduct missions safely and effectively around the world. In 2021, the AFW and ORNL launched two HPE Cray EX supercomputers, named Fawbush and Miller, to provide a platform for advanced weather modeling and prediction.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers have developed a method to simplify one step of radioisotope production — and it’s faster and safer.

For fusion energy, scientists must generate, confine and sustain a superhot gas called plasma — heated to 10 times the temperature of the center of the sun — to cause a fusion reaction. Although terrestrial plasmas can be confined magnetically, what materials can withstand near such high temperatures and the relentless impact of energetic neutrons? That question is central to the development of economical fusion power plants to provide abundant and carbon-free energy. Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have been working with Japanese scientists under the Japan-U.S. Fusion Cooperation Program for decades to determine the answer.

Ken Herwig’s career spanning two-and-a-half decades at ORN includes designing, building and rebuilding scientific instruments used to study the behavior of particles—including SNS’s first instrument, named BASIS.

When opportunity meets talent, great things happen. The laser comb developed at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory serves as such an example. This advanced technique, developed by laser scientist Yun Liu, allows physicists to take measurements of particle beams in superconducting linear accelerators in real-time without affecting operations. The measurement captures critical information about changes in the distribution of beam particles. The development and use of this technique solidifies ORNL’s leadership in beam instrumentation and leads the advancement of high-power proton accelerators.

Like most scientists, Chengping Chai is not content with the surface of things: He wants to probe beyond to learn what’s really going on. But in his case, he is literally building a map of the world beneath, using seismic and acoustic data that reveal when and where the earth moves. Yet earthquakes are not the focus of Chai’s research at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He is using these waves to make waves — creating new opportunities for developing clean energy and enhancing sensing capabilities around nuclear reactors.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers, in collaboration with Enginuity Power Systems, demonstrated that a micro combined heat and power prototype, or mCHP, with a piston engine can achieve an overall energy efficiency greater than 93%.