Feature Stories

Veterans of the U.S. Navy’s Nuclear Propulsion Program are bringing their expertise to the Department of Energy’s High Flux Isotope Reactor at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, applying the same precision and discipline that powers the Navy’s fleets to America’s science, energy and security missions.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers have developed the first X-ray imaging system that clearly reveals the interior of suspicious objects or infrastructure underwater. 

With powerful new colliders crashing particles at ever-increasing energies, even more daughter particles are produced. The innovative Celeritas project, led by the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, provides a software tool that makes sure simulations used to analyze particles can run on the fastest supercomputers, accelerating answers about the nature of the universe.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory's High Flux Isotope Reactor operates under strict safety standards with skilled teams who ensure safe fuel cycles and isotope production as well as important discoveries in materials science, national security and medicine, maintaining the U.S.'s competitive edge. Planned upgrades will extend HFIR's operational life and capabilities, supporting ongoing scientific innovation and national security needs.

Argonne National Laboratory researchers have been nominated for the Gordon Bell Prize in supercomputing for conducting the largest-ever simulation of the universe using the Frontier supercomputer. The achievement sets a new benchmark for simulating the universe, enabling scientists to study atomic matter and dark matter simultaneously. The simulations tracked 4 trillion particles, represented across 15 billion light-years of space — delivering a 15-fold leap in capability over the previous state-of-the-art simulations.