Feature Stories

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho — American researchers and engineers first split the atom for usable electricity in Idaho. They built the reactor prototype of the nation’s first nuclear submarine there. They raised more than 50 one-of-a-kind reactors on an 890-square-mile stretch of Idaho desert.

Sandia National Labs has teamed up with Michael Thomas Coffee in Albuquerque to use heat from a thermal testbed to roast coffee beans.

In a nondescript Idaho Falls warehouse, a nuclear nonproliferation researcher at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL), picks up a small, plastic bottle and pours out tiny bits of rounded black glass across a worktable.

U.S. Army Lt. Col. Joshua Dawson had some idea of what the Idaho National Laboratory might have to offer when he visited the lab in December 2025.

With its acquisition of an on-site 20-qubit IQM Radiance quantum computer, the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has taken another major stride forward in its research efforts to integrate quantum computing technology with classical high-performance computing.

Over a 40-year career, Oak Ridge National Laboratory physicist David Radford has become known for building the tools he needs to explore the mysteries of the atomic nucleus. One of those tools is a new type of enriched germanium detector that will lie at the heart of the international LEGEND-1000 project as it searches for a long-theorized but never observed nuclear decay known as neutrionoless double beta decay, potentially shedding light on one of the biggest mysteries about the formation of the universe. 

When Sandia researchers Hojun Lim and David Montes de Oca Zapiain began working on software to accelerate materials simulations, they started with just an idea. Now, eight years later, they have award-winning, ready-to-use software they believe can revolutionize manufacturing.

Behind every self-driving laboratory at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory is a team people most never see. Facilities and Operations workers are building and maintaining the infrastructure that makes autonomous science possible. More than a dozen self-driving labs operate at ORNL, placing the Tennessee national lab among the first research institutions in the world to create this autonomous laboratory model at scale.