Feature Articles

A team of Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers reached a significant milestone by building and testing an entire 6.5-foot turbine blade tip using fully recyclable materials that can withstand lightning voltage. ORNL’s recent demonstration highlighted the possibilities of a new approach to protecting blades using conductive materials or coatings.

ORNL's Peter Fuhr continues pushes boundaries of optical and sensor technology in applications ranging from fighting wildfires to operating the immense floodgates protecting Venice, Italy. Fuhr’s path is marked by an oddball creativity that can’t confine itself to challenges in a single field. No idea is too far out to try out. His many inventions and start-ups before joining ORNL proved his ability to bring bold ideas to life. His influence is likely to be lasting, as his imagination and infectious zeal have driven him to mentor generations of new engineers. 

Record-Breaking Run on Frontier Sets New Bar for Simulating the Universe in the Exascale EraResearchers at Argonne National Laboratory used the Frontier supercomputer to run the largest astrophysical simulation of the universe ever conducted. The calculations set a new benchmark for cosmological hydrodynamics simulations and provide a new foundation for simulating the physics of atomic matter and dark matter simultaneously. The simulation size corresponds to surveys undertaken by large telescope observatories, a feat that until now has not been possible at this scale. 

East Tennessee has become the nerve center for a resurgent nuclear industry. Discover why the region, home to Oak Ridge National Laboratory, is so attractive to this next generation of nuclear businesses.

The HPE Cray EX supercomputing system reported new highs for problem-solving speeds this week, updated for the TOP500 announcement at the International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis, or SC24, in Atlanta. The score earned Frontier the No. 2 spot on the November 2024 TOP500 list, which ranks the fastest supercomputers in the world.

 

As population growth and extreme temperatures strain the United States power grid, utilities and equipment manufacturers are looking for ways to increase the amount of electricity the grid can carry. The Powerline Conductor Accelerated Testing Facility, or PCAT, located at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, is one of the only facilities in the country where companies can try out new transmission line technologies for long time periods in extremes of wind, weather, temperature and electrical load conditions.

Researchers from the University of Washington, Seattle, or UW, and Los Alamos National Laboratory used the Summit supercomputer at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory to answer one of fission’s biggest questions: What exactly happens during the nucleus’s “neck rupture” as it splits in two? 

The Arctic is warming faster than any other area of the planet.

How environmental change affects the landscape, weather patterns and infrastructure for communities — not just here but across the world — is of keen interest to scientists studying climate change.

Researchers led by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have been crisscrossing the Alaskan tundra for the past 12 years, collecting data as part of the Next-Generation Ecosystem Experiments in the Arctic project, or NGEE Arctic. They’re tracking rapid changes across the treeless tundra landscape as the climate warms.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory researcher Corey Cooke reveals hidden communications with new methods for teasing apart digital signals from noise. But his influence extends beyond mathematical models and machine learning to shaping new engineers. He coordinates a partnership between ORNL and Tennessee Technological University which helps ORNL staff pursue graduate degrees in electrical and computer engineering and opens professional opportunities for Tennessee Tech Graduates.

Biochemist David Baker — just announced as a recipient of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry — turned to the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) for information he couldn’t get anywhere else. HFIR is the strongest reactor-based neutron source in the United States.