News Releases

Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have found a chemical “chameleon” that could improve the process used to purify rare-earth metals used in clean energy, medical and national security applications.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science (SC) today announced a new research and development opportunity led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to advance technologies and drive new capabilities for future supercomputers. This industry research program worth $23 million, called New Frontiers, will initiate partnerships with multiple companies to accelerate the R&D of critical technologies with renewed emphasis on energy efficiency for the next generation of post-exascale computing in the 2029 and beyond time frame.

The Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory is a world leader in molten salt reactor technology development — and its researchers additionally perform the fundamental science necessary to enable a future where nuclear energy becomes more efficient. In a paper in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, researchers have documented for the first time the unique chemistry dynamics and structure of high-temperature liquid uranium trichloride salt, a potential nuclear fuel source for next-generation reactors.