News Releases

Oak Ridge National Laboratory scientist Tomas Grejtak has received STLE’s Early Career Award, honoring high-impact research in tribology (friction, wear, and lubrication), and will be recognized at the society’s May 18–21 annual meeting in New Orleans. His work focuses on wear, friction, deformation, and contact mechanics in materials used in nuclear, biomass, and automotive systems.

Sandia National Laboratories is incorporating artificial intelligence to help with inspections of ceramic components used in nuclear deterrence applications. 

Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory showed they can “write” ferroelectric regions into aluminum nitride by using a helium ion beam to create precise defects while keeping the crystal intact. Ferroelectric materials can store information without needing continuous power, so this could lead to more reliable, lower-energy memory made with processes already used in chip manufacturing. The defect patterning reduced the amount of voltage needed to switch the material between its two stable internal states (like 0 and 1 in digital memory) by about 40% and boosted the electromechanical response, which also benefits radio-frequency filters and resonators — parts in wireless devices that tune and stabilize high-frequency signals.Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory showed they can “write” ferroelectric regions into aluminum nitride by using a helium ion beam to create precise defects while keeping the crystal intact. Ferroelectric materials can store information without needing continuous power, so this could lead to more reliable, lower-energy memory made with processes already used in chip manufacturing. The defect patterning reduced the amount of voltage needed to switch the material between its two stable internal states (like 0 and 1 in digital memory) by about 40% and boosted the electromechanical response, which also benefits radio-frequency filters and resonators — parts in wireless devices that tune and stabilize high-frequency signals.

ORNL researcher David Cullen has been named a Fellow of the Microscopy Society of America for significant contributions to microscopy. His work advances electron microscopy techniques that reveal materials and catalysts at the nanoscale, helping speed progress in energy-related and other technology research.

The Federal Laboratory Consortium (FLC) awards recognize outstanding achievements in the successful transfer of technology from laboratory to industry. The Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory was recently awarded six FLC awards, including the 2026 Excellence in Technology Transfer Award, for technology commercialized by Element3 that enables the extraction of lithium from oil and gas wastewater.

The Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems have signed a memorandum of understanding to explore advanced manufacturing for extreme environment materials with energy and national security applications.

Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and collaborators found a new way to control how heat moves through certain ceramic materials. By applying an electric field, they changed the behavior of tiny vibrations in the material (called phonons), making heat travel much more easily in the direction of the field—nearly tripling thermal conductivity compared with other directions. The discovery could help create solid-state devices that manage heat more efficiently in electronics, energy systems and other technologies.

Vipin Kumar, a composites manufacturing researcher at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has been named one of 21 rising professionals nationwide for the 2026 Emerging Leaders Program of the American Composites Manufacturers Association.

Prometheus Grand Challenge aims to deploy commercial-scale nuclear reactors in years, not decades.

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho —The Idaho National Laboratory and NVIDIA have partnered to advance nuclear energy deployment through artificial intelligence. The collaboration aims to accelerate advanced nuclear reactor deployment and reduce costs.