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Scientists have developed a new machine learning approach that accurately predicted critical and difficult-to-compute properties of molten salts, materials with diverse nuclear energy applications. 

Using the now-decommissioned Summit supercomputer, researchers at ORNL ran the largest and most accurate molecular dynamics simulations yet of the interface between water and air during a chemical reaction. The simulations have uncovered how water controls such chemical reactions by dynamically coupling with the molecules involved in the process. 

ORNL’s Biological Monitoring and Abatement Program, or BMAP, is marking 40 years of helping steward the DOE’s 33,476 acres of land on which some of the nation’s most powerful science and technology missions are carried out. 

Analyzing massive datasets from nuclear physics experiments can take hours or days to process, but researchers are working to radically reduce that time to mere seconds using special software being developed at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley and Oak Ridge national laboratories.  

A team from ORNL, joined by university students, recently traveled to the Ohio State University Research Reactor to conduct a novel experiment on nuclear thermal rocket fuel coatings — one that could help propel NASA’s astronauts to Mars faster and more efficiently. 

Jairus Hines, an electronics and unmanned systems technician at ORNL, works with airborne, waterborne and ground-based drones. As part of the lab’s Autonomous Systems group, he applies "low and slow" drone technology to radiation detection for national security missions.

During a recent visit to ORNL, several OASA (IE&E) representatives explored the ORNL’s leadership in advanced nuclear energy development to inform the design and construction of a microreactor to power mission-critical facilities at two Army bases. 

Professionals from government and industry gathered at ORNL for the Nondestructive Assay Holdup Measurements Training Course for Nuclear Criticality Safety, a hands-on training in nondestructive assay, a technique for detecting and quantifying holdup without disturbing operations. 

By editing the polymers of discarded plastics, ORNL chemists have found a way to generate new macromolecules with more valuable properties than those of the starting material.

Melissa Cregger of the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has received the Presidential Early Career Award for Science and Engineers, or PECASE, the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on outstanding early-career scientists and engineers.