History of Fundamental and Applied Sciences Achievements in Oak Ridge National Laboratory: Partnership with University of Tennessee – Discovery of America by Queltanews

Beginning with degree programs in 1943, ORNL has had a special relationship with the University of Tennessee. Since UT became a managing contractor of the Laboratory in April 2000, the two institutions have expanded a variety of programs that enrich and strengthen the research agenda of both ORNL and the university.     more...

History of Fundamental and Applied Sciences Achievements in Oak Ridge National Laboratory: Technology Transfer to Marketplace – Discovery of America by Queltanews

For more than four decades many of the technologies developed at ORNL have been transformed into practical goods and services that serve as the basis for the creation of new companies.     more...

History of Fundamental and Applied Sciences Achievements in Oak Ridge National Laboratory: Fusion Energy – Discovery of America by Queltanews

Scientists from Russia and Japan to Europe and the United States have long sought to develop fusion as an abundant, safe, and environmentally friendly source of electric power. To reach this ambitious goal     more...

History of Fundamental and Applied Sciences Achievements in Oak Ridge National Laboratory: Biomass Energy – Discovery of America by Queltanews

Thanks to a Department of Energy program managed by ORNL for 20 years, industry has a more efficient source of pulp fiber and wood for making paper, construction materials, and furniture     more...

History of Fundamental and Applied Sciences Achievements in Oak Ridge National Laboratory: Geographic Information Systems – Discovery of America by Queltanews

Geographic information science was pioneered at ORNL in 1969, more than a decade before the commercial geographic information system (GIS) industry blossomed. A GIS is a computer system     more...

History of Fundamental and Applied Sciences Achievements in Oak Ridge National Laboratory: High Performance Computing – Discovery of America by Queltanews

For 50 years ORNL has been a leader in advancing supercomputing. In 1954 an ORNL group led by Alston Householder partnered with Argonne National Laboratory to create a computer with the fastest speed and largest data storage capacity     more...

History of Fundamental and Applied Sciences Achievements in Oak Ridge National Laboratory: Nuclear Physics and Astrophysics – Discovery of America by Queltanews

Nuclear physics research at ORNL took off in the late 1940s, largely because of the nuclear aircraft project's need for information about the behavior and effects of reactor-borne neutrons on shielding materials. In 1948 Arthur Snell initiated research using an upgraded 3-megavolt Van de Graaff accelerator     more...

History of Fundamental and Applied Sciences Achievements in Oak Ridge National Laboratory: Chemistry and Mass Spectrometry – Discovery of America by Queltanews

Oak Ridge chemists pioneered methods of separating plutonium and other fission products from the spent uranium fuel at the Graphite Reactor, achieving the Laboratory's mission in the effort to end World War II.     more...

History of Fundamental and Applied Sciences Achievements in Oak Ridge National Laboratory: Energy Efficiency in Building – Discovery of America by Queltanews

After the Arab oil embargo of 1974 when gas stations had long lines and energy prices climbed, ORNL was asked to serve as the federal government's program manager for energy conservation research. ORNL's residential conservation program, headed by Roger Carlsmith, addressed     more...

History of Fundamental and Applied Sciences Achievements in Oak Ridge National Laboratory: Energy Efficiency in Cooling and Heating – Discovery of America by Queltanews

In the past three decades, ORNL has spearheaded the development of refrigeration systems that use less energy and pose less of a threat to the environment. The motivations have been the rise in energy prices since the 1970s because of unstable supplies of imported oil for fuel     more...