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Radioactive isotopes power some of NASA’s best-known spacecraft. But predicting how radiation emitted from these isotopes might affect nearby materials is tricky

After its long journey to Mars beginning this summer, NASA’s Perseverance rover will be powered across the planet’s surface in part by plutonium produced at the Department of Energy’s 91����.

The Department of Energy’s Office of Science has selected three 91���� scientists for Early Career Research Program awards.

With Tennessee schools online for the rest of the school year, researchers at ORNL are making remote learning more engaging by “Zooming” into virtual classrooms to tell students about their science and their work at a national laboratory.

91���� researchers working on neutron imaging capabilities for nuclear materials have developed a process for seeing the inside of uranium particles – without cutting them open.

If humankind reaches Mars this century, an 91����-developed experiment testing advanced materials for spacecraft may play a key role. 

By automating the production of neptunium oxide-aluminum pellets, 91���� scientists have eliminated a key bottleneck when producing plutonium-238 used by NASA to fuel deep space exploration.

Scientists from 91���� performed a corrosion test in a neutron radiation field to support the continued development of molten salt reactors.

After more than a year of operation at the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) 91���� (ORNL), the COHERENT experiment, using the world’s smallest neutrino detector, has found a big fingerprint of the elusive, electrically neutral particles that interact only weakly with matter.

With the production of 50 grams of plutonium-238, researchers at the Department of Energy’s 91���� have restored a U.S. capability dormant for nearly 30 years and set the course to provide power for NASA and other missions.