Feature Articles

Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed a new automated drone inspection system that can respond rapidly to unusual electric grid behavior, especially in remote areas that are tough for a worker to reach. ORNL demonstrated the new approach at a training facility for powerline workers owned by utility partner EPB of Chattanooga in Tennessee. 

Leaders from the Department of Energy (DOE) and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory celebrated the construction of the foundations for the lab’s newest facility on August 21, 2024. The Seismic Safety and Modernization (SSM) project is replacing the previous cafeteria building, which served the lab for 70 years. (The previous facility could not meet today’s standards for resilience in case of an earthquake, among other issues.) In contrast, the new facility has a 47,000-square-foot state-of-the-art design. It will encompass food service and conference facilities. The building will also be a home for operations services such as security, human resources, and the Health Services Clinic.

What populates Alabama’s William Bankhead National Forest? Trees might be the first thing that come to mind — or maybe deer. But a lot of sophisticated scientific instruments are joining the natural forest occupants thanks to a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) research facility being set up there to study connections between the forest and atmosphere. But before these sensitive tools are installed among the trees, staff from DOE’s Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility need to ensure the instruments’ precision and accuracy. 

Underground at the Switzerland-France border, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN holds the record for the world’s largest particle accelerator. Its ring alone is nearly 17 miles around. With this tool, scientists smash together subatomic particles to help them better understand the tiny building blocks of the universe. One area that scientists use the LHC to study is the quark-gluon plasma.

Argonne and the University of Münster agreed to collaborate on advanced battery materials, building on past lithium battery research. This collaboration aims to enhance battery knowledge and address challenges in energy density, cost and lifespan.

Researchers are planning for an electric grid that deploys machine learning to think ahead, plan for the worst, anticipate demand, and meet consumer needs safely and securely. 

A billion-billion floating point operations per second–that’s the power of exascale. The first exascale computer in the world, Frontier, resides at the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility. The DOE’s Office of Science Advanced Scientific Computing Research program has worked for decades to build supercomputers that break barriers in scientific discovery. 

Argonne’s Office of Community Engagement hosted Geri Richmond, the Department of Energy’s under secretary for science and innovation, at three sites on Chicago’s South Side to showcase green energy initiatives featuring Argonne’s involvement.