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At the request of two domestic uranium producers, the US Department of Commerce (DOC) has launched an investigation into whether “the present quantity and circumstances” of uranium imports threatens national security. However, the US nuclear energy industry has warned that a suggested quota on imports would have a significant financial impact on the country’s reactor operators........ In their petition, Ur-Energy and Energy Fuels noted that US uranium production met just 5% of domestic reactor requirements last year. This year, domestic producers are projected to fulfil about 2% of US reactor demand...... “In 2016, the combined uranium imports from three geopolitically...

Oak Ridge’s Summit supercomputer, designed to reclaim the title “world’s fastest,” has officially done so. The designation came Tuesday at the ISC High Performance conference in Frankfurt, Germany, according to a news release from Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Eight times more powerful than its predecessor, Titan, the Summit supercomputer reclaims the title from China’s Sunway TaihuLight.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry said Monday that he will fight to keep jobs and boost funding for research facilities like Oak Ridge National Laboratory. {snip} Perry, who once called for the abolition of the Energy Department, has since become an outspoken proponent of the department's importance, particularly of the cutting-edge research conducted at the national labs. Perry acknowledged he has "not been in the job long enough to go through the budget line item by line item" but said he is "doing my homework every day." Perry was joined on the tour by U.S. Sen....

The recently discovered element 117 has been officially named "tennessine" in recognition of Tennessee’s contributions to its discovery, including the efforts of the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory and its Tennessee collaborators at Vanderbilt University and the University of Tennessee. "The presence of tennessine on the Periodic Table is an affirmation of our state's standing in the international scientific community, including the facilities ORNL provides to that community as well as the knowledge and expertise of the laboratory's scientists and technicians," ORNL Director Thom Mason said.

May 30, 2015 Terrestrial energy allying with the University of Manchester on molten salt reactor development  Canadian Terrestrial Energy has formed an alliance with Dalton Nuclear Institute at the University of Manchester in UK to develop its Integral Molten Salt Reactor (IMSR). The firm intends to accelerate work on the development in order to make it ready for the construction and licensing phase, which has been scheduled for early 2017. Molten salt reactors (MSRs) use fuel dissolved in a molten fluoride or chloride salt. As an MSR fuel salt is a liquid, it functions as both the fuel (producing the...

My last article about thorium as an alternative nuclear reactor fuel drew way more readers than I expected. I intentionally glossed over the complexities of specific reactor designs for the sake of simplicity, but in this article I want to go deeper. This article explains some of the differences between traditional uranium reactors and molten salt thorium reactors (MSRs).

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. (AP) — The Oak Ridge National Laboratory hopes to restore limited email on Tuesday after a cyber attack over the weekend. Laboratory Director Thom Mason says officials shut down electronic access to the lab Friday night after a highly sophisticated cyber attack, known as Advanced Persistent Threat, according to The Knoxville News Sentinel. Closing access ensured that no data was extracted from ORNL computers.

OAK RIDGE - Production of radioisotopes, a signature mission at Oak Ridge National Laboratory since the 1940s, is making a comeback of sorts. Last year, there was virtually no money available for the work at ORNL while the government's isotopes program was reviewed and reorganized at Department of Energy headquarters in Washington. Production of some radioactive elements - notably californium-252, which was in short supply - got put on hold in Oak Ridge during a situation that some characterized as a bureaucratic crisis. As 2009 came to a close, however, the supply of californium, a radioisotope with uses ranging from...

<p>Sunni terrorists. Thereafter, 11 terrorists and their supporters were taken out.</p> <p>Iraqi terrorists seek out and complain to the mainstream media.</p> <p>USN F14B Tomcats over the Iraqi landscape after refueling from an Air Force KC-10.</p> <p>Marine heroes train Iraqi Civil Defense Corps in weapons handling near Anah, Iraq.</p>

Researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed a miniature device that can identify as little as a fraction of a spore of anthrax and other biological hazards within 30 milliseconds. The Calorimetric Spectrometer (CalSpec) device technology can accurately identify biological hazards such as anthrax almost instantly. The device can operate with only a fraction of a spore while isolating the DNA/RNA photothermal signature that allows for detection, identification and measurement of a substance. Such prompt detection and identification of hazardous materials could greatly enhance the protection of first-responder emergency personnel and the capabilities of early...

Sonic Fusion Scientists have reported that by bombarding a liquid with sound they were able to produce nuclear fusion in a tabletop apparatus. But their colleagues doubt it. By W. Wayt Gibbs Image: Courtesy of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the Russian Academy of Sciences (Rusi P. Taleyarkhan, J. S. Cho, C.D. West, R.T. Lahey,Jr., R.I. Nigmatulin and R.C. Block)SIX-MILLIMETER BUBBLE CLOUD is about to implode in a glass chamber filled with acetone. The implosion produces light and shock waves. Donald Kennedy, editor of the prestigious journal Science, knew he was in for a row if he...