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Nuclear Physics

Steven Hamilton, ORNLIndustryScienceTechnology

Predicting the Future of Fission Power

As renewable sources of energy such as wind and sun power are being increasingly added to the country’s electrical grid, old-fashioned nuclear energy is also being primed for a resurgence. For the past 20 years, fission reactors have produced a nearly unchanging portion of the nation’s electricity: around 20%. But…
Coury Turczyn
May 22, 2023
Frontier data center imageScience

Forging Ahead with Frontier: Ready to Crush Science

Computational users at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF) are running scientific codes on Frontier’s architecture in the form of a powerful test system at the OLCF called Crusher. Frontier, an HPE Cray EX supercomputer capable of 1018 calculations per second—or 10 with 18 zeroes—was installed in late 2021 and is…
Rachel McDowell
March 28, 2022
FRIB buildingScience

The Magic is Gone for Certain Atomic Nuclei

Using the power of the Summit supercomputer, researchers at the US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, have verified the results of a groundbreaking experiment to precisely measure the charge radii of neutron-rich potassium isotopes. The findings challenge current nuclear theory…
Coury Turczyn
April 6, 2021
Science

Solving A Beta Decay Puzzle

OAK RIDGE, Tenn., March 11, 2019—An international collaboration including scientists at the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) solved a 50-year-old puzzle that explains why beta decays of atomic nuclei are slower than what is expected based on the beta decays of free neutrons. The findings, published…
Jonathan Hines
March 12, 2019
particle physics, nuclear physics, supercomputingScience

With Supercomputing Power and an Unconventional Strategy, Scientists Solve a Next-Generation Physics Problem

Using the Titan supercomputer at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF), a team of researchers has calculated a fundamental property of protons and neutrons, known as the nucleon axial coupling, with groundbreaking precision. Led by André Walker-Loud of the US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the…
Katie Elyce Jones
May 30, 2018
An image of a deuteron, the bound state of a proton and a neutronScience

Another First for Quantum

The beginnings of quantum computing bring about many firsts. In 2010 a team led by B. P. Lanyon simulated a hydrogen molecule, H2, on a quantum system for the first time. Last fall research scientists at IBM performed the first quantum calculations of molecules beyond hydrogen and helium. Now a…
Rachel McDowell
May 23, 2018
ORNL team reaches into atoms’ depths to look at particle interactions driving nuclear stabilityScience

Nuclear Physicists Wield HPC to Uncover Magic Isotopes

Where do elements come from? How does the strong force bind subatomic particles into nuclei? What can scientists understand from nuclei with unusual proton–neutron ratios? Nuclear physicists at the US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) are seeking answers to questions like these. One element is of…
Rachel McDowell
May 1, 2018
Science

Fundamental Fission Modeling Finds a Foothold

https://vimeo.com/176316108 While trying to fatten the atom in 1938, German chemist Otto Hahn accidentally split it instead. This surprising discovery put modern science on the fast track to the atomic age and to the realization of technologies with profound potential for great harm or great help. Although scientific experts, thought…
Jonathan Hines
July 26, 2016
Science

Physics Researchers Question Calcium 52’s Magic

The image above shows the chain of the studied calcium isotopes. The “doubly magic” isotopes with mass numbers 40 (Ca-40) and 48 (Ca-48) exhibit equal charge radii. The first measurement of the charge radius in Ca-52 yielded an unexpectedly large result. For decades nuclear physicists have tried to learn more…
Eric Gedenk
July 20, 2016
Science

One Billion Processor Hours Awarded to 22 Projects through ALCC

ALCC’s mission is to provide high-performance computing resources to projects that align with DOE’s broad energy mission, with an emphasis on high-risk, high-return simulations. The US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science has awarded nearly 1 billion processor hours to 22 projects at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility…
Maleia Wood
July 5, 2016