Originally, ORNL was considered a nuclear lab. Now, it's an
energy and environmental research lab, but our missions include
protecting nuclear materials, producing electricity from nuclear
energy, isolating the hazardous nuclear materials from the
environment, and making the beneficial ones available for
medical purposes. Our nuclear programs have changed over the
past half century. At first we were dedicated to helping the
nation build an atomic bomb to end a terrible war. Then our
major goal was to develop nuclear energy as a safe and reliable
source of part of the nation's electricity. Now, our most
pressing goals are to support the conversion of bomb-grade
uranium and plutonium from U.S. and Russian weapons into fuel
suitable for power-generating reactors—and to confirm that the
conversion occurred. Converting Nuclear Weapons to Energy At the
end of the Cold War, the United States and the former Soviet
Union agreed to dismantle a large number of nuclear weapons,
creating a surplus of plutonium and highly