Inside America’s Biggest Energy and Science Lab with Oak Ridge National Laboratory

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Sep 2, 2025

Susan Hubbard, Deputy Director for Science and Technology at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, leads groundbreaking innovations in energy and technology. In this discussion, she highlights the evolution of national labs from the Manhattan Project to contemporary initiatives, including advancements in nuclear and fusion energy. Hubbard explains the significance of isotopes in various fields, the role of AI and quantum computing in future energy management, and the importance of public-private partnerships to tackle today’s challenges in sustainability and security.

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ADVICE

Design Research To Be Policy-Resilient

Expect DOE priorities to shift with administrations and design lab work to produce flexible capabilities usable across policy goals.
Embrace team-based, mission-driven research and be willing to pivot to new priority areas.

INSIGHT

ORNL Anchors A Nuclear Cluster

Oak Ridge sits in a regional nuclear ecosystem with 200+ companies, fueling a local resurgence in both fission and fusion activities.
The lab couples supercomputing, materials, and manufacturing strengths to support that industrial cluster.

INSIGHT

Fusion Needs Both Basic Research And De‑risking

Fusion is a national decadal priority involving basic materials research, private capital, and public-private de‑risking efforts.
ORNL contributes materials, computing, manufacturing, and workforce development to accelerate fusion timelines.

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Dr. Susan Hubbard is Deputy Director for Science and Technology at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the largest of the U.S. Department of Energy’s multi-program science and energy labs. With more than 7,000 scientists and engineers, Oak Ridge is advancing innovation across nuclear energy, grid resilience, AI, quantum computing, isotopes, and advanced manufacturing. In this episode, Susan shares how the national labs’ mission has evolved since the Manhattan Project, how companies and startups engage with Oak Ridge through user facilities and partnerships, and what role the labs will play in shaping the future of energy and technology amid today’s geopolitical and industrial shifts.

Episode recorded Aug 18, 2025 (Published Sept 2, 2025)

In this episode, we cover:

[03:03] Dr. Hubbard’s early career and hydrogeophysics
[05:31] Permafrost thaw in the Arctic
[07:11] Earth system complexity
[09:00] Transition from geophysicist to ORNL leadership
[12:17] ORNL’s user facilities, including Frontier supercomputer
[13:56] Isotopes for medicine, security, and Mars exploration
[15:45] Neutron scattering and world-leading materials research
[17:25] Large-scale 3D additive manufacturing for energy
[19:25] How DOE priorities shape research directions
[22:04] Public-private partnerships in nuclear and fusion
[26:54] ORNL’s role in ITER and advanced fusion materials
[30:51] Local enthusiasm for nuclear in Tennessee
[31:54] Building the future grid: reliability, cybersecurity, AI
[33:17] High-performance computing simulations of energy systems
[37:23] Quantum computing, AI, and labs of the future
[43:41] How startups engage with ORNL (CRADA, Innovation Crossroads)
[48:02] U.S. R&D evolution: Manhattan Project to today

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*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant