# Virtual Tour

Our 3D tours are the next best thing to actually being at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. These fully immersive tours allows viewers to look up, down, and spin 360 degrees as you virtually “walk-through” our facilities from any connected device. Take it for a spin, click play on any of the images below to explore Oak Ridge National Laboratory for yourself.

Advanced Plant Phenotyping LaboratorySee an automated system that moves up to 10,000 plants through imaging stations. It measures plant characteristics, including many that are invisible to the naked eye. These data speed discoveries in bioenergy and agriculture.

Aquatic Ecology LaboratoryLearn how researchers study the effects of energy use on waterways and develop solutions to limit water pollution. See simulated stream beds and wildlife from algae to tiny zooplankton to paddlefish.

Building Technologies Research and Integration CenterExplore the latest in building energy efficiency as you walk through this DOE national user facility. Step inside experimental chambers and equipment that test roofs, walls, and refrigerants. See new technologies—like the ultrasonic clothes dryer—in action.

Carbon Fiber Technology FacilityStroll the carbon fiber processing line to see how this DOE national user facility takes low-cost raw materials such as textile, lignin, polymer, and hydrocarbon-based precursors, and turns them into lightweight materials that can be used in clean energy applications.

Center for Nanophase Materials SciencesExplore a range of lab spaces and equipment used in nanoscience research, including instrumentation used in nanomaterials synthesis, nanofabrication, and microscopy at this DOE Office of Science user facility.

Graphite ReactorStroll the birthplace of ORNL with a tour of the Graphite Reactor, the world’s first reactor built for continuous operation. After piloting reactor-based production of plutonium during the Manhattan Project, scientists used the reactor to produce life-saving medical isotopes, pioneer materials research, and better understand the natural world.

High Flux Isotope ReactorSee the High Flux Isotope Reactor, one of the world’s most powerful nuclear research reactors. Its missions include neutron scattering, irradiation testing of damaged materials, isotope production for medical and defense applications, and neutron activation analysis for detecting important elements. 

High-Performance ComputingWalk from the operations control room to the energy plant and through more than 15,000 square feet of data center space that includes ORNL’s Summit supercomputer, the nation’s fastest high-performance computing system. 

Manufacturing Demonstration FacilitySee how additive manufacturing is used to produce vehicles, wind blades, airplane parts and more as you tour this DOE national user facility. Take a close look at 3D printing machines and watch components certified in real-time with digital characterization.

National Transportation Research CenterExplore this 65,000-square-foot DOE national user facility that is dedicated to clean, efficient and safe mobility, ranging from wireless charging and electric drives, to sustainable fuels and engine research, to driverless, cybersecure vehicle technologies and battery manufacturing breakthroughs. 

New Bethel Baptist ChurchTour this historic building that honors the origins of the Scarborough community. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the church and now museum, served as a planning office for construction of the Graphite Reactor.

Radiochemical Engineering Development CenterAt this facility, experts work with rare materials to produce radioisotopes for medicine, national security, industry, research and space exploration. This includes plutonium-238, used in NASA’s Perseverance Mars mission, and isotopes used to treat cancer and discover tennessine, element 117.

Spallation Neutron SourceStep inside the Spallation Neutron Source, a world-class research facility for studying energy and materials at the atomic scale. Learn how high-powered instruments are used to improve medicine, batteries, computers, consumer products, and many more applications in everyday life. 

Spallation Neutron Source Klystron GalleryThe Klystron Gallery at the Spallation Neutron Source supplies power to more than 80 superconducting structures directly beneath each station. Along the tour, checkout the Proton Power Upgrade construction project that will double the power of the facility’s linear accelerator. 

Spallation Neutron Source LINACWalk down the linear accelerator at the Spallation Neutron Source. Explore more than 300-yards of powerful magnets and accelerating structures that propel particles to 90% the speed of light to create neutrons used to study materials and exotic quantum phenomena. 

Ultra-Trace Forensic Science CenterRoam the 36,000-square-foot facility dedicated to ultra-trace chemical analysis. The UTFC houses high-precision chemical and isotope mass spectrometry instruments and more than 7,400 square feet of cleanroom space for sample preparation.

Neutrino AlleyVisit Neutrino Alley and walk alongside detectors of electrically neutral particles that interact very weakly with matter. The detectors are the eyes of the COHERENT experiment, which seeks evidence of hard-to-spot interactions between ghostly neutrinos and atomic nuclei.

Traveling Science Fair

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*Coming soon: *Tiny Atoms...Big Science and Mission Support

Grid Research Integration and Deployment CenterExplore the nation’s foremost proving ground for electrification, where innovations are developed, validated, and deployed for a clean, smart, resilient and secure power grid. Unique capabilities for battery manufacturing and recycling, power electronics, microgrid controls, communications and security, buildings- and vehicles-to-grid.