Oak Ridge National Laboratory Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is a national laboratory in the United States. It was founded in 1943 and is subordinate to the U.S. Department of energy. Oak Ridge National Laboratory was originally a part of Manhattan Project, mainly producing and separating uranium and plutonium. Now its research fields include Neutron Science, energy science, chemistry and radiochemistry, environmental science, robotics, supercomputer, mathematics, etc.