ORNL is the Department of Energy's largest science and energy laboratory. Managed since April 2000 by a partnership of the University of Tennessee and Battelle, ORNL was established in 1943 as a part of the secret Manhattan Project to pioneer a method for producing and separating plutonium. As a national resource with a national security mission, ORNL provides Federal, state and local government agencies and departments with technology and expertise to support homeland security needs.