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Secretary Wright Visits Ames National Laboratory, Aug. 14, 2025

August 27, 2025 · U.S. Department of Energy · 0:01:01

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, speaking on the Iowa State campus in Ames, recounts that in 1942 Harley Wilhelm pioneered a method at what became Ames National Laboratory to purify uranium pure enough for atomic reactions — work he credits with helping end World War II early, as he stated it.

Wright states that, more than 75 years later, the laboratory’s innovations in materials science and chemical processing continue, and will be critical, in his words, to ushering in fusion energy, restoring rare-earth elements, and creating magnets and materials the country today only buys from overseas. He says the innovations will unleash American industry and energy and protect national defense, as he put it.

Why it matters

The visit ties a Manhattan Project-era laboratory to the administration’s current rare-earths and fusion case — the same lab-to-industry lineage the Secretary invokes across his national-lab tour.

Sources: U.S. Department of Energy, “Secretary Wright Visits Ames National Laboratory, Aug. 14, 2025”, Ames, Iowa, 2025-08-27 (official upload, embedded above; published 2025-08-27). Transcript via Supadata (private research store, paraphrased and attributed, not republished). All figures and characterizations as stated by the speakers.