• Home
»
• Nuclear Energy

Learn more about the ATR National Scientific User Facility.

Building on the role as the nation's leading center of nuclear energy research and development, the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) is involved in the following programs.

International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project (ICSBEP)

The International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project (ICSBEP) was initiated at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) in October of 1992 by the Department of Energy Defense Programs, now NNSA. The U.S. effort to support and provide leadership for the ICSBEP is funded through the DOE NNSA’s Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCPP). The project is managed through the INL, but involves nationally known criticality safety experts from Los Alamos National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Savannah River Technology Center, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Y-12 Plant, Hanford, Argonne National Laboratory, Rocky Flat Plant, and Bettis Laboratory. An International Criticality Safety Data Exchange component was added to the project during 1994. Representatives from the United Kingdom, France, Japan, the Russian Federation, Hungary, Republic of Korea, Slovenia, Serbia & Montenegro, Kazakhstan, Spain, Israel, Brazil, the Czech Republic, and Poland are now participating. Canada, China, South Africa, Argentina, and India have been invited to participate. The ICSBEP is an official activity of the OECD-NEA. The United States is the lead country, providing most of the administrative support.

International Reactor Physics Experiment Evaluation Project (IRPhEP)

The International Reactor Physics Experiments Evaluation Project (IRPhEP) was initiated by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) in May of 2000. The goal of the IRPhEP is to preserve integral reactor physics experimental data. United States participation on the IRPhEP is coordinated by the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) and is closely coordinated with the International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project (ICSBEP).

Generation IV Nuclear Reactor Project

The INL supports DOE’s advancement of future generation nuclear power and nonpower systems, encompassing the conceptualization, design and engineering of nuclear systems, and the development of analysis tools and data. Generation IV energy systems are future, next-generation technologies that can compete in all markets with the most cost-effective technologies expected to be available over the next three decades. These systems offer significant advances in sustainability, safety and reliability, economics and proliferation resistance and physical protection. Read more about our Generation IV research.

Generation IV International Forum

The INL and Argonne National Laboratory have facilitated and continue to support DOE-NE’s Generation IV International Forum. The Forum, comprised of scientists from 10 countries, selected six reactor concepts for study as outlined in the Technology Roadmap.

The six concepts to be studied by the forum are: (these are PDF documents)

• Gas-Cooled Fast Reactor System (GFR)
• Molten Salt Reactor System (MSR)
• Sodium Liquid Metal-Cooled Reactor System (SFR)
• Lead Alloy-Cooled Fast Reactor System (LFR)
• Supercritical Water-Cooled Reactor System (SCWR)
• Very High Temperature Reactor System. (VHTR)

See also: DOE Generation IV Nuclear Power Initiative brochure

Nuclear Power 2010

The INL provides support to Nuclear Power 2010, a joint government/industry cost-shared program, whose intent is to demonstrate new regulatory processes and to provide certified designs that will lead to the start of construction of new nuclear power plants in the United States by 2010. The DOE and the utility industry believe it's critical to deploy new baseload nuclear generating capacity within the decade to help diversify our energy supply and build our energy security. A group of industry representatives, operating under the direction of DOE’s Nuclear Energy Research Advisory Committee, issued A Roadmap to Deploy New Nuclear Power Plants in the United States by 2010 that recommends actions to be taken by industry and DOE and provides the basis for the activities of the Nuclear Power 2010 program. See also: DOE-NE Nuclear Power 2010 Overview, NP 2010 brochure.

One of the many Nuclear Power 2010 candidates under development is the inherently safe AP1000 design, above.

Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative

The INL has been working with the DOE and international research community to explore the potential of advanced technologies for achieving a dramatic reduction in the volume and toxicity of nuclear waste. The Advanced Fuel Cycle Program has a top priority to develop new technologies that provide timely resolution of issues related to spent nuclear fuel disposition, and that could more effectively make use of the limited space in the Yucca Mountain Repository, reducing costs and delaying or eliminating the need for a second repository.

The technologies being developed in the Advanced Fuel Cycle Program include processes that can safely and effectively separate the useful components of discharged nuclear fuel from the wastes in a manner that preserves the proliferation resistance of the materials and processes. One example, the advanced aqueous process, closes the fuel cycle to make new fuel and to minimize wastes sent for geologic disposal.

INL's Fusion Safety Program leads much of the safety effort for thermonuclear reactors.

Fusion Safety

The INL was designated lead laboratory of the DOE’s Fusion Safety Program in 1979 to support safety engineering in fusion development. The program's focus is to identify potential safety concerns in fusion devices and develop analytic and risk assessment methodologies to improve the safety analyses of these devices. Our research activities include experimental campaigns for generating safety analysis data, computer code development, and participation in international fusion safety events.

Nuclear Hydrogen

INL supports DOE's Nuclear Hydrogen Initiative to help demonstrate the economic commercial-scale production of hydrogen using nuclear energy by 2015, and thereby make available a large-scale, emission-free, domestic hydrogen production capability to fuel the approaching hydrogen economy. See also: DOE's Nuclear Hydrogen Initiative