For 75 years, Idaho National Laboratory has been at the forefront of nuclear energy and technology research. This research includes the nuclear fuel cycle, a multistep process that covers the entire life cycle of nuclear fuel, from mining uranium for use in a reactor to the safe management and disposal of spent, or used, fuel. […]

In 1951, the desert of eastern Idaho hosted Experimental Breeder Reactor-I, the first nuclear reactor to generate a usable amount of electricity. Four years later, researchers followed that success with BORAX-III, the first reactor to power an American city. The next two decades saw a flurry of research and development at that desert site — […]

Women played an instrumental role in shaping the field of nuclear science. Nobel Prize-winner Marie Curie was part of a team that discovered radioactivity. Katharine Way, a leading scientist on the Manhattan Project, analyzed and interpreted foundational nuclear data. Physicist Chien-Shiung Wu tested and disproved a widely accepted atomic science theory. Despite these historical contributions, […]

As nuclear energy is increasingly recognized as a vital component of the clean energy transition, American companies have answered the call with dozens of new reactor and fuel designs. But the nation’s nuclear energy industry is facing a decline in skilled workers to build and operate these technologies. Without action, the U.S. stands to lose […]

After two decades, laboratory reopens for spent fuel testing On a chilly December evening in eastern Idaho, a semi-tractor trailer truck pulls off the desert highway and up to the gate at the Department of Energy’s Materials and Fuels Complex. The truck and the small, gray shipping container that sits on its trailer appear unremarkable. […]

People often think of radiation as the basis for carbon-free nuclear power. But radiation can also save lives. That’s especially true in hospitals where professionals use nuclear medicine to make diagnoses, treat medical conditions and sterilize equipment. One such medical treatment includes radioisotopes in irradiators used to treat donated blood to prevent graft-versus-host disease. The […]

Idaho National Laboratory researchers and Idaho State University (ISU) nuclear engineering students developed the world’s first nuclear reactor digital twin — a virtual replica of ISU’s AGN-201 reactor — in a campus collaboration last August. Digital twins are virtual models of real-life assets, such as complex infrastructure, machines or buildings. By modeling nuclear reactors, digital […]