INL'S IMPACT
Idaho Direct Impact
A major contributor to Idaho’s economy, INL’s impact on its home state was extensive. From $239.6 million in subcontracts to Idahoan organizations to 1525 collegiate degrees from Idaho colleges and universities, INL’s influence on Idaho and Idaho’s influence of INL is immense.
Impacting Several States
Negotiations Start with Industry Team to Support Building of Versatile Test Reactor
The Versatile Test Reactor, a one-of-a-kind facility that would support research and development of innovative, clean nuclear energy technologies, entered an exciting new stage of development in 2020.
Impacting California and Washington
Quest to Improve Battery Performance Leads to Discovery of Rare Glassy Metal
Materials scientists scrutinizing the first few moments of battery recharging encountered an astonishing entity. Their discovery defied expectations, logic and experience. More importantly, it may open the door to better batteries, faster catalysts and other materials science leaps.
Impacting Tennessee and Utah
Machine Learning Helps Scientists Interpret Crystal Patterns
Analyzing data using traditional microscopy and spectroscopy can be time-consuming. Now, researchers from INL, Tennessee, and Utah developed a computer model to help interpret diffraction patterns in hours instead of weeks.
Impacting Ohio
Making Sound from Light, INL Researchers Probe Microcrystals
Figuring out what happens to a material over time can be tough – especially in harsh environments. In 2020, a multi-institution team demonstrated a new method of using light-generated sound waves to remotely and nondestructively reveal a material’s inner structure.
Impacting Idaho
INL Transfers Laptops to the College of Eastern Idaho
Cybersecurity talent is in demand nationwide, and in an effort to help develop homegrown talent, INL donated 30 laptops to CEI for their Security Operations Center.
Impacting Idaho
INL Donated $60K to Fight Food Insecurity
Across the country, individuals banded together to do whatever they can to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. In this spirit, Battelle Energy Alliance, which manages Idaho National Laboratory for the U.S. Department of Energy, launched the INL Cares initiative to donate $60,000 to food banks in southeastern Idaho.
Impacting Several States
Commercial Alloy Qualified for New Use, First New Alloy Qualified in 30 Years
To help engineers and others pick the right material, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers publishes the “Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code” – also referred to simply as the Code. In 2020, a team at INL in collaboration with groups at Argonne and Oak Ridge national laboratories, as well as industry consultants and international partners, has for the first time in 30 years gotten a new material, Alloy 617, into the Code.
