Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD)
Benefits of LDRD
The Department of Energy (DOE) allows the national laboratories to devote up to 6% of their research effort to creative and innovative work that 1) maintains their scientific and technical vitality, 2) enhances their ability to address current and future DOE missions, 3) fosters creativity and stimulates exploration of forefront areas of science and technology, 4) serves as a proving ground for new research and development concepts, and 5) supports highrisk, high-value research and development.
LDRD Success Story
Unlocking the power of microreactors with biomimicry and additively manufactured nuclear fuel
Nuclear reactors are essentially heat exchangers. Progress in advanced manufacturing has spurred a new era of compact heat exchanger research in other energy markets. These designs mimic efficiencies found in nature to significantly improve thermal performance and compactness. This project hypothesized that these same principles would greatly enhance the performance of nuclear fuel by using intertwined lattice geometries based on continuously curved triply periodic minimal surfaces. New methods were pioneered for discretizing and modeling triply periodic minimal surface geometries for nuclear physics, thermal hydraulics, and fuel performance predictions. The key conclusion from this research is that intertwined nuclear fuel lattices offer the potential for dramatic gains in the power output possible from future reactors alongside benefits in nuclear physics optimization and system versatility.
Check out these publications for more information.
- N. Martin, S. Seo, S. Balderrama Prieto, C. Jesse, N. Woolstenhulme, “Reactor physics characterization of triply periodic minimal surface-based nuclear fuel lattices.” Progress in Nuclear Energy, 165, 104895, November 2023.
- Ferney, Paul Alexandre and Martin, Nicolas Pierre, “Implementation of Triply Periodic Minimal Surfaces in OpenMC.” Annals of Nuclear Energy, 224, December 2025.
- Silvino A. Balderrama Prieto, Nicolas P. Martin, Brett A. Prussack, Austen D. Fradeneck, Nicolas E. Woolstenhulme, Mark H. Anderson, “CFD modeling of turbulent air flow in self-heated gyroid TPMS structures: Thermal hydraulic performance and validation.” Applied Thermal Engineering, Volume 279, Part E, 2025, 127682.
Collaboration
INL’s LDRD program encourages collaboration across organizational, institutional, and geographical boundaries to advance the frontiers of science, technology, and engineering. Of the more than 400 researchers working on LDRD projects in FY-25, nearly 100 of them were outside INL, representing 30 states as well as Canada, Germany, Mexico, and the United Kingdom. These collaborators came from four national laboratories, six companies and 45 universities, including 10 of the 12 Strategic Understanding for Premier Education and Research (SUPER) universities and four of the five National University Consortium (NUC) universities.
Publications
The Process
The laboratory ensures that LDRD program goals and objectives are aligned with DOE Order 413.2C, Chg. 1, and that the LDRD portfolio is managed with integrity and transparency. All LDRD projects go through a rigorous proposal review and selection process, and ongoing projects applying for renewal are contingent on a progress report review. These steps ensure that LDRD investments are continually aligned with INL’s vision, mission, and S&T initiatives, and are technically sound, innovative, cutting-edge RD&D projects that comply with the LDRD Order. New project proposals and ongoing project progress reports are subject to multiple levels of review (by management, technical reviewers, and a strategic review committee).
Lab leadership establishes review committees for each focus area and for seed proposals. These committees review new project proposals and ongoing project progress reports and make funding recommendations. Committees are staffed by senior and midcareer researchers and technical managers who are subject matter experts without any conflict of interest with the proposed projects. The deputy lab director for S&T reviews the committees’ recommendations with the associate laboratory directors and makes final funding decisions on the LDRD portfolio. DOE’s Idaho Operations Office concurs on each proposed and continuing project prior to project authorization.