Idaho

The Idaho National Laboratory (INL), an 890-square-mile section of desert in Eastern Idaho, was established in 1949 as the National Reactor Testing Station. Initially, the missions at the INL were the development of civilian and defense nuclear reactor technologies and management of spent nuclear fuel. Fifty-two reactors—most of them first-of-a-kind—were built, including the Navy’s first prototype nuclear propulsion plant. Of the 52 reactors, three remain in operation at the site. In 1951, the INL achieved one of the most significant scientific accomplishments of the century—the first use of nuclear fission to produce a usable quantity of electricity at the Experimental Breeder Reactor No. 1 (EBR-1). The EBR-1 is now a Registered National Historic Landmark open to the public.

During the 1970s, the name of the site was changed from the National Reactor Testing Station to the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory. This change reflected the broadened mission into biotechnology, energy and materials research, and conservation and renewable energy. The name changed again in 1997 to the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. This change reflected a major refocus toward engineering applications and environmental solutions. On February 1, 2005, the name changed again to the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). This change reflects a move back to the laboratory’s historic roots in nuclear energy and national security.

View a “Virtual Field Trip” of Idaho National Laboratory produced by Discovery Education and the American Nuclear Society.

City of Idaho Falls, ID

Butte County, ID

Shoshone-Bannock Tribes

Idaho Advanced Energy Consortium - The purpose of the Idaho Advanced Energy Consortium (IAEC) is to convene industry stakeholders across the advanced energy sector to identify, plan, and address the evolving shared supply chain, workforce, community, infrastructure and security needs. These needs center around advancements in nuclear and clean energy and their related projects in Idaho and the region.

Idaho Cleanup Project Citizens Advisory Board - A federally appointed citizens' panel that provides independent advice and recommendations to the Office of Assistant Secretary, and designees, for the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Environmental Management (EM) Program.

Battelle Energy Alliance LLC (BEA) – INL Management & Operations

• In 2005, the U.S. Department of Energy selected Battelle Energy Alliance LLC as the managing and operating contractor for the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). BEA oversees key site facilities including the Materials and Fuels Complex and the Advanced Test Reactor Complex under the direction of John C. Wagner. BEA's teaming partners are BWX Technologies Inc. and Amentum Environment & Energy Inc. The current extension of the prime contract goes through fiscal year 2029.

Idaho Environmental Coalition, LLC (IEC)

• In 2021, the Idaho Environmental Coalition, LLC (IEC) was selected by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to manage cleanup operations at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Site under a ten-year, $6.4 billion contract. IEC is led by Jacobs and includes North Wind Portage as a partner.

Federal Government

• U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo (R)

• U.S. Sen. James Risch (R)

• U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson (R) (ID-02)

State Government

• Gov. Brad Little (R)

• State Sen. Julie VanOrden (R) (District 30)

• State Sen. Dave Lent (R) (District 33)

• State Rep. David Cannon (R) (District 30)

• State Rep. Ben Fuhriman (R) (District 30)

• State Rep. Barbara Ehardt (R) (District 33)

• State Rep. Marco Erickson (R) (District 33)

Local Government

• Idaho Falls Mayor Rebecca Casper

• Butte County Chair Brian Harrell

• Butte County Commissioner M.H. “Hootie” Langseth

• Butte County Commissioner Blake Van Etten

Idaho National Laboratory

• Sarah Neumann

  • Phone: (208) 526-0490; Email: Sarah.Robertson@inl.gov

Idaho Cleanup Project Citizens Advisory Board

• Jordan Davies, Project Staff

  • Phone: (208) 557-7886; Email: Jordan.Davies@em.doe.gov

City of Idaho Falls

• Kimberly Felker, Public Information Officer

  • Phone: (208) 612-8122; Email: kfelker@idahofalls.gov

• Special Nuclear Materials and Spent Nuclear Fuel

• Transuranic and Solid Waste Disposition

• Tank Waste

• Soil and Groundwater Remediation

• Ongoing D&D of the prototype reactors at NNSA Naval Reactors

In March 2024, the Office of Environmental Management released a Strategic Vision for 2024-2034.

Planned Cleanup Scope 2024–2034

Over the course of the next decade, cleanup activities at the INL Site will focus on completing treatment of remaining liquid sodium-bearing waste, facility decontamination and demolition at Naval Reactors Facility (NRF), shipping the remaining balance of TRU waste, and demolition and closure of facilities at RWMC and INTEC.

The full Idaho Strategic Vision is available here.

While INL is the nation’s nuclear energy laboratory, its research into other advanced energy technologies is part of an all-of-the-above approach that adds resilience to the electric grid while increasing domestic energy production and energy independence.

INL’s advanced energy technologies research includes:

• Integrated energy systems and microgrids.

• Hydrogen production for industrial applications.

• Waste-to-energy technologies.

• Alternative energy and storage.

• Advanced manufacturing and materials development.

INL is spearheading a collaborative effort to develop a suite of artificial intelligence technologies to reduce the expense and time required to develop and operate new nuclear energy projects.

Key activities include:

•  Autonomous design, development, licensing and operation to help coordinate engineering elements, design for constructability, recognize supply chain constraints early and complete the design process prior to construction.

• Autonomous operations can help large fleets of small modular reactors and microreactors address workforce constraints.

• Nuclear energy research and development could be more efficient if selected INL facilities were run nearly 24 hours a day with autonomous technologies.

• A prototype autonomous reactor can be deployed at INL, in partnership with industry, to prove the principle.

‍ The INL Bioenergy Program’s mission is to support DOE by developing processes and technologies through applied science and engineering that remove the barriers associated with accessing a secure, efficient feedstock supply.

• INL is the nation’s leading laboratory for bioenergy feedstock research. Specifically, INL’s research is focused on addressing barriers associated with efficiently and economically supplying large quantities of quality feedstock to future biorefineries. This effort includes improving feedstock preprocessing technologies, understanding feedstock variability and its implications on conversion processes, feedstock supply system design and analysis, and at-scale equipment testing and design. INL feedstock research and development occurs at several scales, ranging from laboratory scale, to bench-scale prototyping, to pilot-scale testing and demonstration in partnership with other national labs, industry, and academia.

• INL manages the DOE-funded Biomass Feedstock National User Facility (BFNUF), which comprises the Process Development Unit, a modular research system for testing feedstock formulation processes, collecting process data, and producing small and large quantities of feedstocks for conversion testing. BFNUF also includes the Biomass Characterization Laboratory and Bioenergy Feedstock Library, which help bioenergy developers understand feedstock quality and its potential impact on conversion performance.

Critical materials have properties that make them essential to defense, aerospace, energy industries and other advanced technologies. However, many are primarily mined and processed overseas, leaving U.S. supply chains vulnerable to disruption.

INL’s research includes:

• Advancing the life cycle of critical materials — improving how they are mined, extracted, detected, recovered and recycled.

• Researching state-of-the-art instruments to identify these materials in sources like ores, geothermal fluids, mine tailings, wastewater and recycled products.

• Developing advanced chemical and materials separation techniques to extract critical elements from complex sources using one-of-a-kind capabilities in separation science.

• Strengthening domestic supply chains, national security and technological innovation.

Since its inception in 1949, INL has been at the forefront of national security innovation, creating products and developing solutions that safeguard lives at home and on the battlefield.

INL’s national security missions leverage the laboratory’s scientific expertise, engineering discipline and unique infrastructure to develop solutions for military, homeland security, energy and industry challenges.

INL’s national security focus areas include:

• Industrial cybersecurity and infrastructure resiliency.

• Wireless communications security and research.

• National defense and materials science.

• Nuclear nonproliferation.

As the nation’s nuclear energy laboratory, INL is at the forefront of research in advanced nuclear energy technology. INL’s world-class capabilities and expertise provide industry with the tools to develop next-generation reactors, fuels and materials while improving the efficiency and safety of today’s reactors.

‍Learn more about INL’s research: https://inl.gov/

INL offers numerous facilities and capabilities for fuel research and development projects:

• The Advanced Test Reactor tests fuels and materials by subjecting experiments to decades worth of radiation damage they would receive in a power reactor. The unique shape of its core allows for multiple experiments to occur simultaneously at different power levels and conditions, such as pressure, temperature and chemistry.

• The Transient Reactor Test Facility tests how nuclear fuels and materials behave under accident conditions.

• The Sample Preparation Laboratory and the Hot Fuel Examination Facility allow researchers to examine radioactive fuels and materials after irradiation and to prepare irradiated specimens for experiments in test reactors.

• Scientists at the Irradiated Materials Characterization Laboratory use microscopic examinations to understand the performance of nuclear materials.

INL assembles, fuels, tests and delivers advanced nuclear power systems for deep space exploration missions. Many of NASA’s spacecrafts are fueled by nuclear power. Radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) are equipped with thermocouples that convert the heat produced from a radioisotope heat source (typically plutonium-238) into electricity to power instruments and other systems on spacecrafts.

INL supports NASA space nuclear missions and initiatives, both for fission reactors and radioisotope power systems.

Support for fission systems:

• Reactor expertise in the design and operation of space fission systems.

• Develop and test advanced nuclear fuels for nuclear thermal rockets.

• Develop instrumentation and control systems for space fission reactors.

• Develop key space reactor materials.

Support for radioisotope power systems:

• The Perseverance Rover, which touched down on Mars in 2021, carries an RTG designed to produce about 110 watts of electrical power for at least 17 years. The RTG also provides heat for the rover’s instruments.

• INL assembled, fueled, tested and delivered RTGs for Perseverance and the Curiosity Rover, which launched in 2011, arrived on Mars in 2012 and conducted an extended mission through 2016.

• INL will fuel and test the RTG for the Dragonfly rotorcraft lander mission that will explore Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. That mission is scheduled to launch in 2028.

Inspired by INL's pioneering Microreactor Applications Research Validation and Evaluation (MARVEL) microreactor project, Aalo is collaborating with INL to advance its nuclear technologies. The company’s Aalo-X reactor is slated to be built on-site near INL’s Materials and Fuels Complex, pending DOE authorization. In August 2025, Aalo Atomics broke ground at the site.

Learn more about Aalo Atomics: https://www.aalo.com/

The National Reactor Innovation Center (NRIC) is designing and constructing a test bed called the Demonstration of Microreactor Experiments (DOME) to accelerate the development of advanced nuclear energy technologies. NRIC’s DOME is being constructed around the containment system of the decommissioned Experimental Breeder Reactor-II and is designed to host experimental reactors up to 20 megawatts thermal using high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) in an environment that safely supports nuclear systems going critical for the first time.

Learn more about NRIC DOME: https://nric.inl.gov/dome/

MARVEL, led by INL under the U.S. Department of Energy’s Microreactor Program, is pioneering the development of a nuclear microreactor demonstration test bed. This project aims to advance the integration and application of microreactors in various industries, providing a unique opportunity for companies to test novel capabilities and mature microreactor technologies. It is expected to be operational by 2028.

Learn more about the MARVEL project: https://inl.gov/marvel/

Aalo Atomics is cooperating with Idaho Falls Power in a project to deploy seven Aalo-1 microreactors, totaling 75MWe of generation in Idaho Falls, ID. The utility said Aalo Atomics would lease land for the life of the project, up to 80 years at Idaho Falls Power’s Energy Research Park. Click here to learn more about the project.

The Molten Chloride Reactor Experiment (MCRE) is a first-of-its-kind test of a fast-spectrum, molten salt-fueled reactor, led by Southern Company with TerraPower, INL and CORE POWER. Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, MCRE aims to demonstrate the safety and performance of molten chloride fuel salts while collecting critical data to inform future commercial reactor designs. Operating at 600 to 650 C and generating 150 kilowatts of thermal energy, the reactor will be installed at INL’s Laboratory for Operations and Testing in the United States (LOTUS) test bed. MCRE also supports the development of a domestic supply chain for high-temperature reactor components.

Learn more about MCRE: https://inl.gov/nuclear-energy/molten-salt-research/

Oklo Inc.’s Aurora Fuel Fabrication Facility will be located at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and will help turn used material recovered from DOE’s former Experimental Breeder Reactor II (EBR-II) into usable fuel for its advanced nuclear power plant. The Aurora powerhouse is a liquid-metal-cooled fast reactor that is designed

Oklo Inc. is constructing its first Aurora powerhouse, Aurora-INL, at Idaho National Laboratory. This advanced nuclear facility will use a sodium-cooled fast reactor powered by metal fuel, building on the legacy of Experimental Breeder Reactor-II, which operated at INL from 1964 to 1994. Oklo has worked with the Department of Energy and INL since 2019 and was awarded fuel recovered from EBR-II to power the reactor.

Learn more about Aurora-INL: https://oklo.com/newsroom/news-details/2025/Oklo-Breaks-Ground-on-First-Aurora-Powerhouse/default.aspx

Oklo is also developing the Aurora Fuel Fabrication Facility at INL, where it will fabricate the reactor’s initial core.

Learn more about Oklo: https://oklo.com/overview/default.aspx

The DOE and the Department of War (DOW) Strategic Capabilities Office have partnered to design, build, and demonstrate a prototype mobile nuclear reactor within five years. DOW broke ground at INL on Sept. 24, 2024, and plans to have the transportable reactor sited in 2026.

Learn more about Project Pele: https://www.energy.gov/ne/articles/department-defense-breaks-ground-project-pele-microreactor

Experimental Breeder Reactor-I (EBR-I) was designed with two purposes: to generate electricity and, more importantly, to prove the concept of breeding fuel. Breeding fuel means that a reactor creates more nuclear fuel than it consumes while making electricity. On Dec. 20, 1951, EBR-I became the first nuclear reactor to produce usable amounts electricity by splitting atoms. EBR-I was the first reactor built at the National Reactor Testing Station (forerunner to today’s Idaho National Laboratory). In 1953, testing at EBR-I confirmed that a reactor could create (or breed) more nuclear fuel than it consumes. This pioneering reactor operated for 12 years before being shut down in December 1963. President Lyndon B. Johnson dedicated EBR-I as a National Historic Landmark in 1966. Today, EBR-I is a museum open from Memorial Day through Labor Day.

Learn more about EBR-I: inl.gov/ebr/.