Feature Articles

Last year, Bill Gates was speaking at the Nuclear Energy Assembly’s virtual conference about his company’s plans to build an advanced reactor in Wyoming. Julian Colvin, a 22-year-old nuclear engineering student at North Carolina State University, was listening and posted a question in the chat: “I’m Julian. I go to NC State, and I wonder what a state like Kentucky could do to attract advanced nuclear projects?” Another attendee, Christine King, director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear (GAIN) responded in the chat, asking Colvin to contact GAIN, which is based at Idaho National Laboratory.

Idaho National Laboratory’s Center for Radiation Chemistry Research has developed a capability that supports the nuclear energy industry by researching radiation-induced effects in advanced reactors, fuels, coolants, materials and fuel recycling technologies while also training the next generation of radiation chemists.

Idaho National Laboratory is perhaps best known for innovative research that helps shape the clean energy economies of today and tomorrow – and for good reason. But while much of the laboratory’s work is focused on building a sustainable future, INL is also doing its part to preserve the past. INL researchers recently imaged several fossils using a powerful X-ray microscope. The 3D images will be used to create exhibits for Wyoming’s Fossil Butte National Monument and help experts gain insight into the origins of these and other relics

The high energy density of lithium-sulfur batteries could lead to lighter, smaller batteries that can last longer on a single charge. Cogent Energy Systems, a small business in eastern Idaho, applied their technology — carbon nano-onions — to lithium-sulfur batteries as the sulfur host to improve the battery cycling performance.

The pandemic inspired an interest in how resilient our nation’s production and distribution systems are, against similar large-scale social disruptions as well as climate-related impacts. An INL research team interested in addressing these challenges identified food and agriculture as one sector to better understand. From there, they searched for an appropriate commodity to serve as their first official case study. For an Idaho-based team, the three most obvious options were milk, wheat and potatoes.

For the first time, a team of Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and University of Idaho researchers has successfully applied machine learning to characterizing the microstructure of metallic nuclear fuel, the fine details only visible under powerful magnification.

INL researchers are addressing electric vehicle battery safety concerns with the recently deployed Battery Advanced DiaGnostics Evaluation (BADGE) platform.

It’s one of the most persistent questions in nuclear energy: What about the waste? A new collaboration between Idaho National Laboratory and the University of Utah hopes to answer that question by making fuel recycling a reality for advanced reactors.

Over the past decade, just as the invention of the silicon microchip revolutionized electronics, crystalline minerals called perovskites have helped researchers discover new, innovative electronics and energy technologies. Now, at Idaho National Laboratory, researchers are using perovskites for different energy applications: converting fuel into electricity or producing valuable chemicals such as ethylene, hydrogen or ammonia.

People rely on electronics, and that reliance will only grow in the coming years. As the newest gadgets prompt us to dispose of our old ones, we unwittingly become contributors to a major conundrum for our world – electronic litter. The need to properly recycle electronics is not new, but it has become more of a concern due to the industry’s rapid growth. The Idaho National Laboratory-developed technology known as E-RECOV is working to combat this problem.