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Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory

NUCLEAR ENERGY

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Vital to the Core

The INEEL is a Depart

ment of Energy

facility dedicated to

research supporting national

DOE missions, including

nuclear technology research.

The INEEL and Argonne

National Laboratory are

designated as the Nuclear

Energy lead laboratories for

reactor technology. For over

50 years, the INEEL has

played a key role in both

DOE’s and the Nuclear

Regulatory Commission’s

nuclear energy research

programs. The INEEL’s

contributions helped establish the technical basis for

regulating the domestic and

international nuclear energy

community. The Test

Test Reactor Area

The Advanced Test Reactor

at TRA produces many of

the nation’s medical and

industrial isotopes. This

photo looks down into the

reactor core.

Reactor Area, located in the

southwestern region of the

INEEL, is a focal point for

implementing this mission.

TRA has made many

scientific contributions

through test programs at

facilities such as the Advanced Test Reactor. The

primary mission at TRA is

operation of the Advanced

Test Reactor, the world’s

premier test reactor, which is

used to study the effects of

radiation on materials. This

reactor also produces rare

and valuable medical and

industrial isotopes.

Operating Facilities

The TRA has six essential

facilities:

• The Advanced Test

Reactor creates a wide

range of reactor environments in which the effects

of radiation on materials

and fuels may be studied.

The ATR set a new record

in January 2001, achieving 57 days of continuous

full power operation. The

ATR experiments and

tests determine how fuels

and materials react when

bombarded by streams of

neutrons and gamma rays

under a variety of pressure and temperature

conditions. Information

that would normally

require years to gather

from normal reactor

T
NUCLEAR ENERGY

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04-GA50164-01

The INEEL is a U.S. Department of

Energy national laboratory operated

by Bechtel BWXT Idaho, LLC.

www.inel.gov

For More Information

Teri Ehresman

208-526-7785

ehr@inel.gov

operations can be obtained in a matter of

weeks or months using

ATR’s high neutron flux

capability. The primary

user of the ATR is the

Naval Nuclear Propulsion

Program. However, this is

a multipurpose facility

that has several other

government, commercial

and foreign users. The

unique four-leaf-clover

core design provides nine

main test spaces. Additional smaller test spaces

allow even more experiments to be conducted

independently. These

smaller spaces are routinely used for production

of medical and industrial

isotopes.

• Advanced Test Reactor

Critical Facility is a lowpower, full-size nuclear

duplicate of the ATR,

designed to provide

physics data in support of

the ATR test program

• The TRA Hot Cell

Facility has three hot cells

equipped with remotecontrol machine tools,

measuring instruments

and manipulators. The

cells are used to examine

irradiated samples and

process radio isotopes.

• The Radiation Measurements Laboratory specializes in measuring the

quantity and quality of

alpha, beta, gamma and

neutron radiation.

• The Radiochemistry

Laboratory is used to

support the Radiation

Measurements Laboratory

as well as to carry on

independent research and

development work.

Investigators here study

ways to produce and

purify medical radioisotopes, as well as studying

the effects of radiation on

hazardous waste.

• The Safety and Tritium

Applications Research

(STAR) Facility does

fusion-related research

and development for the

DOE Office of Fusion

Energy Science. The

research focuses on how

radioactive and hazardous

materials behave in fusion

machines. Two key

research areas are tritium

behavior in materials

exposed to plasma, and

chemistry and behavior of

tritium in molten salts.

The fusion research

involves scientists from

national and international

laboratories.

History

The TRA, established in the

early 1950s, has been the

site for operation of three

major test reactors: the

Materials Test Reactor

(1952-1970), the Engineering Test Reactor (1957-

1982), and the Advanced

Test Reactor (1967-present).

The Materials Test Reactor

was the second reactor to be

operated at the INEEL.

(Experimental Breeder

Reactor No. 1, now a

Registered National Historic

Landmark, was the first

INEEL operating reactor.)

Information obtained from

tests run at the MTR influenced the choice of

corestructural materials and

fuel elements for every

reactor designed in this

country since 1952.

The Engineering Test

Reactor provided more

testing space and flexibility

than the MTR. At the time

of startup, the ETR was the

largest and most advanced

materials test Reactor in the

world. The reactor was used

to evaluate fuels, coolant

and moderator characteristics under environments

similar to those in many

types of power reactors. In

1972, the ETR was modified

to support the Department of

Energy’s breeder reactor

safety program. The ETR

and MTR reactors have been

deactivated, but remain in

place.

The Advanced Test Reactor

began operating in 1967.

TRA is home to the world’s

largest and most advanced test

reactor, capable of simulating

years of radiation exposure in

short periods of time to test how

materials perform.