The INEEL is operated for the DOE by Bechtel BWXT Idaho, LLC. Members of the LLC are Bechtel National, Inc., BWX Technologies Co and INRA. INRA is a consortium of eight regional universities, each of which brings unique educational, management, research and scientific assets into collaboration and partnership with the INEEL. The DOE field office is the Idaho Operations Office.

The University of Chicago operates Argonne National Laboratory West and reports to DOE's Chicago Operations Office. Bechtel Bettis, Inc. operates the Naval Reactors Facility that reports to DOE's Pittsburgh Naval Operations Office.

Our mission today. We continue to tackle complex missions for the nation in a safe and cost-effective manner, including:

• Delivering science-based engineered solutions to challenges in the Department of Energy's mission areas.
• Completing environmental cleanup of the Site responsibly.
• Providing leadership and support to optimize the value of DOE's Environmental Management investments and the INEEL's strategic partnerships.
• And enhancing the INEEL's scientific and technical talent, facilities and equipment to best serve the nation and the Northwest region.
  
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1. Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order (FFA/CO). This 1991 agreement between the DOE, EPA and state of Idaho established a plan for cleanup at the INEEL in accordance with the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), and Idaho Hazardous Waste Management Act (HWMA), and sets legally enforceable milestones. As a result of the agreement, the INEEL was divided into 10 waste area groups based on similar characteristics or geographic boundaries. Nine groups correspond to the site's major facility areas; the tenth group includes the aquifer beneath the site and sites outside the boundaries of the INEEL's primary facility areas. Under the FFA/CO, the DOE conducts an environmental investigation at each site that potentially needs cleanup. At the end of each investigation, a Proposed Plan - documenting the results of the investigation and proposing alternative cleanup actions - is presented for public comment. After reviewing and addressing any comments, the DOE, EPA and State reach a final decision, which is documented in a Record of Decision and cleanup design and construction can then begin.
2. INEEL Site Treatment Plan. In fulfillment of the 1992 Federal Facilities Compliance Act, INEEL prepared a Site Treatment Plan for the long-term storage of waste that contains both chemical and radioactive materials, which was approved by the State of Idaho as compliant with the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA).
3. 1995 Settlement Agreement. This agreement between DOE, the U.S. Navy, and the State of Idaho resolved the legal disputes regarding the receipt of spent nuclear fuel at the INEEL. The Agreement specifies milestones toward the eventual removal from INEEL by the year 2035 of all spent nuclear fuel and certain radioactive wastes currently in above-ground storage at the Site.

Funding. The Environmental Management Program funds slightly over 70% of the work at the INEEL. This includes Waste Management, Environmental Restoration, Spent Nuclear Fuel, High-Level Waste, INTEC, and Validation and Verification. The remaining funding sources consist of Work for Others (WFO), offices of Nuclear Energy, Energy Efficiency and Reenewable Energy, Fossil Energy, Office of Science, Nonproliferation and National Security. -More-

Geographic location. The INEEL, located in Eastern Idaho, consists of an 890-square mile reservation located 32 miles west of Idaho Falls, Idaho. Research facilities and office buildings are also located in Idaho Falls. The Laboratory employs about 8,000 people at these two locations. -Visiting the Lab-

Background. Established in 1949 as the National Reactor Testing Station, the INEEL was once the site of the world's largest concentration of nuclear reactors. Fifty-two test reactors - most of them first-of-a-kind - were built and operated, including the Navy's first prototype nuclear propulsion plant. Of these, three are still operating. The Advanced Test Reactor at the INEEL's Test Reactor Area is used for materials testing and the production of medical and industrial isotopes. The other two operations reactors are the Advanced Test Reactor Criticality Facility, which is a full-scale, low-power version of the Advanced Test Reactor designed to provide physics data, and the Neutron Radiography Reactor at Argonne National Laboratory-West. -more-

In 1951, the INEEL achieved one of the most significant scientific accomplishments of the century - the first use of nuclear fission to produce a usable quantity of electricity. This occurred at the Experimental Breeder Reactor No. 1. EBR-I is now a Registered National Historic Landmark open to the public. Read more about our history between 1949-1999 in, Proving the Principle, by Susan M. Stacy.

Major Programs. The INEEL provides specialized management, applied research, systems analysis, proof-of-concept engineering, technological support, and related services for various offices of the Department of Energy (DOE). We support the following secretarial offices through special programs:

• The INEEL has been named the Department of Energy's lead laboratory for Environmental Management, responsible for the long-term stewardship of DOE facilities. The major elements within the INEEL's Environmental Management Program are Environmental Restoration, Waste Management, Spent Nuclear Fuel, and High-Level Waste.



• Environmental Restoration Program. The Environmental Restoration Program is responsible for remediating all of the INEEL's contaminated sites in accordance with CERCLA and the FFA/CO. The INEEL was placed on the National Priorities List in 1989. In 1991, DOE, EPA, and Idaho signed the FFA/CO under CERCLA to ensure that environmental hazards associated with contaminant releases are identified and remediated.



• Waste Management Program. The INEEL Waste Management Waste Programs provide the leadership to treat, store, and dispose of radioactive, hazardous, and industrial wastes generated or stored at the INEEL in a safe, cost-effective, and environmentally sound manner. The program manages waste types including transuranic waste, alpha-contaminated low-level waste, low-level waste, mixed low-level waste, hazardous waste, industrial/commercial waste, and waste with no identified path to disposal. The INEEL's activities center on managing waste from previous, current, and future operations to avoid further contamination that may impact human health, safety, or the environment. Each of the INEEL's major waste streams is managed with aggressive waste minimization, treatment, storage, and disposal practices.



• Spent Nuclear Fuel Program. The Spent Nuclear Fuel Program consists of the National Spent Nuclear Fuel Program and the INEEL Spent Nuclear Fuel Program. The National Spent Nuclear Fuel Program provides a coordination and integration role in defining and ensuring resolution of the issues for disposition of DOE-owned spent nuclear fuel in the geologic repository, including quantification of the DOE spent nuclear fuel inventory. The National Spent Nuclear Fuel Program provides quality assurance certification of the DOE complex spent nuclear fuel programs.



• High-Level Waste Program. The INEEL High-Level Waste Program was formed to manage, treat, store, and dispose of DOE radioactive liquid waste, high-level solid (calcine) waste, contaminated mixed debris, and HEPA filters stored at INTEC. The High-Level Waste Program's mission is the ultimate disposition of DOE radioactive liquid waste, high-level solid (calcine) waste, contaminated mixed debris, and HEPA filters according to legal and regulatory requirements. The program's planning, scheduling, and execution of technology development, projects, and activities comply with the Site Treatment Plan (STP), Notice of Noncompliance (NON) Consent Order and Settlement Agreement and will comply with the future High-Level Waste Environmental Impact Statement Record of Decision. The program actively interfaces with other INEEL organizations as required to integrate activities and to develop technologies, processes, and facilities to meet required goals and milestones.

• Nuclear. The INEEL is a leading laboratory in basic nuclear and radiological science research and in applications of the nuclear and radiological sciences -more about NE lead lab-. Both DOE and non-DOE customers request the expertise and assistance of the INEEL's leading nuclear scientists to address critical situations. The INEEL chairs the international working group in radiation metrology and leads U.S. participation in the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) program on nuclear structure and decay data evaluation.

  The Idaho Accelerator Center gives the INEEL a special niche in applications of small electron and light-ion accelerators associated with nondestructive examination/nondestructive analysis (NDE/NDA) and medical techniques. The INEEL and Idaho State University are collaborators in the Idaho Accelerator Center.

• Nuclear Reactor Design and Development. With over 50 years of experience in nuclear reactor and nuclear materials processing plant design, operations, and decommissioning, the INEEL has internationally recognized expertise to conduct nuclear reactor R&D. The laboratory was recently the inventor of an innovative split-core design for the ultrahigh flux Advanced Neutron Source. INEEL design activities are being applied to the conceptual design of pebble bed and liquid metal reactors for Generation IV, as well as 21st century naval reactors.

  The INEEL is internationally recognized for nuclear criticality safety leadership. INEEL nuclear operations, encompassing reactor operations and irradiation services, are based on a long tradition of safe and cost-effective operations for the DOE and its predecessors. We established and chair the International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Working Group, an International Atomic Energy Agency-sanctioned group that manages the world database on experimental nuclear systems criticality safety information. The RELAP5 reactor safety code, developed and maintained at the INEEL, is the leader in thermal-hydraulics analysis and is used by many organizations throughout the world.

• Fossil Energy, Energy Efficiency, and Renewable Energy (EE, FE). With its significant science and engineering capability in fundamental energy and materials science, transportation, industrial efficiency, energy efficiency, building technologies, and fossil energy, the INEEL conducts targeted R&D for DOE's Fossil Energy, Energy Efficiency, and Renewable Energy programs. With the goal of efficient and environmentally clean energy, the INEEL applies recognized world-class capabilities in multiple engineering disciplines, large-scale testing, biotechnology, subsurface science, and materials joining. The INEEL uses its substantial niche capabilities in information systems, spray forming, thermal plasma processing, reservoir engineering, power generation technologies, petroleum and chemical technologies, chemical separations, physical process simulation, computer modeling, sensors and instrumentation, diagnostics, intelligent process control, and robotics to improve industrial processes and manufacturing.

• The INEEL is an innovator in science-based and integrated engineering systems for national security and intelligence within DOE, other government agencies, and industrial partners. It conducts research, development, and deployment to improve the security of citizens, infrastructures, and nations. The INEEL's threat mitigation R&D includes chemical demilitarization and operations; command and control; explosives, chemical, biological, currency, and other contraband materials detection; nuclear-related environmental initiatives; and advanced information science. The INEEL's advanced technology systems focus on nonproliferation and intelligence based on materials science; chemical and biological threat detection/analysis; nuclear material detection; electrical systems and control; infrastructure; and software engineering. The laboratory also conducts analysis, and provides intelligence and policy support for national security decision-makers.

• The scientific reputation and credentials of INEEL researchers play a key role in accomplishing laboratory missions. The INEEL continually strengthens its scientific capability through strategic hiring, professional development programs, and professional societies and national science organizations. The INEEL has received more than 20 R&D 100 Awards during the last decade in biotechnology, surface chemistry, nuclear and radiological sciences, materials processing, and sensors.

INEEL science research is integrated with operations programs, and these capabilities are used to help complete EM cleanup, as well as the objectives of all DOE mission areas. INEEL scientific expertise includes many disciplines. Science research is funded through environmental quality, national security, nuclear energy, and energy efficiency, renewable, and fossil energy programs. In addition, science research is supported through Work for Others contracts.