A Hybrid Electric Honda Insight (similar to above), as well as the Honda Civic and Toyota Prius, were part of recent testing to determine efficiency, maintenance and repairs. Read more about it. Energy Efficiency and Technology (EE&T) joins the Energy and Engineering Technology division, serving as the focal point for all non-nuclear energy research and development at the INEEL. See more about what we do below. Electro-Optic High Voltage Sensor - Up to one-hundred thousand times smaller than the equipment it is designed to replace, the Electro-Optic High Voltage Sensor, developed by an interdisciplinary team of engineers and scientists, promises to transform the way high-voltage electricity is measured and monitored. Read more about it. Collaborating with the INEEL and INRA partners

The division's three directorates command a wide variety of technical capabilities. These abilities are used to increase energy efficiency and develop alternative energy sources. Technologists also use these abilities to understand complex human systems and engineer sophisticated worker machine interfaces to perform efficiently while protecting workers and the environment. The focus of each directorate is described in the following paragraphs.

Energy Efficiency & Technology
This directorate is the focal point for all non nuclear energy research and development at the INEEL. It conducts key R&D; programs for the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy, the DOE Office of Fossil Energy and associated industrial firms to develop technologies that ensure:

• A reliable and diverse energy supply


• Clean and affordable power, and


• Efficient and productive energy use.

Bioenergy/Bioproducts Initiative
This Initiative is focused on "whole crop utilization" by developing biomass feedstock production, harvesting and conversion technologies for the cost-effective production of clean fuels and chemicals from biomass. While the focus is to reduce dependence on foreign oil, its effect is to reduce environmental impacts of some agricultural practices and contribute to economic development of rural areas.

Hydrogen Initiative
Developing technologies to generate, transport and store hydrogen as a cost-effective and environmentally friendly fuel of the future, is the focus of this Initiative. It will integrate hydrogen technology development across the spectrum of DOE's energy research and development activity.

Environmental Technology & Engineering
This multi-disciplinary research and development group applies science and engineering to develop, demonstrate and deploy low-risk operational practices and new technologies to protect human health and the environment. It consists of four departments whose functions include developing environmental remediation and waste management technologies, transporting and disposing of spent nuclear fuel and conducting bench-scale environmental laboratory research.

Sustainable & Intelligent Systems
This directorate is dedicated to applied research, science and engineering. It focuses human and systems science to shape human safety and performance. It develops and deploys automated systems to protect workers, emulate human performance and increase productivity.

There are four departments in this directorate whose functions include research, identifying long-term environmental stewardship science and technology needs, and enhancing remote, robotic and automated systems. Other capabilities include discovering and documenting environmental impacts of site activities on ecological and cultural resources, and using systems and decision science to increase the defensibility and effectiveness of decisions.

Intelligent Systems Initiative
This division-sponsored Initiative enables high-performance "human machine" teams to do what was once considered impossible. It develops hybrid human machine technology to accomplish tasks that today's most sophisticated human or mechanical capabilities can not do alone. It improves human ability to safety accomplish increasingly complex tasks and to make better decisions using advanced robotics and intelligent machines. It delivers solutions and systems to reduce the complexity of processes and to simplify procedures clients are expected to use quickly and flawlessly.

Contact:

Dr. Harold Blackman, Associate Laboratory Director 208-526-0245 hsb@inel.gov

Page Contact: Reuel Smith, mrs@inel.gov.