Feature Articles

Everyday life depends on a robust infrastructure network that provides access to running water, communications technology and electricity, among other basic necessities. The experts who keep our national infrastructure secure and resilient also need a strong network to share their knowledge and train the next generation of professionals capable of solving complex infrastructure challenges. This means finding ways to bring government, academia and the private sector together. One way is through sabbaticals that temporarily place professors in our national labs.

A cutting-edge project to test “fusion blanket” technologies is taking shape, with the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) leading the charge to create a critical component of a fusion reactor.

After five years of trying to find the right ingredients, scientists at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) believe they have created the perfect recipe to fuel the world’s first critical fast-spectrum molten salt reactor.

Seventy-five years ago, the sweeping landscape of the Idaho desert over the Snake River Aquifer was a land of sagebrush, brown grass and lava rock. Today, the desert site facilities of Idaho National Laboratory are still home to sagebrush, brown grass and lava rock but also to of some of the world’s most cutting-edge nuclear fuel research and reactor prototype development.

There’s a reason that electric vehicles (EV) in salvage yards are kept by themselves and spaced far apart. Their lithium-ion batteries can hold a lot of energy, and if one catches fire, it’s sometimes hard for firefighters to extinguish the blaze.

Anyone who has flown on a commercial flight, crossed an international border, visited a government building or attended a concert knows you’re not getting inside until you pass the security guards.

It’s a long way from the Donbas region of Ukraine to Idaho, but Ukrainian officials recently made the trip to learn about collecting evidence after a nuclear attack.

Utility-scale batteries can revolutionize how we harness renewable power. Coupled with wind and solar, these batteries could increase the reliability of green energy by storing excess energy during times of high generation and low demand. Then, utilities can tap the stored energy when demand increases.

When President Biden signed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in 2021, he announced a goal to install 500,000 new electric vehicle chargers across the nation by 2030. The Department of Energy’s Vehicle Technologies Office has tasked the experts at Idaho National Laboratory to answer big questions surrounding this goal.

Each day, roughly 43 million Americans eat at least one slice of pizza, according to experts. The hot, cheesy, Italian-inspired dish contributes a whopping $47 billion to the U.S. economy each year, and about a third of those pies come delivered to their destinations in corrugated cardboard boxes.