News By Location

In a portion of fractured basalt more than 200 feet below the surface of the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory lies a highly concentrated sludge of the heavy liquid toxin trichloroethene (TCE). INEEL engineers are determined to rid the rock of the toxic solvent which, over more than 30 years, has gradually leached into the groundwater of the Snake River aquifer.

The Idaho Accelerator Center stands as a monument to the future--using science to develop devices to further national security, healthcare, and business.

INEEL researchers used pressurized, heated carbon dioxide and an added metal binding chemical compound to clean radioactively contaminated soil. The method removed more than 69 percent of the plutonium and americium from spiked, local soil, report two chemists from the U.S. Department of Energy's Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory in the October 2001 issue of Radiochemica Acta. This is the first time supercritical fluid extraction it has been used to remove plutonium from soil.

Researchers at DOE’s Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory can now detect part-per-million levels of chemical warfare agents chemical warfare agents such as the blister agent HD or the nerve agent VX on soil or plant surfaces within 5 to 10 minutes using a new ion-trap secondary ion mass spectrometer.

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) have developed an energy-efficient process for producing alkylate-a high-octane gasoline blend that is very low in environmental pollutants such as sulfur and benzene. Instead of using a liquid catalyst, the team generates alkylate using a solid acid catalyst to change low-octane gaseous feedstock into liquid alkylate. Once the solid catalyst becomes coated with undesired hydrocarbons, researchers use a supercritical fluid solvent to clean and rejuvenate the catalyst, and then begin alkylate production again.

Researchers at the Department of Energy's Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory can detect part-per-million levels of chemical warfare agents such as the blister agent HD or the nerve agent VX using a novel ion-trap secondary ion mass spectrometer (IT-SIMS). INEEL researchers are developing surface analysis instrumentation specifically for environmental samples such as soil or plant surfaces. Chemical warfare agent detection is just one possible application of IT-SIMS. Results are published in the International Journal of Mass Spectrometry, volume 208.

One of the hardest metallic materials known, Super Hard Steel has been recognized as one of the 100 most significant technological achievements for the year 2001 by R&D Magazine. Super Hard Steel can be sprayed onto a wide variety of metal surfaces using conventionally available thermal spray technologies, and surpasses the existing commercial coatings in wear, corrosion and impact resistance.

An INEEL-led research suggests that imperfections preferentially form on twin grain boundaries-areas where the atoms of one crystal grain lie in mirror image position to the atoms of a neighboring crystal grain. What's new about this research is that researchers believe such boundaries play a far greater role in material strength than previously thought. Further, researchers argue that other than determining at what stress level a material begins to deform, grain size has little effect on the ultimate strength a material can attain through deformation processing.

Scientists and engineers at the INEEL and the University of Arkansas have developed two technologies that may ultimately enable safer and more economical oil and gas deep-ocean exploration.

Who dreams up James Bond's toys? 007 and his gadgets may be a creation of Ian Fleming and Hollywood but those imaginative fellows do exist. A few of them work in INEEL's National Security Division. And there is a government organization that sponsors some of their projects - the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.