Recognizing the 75th Anniversary of Idaho National Laboratory

Floor Speech

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Mr. SIMPSON. Mr. Speaker, I rise along with my colleagues, Senators Mike Crapo and Jim Risch, to recognize an important anniversary being celebrated at the U.S. Department of Energy's 890-square mile site in eastern Idaho. The Idaho National Laboratory, or INL, is celebrating its 75th Anniversary in 2024.

On February 18, 1949, the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission decided to build the National Reactor Testing Station in Idaho. For 75 years, the efforts of the scientists, engineers, technicians, and support staff at what became INL has promoted American prosperity and contributed to our national security. On December 20, 1951, INL first demonstrated nuclear fission could be used to generate power to light our homes and cities. Throughout its history, INL has built and operated 52 original nuclear reactors and helped establish an American industry that today produces approximately 19 percent of our nation's electricity and more than half of our carbon-free electricity. In 2002, Congress designated INL as the nation's lead nuclear energy research and development laboratory, fitting for its legacy.

Since 1967, research conducted at INL's Advanced Test Reactor has powered and modernized the U.S. Nuclear Navy. The Navy once had to refuel its nuclear fleet frequently, an expensive and time-consuming process. Today, because of experiments conducted at the Advanced Test Reactor, the Navy's nuclear fleet can run the lifetime of the ship-- more than three decades--without refueling. That saves American taxpayers millions of dollars and ensures our fleet is actively defending U.S. national security instead of sitting in port waiting to be refueled.

INL is a world leader in industrial cyber security research and works actively with government and industry to protect and make the nation's critical infrastructure more resilient. INL has also advanced broader clean energy research, informing electric vehicle deployment and hydrogen production, and developed bioenergy solutions that benefit the environment and our nation's farmers.

Even as we celebrate INL's 75 years, the lab's leadership and staff are looking ahead. Those decades of service have provided the foundation that today's INL will leverage to help this nation build a brighter future. INL leads the effort to maintain and extend the lives of America's nuclear reactor fleet, while helping industry develop advanced reactor designs, including small modular reactors and microreactors. INL's vital national and homeland security work grows more important every day as our systems become increasingly automated and interdependent. As we eye the energy systems that will power U.S. prosperity into the future, INL's clean energy research is developing breakthroughs that will integrate renewables into the power grid and allow our manufacturing and transportation systems to operate more efficiently and with less environmental impact.

It is our great honor to congratulate INL and DOE on this important anniversary, and to wish its employees well as they work to resolve our Nation's pressing clean energy and national security challenges.

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