Idaho National Engineering Laboratory: Annual report, 1986

Abstract

The INEL underwent a year of transition in 1986. Success with new business initiatives, the prospects of even better things to come, and increased national recognition provided the INEL with a glimpse of its promising and exciting future. Among the highlights were: selection of the INEL as the preferred site for the Special Isotope Separation Facility (SIS); the first shipments of core debris from the Three Mile Island Unit 2 reactor to the INEL; dedication of three new facilities - the Fluorinel Dissolution Process, the Remote Analytical Laboratory, and the Stored Waste Experimental Pilot Plant; groundbreaking for the Fuel Processing Restoration Facility; and the first IR-100 award won by the INEL, given for an innovative machine vision system. The INEL has been assigned project management responsibility for the SDI Office-sponsored Multimegawatt Space Reactor and the Air Force-sponsored Multimegawatt Terrestrial Power Plant Project. New Department of Defense initiatives have been realized in projects involving development of prototype defense electronics systems, materials research, and hazardous waste technology. While some of our major reactor safety research programs have been completed, the INEL continues as a leader in advanced reactor technologies development. In April, successful tests were conducted for the development of the Integral Fast Reactor. Other 1986 highlights included the INEL's increased support to the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management for complying with the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982. Major INEL activities included managing a cask procurement program, demonstrating fuel assembly consolidation, and testing spent fuel storage casks. In addition, the INEL supplied the Tennessee Valley Authority with management and personnel experienced in reactor technology, increased basic research programs at the Idaho Research Center, and made numerous outreach efforts to assist the economies of Idaho communities.