Legislators tour Idaho National Laboratory nuclear research facilities as lab plans new reactors
IDAHO FALLS – Members of the Idaho Legislature's budget committee toured Idaho National Laboratory research facilities Wednesday as the lab is in the process of building its first new nuclear reactors in 50 years.
Some of INL's top officials told the Idaho Legislature's Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee they expected the next four years to usher in a new nuclear renaissance that INL will be at the center of.
'It's really intended to get INL back into the role of building and operating new reactors on site and supply chains that need to be exercised, getting us back into design and then ultimately building them and operating them,' INL Deputy Director Todd Combs said.
The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, or JFAC for short, is a powerful legislative committee that sets all of the budgets for every state agency and department.
JFAC's tour included stops at Idaho National Laboratory's Research and Education Campus located in Idaho Falls as well as the Hot Fuel Examination Facility and the Sample Preparation Laboratory located at the Materials and Fuels Complex.
The Materials and Fuels Complex is part of a vast 890 square-mile research complex located in the desert west of Idaho Falls that is often referred to simply as 'the site.'
INL currently operates four nuclear reactors and is considered the country's leading nuclear energy research and development national laboratory.
But Combs told JFAC members INL does a lot more than nuclear energy and fuels research.
INL researchers and staff also focus on cyber security, electric vehicle infrastructure, artificial intelligence, or AI, homeland security and defense.
INL has built armor for the Abrams tanks and conducted research into vulnerabilities in the electric grid and how to combat those vulnerabilities.
INL teams have conducted research on electric vehicle infrastructure like charging stations and built the system that powered the Mars Perseverance rover.
'One might ask, how does this align currently with what the Trump administration is trying to accomplish?' Combs said. 'And if you look at executive orders like Unleashing American Energy, and if you look at Secretary of Energy (Chris Wright), his initial memo, and everything he's been talking about since he took over as secretary of energy, we fall right in line with what they're trying to accomplish.'
INL celebrated its 75th anniversary last year, and Combs told legislators the lab is growing and ramping up research and operations. Since 2017, INL has grown from about 3,750 employees to 6,500 employees today.
Since what is now known as INL was founded in 1949, 52 reactors have been built and demonstrated on the site, Combs said.
INL currently operates four nuclear reactors, but the lab is in the process of building its first new reactors in 50 years.
'We've got a number of projects right now over the next decade that are coming online as well that are going to be reactors, 53 and 54 and beyond,' Combs said.
INL made headlines last month when state officials and Department of Energy officials announced a waiver to a 1995 nuclear waste settlement agreement that allows for the shipment of spent nuclear fuel into Idaho for research at INL. A waiver was necessary because the 1995 settlement agreement called for limiting new shipments of spent nuclear fuel into Idaho and removing certain types of spent nuclear fuel in order to prevent the state from becoming a dumping ground for the nation's spent nuclear fuel.
Although the Idaho Legislature adjourned the 2025 legislative session on April 4 and is not in session now, JFAC regularly conducts interim meetings to keep an eye on the state budget and learn about how different agencies and organizations spend the money that JFAC approves in the budget every year.
'I've never been out there (to INL's site),' Sen. Scott Grow, R-Eagle, said. 'Born and raised in Idaho. You would think I would have (visited before), but no. I loved it, and it was fascinating. The thing that really grabbed me was they did so much more than just the nuclear energy. I had no idea about the tanks and all that kind of stuff they're doing, and the AI. It's just cutting-edge scientific stuff going on out there.'
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'It's good, I think, for the whole JFAC bench to get a chance to see that and to see we've been involved in buying buildings (that INL uses),' Grow added. 'The state is involved in this, even though we tend to think that it's a federal (facility).'
A clear highlight for several JFAC members was entering a hot room at the Sample Preparation Laboratory that is under construction at the site. There isn't yet any nuclear material in the hot room because it is under construction. But once nuclear materials enter the facility, the public won't be able to enter the hot room that JFAC members entered Wednesday.
Legislators did not vote on any bills or budgets during the three-day interim meeting tour.
The tour kicked off Monday at College of Eastern Idaho, where two health care officials told legislators that Idaho's near total abortion ban has caused OB-GYNs and other medical professionals to leave the state.
JFAC members may conduct a fall interim tour this year as well, although a legislative staffer told the Idaho Capital Sun on Wednesday that plans are not finalized.
The next regular session of the Idaho Legislature is scheduled to begin in January.
Rep. Wendy Horman, an Idaho Falls Republican who serves as a JFAC co-chair with Grow, said the entire three-day spring tour was valuable.
Horman said the tour gave legislators who normally work out of the Idaho State Capitol in Boise a rare opportunity to get a closer look at important facilities and programs located in eastern Idaho that they might not have otherwise seen.
'I was so proud to see the way our community here welcomes legislators from across the state, and wanted to share with us the great things they're doing to help the citizens of Idaho,' Horman said.
An Idaho Capita Sun reporter participated in the entirety of Wednesday's tour of INL facilities, and the reporter agreed not to take any photos, in accordance with INL's photo policy. Instead, an INL photographer documented the JFAC tour.
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