60th Anniversary Of The Idaho National Lab

Floor Speech

MR. CRAPO. Mr. President, today I wish to acknowledge a milestone of singular significance for Idaho and for the Nation. This month marks the 60th anniversary of the Idaho National Laboratory.

In February 1949, the Federal Government settled on a site in east central Idaho to host the National Reactor Testing Station--a place where scientists and engineers could come together to develop and test new ways to put the power of the atom to productive use for society. In short order, Experimental Breeder Reactor-I was designed, built and operating--producing the world's first usable amount of electricity from nuclear power and later, proving that reactors could produce, or breed, more fuel than they consume.

Breakthrough after breakthrough followed in the ensuing years, including significant contributions to national security with the development of the nuclear propulsion systems for U.S. Navy submarines and aircraft carriers. The Idaho testing station was the genesis of American civilian nuclear power, responsible for powering an American city for the first time with nuclear-generated electricity, as well as the design and construction of 52 pioneering nuclear reactors. The Idaho testing station was responsible for the development of world leading reactor safety codes and the operation of the Nation's premier materials testing device--the Advanced Test Reactor.

Building on its unsurpassed nuclear energy expertise and in recognition of its broader capabilities and unique assets, our Idaho ``testing station'' was formally designated a national laboratory in 1974. And the pace of innovation has only accelerated since. The lab's researchers have received dozens of R&D 100, Bright Light, Federal Laboratory Consortium and related awards for the development of technologies as diverse as concealed weapons detection systems and novel electrolyte batteries. The lab's central location within the Western Inland Energy Corridor--a band stretching from western Canada down through our nation's Intermountain and Rocky Mountain West--place it in a remarkable position to identify, assess and integrate the corridor's unmatched wind, biomass, hydropower, geothermal, conventional and unconventional fossil and uranium resources.

At 60, the Idaho National Lab's relevance to the Nation could not be greater. Its mission to ``Ensure the nation's energy security with safe, competitive, and sustainable energy systems and unique national and homeland security capabilities,'' represents a pledge to serve by each of the lab's nearly 4,000 employees, as well as the management team and partners from institutions of higher education in Idaho and nationwide.

I congratulate the employees, management team and community partners of the Idaho National Lab on the occasion of its 60th anniversary and look forward to many more years of success, built on this matchless legacy of science and engineering innovation.

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