Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
3/14/2014
The Department of Energy has found no significant environmental impact to conducting transient testing of nuclear fuels and materials at the Idaho National Laboratory. The results clear the way for DOE to resume its work with the Transient Reactor Test Facility (TREAT) reactor, which according to DOE, “involves placing fuel or material, either previously irradiated or un-irradiated, contained in a test assembly into the core of a nuclear test reactor and subjecting it to short bursts of intense, high-power radiation.” The environmental assessment, required by the National Environmental Policy Act, found there would be no significant impact to the environment. “Re-establishing a U.S. transient testing research and development capability at Idaho National Laboratory will help our nation develop new, advanced, safer and more efficient fuels that will generate additional quantities of clean, reliable, economical electricity using nuclear power reactors,” DOE Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy Pete Lyons in a statement issued late last month. “This is part of the Energy Department’s commitment to strengthening nuclear energy’s continuing important role in America’s low carbon future.”
The TREAT reactor began operations in 1959 to test nuclear fuel and materials under transient high-power conditions. According to DOE, it “was a principal reactor safety testing facility in the U.S. for 35 years, safely performing over 2,800 transient tests on thermal and fast reactor fuels.” The reactor has been in stand-by status since 1994.
