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The U.S. Department of Energy has upheld a 2008 decision in favor of an Idaho National Laboratory employee who claims he was mistreated after filing a whistleblower complaint against the company that operates the lab. The agency issued its ruling Tuesday in the case of Dennis Patterson, a former 27-year employee at INL. Patterson, was the former manager of employee concerns and business ethics for Battelle Energy Alliance, the contractor that runs INL. In his 2006 case, Patterson accused Battelle of retaliating against him repeatedly after he filed a whistleblower complaint with the Department of Energy.

The search continues for the lost, personal information of almost 60,000 workers at the Idaho National Lab, from 1949 to April 2006. Now, at least 500 of them have signed up for credit monitoring, in case the information has gotten into the wrong hands. But the INL says the lost CD is password protected. It was lost last week, when the UPS was shipping it from one private company to another. But the package never made it, and was found damaged, with missing contents.

Officials with the Idaho National Laboratory say a cylinder that began leaking toxic gas after it was moved has been secured and that no gas escaped from the Materials and Fuels Complex. No employees were injured in the gas leak, which was reported late Tuesday morning. A prepared statement from laboratory officials said that nine workers were given medical evaluations and all were cleared to return to work. The cylinder was suspected to contain a toxic gas that can cause irritation and damage to skin, eyes or lungs. Employees were temporarily evacuated to areas at least 220 yards away, but they were allowed to return to the area after tests by a hazardous materials team found no contamination in the building.

A Utah-based nuclear services company has been awarded a contract from Battelle Energy Alliance to manage waste from Battelle's lab operations at the Idaho National Laboratory in eastern Idaho. EnergySolutions, of Salt Lake City, will treat, package and transport radioactive, hazardous and industrial waste from several INL facilities, including the Advanced Test Reactor site and the Materials and Fuels Complex. Company spokesman Mark Walker says the $19 million contract will run for five years, with work beginning this summer. Approximately 20 workers will be employed under the contract.

Technicians in the Idaho National Lab's Advanced Test Reactor work to place an object into the reactor below. Though there is little measurable radiation in the area where they're working, they wear the suits as a precaution. In order to maneuver the object, they use very long-handled tools, which are capable of reaching far down into the reactor. The Idaho National Lab is, among other things, the U.S. Department of Energy's leading nuclear research institution, and its employees are working on developing the technology behind what would be known as the "fourth-generation" nuclear reactors, facilities that many hope will help provide large amounts of energy with little additional carbon footprint.

On July 17, 1955, this tiny town, which might otherwise have forever escaped notoriety of any kind, was put on the map for a very historic reason: It became the first place in the "free world" to be powered by "electrical energy developed from the atom." The power was generated by an experimental reactor run by the nearby National Reactor Testing Station, and the flipping of the switch seemed to usher in a new era for the United States and the world: the nuclear era. Over time, the U.S. and other countries grew more and more attracted to the idea of nuclear power as a major alternative to fossil fuel-based power. But by the 1980s and early 1990s, the country had lost its appetite for the fuel source. It was seen as dangerous, too closely related to nuclear weapons, and too productive of nuclear waste, and gradually, the number of working nuclear power plants got smaller and smaller. In many places, in fact, the mere mention of nuclear power will draw a dirty stare.

CH2M-WG Idaho (CWI), contractor for the Idaho Cleanup Project, resumed work Wednesday morning on construction of the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) facility after suspending work on Tuesday, June 30, as a result of recent minor injuries to workers on the project. "We met with the IWTU construction workforce this morning to review the safety issues we've experienced and to get them involved in improving safety on the project," said Brent Rankin, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for CWI. "We know from experience that the workers on the front line can help identify issues or opportunities for improvement." The IWTU is being constructed to treat 900,000 gallons of liquid, sodium-bearing waste currently stored in three underground storage tanks at the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center. Steam-reforming technology will be used to convert the liquid waste into a more stable granular solid for eventual disposal at a national geologic repository.

The US Department of Energy on Wednesday said it would use $44 million to fund 71 nuclear energy research and development projects. The funding will go to 31 universities and fund projects for the Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative, the Next Generation Nuclear Plant, Light Water Reactor Sustainability, as well as Investigator-Initiated Research, according to DOE. "As a zero-carbon energy source, nuclear power must be part of our energy mix as we work toward energy independence and meeting the challenge of global warming," Energy Secretary Steven Chu said in a statement. "The next generation of nuclear power plants -- with the highest standards of safety, efficiency and environmental protection -- will require the latest advancements in nuclear science and technology." Chu has voiced his support for nuclear energy since becoming energy secretary in January, but the administration's decision to stop pursuing a national nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain has led some to charge that DOE no longer supports nuclear power. The $44 million in funding announced Wednesday will be provided over three years and the project contracts will be awarded by Idaho National Laboratory contractor Battelle at the end of September.

Concentrations of a potentially-harmful nuclear contaminant found in groundwater at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) are well below the federal safety threshold for public drinking water. This finding was released in a report by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), which monitors water quality at the eastern Idaho laboratory on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

INL - The construction of the new Integrated waste treatment facility has finally outgrown its protective shield. "We've been working diligently under this for about a year and a half and we've got most of the civil work done for the process structure, as well as the steel," says Bill Lloyd, IWTU Project Director. The new facility is being built to treat over nine hundred thousand gallons of radioactive material buried in tanks beneath the ground. This weather enclosure helped speed up the process to get the building up to further get this waste cleaned up.

The Department of Energy has approved $468 million in new funding for cleaning up past nuclear waste dumped at the Idaho National Laboratory. Energy Secretary announced the funding Tuesday in directing $6 billion in federal stimulus spending to speed up cleanup projects in 12 states.

Count Egon Lamprecht among the thousands of experts still perplexed and haunted by SL-1. Like other experts, Lamprecht has analyzed every detail of the world's first nuclear accident, which on Jan. 3, 1961, killed three men on what's now the site of Idaho National Laboratory. Like them, he knows the improper removal of a control rod from the infamous Stationary Low-Power Reactor Number One, or SL-1, led to a flash heating of water that raised the reactor 9 feet out of its base. In four milliseconds, hundreds of gallons of water were turned into super-heated steam. Perhaps most importantly, Lamprecht also wants to know why the control rod was removed. But Lamprecht, a 74-year-old Idaho Falls man whose favorite hobby is collecting and restoring classic cars, is different from the rest of the experts in one important way: He was there. The day of the SL-1 accident, Lamprecht was working as a firefighter for the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, which operated a series of experimental nuclear reactors at the INL site.

Count Egon Lamprecht among the thousands of experts still perplexed and haunted by SL-1. Like other experts, Lamprecht has analyzed every detail of the world's first nuclear accident, which on Jan. 3, 1961, killed three men on what's now the site of Idaho National Laboratory. Like them, he knows the improper removal of a control rod from the infamous Stationary Low-Power Reactor Number One, or SL-1, led to a flash heating of water that raised the reactor 9 feet out of its base. In four milliseconds, hundreds of gallons of water were turned into super-heated steam. Perhaps most importantly, Lamprecht also wants to know why the control rod was removed. But Lamprecht, a 74-year-old Idaho Falls man whose favorite hobby is collecting and restoring classic cars, is different from the rest of the experts in one important way: He was there. The day of the SL-1 accident, Lamprecht was working as a firefighter for the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, which operated a series of experimental nuclear reactors at the INL site.

"Idaho Cleanup Project officials are continuing to investigate the cause of a fire that was confined to the engine compartment of a vehicle called a telehandler, Tuesday at the Radioactive Waste Management Complex of the Department of Energy's Idaho Site. There were no injuries and no release of contamination. The fire was believed to be caused by an electrical short in a telehandler being used to transport radioactive and hazardous waste that was buried in the 1960s in an area of the RWMC's Subsurface Disposal Area called Pit 5. A telehandler is a forklift with an extendable arm (or boom) utilized in the waste exhumation process to transport waste trays. Once the fire ignited, the telehandler operator activated the equipment's fire suppression equipment, which temporarily extinguished the flames in the engine compartment. "

Haunted by the goblins of the cold war, a Boise-based group is obsessed with a uranium enrichment plant GargoyleA relic with knee-jerk, anti-nuclear reflexes from the cold war has energized itself to oppose Areva's planned $2.4 billion "Eagle Rock" uranium enrichment plant in Idaho. The Boise-based Snake River Alliance (SRA) has a war chest of $300,000 from the Bullit and the Edwards Mother Earth foundations and Patagonia outdoor clothing. With a staff of five and a claim of 1,000 members, it is planning to mount a major campaign to drive Areva out of Idaho. The French nuclear energy firm announced plans in May 2008 to build a $2.4 billion uranium enrichment plant in eastern Idaho 18 miles west of Idaho Falls, ID. Areva chose the site after a yearlong nationwide search, with intense competition among five finalist sites, and only after the Idaho legislature offered tax incentives to sweeten the winning deal. Idaho Falls is one of the nation's most pro-nuclear cities with a sustained track record of standing up for Areva's project.

Haunted by the goblins of the cold war, a Boise-based group is obsessed with a uranium enrichment plant GargoyleA relic with knee-jerk, anti-nuclear reflexes from the cold war has energized itself to oppose Areva's planned $2.4 billion "Eagle Rock" uranium enrichment plant in Idaho. The Boise-based Snake River Alliance (SRA) has a war chest of $300,000 from the Bullit and the Edwards Mother Earth foundations and Patagonia outdoor clothing. With a staff of five and a claim of 1,000 members, it is planning to mount a major campaign to drive Areva out of Idaho. The French nuclear energy firm announced plans in May 2008 to build a $2.4 billion uranium enrichment plant in eastern Idaho 18 miles west of Idaho Falls, ID. Areva chose the site after a yearlong nationwide search, with intense competition among five finalist sites, and only after the Idaho legislature offered tax incentives to sweeten the winning deal. Idaho Falls is one of the nation's most pro-nuclear cities with a sustained track record of standing up for Areva's project.

The University of Wisconsin Research Reactor and Neutron Radiography Reactor at INL have been converted from the use of highly enriched uranium (HEU) to low enriched uranium (LEU) fuel. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has now converted or verified the shutdown of a total of 67 HEU research reactors around the world. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), in cooperation with Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the University of Wisconsin, the Idaho National Laboratory (INL), and the Department of Energy's Office of Nuclear Energy recently completed the conversion of the two research reactors through NNSA's Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI).

The University of Wisconsin Research Reactor and Neutron Radiography Reactor at INL have been converted from the use of highly enriched uranium (HEU) to low enriched uranium (LEU) fuel. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has now converted or verified the shutdown of a total of 67 HEU research reactors around the world. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), in cooperation with Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the University of Wisconsin, the Idaho National Laboratory (INL), and the Department of Energy's Office of Nuclear Energy recently completed the conversion of the two research reactors through NNSA's Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI).