Structural Properties Laboratory now open at INL

Earlier this week, Idaho National Laboratory announced that its Structural Properties Laboratory (SPL) has been fully operational since January. Located at INL's Materials and Fuels Complex, the SPL houses the lab's first new hot cell in 50 years.

Background: The facility was designed in 2017 and received $166 million in funding from Congress in 2019. Construction began in 2020, and the project was brought in on time and under budget, according to INL.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held in September 2024, when the building was still known as the Sample Preparation Laboratory. At the time, SPL mission manager Brandon Miller explained that the main idea behind the SPL "is to enable research to happen," saying, "We're going to take materials that have been irradiated, whether from decommissioned reactors, or from the [Advanced Test Reactor], or from outside entities. We're going to size them down into pieces that are going to allow us to ship them to other facilities."

What's in a name? In early 2025, Colin Judge, who currently works for Canadian Nuclear Laboratories but was then INL's division director for nuclear materials performance, told Nuclear News, "Our name is the Sample Preparation Laboratory and preparing samples to send somewhere else is part of our mission. But that's not our only mission. I think if we called it a structural properties lab, that would help explain what we do."

A Hazard Category 3 facility, the rechristened Structural Properties Laboratory is equipped with a hot cell, advanced robotics, and scalable space to allow for expansion in the future. It was designed to fill a gap in the domestic infrastructure for "mechanical testing, detailed microstructural examination and surface characterization of high-activity irradiated material," according to INL.

Visiting researchers will be able to increase their understanding of nuclear structural materials in an environment that minimizes exposure to radiation.

Quotable: "The opening of SPL marks a significant step forward in our ability to advance nuclear energy technologies," said Anne Demma, director of INL's Nuclear Materials Performance Division. "This facility not only strengthens our research capabilities but also demonstrates the resilience and dedication of our team in overcoming unprecedented challenges to deliver a world-class laboratory."