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INL official says TREAT is a "car crash test facility" for nuclear fuel
Summary
Nick Wolstenhilm of Idaho National Laboratory described the Transient Reactor Test Facility (TREAT) as a research reactor that deliberately stresses fuel samples to produce safety data; he outlined TREAT's 1959–1994 operation, refurbishment and restart in 2018, and its role in modern nuclear-safety testing.
Nick Wolstenhilm, experiment capabilities lead at the Transient Reactor Test Facility (TREAT) at Idaho National Laboratory, described TREAT as a research reactor used to stress nuclear fuel and collect safety data rather than to generate electricity.
"The reactor doesn't generate electricity," Wolstenhilm said, explaining that TREAT is designed to overheat test fuel samples in a controlled way to study their behavior. He added, "We often say that TREAT is a car crash test facility for nuclear fuel."
Wolstenhilm traced the facility's history, saying INL's test reactors performed safety research on nuclear fuels and that TREAT operated from 1959 through 1994 before being shut down and placed in recoverable standby amid a national downturn in nuclear research. He said renewed interest in nuclear technology and an urgency in safety research prompted refurbishment, and that TREAT was updated and returned to service in 2018.
Wolstenhilm characterized TREAT's post‑refurbishment role as significant for fuel and plant safety, saying the facility "has quickly risen to become the preeminent facility in the world for this type of work." He emphasized that the reactor is used to deliberately destroy test samples in ways intended to be safe for operators and researchers in order to generate data that can improve future fuels and power-plant designs.
The presentation located TREAT on INL's desert site within the Materials and Fuels Complex and described its mission as supporting safer, more efficient nuclear fuels and plants. No formal actions, votes, or regulatory decisions were recorded in the presentation.
