Idaho readies TRIGA fuel storage, linking cleanup with research reactor future

Idaho is preparing to receive and store TRIGA fuel for the first time in decades, a shift that reaches far beyond one shipment in southeastern Idaho. The move ties cleanup work at the Idaho National Laboratory Site to the national research reactor network that trains students, supports university labs, and feeds experiments tied to nuclear science, energy development, and medical research.

The change became possible after the U.S. Department of Energy and the state of Idaho signed a waiver in April 2025 to the 1995 Idaho Settlement Agreement. DOE linked the waiver to progress on Idaho cleanup milestones, including moving all Idaho used nuclear fuel into dry storage canisters. Idaho Environmental Coalition managers said the facility changes are needed to safely receive and store future TRIGA shipments, with load-bearing testing already part of the preparation.

The material itself sits at the center of a supply chain that has been running for generations. Idaho National Laboratory says its University Fuel Services program has been managed at INL since 1977, providing fuel to domestic universities at no or low cost while keeping title to the fuel with the U.S. government so spent fuel can later be returned to DOE. Battelle Energy Alliance maintains subcontracts with 24 U.S. universities, and DOE and INL materials say the program serves 18 TRIGA reactors in the United States, including 12 on college campuses.

That network depends on Idaho in ways that are easy to miss until a shipment stalls. Penn State’s Breazeale Reactor, described by the university as the nation’s longest continuously operating university research reactor, received 30 TRIGA fuel elements in September 2023, the first new TRIGA fuel delivery in more than a decade. Penn State valued that shipment at $8.3 million. DOE said at the time that the delivery restored an important fuel supply for TRIGA reactors around the country, underscoring how one reactor campus can be part of a much larger national infrastructure.

The pipeline also stretches overseas. In 2022, DOE said Framatome TRIGA International produced its first TRIGA fuel element in more than 10 years at its restored facility in Romans, France, with fuel intended to support U.S. university research reactors and the MARVEL microreactor project at INL. DOE materials indicate about 960 TRIGA fuel elements will be needed for university reactor facilities over the next 10 years, plus 45 to 50 for INL’s NRAD facility. Idaho’s storage capacity, built on the site first established in 1952 as the National Reactor Testing Station, is now part of the answer to how that supply stays moving.