New Book Updates INL’s History, Documents a Decade of Transformation

This news release is issued on behalf of the Department of Energy's Idaho Operations Office. Please contact the media representative listed below for more information.




For Immediate Release
June 21, 2012

Media Contact:
Brad Bugger, (208) 526-0833
Tim Jackson, (208) 526-8484

New Book Updates INL’s History, Documents a Decade of Transformation

The U.S. Department of Energy is releasing an update to the history of the Idaho National Laboratory, documenting a decade of transformation at the laboratory, and a “decade of doing” for the Idaho Cleanup Project. “Transformed: A Recent History of the Idaho National Laboratory, 2000 to 2010,” was commissioned to update the highly popular, “Proving the Principle,” the book that was issued in 1999 to document the first 50 years of the lab.

“During the first decade of this century, Idaho National Laboratory got a new name, a new structure, and a newly-revitalized mission as the nation’s lead nuclear energy research laboratory,” notes DOE-Idaho Manager Rick Provencher in his forward to the new history book. “For a laboratory that began the decade in search of a well-defined mission and being offered up for cleanup and closure, the 2000s saw a dramatic turnaround.”
In addition to documenting the evolution of the Idaho National Laboratory as a leading nuclear energy and national security research laboratory, the book also captures the significant success of the Idaho Cleanup Project in treating and removing waste from the Idaho Site, and in cleaning up contamination from past activities at the INL. “…As we look back at the decade, we can take a great deal of satisfaction in what has been accomplished in environmental restoration and waste management activities during that time,” wrote Jim Cooper, DOE-ID Deputy Manager for the Idaho Cleanup Project. “Protecting the aquifer has always been one of the prime goals of the cleanup and waste management programs here in Idaho, and amazing progress has been made in that vital area over the past 10 years.”
The updated INL history was produced by Mark Swanson and Mary Beth Reed, who served as the historians and co-authors on the project through a contract with New South Associates. The 126-page volume, which was meant to “pick up the story” where “Proving the Principle” left off, is available on line at http://www.inl.gov/publications/d/idaho_national_laboratory_final.pdf. A minimum number of hard copies will be printed for official use by the Department.
DOE-ID-12-003