Cost: Free

Limited Space: 45 participants

Must be 18 years or older to participate in tour. 

There will not be hotel pickup offered for this event. Guests must meet at 775 MK Simpson Blvd.

Last day to submit paperwork: Foreign Nationals- August 19 & US Citizens- September 25.

TOUR REGISTRATION HAS PASSED

Guests will tour the Energy Systems Lab, Collaborative Computing Center, & Human System Simulation Laboratory.

ESL: Research at Idaho National Laboratory’s Energy Systems Laboratory ranges from laboratory-scale science to full-scale operations. The laboratory is known for its multidiscipline scientific and engineering capabilities as well as a history of developing first-of-a-kind systems and testing protocols to resolve energy and environmental challenges. This facility supports research and development to reduce technical and economic risks associated with the deployment of new energy technologies. Three related energy system programs use the majority of the space: the bioenergy research and user facility, energy storage and advanced vehicles, and energy systems integration.


C3: The Collaborative Computing Center (C3) advances the lab’s scientific computing needs while providing users from national laboratories, universities and industry to access to high-performance computing resources. Since 1993, INL’s high-performance computing capabilities have enabled modeling and simulation, data visualization, and artificial intelligence research. C3 was built in 2019 to house scientific computing staff and INL’s supercomputers, Sawtooth, Lemhi, Hoodoo and Viz, with room to expand and add additional supercomputers. Off-site users, such as university students and faculty and industry researchers, can remotely access INL’s high-performance computing resources through INL’s Nuclear Computational Resource Center. C3 and its staff provide:

Access to four world-class supercomputers, including Sawtooth, which was ranked #37 on the 2019 Top 500 fastest supercomputers in the world

Over 800 million core hours of computing time to users from industry, academia and national laboratories for modeling and simulation, data visualization, and artificial intelligence research

Modeling and simulation expertise and access to several open source and licensable applications through the Nuclear Computational Resource Center

Collaborative spaces, like co-working pods and hallways lined with dry-erase boards, for teams to connect and brainstorm

Robust power and cooling infrastructure both for current supercomputers and future machines

1600-square-foot conference room for large-scale meetings and events

Mentoring of students, hiring of interns and postdocs, and INL employee service on university committees


HSSL: The Human System Simulation Laboratory, or HSSL, at Idaho National Laboratory is a virtual nuclear control room that safely tests new technologies before they are implemented at commercial reactors. The lab interactively simulates digital, analog and hybrid systems with touch-screen versions of physical controls like switches, gauges, keyboards and other interfaces. This one-of-a-kind simulator is highly configurable and supports a variety of real control room formats to test emerging technologies such as digital upgrades on nuclear power plants based on the training simulators used at actual plants. The touch-screen displays can be rearranged to represent overview displays and paired with desktop- based workstations to represent new operational concepts and scenarios for advanced reactors.