Office of Nuclear Energy facts for kids

The Office of Nuclear Energy (NE) is a part of the United States Department of Energy. Its main job is to support nuclear power as a source of energy for the United States.

Nuclear power can help the country with its energy needs, protect the environment, and keep the nation secure. The Office of Nuclear Energy works on research and new technologies to solve problems and remove challenges to using nuclear power safely and effectively.

The head of the office is called the Assistant Secretary of Energy for Nuclear Energy. This person is chosen by the President of the United States and must be approved by the United States Senate.

What the Office of Nuclear Energy Does

The Office of Nuclear Energy has four main goals for its research:

• Find ways to make the nuclear power plants that are already running safer, more reliable, and able to last longer.
• Make new nuclear power plants cheaper to build. This will help the country have a secure energy supply and fight climate change.
• Create sustainable fuel cycles. This means finding better ways to use and recycle nuclear fuel so that it creates less waste.
• Study and lower the risks of nuclear materials being used for terrorism or weapons.

How the Office is Organized

The Office of Nuclear Energy is managed by the Under Secretary of Energy for Science and Innovation. The leader of the office is the Assistant Secretary of Energy for Nuclear Energy.

The Assistant Secretary has a team of deputies who help run the office. Each deputy is in charge of a different area, such as:

• Programs for nuclear buildings and equipment.
• Handling used nuclear fuel and waste.
• Managing the supply of nuclear fuel.
• Working with other countries on nuclear energy.
• Supporting current and new advanced nuclear reactors.

Idaho National Laboratory

The Office of Nuclear Energy is in charge of the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). The INL is a huge science and engineering lab located in the desert of southern Idaho. It covers an area of 890 square miles (2,300 km²).

The INL is dedicated to research for the U.S. Department of Energy. Scientists there work on nuclear energy, national security, and clean energy. In the past, they helped design the first nuclear reactors, built test reactors for the U.S. Navy, and created ways to manage nuclear waste. Today, they continue to research new types of fuel and test new nuclear power designs.

History of the Lab

The lab was started in 1949. Back then, it was called the "National Reactor Testing Station." A very important event happened here: the Experimental Breeder Reactor I (EBR-I) became the first nuclear reactor ever to produce a usable amount of electricity.

Creating a Virtual Reactor

The Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors (CASL) was a special project started in 2010. It was one of the Department of Energy's "Innovation Hubs."

CASL's goal was to create a super-detailed computer model of a nuclear reactor. This model, called the Virtual Environment for Reactor Applications (VERA), was like a very advanced video game. It could simulate everything happening inside a reactor, right down to a single rod of fuel. This allowed scientists to test ideas and solve problems on a computer, which is much safer and easier than doing it on a real reactor.

To build VERA, experts from the government, universities, and private companies all worked together. The project finished in 2020, and now nuclear power companies can use VERA to help them run their reactors better.

Leaders of the Office

The Assistant Secretary of Energy for Nuclear Energy is the head of the Office of Nuclear Energy. This person manages a large budget, which was over $1.6 billion in 2021. The people who have held this job come from different political parties.

Parties

      Democratic       Republican

Status       Acting Assistant Secretary of Energy for Nuclear Energy

No.	Portrait	Name	Took office	Left office	Refs.	President(s)
1		George W. Cunningham	1979	1981			Jimmy Carter
2		Shelby Brewer	1981	1984			Ronald Reagan
acting		James W. Vaughan, Jr.	1984	1986
3		A. David Rossin	1986	1987
4		Theodore J. Garrish	1987	1989
5		William H. Young	1989	1993			George H. W. Bush
6							Clinton, BillBill Clinton
7		William D. Magwood, IV	November 10, 1998	2005
acting		R. Shane Johnson	May 2005	April 3, 2006			George W. Bush
8		Spurgeon, DennisDennis Spurgeon	April 4, 2006	January 2009
9		Miller, PetePete Miller	August 2009	November 2010			Obama, BarackBarack Obama
acting		Lyons, PeterPeter Lyons	November 2010	April 14, 2011
10			April 14, 2011	June 30, 2015
acting		John Kotek	July 1, 2015	January 20, 2017
acting		Raymond Furstenau	January 20, 2017	May 31, 2017			Trump, DonaldDonald Trump
acting		Edward McGinnis	May 31, 2017	July 10, 2019
11		Baranwal, RitaRita Baranwal	July 11, 2019	January 8, 2021
acting		Dennis Michael Miotla	January 8, 2021	May 10, 2021			Biden, JoeJoe Biden
acting		Kathryn Huff	May 10, 2021	January 19, 2022
acting		Andrew Griffith	January 19, 2022	May 11, 2022
12		Kathryn Huff	May 11, 2022	May 3, 2024
acting		Michael Goff	May 3, 2024	Incumbent

See also

• Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative
• High-temperature electrolysis