USGS INL Project Office
INL History
The Idaho National Laboratory (INL) is a United States government reservation in southeast Idaho. Established in 1949, by the U. S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), under the name National Reactor Testing Station (NRTS), the facility has since been renamed three times to reflect changes in research and development emphasis. Timeline. The Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) has since become part of the United States Department of Energy (DOE).
In 1949, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) was asked to characterize water resources prior to the building of nuclear-reactor testing facilities at the current INL site in eastern Idaho.
Since that time, the USGS has maintained and expanded a network of ground-water quality and water-level measurement wells near the INL. In an effort to improve our knowledge of the Snake River Plain aquifer and its subsurface geology, many wells have been cored as they are drilled. The cores are maintained in the Core Storage Library and available to researchers for the purpose of examining, sampling, or testing.
For a complete history of the USGS at the INL: http://pubs.er.usgs.gov/usgspubs/ofr/ofr20051223
