Environment, Safety & Health
As the nation's preeminent nuclear energy laboratory, INL maintains a strong safety focus. The health and safety of every employee, both on- and off-the-job, is critical to our mission, and we demonstrate world-leading safety behavior, safety performance and environmental stewardship.
- In 2001, INL was recognized as a Department of Energy-Voluntary Protection Program Star site, the first national laboratory to achieve this distinction.
- In 2009, INL achieved DOE-VPP Star recertification.
- In 2009, INL facilities began recycling materials such as plastics, aluminum, metal cans and assorted paper products (including newspaper, magazines, paperboard and corrugated cardboard) in a single container. After the co-mingled recycling program was introduced at Idaho Falls facilities, the amount of trash collected by the city was reduced nearly 25 percent.
- INL has emerged as a leader in electronics stewardship by winning several Federal Electronics Challenge (FEC) awards since 2007 (Bronze in 2007 and 2008, Silver in 2009 and 2010). These awards recognize INL's commitment to purchase computers registered as environmentally friendly, to ensure that power-management settings are enabled on employee computers, and to provide for reuse of used computers and monitors.
- In 2011, INL achieved International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14001 registration, having been registered since 2005.
- In Fiscal Year 2011, INL employees worked nearly 8 million hours. During that time, there were 39 OSHA recordable injuries. That's three-and-a-half times better than private industry's average rate.
Our success is due, in part, to an overarching safety system. INL's Integrated Safety Management System (ISMS) aligns various programmatic and technical safety programs to achieve the best outcomes.
