The setting for Search Beyond Lies moves into Idaho as the adventure continues. Although Idaho National Lab is not the setting for the story, it has a key role in the backstory. Idaho National Lab is a real place, formally known as Idaho National Laboratory (“INL”).
A Little History
The Idaho National Laboratory was previously known as the National Reactor Testing Station.
It was intentionally located in a remote area of the Idaho desert which would limit public exposure to any radiation in the event of an incident with the nuclear power reactor. The historic incident was SL-1 in Idaho in 1961, one of 4 historic incidents.
According to INL, Just the Facts SL-1 , “The Stationary Low-Power Plant Number 1 (SL-1) was a 3-megawatt experimental reactor designed for the U.S. Army to use in remote locations.”
The SL-1 accident resulted in 3 deaths and is “considered the only fatal nuclear reactor accident in the United States…caused by the process of making nuclear energy.” This does not take into consideration “industrial fatalities at other generating stations.”
Today
The U.S. Department of Energy complex has 17 national labs, one of which is INL. There are more that 5,700 employees including researchers and various support staff. Innovation is their focus in nuclear research, security solutions, and renewable energy systems. They are always looking to attract scientists and others in an effort to “redefine what’s possible.”
Search Beyond Lies
What is revealed in Search Beyond Lies regarding INL and some of their recruitment efforts are fact. However, the story is fiction.
With respect to targeted radioactive waste from the Rocky Mountain Flats, from 1954 to 1970 it was packaged in boxes and storage drums and then sent to the high-desert, sagebrush prairie land of eastern Idaho where it was buried in trenches and unlined pits. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, they completed the removal of this waste from the 97-acre landfill at its 890-square-mile site that includes INL. For more on these more fairly recent developments, there’s a good article in the Denver Post.
One of the important characters is a schnauzer mutt name Brady. Is Brady a real dog? Is he fact or fiction?
Search Beyond Lies is available on Amazon.
© 2022 Karen VDH Fischer