John Wagner, laboratory director at Idaho National Laboratory, told the Economic Outlook and Revenue Assessment Committee that the lab is on a sustained growth trajectory, surpassing $2 billion in business volume in fiscal 2024 and projecting about $2.2 billion in fiscal 2025.

"In fiscal year 24...we surpassed $2,000,000,000 in business volume for the first time in our history," Wagner said. He told legislators the lab's staff count has risen to more than 6,200 employees and that the lab's statewide economic impact approaches $4 billion, with average salaries the lab reports at about $105,000.

Wagner described recent facility investments and near-term demonstration projects at INL, including a $166 million hot-cell facility completed on time and under budget and an Oklo microreactor demonstration site selection on INL property. He said INL supports research across the nuclear fuel cycle, including work on spent-fuel performance and recycling research, advanced reactor demonstrations (including Project Pele, a mobile reactor project), and partnerships with commercial developers such as TerraPower and others.

Wagner emphasized stronger commercial and investor interest in nuclear in 2024. He cited the recent completion of large light-water reactors in Georgia as evidence that large-scale projects can be completed in the U.S., and he pointed to new investor commitments and corporate power purchase arrangements. "We hosted 3 investor-focused summits at the laboratory this year for institutional investors and venture capitalists," Wagner said, and noted corporate partnerships and financing examples including X-Energy and Amazon, Google and other hyperscale data center interests.

Lawmakers asked technical and economic questions. Representative Mike Horman asked whether nuclear can be cost-competitive in Idaho, where hydroelectric power is abundant. Wagner said cost calculations are complex and depend on metrics such as levelized cost of electricity and overnight capital cost. He offered Vogtle Units 3 and 4 as a recent U.S. data point: "Those two gigawatt-scale reactors collectively cost $37,000,000,000, and their price per megawatt is debated, but somewhere around $110 to $130 a megawatt hour," Wagner said. He added that Department of Energy analyses and advanced-nuclear pathways suggest costs for future builds could be substantially lower (DOE materials cited liftoff pathways estimating costs below $80/MWh for later projects), and he cited the smaller NuScale project projections (about $80'$85/MWh) as a comparative reference.

Representative Tom Miller asked about molten-salt and thorium reactor prospects. Wagner said most U.S. developers are focusing on uranium-based systems because existing infrastructure and markets favor uranium, though some countries (India, China) are pursuing thorium concepts. He said INL supports research across developer technologies subject to facility constraints and regulatory considerations.

Wagner closed by noting INL's multiple mission areas beyond energy, including national-security work and manufacturing support for defense systems.

Ending: Wagner's presentation provided lawmakers with an overview of INL's current scale, pipeline of demonstrations and the evolving commercial-financing landscape for new nuclear. The committee did not take action on INL-specific matters at this meeting.