Institute for Energy Technology (IFE) was established in 1948 as the Institute for Nuclear Energy (IFA). The name was changed in 1980. Its main office is at

Kjeller Kjeller is a village located near Lillestrøm in the municipality of Lillestrøm, Norway. It is located 25 kilometers north-east of Oslo. Name The Norse form of the name was probably ''Tjaldir''. This is then the plural of ''tjald'' n ' tent' ...

, Norway, and slightly under half of the institute’s activities are based in

Halden Halden (), between 1665 and 1928 known as Fredrikshald, is both a town and a municipality in Viken county, Norway. The municipality borders Sarpsborg to the northwest, Rakkestad to the north and Aremark to the east, as well as the Swedish muni ...

. In Halden IFE is host to the international OECD Halden Reactor Project, with 18 member states. IFE conducts research in the following areas:

energy In physics, energy (from Ancient Greek: ἐνέργεια, ''enérgeia'', “activity”) is the quantitative property that is transferred to a body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of work and in the form of heat a ...

environmental technology Environmental technology (envirotech) or green technology (greentech), also known as ''clean technology'' (''cleantech''), is the application of one or more of environmental science, green chemistry, environmental monitoring and electronic device ...

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

, materials science,

petroleum technology Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crude ...

, nuclear safety and reliability and man-machine systems (man-technology-organisation). IFE operates the only two existing

nuclear reactors A nuclear reactor is a device used to initiate and control a fission nuclear chain reaction or nuclear fusion reactions. Nuclear reactors are used at nuclear power plants for electricity generation and in nuclear marine propulsion. Heat from nu ...

in Norway. Both are dedicated to research. The JEEP II reactor at Kjeller is used for basic research in physics and material science, as well as production of radiopharmaceuticals. The

Halden Reactor The Halden Reactor was a 25MW (thermal) nuclear reactor located in Halden, Norway and dedicated for research. Construction started 1955 and the reactor became operative in 1958, and was operated by the Institute for Energy Technology (IFE). The rea ...

is used for research in materials technology and nuclear fuel safety. The Institute has approximately 600 employees in Halden and at Kjeller. The President is Nils Morten Huseby.

History

During the post-war years Norway put strong efforts in the area of nuclear research.

Gunnar Randers Gunnar Randers (21 April 1914 – 7 February 1992) was a Norwegian physicist. He is known as the principal figure within Norwegian nuclear research after World War II. He was employed at the Mount Wilson Observatory from 1939 to 1940, and at the Y ...

and

Odd Dahl Odd Dahl (3 November 1898 – 2 June 1994) was a Norwegian engineer and explorer. He is particularly remembered for his contributions to research in nuclear physics. Biography He was born at Drammen in Buskerud, Norway, the son of businessman ...

had already started the Norwegian nuclear research activities at the

Norwegian Defence Research Establishment The Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (''Forsvarets forskningsinstitutt'' – ''FFI'') is a research institute that conducts research and development on behalf of the Norwegian Armed Forces and provides expert advice to political and mi ...

(FFI) from 1946, and after World War II this research was separated from the military establishment, with a focus on civilian use of nuclear power. Institute for Nuclear Energy (IFA) was established in 1948 as a civilian offspring from the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment with Gunnar Randers as President until 1970. Norway’s first nuclear reactor (JEEP or later, JEEP I) went into operation at Kjeller in 1951. It went critical for the first time June 30, 1951. At this time only the great powers in the world: United States, United Kingdom, France, the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

and Canada had managed to build and put nuclear reactors in operation. In the 1980s IFE reformed its programme profile. Public financing was reduced, and in line with contemporary neo-liberal trends in society new demands were put on industry research, market adaptation and exposing research more to commercialisation. Research areas that saw a growth in this period included petroleum research, renewable energy, control room technology and man-machine-communication. From the 1990s IFE gained a leading position in Norwegian energy- and environmental research, with focus on

hydrogen storage Hydrogen storage can be accomplished by several existing methods of holding hydrogen for later use. These include mechanical approaches such as using high pressures and low temperatures, or employing chemical compounds that release H2 upon demand ...

in metal hydrides,

, energy systems analysis,

solar energy Solar energy is radiant light and heat from the Sun that is harnessed using a range of technologies such as solar power to generate electricity, solar thermal energy (including solar water heating), and solar architecture. It is an essenti ...

and

renewable energy Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...

systems. In the area of petroleum technology, IFE has expertise in the areas of tracer technology, corrosion inhibition and multiphase flow assurance. In the 2000s IFE has invested in the area of

solar cell research There are currently many research groups active in the field of photovoltaics in universities and research institutions around the world. This research can be categorized into three areas: making current technology solar cells cheaper and/or mo ...

. A new solar cell laboratory at Kjeller was opened in 2009, and cost about 50 million NOK, one of the biggest investments made by the Institute.www.ife.no/ife_news
/ref> The Centre for Environmental Energy Research hosted by IFE will concentrate on the development of silicon-based solar cells.

Police report by Norway's foreign ministry

A 12 May 2013 article in

O Estado de S. Paulo ''O Estado de S. Paulo'' (; ), also known as ''Estadão'' (; ), is a daily newspaper published in São Paulo, Brazil. It is the third largest newspaper in Brazil, and its format changed from broadsheet to berliner on October 17, 2021. It has t ...

broke the story about testing done at the

in regards to the nuclear submarine program of Brazil.Anmelder eieren av Halden-reaktoren
/ref> The testing did not have the proper authorization from Norway's government. On 4 September media said that the institute "is admitting to illegal cooperation with companies in four more countries:"PST overtar atom-etterforskningen
/ref> Russia, Argentina, France and the United States. Later Norway's foreign ministry made a police report to PST.

References

{{authority control Research institutes in Norway Nuclear power in Norway

History

Police report by Norway's foreign ministry

See also

References