center's laboratories are equipped with state-of-the-art research instruments and tools, including a Local Electrode Atom Probe (LEAP) and a Computer Assisted Virtual Environment (CAVE). Matched Index of Refraction (MIR) facility The Matched Index of Refraction facility is the largest such facility in the world. Using light mineral oil, the facility allows researchers to use fused quartz models built to scale to study the flow of liquids inside and around objects with complicated geometries, such as the core of a nuclear reactor. The facility is basically a giant loop through which the mostly transparent oil is pumped at variable speeds. Special lasers perform "Doppler velocimetry", that produces a three-dimensional image allowing inspection of an object's flow properties. Observers can also watch the flow themselves through the polycarbonate viewing panes near the laser equipment. Video: Matched Index of Refraction Flow Facility Geocentrifuge INL's geocentrifuge helps researchers, among other efforts, improve models of how liquids and contaminants move through engineered caps and barriers used in underground waste disposal facilities. The INL centrifuge is one of fewer than 25 geocentrifuges larger than two meters (about 6 feet) in the United States. The centrifuge, located next to the INL Research Center in Idaho Falls, can be operated remotely by computer and is capable of applying 130 times the force of earth's gravity on a sample. Many of the experiments that use the geocentrifuge require it to run for hundreds of hours in order to correctly simulate several years' worth of gravitational effects. The payload is monitored by an onboard computer and can be relayed to a remote monitoring station outside the centrifuge's chamber where technicians can observe developments. Earlier Projects Experimental Breeder Reactor I (EBR-I) In the early afternoon of December 20, 1951, Argonne National Laboratory scientist Walter Zinn and a small crew of assistants witnessed a row of four light bulbs light up in a nondescript brick building in the eastern Idaho desert. Electricity from a generator connected to Experimental Breeder Reactor I (EBR-I) flowed through them. This was the first time that a usable amount of electrical power had ever been generated from nuclear fission. Only days afterward, the reactor produced all the electricity needed for the entire EBR complex. One ton of natural uranium can produce more than 40 million kilowatt-hours of electricity — this is equivalent to burning 16,000 tons of coal or 80,000 barrels of oil. More central to EBR-I's