Today, new ideas and opportunities, fostering the advancement of technology, are occurring at an ever-increasing rate. It, therefore, seems appropriate that a vehicle be available which fosters the development of these new ideas and technologies, promotes the early exploration and exploitation of creative and innovative concepts, and which develops new ''fundable'' R & D projects and programs. At Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), one such method is through its Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program. This discretionary research and development tool is critical in maintaining the scientific excellence and vitality of the Laboratory. Additionally, it is a means to stimulate the scientific community, fostering new science and technology ideas, which is the major factor achieving and maintaining staff excellence, and a means to address national needs, with the overall mission of the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Brookhaven National Laboratory. The Project Summaries with their accomplishments described in this report reflect the above. Aside from leading to new fundable or promising programs and producing especially noteworthy research, they have resulted in numerous publications in various professional and scientific journals, and presentations at meetings and forums.

The Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) reports its status to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) by March of each year. The program operates under the authority of DOE Order 413.2B, "Laboratory Directed Research and Development" (April 19, 2006), which establishes DOE's requirements for the program while providing the laboratory director broad flexibility for program implementation. LDRD funds are obtained through a charge to all INL programs. This report includes summaries of all INL LDRD research activities supported during Fiscal Year (FY) 2015.

This report summarizes progress from the Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) program during fiscal year 2006. In addition to a programmatic and financial overview, the report includes progress reports from 430 individual R & D projects in 17 categories.

A national laboratory must establish and maintain an environment in which creativity and innovation are encouraged and supported in order to fulfill its missions and remain viable in the long term. As such, multiprogram laboratories are given discretion to allocate a percentage of their operating budgets to support research and development projects that align to PNNL's and DOE's missions and support the missions of other federal agencies, including DHS, DOD, and others. DOE Order 413.2C sets forth DOE's Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) policy and guidelines for DOE multiprogram laboratories, and it authorizes the national laboratories to allocate up to 6 percent of their operating budgets to fund the program. LDRD is innovative research and development, selected by the Laboratory Director or his/her designee, for the purpose of maintaining the scientific and technological vitality of the Laboratory. The projects supported by LDRD funding all have demonstrable ties to DOE/DHS missions and may also be relevant to the missions of other federal agencies that sponsor work at the Laboratory. The program plays a key role in attracting the best and brightest scientific staff, which is needed to serve the highest priority DOE mission objectives. Individual project reports comprise the bulk of this LDRD report. The Laboratory focuses its LDRD research on scientific assets that often address more than one scientific discipline.