COEUR d’ALENE — In 2012, Gov. Butch Otter created the Leadership in Nuclear Energy (LINE) Commission to “make recommendations to the governor on policies and actions of the state of Idaho to support and enhance the long-term viability and mission relevance of the Idaho National Laboratory.”

The LINE Commission was so well-received that, in 2013, Otter doubled down, creating LINE 2.0, to “ensure the continued vitality of the INL and Idaho’s growing nuclear industries sector.”

That “growing nuclear industries sector” includes the cleanup contractor working to fulfill the terms of Idaho’s 1995 Settlement Agreement with the federal government; a variety of businesses engaged with INL research; and, of course, the lab itself, which is managed by Battelle Energy Alliance with a mission of resolving the nation’s big energy and security challenges.

By creating a “standing nuclear advisory council,” the governor acknowledged the importance of having a national laboratory in its backyard, not just for eastern Idahoans, but folks across the state.

In his proclamation creating LINE 2.0, Otter wrote “in the interests of fiscal responsibility in these trying financial times, the public is best served by maximizing use of existing assets, rather than the costly replication of such assets elsewhere.”

How maximizing this asset occurs is an ongoing discussion involving state officials such as Lt. Gov. Brad Little, legislative leaders, including Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis, R-Idaho Falls, academia, industry and the past and current INL directors.

On Friday, that conversation comes to Coeur d’Alene.

The commission will meet at the University of Idaho campus in Coeur d’Alene from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. On the agenda is a discussion about new INL facilities, cutting-edge nuclear reactor technology and subcommittee updates, including from a group looking at an effort to build the world’s first small modular nuclear reactor — designed by NuScale Power — on the INL Site and have it operational and providing power to cities in seven western states by 2024.

“The lab is important to Idaho,” Little, co-chairman of the LINE Commission, wrote in an op-ed for Idaho’s newspapers earlier this year. “It’s important to the nation. That’s why we must do everything in our power to make sure INL continues to do the work necessary to ensure our nation’s energy security and our state’s long-term economic prosperity.”

INL employs more than 4,000 people, making Battelle Idaho’s fifth-largest employer. INL spent more than $130 million with Idaho businesses in 2015 and generated roughly $58 million in local and state taxes.

Congress in 2005 designated INL the nation’s lead nuclear research laboratory. That’s important because nuclear energy provides 19 percent of America’s electricity, but 63 percent of its carbon-free electricity. As INL Director Mark Peters wrote recently, continuing to sustain the existing nuclear reactor fleet and develop the next generation of nuclear reactors is vital to ensuring energy security and combating climate change.

But INL is more than just nuclear. Last year, INL partnered with government agencies and industry to determine national and international standards for plug-in vehicles and charging infrastructure. And, as was detailed in the Coeur d’Alene Press on Sept. 4, INL has emerged as a global leader in securing the nation’s critical infrastructure from cyber threats.

That topic will be front and center at Friday’s LINE Commission meeting, in a discussion about the potential for new facilities at INL to keep up with significant growth in the Lab’s cyber and computer science capabilities and workload.

INL will invest in equipment, high performance computers and mission-related equipment and systems to build out the two facilities and ensure they contain cutting edge technology — much of which will be available to Idaho’s colleges and universities.

A recent IGEM Grant awarded to the University of Idaho is an example of committing resources to align university investment to emerging careers opportunity in cybersecurity. INL officials have expressed a desire to work with Idaho schools to develop an in-state talent pipeline, and say construction of these two facilities represents tremendous opportunity for Idaho students in fields that will keep them in the state and pay higher wages.

“There are so many interesting and exciting developments taking place as we work to protect the nation’s critical infrastructure and meet a growing worldwide demand for clean energy,” Peters said. “I’m thrilled we are bringing these discussions to north Idaho.”