The Argonauta reactor building, in 1964.
	The first control desk of the reactor (1964).

The foundation of IEN was the result of the effort of the first nuclear engineers of Rio de Janeiro, with the support of the National Nuclear Energy Commission. Trained in the United States under the American government's program Atoms for Peace, back to Brazil they proposed the construction of a research reactor for pacific nuclear energy uses.

Thus, in May 1962, through a partnership between CNEN and the Universidade do Brasil (the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro - UFRJ), the Nuclear Engineering Institute was born in the UFRJ campus on the Fundão Island, with the purpose of hosting and operating this research reactor. Named Argonauta, the reactor was developed according to a project from the Argonne National Laboratory. Redesigned and constructed with 93% of national components, Argonauta reached its first criticality on February 20, 1965.

New Working Fields

With the diversification of the research, there followed the acquisition of a neutron generator, the construction of physics, chemistry and nuclear material laboratories, and the organization of a radiological protection service. In 1974, a variable energy particle accelerator was installed, the CV-28 cyclotron, starting new activities, among which the development of methods for the production of radionuclides.

During the following decade, IEN started the fabrication of radioisotopes for research and medical uses with this accelerator, pioneer in the country.

The nuclear instrumentation area, initially created to support the activities of the institute, acquired throughout the years competence to develop and produce nuclear plant instrumentation and radioprotection systems, and nuclear medicine and research equipment. In 2003, under a new strategic orientation, IEN discontinued the equipment production, focusing on licensing its technology to the industry.

Permanent Innovation

The Human-System Interface Laboratory (HSIL), a facility that simulates the processes and environment of a nuclear plant control room, was created in 2001. Its objective is the development of modern control room interfaces that increase operation efficiency and safety.

This quest for innovation has granted IEN the capacity to offer growing benefits to the society, with the improvement of research and development processes, new and high aggregated value products and services, and multiplication of the generated knowledge.