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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
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NASA MUREP-DEAP Institutes - Year 1 Updates on Capacity Building, Community Building and Research Initiatives

Through the Minority University Research and Education Project (MUREP), NASA engages underrepresented populations via various initiatives, including by means of three year competitive awards for Data Science Equity, Access, and Priority in Research and Education (DEAP) Institutes led by Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). MUREP DEAP Institutes, multi-institutional consortia, conduct data science research and capacity building initiatives that aim to enhance the research, academic, and technological capabilities of the participating HBCUs while providing NASA-specific knowledge, skills and opportunities for students and faculty who have historically been underrepresented and underserved in the STEM workforce. Three MUREP DEAP Institutes, led by Bethune-Cookman University, North Carolina A&T University, and North Carolina Central University, are conducting data science and natural hazard related research utilizing remote sensing and earth observations, with mentorship for the Institutes provided by scientists from NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. Each Institute has unique capabilities, needs, and goals, but overlap in their common interest to conduct cutting edge data science and natural hazard related research and to build capacity, broaden participation, and increase retention of a diverse group of participating students and faculty​. Here, successes and challenges from the first year of activities at each MUREP DEAP institute are discussed, where activities focused primarily on the recruitment of a diverse group of students and the upskilling of students and faculty in data science and remote sensing concepts. The planned activities and goals of each DEAP Institute for the upcoming two years of activities will also be discussed, both from research and community-building perspectives.

Ronan Lucey↗
DOE OSTI2023

NA-213 Presentation.pdf

The Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) is one of 17 United States Department of Energy (DOE) National Laboratories. SRNL, a multi-program national laboratory, is a leading research and development institution for the Offices of Environmental Management and Legacy Management at the U.S. Department of Energy and the Weapons and Nonproliferation programs for the National Nuclear Security Administration. Battelle Savannah River Alliance, LLC (BSRA), a not-for-profit limited liability company, manages and operates SRNL for the DOE. BSRA board leadership includes Battelle Memorial Institute, Clemson University, University of South Carolina, South Carolina State University, University of Georgia, and Georgia Institute of Technology. Battelle Memorial Institute and the five universities are joined in partnership with preferred subcontractors TechSource and Longenecker & Associates with the singular purpose of maintaining SRNL as a best-in-class national laboratory. Scientists and Engineers at SRNL use leading edge science and technology to advance the Department of Energy’s critical mission outcomes.

Hasty, Timothy C.↗
DOE OSTI2020

Panel Session 34: US DOE Featured Site: Savannah River Operations Office: 70 Years of Service

The Savannah River Site celebrates its 70. anniversary on November 28, 2020. On this date in 1950, President Harry S. Truman requested the Dupont Company to design, build and operate what was then known as the Savannah River Plant in response to the Soviet Union's detonation of its first atomic weapon, which set the Cold War into motion. During the 1950's, six South Carolina towns were relocated for the construction of SRS and by 1953, the 310 square mile site was complete. Nearly 40,000 workers were employed t build five nuclear reactors and support facilities, two chemical separations plants, heavy water extraction plant, nuclear fuel and target fabrication facility tritium extraction facility and waste management facilities. SRS played a key role in winning the Cold War and for seven decades, SRS has been a leader within the DOE complex. Today, the site supports environmental stewardship and maintains the nation's nuclear deterrent while ensuring the safekeeping and disposal of domestic and international nuclear materials. The site continues to support the nation's nuclear defense as it explores new potential NNSA missions. SRS has a proud 70- year history and looks forward to a future of service as a national asset and strong community partner. The session was kicked off with a video message from Secretary of Energy, Dan Brouillette, who thanked employees past and current for their efforts. The video also provided an overview of the history and future of the Site. This panel provided an overview of the Savannah River Site's 70 years of service (history, challenges, opportunities, and future) presented by the SRS's Senior leadership and the local Aiken, South Carolina Mayor. Panelists with presentations: US DOE Secretary Dan Brouillette's Overview of DOE and SRS - A Legacy of 70 Years of Service (Amy Boyette); 70 Years of Service (Michael Budney); 70 Years of Service (Stuart MacVean); SRS Liquid Waste (Thomas Foster); National Nuclear Security Administration (Nicole Nelson-Jean)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2024

Grid-connected heat pump water heater benefits for low-income households in the Southeastern United States

Energy efficient heat pump water heaters (HPWHs) reduce customer energy costs; grid-connected controls further increase HPWH value by enabling energy storage and shifting demand to cheaper, off-peak periods. However, a HPWH’s first cost premium can put it out of reach for low-income customers. This paper will present results of an ongoing study exploring the benefits of load shifting HPWHs for 24 low-income households, aiming to support increased product deployment in this demographic. The study uses EcoPort modules to shift HPWH load for a study sample consisting primarily of low-income adults and seniors in North Carolina. Building upon prior studies, the study’s HPWH operating schedules are designed to maximize shifted energy and minimize participant electricity costs based on local time-of-use rates. The study documents load profiles of grid-connected HPWHs in a less-studied demographic group and explores how certain groups may have particularly flexible loads due to their unique usage profiles. The results are relevant for HPWH product performance in the Southeast. The study will quantify HPWH load shifting performance during North Carolina’s hot summer, temperate shoulder, and occasionally sub-freezing winter seasons, and the study includes installations in conditioned, semi-conditioned, and unconditioned spaces. Finally, study results will also explore how controlled HPWHs can provide value to the regional grid by reducing seasonal peaks via demand response. Lessons learned include HPWH acceptance for low-income and senior users, best practices for maintaining HPWH connectivity among users without prior product experience, and strategies to leverage remote monitoring to ensure optimal operation and enhance HPWH reliability.

Urigwe, Daniela↗
DOE OSTI2025

Lessons Learned: Summary of Insights From the HERO WEC and Waves to Water Deployments Between 2022 and 2024

In 2020, a team from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) partnered with the East Carolina University Coastal Studies Institute to develop a small, modular, wave-powered point absorber desalination prototype. That prototype, known as the hydraulic and electric reverse osmosis wave energy converter (HERO WEC), was intended to de-risk the installation activities planned for the Waves to Water Prize sponsored by the Water Power Technologies Office. The NREL team was given approximately 18 months to design, build, bench test, and deploy the HERO WEC prototype. Since the initial HERO WEC development, it has been used for two in-lab test programs and three ocean deployments. The first in-lab test program focused on ensuring that the overall operation of the device occurred as expected and on validating the operation of safety systems such as pressure relief valves or electrical breakers for load mitigation. The second in-lab test program was the first time the NREL team leveraged NREL’s large-amplitude motion platform to characterize the performance of the HERO WEC. Of the three in-water deployments, the first deployment was effectively an installation and recovery practice with no meaningful wave activity during the time that it was installed. The second deployment was a 2-week effort that enabled both the electric and hydraulic configurations of the device to be in the water for approximately 5 days each. This deployment was also the first time that the team had the opportunity to perform a drivetrain swap on the Coastal Studies Institute research vessel. The third deployment had to be split into two separate installations due to minor damage incurred from the WEC spinning during the initial installation. This report summarizes the deployments, the challenges encountered with each deployment, and the lessons learned for future work.

16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER↗
DOE OSTI2025

Generalized fiducial inference on differentiable manifolds

We introduce a novel approach to inference on parameters that take values in a Riemannian manifold embedded in a Euclidean space. Parameter spaces of this form are ubiquitous across many fields, including chemistry, physics, computer graphics, and geology. Here, this new approach uses generalized fiducial inference (GFI) to obtain a posterior-like distribution on the manifold, without needing to know local parameterizations that map to the constrained space from an unconstrained Euclidean space. Using mathematical tools from Riemannian geometry, we construct a constrained generalized fiducial distribution (CGFD). A Bernstein-von Mises-type result for the CGFD, which provides intuition for how the desirable asymptotic qualities of the unconstrained generalized fiducial distribution are inherited by the CGFD, is provided. To illustrate the practical use of the CGFD, we provide a proof-of-concept example in the context of a linear logspline density estimation problem, and demonstrate that CGFD-based confidence sets exhibit desirable coverage properties via simulation. As an application, we fit a CGFD to COVID-19 case count data from North Carolina, USA.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2025

Studies of optical and chemical properties of aged and fresh biomass burning absorbing aerosols for climate models

Particulate emissions from burning fuels from sub-Saharan Africa is currently poorly characterized. With increasing population and industrialization, emissions are expected to grow. Optical methods for measuring light absorption in the ultraviolet (UV) and visible (vis) regions of the spectrum are crucial for understanding the optical properties of BB aerosols (Bond and Bergstrom, 2006; Lack and Cappa, 2010; Moschos et al., 2021). One such instrument is the dual-spot AE33 model aethalometer is a common filter-based instrument that can be used to measure aerosol absorption properties (Hansen et al., 1984). This instrument has many figures of merit; however, the method's limitations include potential biases from scattering within the filter material, multiple scattering effects of the particles, filter loading (i.e. particle shadowing), and the need for wavelength-specific correction factors (Cλ), which depend on accurate intercomparison with other in situ techniques (Bond et al., 1999; Collaud Coen et al., 2010). This work aims to: 1. Optically characterize BB aerosol generated from African fuel 2. Correct the aethalometer at multiple wavelengths 3. Parametrize these correction factors. 4. Combusting the same fuels with two difference tube furnace systems assess the general applicability of this flexible means of producing BB aerosol. This was accomplished by conducting laboratory studies at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and North Carolina A&T State University (NCA&T), where aethalometer measurements were compared to in situ optical measurements. Mass cross sections of BB aerosol from these under-studied fuels will be determined along with their wavelength dependence.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2025

FY25 Progress Report: SRNL Analysis of ICCWR LCM and WAMS data for Corrosion and Cracking

Algorithms for Machine Learning (ML) and image analysis for the 3013 Surveillance Program have been developed in an ongoing collaborative effort by the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) and the University of South Carolina (USC). The objective of the algorithms is to automate the identification of corrosion and cracks in the Inner Container Closure Weld Region (ICCWR) of the canister system used to store Pu-bearing material. Data for corrosion and cracking is collected from large binary files generated by a Laser Confocal Microscope (LCM), the Wide Area 3D Measurement System (WAMS), or, in a recent proposal, by a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). The ML software uses the physical attributes in the data files (e.g., one or more of: height, color, and 16-bit grayscale values as functions of position in a plane projection) to detect signs of surface corrosion and cracking after being trained on similar data with the features to be detected. Although the initial scope included screening for broader indicators of corrosion, e.g., pitting, the identification of potential cracks was prioritized for the past several years at the request of program leadership.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2025

Tolumonas sp. WCU1

Tolumonas sp. WCU1 was cultured from Dicks Creek on the campus of Western Carolina University. Colonies were obtained from water plated on R2A medium. A subculture was isolated and BLAST analysis of the 16S rRNA placed it into the genus Tolumonas, with the highest match at 95.7% percent identity to T. osonensis. Whole genome phylogenetic analysis identified the three species in the genus of Tolumonas to be only 78.1 to 78.5% in average nucleotide identity (ANI). These species include T. auensis , T. osonensis, and T. lignilytica.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Sanitary Waste Landfill Effects on an Invasive Wild Pig Population

Being opportunistic omnivores, wild pigs (Sus scrofa) readily feed on edible garbage. Given the presence of substantial volumes of edible food waste, large multi-county and regional municipal sanitary waste landfills constitute attractive forage resources for pigs, providing a year-round anthropogenic source of potentially high-quality forage. Our objective was to assess the effects that a large regional landfill has on the local pigs foraging in that facility's waste disposal cells. The landfill, located on the United States Department of Energy's Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina, USA, became operational in 1998 and pigs began foraging there in 2001. By 2009 >100 pigs/night were observed foraging in the landfill, suggesting landfill establishment may have important consequences for population dynamics, public safety, and disease transmission. We evaluated changes in body mass, fetal litter size, numbers of pigs removed, and wild pig-vehicle collisions (WPVCs) before (1980–2000) and after (2001–2019) pigs began foraging in the landfill on SRS. Body mass during the after period increased to a greater extent for pigs in the vicinity of the landfill compared to pigs on the rest of SRS. Fetal litter size increased for pigs in the vicinity of the landfill, whereas it remained unchanged on the rest of SRS. Our density surrogate (number of pigs harvested) increased around the landfill during the after period by 2.9 times, whereas on the rest of the site it only increased by 53%. No WPVCs occurred adjacent to the landfill before 2001, but WPVCs increased along the 2 major roads bordering the landfill after 2001. Effects of sanitary waste landfills on wild pig populations scavenging there can present unique challenges to population management, control, public safety, and disease transmission. Potential approaches to address these challenges could be exclusion fencing to prevent access to the landfill's waste disposal cells or enhanced placement of waste cell covers to reduce access.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

HERO WEC 2024 Hydraulic Configuration Deployment Data

The following submission includes raw and processed data from the in water deployment of NREL's Hydraulic and Electric Reverse Osmosis Wave Energy Converter (HERO WEC), in the form of parquet files, TDMS files, CSV files, bag files and MATLAB workspaces. This dataset was collected in March 2024 at the Jennette's pier test site in North Carolina. This submission includes the following: - Data description document (HERO WEC FY24 Hydraulic Deployment Data Descriptions.doc) - This document includes detailed descriptions of the type of data and how it was processed and/or calculated. - Processed MATLAB workspace - The processed data is provided in the form of a single MATLAB workspace containing data from the full deployment. This workspace contains data from all sensors down sampled to 10 Hz along with all array Value Added Products (VAPs). - MATLAB visualization scripts - The MATLAB workspaces can be visualized using the file "HERO_WEC_2024_Hydraulic_Config_Data_Viewer.m/mlx". The user simply needs to download the processed MATLAB workspaces, specify the desired start and end times and run this file. Both the .m and .mlx file format has been provided depending on the user's preference. - Summary Data - The fully processed data was used to create a summary data set with averages and important calculations performed on 30-minute intervals to align with the intervals of wave resource data reported from nearby CDIP ocean observing buoys located 20km East of Jennette's pier and 40km Northeast of Jennette's pier. The wave resource data provided in this data set is to be used for reference only due the difference in water depth and proximity to shore between the Jennette's pier test site and the locations of the ocean observing buoys. This data is provided in the Summary Data zip folder, which includes this data set in the form of a MATLAB workspace, parquet file, and excel spreadsheet. - Processed Parquet File - The processed data is provided in the form of a single parquet file containing data from all HERO WEC sensors collected during the full deployment. Data in these files has been down sampled to 10 Hz and all array VAPs are included. - Interim Filtered Data - Raw data from each sensor group partitioned into 30-minute parquet files. These files are outputs from an intermediate stage of data processing and contain the raw data with no Quality Control (QC) or calculations performed in a format that is easier to use than the raw data. - Raw Data - Raw, unprocessed data from this deployment can be found in the Raw Data zip folder. This data is provided in the form of TDMS, CSV, and bag files in the original format output by the MODAQ system. - Python Data Processing Script - This links to an NREL public github repository containing the python script used to go from raw data to fully processed parquet files. Additional documentation on how to use this script is included in the github repository. This data set has been developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, operated by Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC, for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) under Contract No. DE-AC36-08GO28308. Funding provided by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Water Power Technologies Office.

16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER↗
DOE OSTI2025

AmeriFlux US-TLR Timberlake Observatory for Wetland Restoration (TOWeR)

This is the AmeriFlux version of the carbon flux data for the site US-TLR Timberlake Observatory for Wetland Restoration (TOWeR). Site Description - This tower is located in Timberlake Forest, a restored forested wetland located 4 km from Albermarle Sound on the North Carolina coast. The forest to the south of the tower had historically been ditched, drained and converted to agricultural land, and subsequently reforested with Black Gum and Cypress trees and naturally re-wetted in 2006. This southern region has a bottomland forest ecosystem which saw a large-scale succession event of pine trees following the reforestation efforts. The northern part of the forest had been ditched, but never drained or converted for other land uses. It is much wetter and more sparsely vegetated when compared to the southern region, and has a mixed bottomland forest and swamp ecosystem.

Rey-Sanchez, Camilo [North Carolina State Universi↗
DOE OSTI2026

AmeriFlux FLUXNET-1F US-TLR Timberlake Observatory for Wetland Restoration (TOWeR)

This is the AmeriFlux Management Project (AMP) created FLUXNET-1F version of the carbon flux data for the site US-TLR Timberlake Observatory for Wetland Restoration (TOWeR). This is the FLUXNET version of the carbon flux data for the site US-TLR Timberlake Observatory for Wetland Restoration (TOWeR) produced by applying the standard ONEFlux (1F) software. Site Description - This tower is located in Timberlake Forest, a restored forested wetland located 4 km from Albermarle Sound on the North Carolina coast. The forest to the south of the tower had historically been ditched, drained and converted to agricultural land, and subsequently reforested with Black Gum and Cypress trees and naturally re-wetted in 2006. This southern region has a bottomland forest ecosystem which saw a large-scale succession event of pine trees following the reforestation efforts. The northern part of the forest had been ditched, but never drained or converted for other land uses. It is much wetter and more sparsely vegetated when compared to the southern region, and has a mixed bottomland forest and swamp ecosystem.

Rey-Sanchez, Camilo [North Carolina State Universi↗
DOE OSTI2023

Phase 1: Duke Energy Zero Emission Resource Integration Study (ZERIS); Phase 2: Carbon-Free Resource Integration Study for Duke Energy (Final Report)

Phase 1: This statement of work makes up Phase 1 of a larger effort. During this Phase 1 effort, NREL will work with Duke Energy to analyze the impacts of integrating significant amounts of new solar power into the Duke Energy power system under a variety of different penetrations scenarios, with a maximum of ten (10) full scenarios examined. The existing fleet, particularly the nuclear generation, will be considered in the quantitative assessments and discussions. Duke Energy is looking to quantify how much solar generation its system can handle. NREL will work with Duke Energy to quantify solar potential, identify likely integration challenges and possible opportunities for wind, storage, demand side resources and other technologies. Phase 2: This Statement of Work consists of a follow-up effort (Phase 2) to a recently completed Phase 1 modeling effort. During Phase 2, NREL will work closely with Duke Energy to analyze the impacts of integrating significant amounts of variable generation resources (wind and solar) and storage into Duke Energy's system in the Carolinas. The existing fleet, particularly nuclear generation, will be considered in the quantitative assessment and discussions. This Statement of Work also includes an extension to Phase II of the Carbon-Free Resource Integration Study for Duke Energy. In this extension, NREL will work closely with Duke Energy to extend the production cost analysis developed in Phase II to 2018 weather and load data for Duke Energy's territory. This extension leverages the modeling tools and datasets developed as part of Phase II. The analysis will compare results from Phase II (using 2012 weather and load) with 2018 results to assess system operations with increased penetration of renewables and storage. Simplifying assumptions will be made for modeling Duke Energy's neighbors in the production cost model.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2025

A Regional Approach to Offshore Wind Energy Manufacturing in the Central Atlantic: Workforce

Meeting the additional job requirements spurred by potential growth in the offshore wind industry is likely to involve intentional and effective recruitment practices and training program development across all occupations (e.g., skilled trades, engineers, professionals) at state, regional, and local levels. The workforce development ecosystem is complex, especially for an industry like offshore wind, so assessing the readiness of an area to support the workforce needs of new manufacturing facilities involves evaluating numerous economic and training factors at an occupational level. Funded by the National Offshore Wind Research and Development Consortium and led by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, this report represents one part of a two-part study that explores the challenges and opportunities for Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina in fostering regional collaboration to build a domestic supply chain for the U.S. offshore wind energy sector.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2026

PowerAmerica (Final Technical Report)

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Manufacturing Office (predecessor to AMMTO) established PowerAmerica in December 2014 to develop and accelerate the adoption of wide bandgap (WBG) semiconductor chips and power electronics in manufacturing. The objective was to spark early commercialization of energy efficient products; educate and train the workforce; create high-tech jobs; and nurture the growth of the U.S. WBG semiconductor manufacturing industry. PowerAmerica isled by North Carolina State University by way of a five-year, $140M cooperative agreement with DoE. This private-public partnership with DoE includes member companies ranging from startups and small-medium enterprises to large system integrators, world-class universities, and national labs. The WBG power electronic ecosystem formed by our diverse membership is focused on using advanced manufacturing to 1) lower the cost of silicon carbide and gallium nitride semiconductor devices to be comparable to silicon devices; 2) demonstrate the system benefits and energy efficiency advantages of WBG semiconductor power electronics through system demonstrations that validate their effectiveness; and 3) build an education pipeline for a skilled workforce to meet the future demand for emerging WBG semiconductor markets — and enhance U.S. economic competitiveness globally. PowerAmerica was initially funded in six budget periods, each lasting 12 to 18 months. By the end of Budget Period 6 (August 2023), PowerAmerica had achieved its major objectives in technology development, semiconductor device cost reduction, ecosystem growth and engagement, and education and workforce development. Through strategic foundry investments, we helped to establish the first U.S. SiC foundry (X-FAB) and supported a lab (Microchip) to start SiC volume production. We’ve helped bring together companies from different parts of the supply chain, resulting in several successful new partnerships and business relationships. Through projects with some of the largest manufacturers of energy-intensive equipment in the U.S. — John Deere, GE, United Technologies, Raytheon, Carrier, Toshiba, and others — we have successfully demonstrated the energy and system benefits of WBG technology. We have also harnessed the unique capabilities and facilities of national labs — the Naval Research Laboratory, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and Argonne National Laboratory — to help solve challenging technical problems for industry. Thanks to our many webinars, tutorials, annual events, and presence at major energy and electronics conferences around the world, the PowerAmerica name has become synonymous with WBG technology advancement. The commercial interest in WBG technology is higher than ever; companies and governments around the world have announced hundreds of millions of dollarsin future investment to build capacity — and compete with silicon in many markets and applications. We have trained hundreds of engineering students, from universities across the U.S., through hands-on projects and WBG coursework. Working professionals have also benefited through the years from our many targeted short courses, tutorials, and technical webinars. In short, PowerAmerica has made great strides in each of our key objectives, and the organization has been operating without government or NC State

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2026

Transformational Molecular Layer Deposition Tailor-Made Size-Sieving Sorbents for Post-Combustion CO 2 Capture

This report summarizes the carbon capture research and development conducted by The State University of New York at Buffalo (UB), University of South Carolina (USC), GTI Energy (GTI), and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) for U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) project DE-FE0031730 titled “Transformational Molecular Layer Deposition Tailor-made Size-Sieving Sorbents for Post-Combustion CO 2 capture.” The objective of this project was to develop a transformational molecular layer deposition (MLD) tailor-made size-sieving sorbent integrated with a pressure swing adsorption (PSA) cycle schedule that can be installed in new or retrofitted into existing pulverized coal (PC) power plants for CO 2 capture with a cost of electricity at least 30% lower than a supercritical PC power with CO 2 capture, or approximately $\$$30 per tonne of CO 2 captured, and with it being ready for demonstration by 2030.

20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS↗