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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2026

Estimating Return on Investment for Energy Technical Assistance Programs

The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of State and Community Energy Programs engaged the National Laboratory of the Rockies to assess the return on investment (ROI) of technical assistance (TA) programs that support state, local, and Tribal energy planning. Although TA delivers value through capacity building, stakeholder engagement, and knowledge transfer, these benefits are often intangible and challenging to monetize. This study reviews existing ROI frameworks and synthesizes the most relevant elements into a hybrid approach tailored to energy TA programs. The proposed framework integrates monetary and non-monetary outcomes through early logic model development, baseline data collection, and the use of proxies for intangible benefits. As a case study, this paper applies this approach to the Communities Local Energy Action Program (Communities LEAP), demonstrating how ROI can inform program design, data strategy, and performance assessment. Findings underscore that ROI should be applied selectively and planned from the outset to ensure data alignment and attribution accuracy. The framework offers TA practitioners a structured approach that can be leveraged for future programs to evaluate and communicate the multifaceted value of TA investments.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2015

2015 Annual Progress Report: DOE Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Program

In the past year, the DOE Hydrogen Program (the Program) made substantial progress toward its goals and objectives. The Program has conducted comprehensive and focused efforts to enable the widespread commercialization of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies in diverse sectors of the economy. With emphasis on applications that will effectively strengthen our nation's energy security and improve our stewardship of the environment, the Program engages in research, development, and demonstration of critical improvements in the technologies. Highlights of the Program's accomplishments can be found in the sub-program chapters of this report.

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION↗
DOE OSTI2019

Comparing High Performance Computing Accelerator Programming Models

Accelerator devices are becoming a norm in High Performance Computing (HPC). With more systems opting for heterogeneous architectures, portable programming models like OpenMP and OpenACC are becoming increasingly important. The SPEC ACCEL 1.2 benchmark suite consists of comparable benchmarks in OpenCL, OpenMP 4.5, and OpenACC 2.5 that can be used to evaluate the performance and support for programming models and frameworks on heterogeneous platforms. In this paper we go beneath the normative metric of performance times and look at the individual kernels to study the usage, strengths, and weaknesses of the two prevalent portable heterogeneous programming models, OpenMP and OpenACC. From our analysis we identify that benchmarks like MRI-Q, SP and BT have better performance using OpenACC, while benchmarks like MiniGhost, LBM and LBDC do consistently better with the OpenMP programming model across supercomputers like Titan, and Summit.We deep dive into the kernels of select four benchmarks to answer questions like: Where does the benchmark spend most of its cycles? What is the parallelization strategy used? Why is one programming model more performant than the other? By identifying the similarities and dierences we want to contrast between the benchmark implementation strategies in the SPEC ACCEL 1.2 benchmarks and provide more insights into the OpenMP and OpenACC programming models.

Pophale, Swaroop S.↗
DOE OSTI2020

APPLICATION OF MATURITY MODELS FOR EVALUATING CYBERSECURITY PROGRAMS AT NUCLEAR AND RADIOLOGICAL FACILITIES

Maturity models can be used to provide government agencies, industry associations, and organizations operating nuclear facilities with the ability to quickly evaluate the maturity of their cybersecurity programs and identify areas to prioritize for improvement. The Cybersecurity Capability Maturity Model (C2M2) was developed by the U.S. Department of Energy to allow organizations in the energy sector to evaluate the programmatic capabilities of their cybersecurity programs in a consistent manner, communicate programmatic maturity information, prioritize cybersecurity investments in targeted areas of concern, and track how the maturity of their cybersecurity program evolves over time. The C2M2 is designed for use by any critical infrastructure organization regardless of ownership, structure, or size. The C2M2 can be easily fine-tuned to access the maturity of nuclear cybersecurity programs and their application at individual facilities. Built on a foundation of existing cybersecurity standards, frameworks, programs, and initiatives, the model features 10 security domains. Performance in each security domain is characterized using a structured set of cybersecurity practices that represent activities an organization can perform to improve cybersecurity in their domain. Each practice can be quickly evaluated as being either fully, largely, partially, or not implemented. Once practices are evaluated for each security domain, the model defines four maturity indicator levels that apply independently to each domain in the model. To earn a maturity level in a given domain, an organization must adequately perform all the practices for that maturity level and its predecessor level(s). A small assessment team can conduct a C2M2 assessment in a single day. A screening version of the C2M2 allows an initial look at the maturity of nuclear cybersecurity programs that could be completed in under an hour.

Cyber security, Nuclear security, maturity model↗
DOE OSTI2022

Building Envelope Campaign – Program Design and Stakeholder Engagement

Building envelope technologies impact approximately 30% of the primary energy consumed by residential and commercial buildings. The Building Envelope Campaign (BEC), which is part of the Department of Energy’s Better Buildings Program, is a market transformation effort to help building owners and managers invest in high performance building envelope technologies for both new and existing commercial buildings. The success of the Campaign has depended on constructing a compelling program design plus organizing a technical team with ability to effectively recruit Participants and Supporters from across industry and keep them engaged.The design of the campaign included developing a strategy to leverage other technology campaigns within the Better Buildings program, identifying stakeholders (including diverse member groups that may have been underserved by previous technology campaigns), recruiting Supporters and Participants, and providing technical assistance in the form of a campaign-specific Building Envelope Performance tool and metric to help benchmark various building envelope options.Engagement had to overcome three main challenges – securing the Campaign Supporters/Participants, helping participants to use the envelope tool to evaluate project options, and getting those participants to submit successful envelope projects for evaluation and recognition by the program. The concepts are simple but program design/implementation and, in particular, sustaining stakeholder engagement can be challenging. This paper will highlight the approaches taken in: program design, engaging industry members, identifying and reaching underserved stakeholders, demonstrating benefits of high performance building envelope technologies and making the case for engaging in this campaign.

McLeod, Hayley↗
DOE OSTI2020

OpenACC unified programming environment for GPU and FPGA multi-hybrid acceleration

Attached accelerators have been frequently used in recent High Per- formance Computing (HPC) systems because of their high performance/power ratio. In particular, the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) is the most popu- lar accelerator owing to its high peak FLOPS performance and high memory bandwidth supported by HBM2, etc. However, the performance of GPU depends highly on a large degree of SIMD parallelism and has difficulty sustaining a high performance on programs with frequent branch operations or a partially low degree of parallelism.By contrast, a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) has received attention as a different type of accelerator than GPU as a fully reconfigurable processor fitting the target applications. The high performance of FPGA is mainly provided by a pipelined operation and optimized circuit suitable for any operation even with frequent conditional branches. We have been focusing on the flexibility of FPGA to compensate for the weakness of GPU. We believe that the coupling of GPU with FPGA can result in one of the most powerful accelerating platforms available.However, the program coding of GPU and FPGA coupling can be quite difficult for application users. Traditionally, CUDA by NVIDIA has been the most popular programming language with the largest share of GPUs used in HPC, whereas a hardware description language such as Verilog HDL has been used in FPGA programming. OpenCL coding has recently become available even on high-end FPGAs. Moreover, several recent studies have also enabled the OpenACC coding for use in FPGA. In this study, we provide a unified programming system based on OpenACC for a platform equipped with both GPU and FPGA aiming at the next-generation accelerated supercomputer framework. Our programming environment is called Multi-Hybrid OpenACC Translator (MHOAT), and in this paper, we describe the basic concept and prototype system of MHOAT based on an evaluation on the amount of coding required and the performance of a hybrid multi-device accelerated system.

Tsunashima, Ryuta↗
DOE OSTI2017

U.S.-Origin Nuclear Material Removal Program - 17027

The United States (U.S.) Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Material Management and Minimization (M3) U.S.-Origin Nuclear Material Removal program, also known as the Foreign Research Reactor Spent Nuclear Fuel Acceptance Program (FRR SNF AP), was established by the U.S. Department of Energy in May 1996. The program's mission provides a disposition pathway for certain U.S. origin spent nuclear fuel and weapons-grade nuclear material. The program concluded on May 12, 2016. Irradiation must have been stopped by this date to remain eligible for return. An additional three year window is allowed for fuel cooldown and transportation of SNF elements. The end of this shipping window is May 12, 2019. This paper provides an update on recent program accomplishments, current program initiatives, and future activities. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2017

Personnel Qualification and Certification Program in Pressure Decay Leak Testing on the RT-100 Type (B) Cask - 17229

The requirements for qualifications and certification of leak test personnel on Type (B) shipping casks have been more clearly defined with the recent release of ANSI N14.5-2014, Leak Tests on Radioactive Packages for Shipment. The latest version creates a standardized approach for qualifying and certifying personnel to conduct pre-shipment leakage tests on Type (B) packages. The U.S Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is currently updating the Regulatory Guide R.G 7.4, Leakage Tests on Packages for shipment of Radioactive Material, to endorse ANSI N14.5-2014. According to ANSI N14.5-2014, leakage testing shall be performed in accordance with written procedures by qualified and certified personnel in accordance with the requirements of ASNT SNT-TC-1A-2006, Recommended Practice for Personnel Qualification and Certification in Nondestructive Testing. This is a significant modification to the old standard, ANSI N14.5-1997, which simply states that pressure leak testing shall be conducted by trained and certified personnel without reference to any specific certification standards or regulations. SNT-TC-1A published by the American Society for Nondestructive Testing (ASNT) has several advantages to employers; namely, it allows for a Limited NDT Level II certification program. Limited certifications are especially valuable for personnel who possess limited experience and wish to become a certified Limited NDT Level II in a specific technique on a specific cask using a specific procedure and equipment. Robatel Technologies recently developed a comprehensive qualification and training program based on the recommendations of SNT-TC-1A for Exelon Corporation to certify their employees to a Limited NDT Level II in Pressure Decay Leak Testing on the RT-100 Cask. The project scope included the development of a training and qualification program (Written practice), writing a pressure decay leak test procedure, the design of a pressure decay leak test manifold, and the delivery of classroom training. The written practice outlines the requirements to ensure that personnel participating in the program have the necessary qualification, experience, and training to become certified in the leak test method. The program will give Exelon the liberty to conduct their own leak testing on the RT- 100 without the need to rely on outside resources for leak testing. When fully implemented, the program is expected to improve productivity and eliminate schedule delays, along with substantial economic benefits. Following the appropriate standards and industry best practices, the project was successfully completed and scheduled to be fully implemented by Exelon's Nuclear Stations by the end of 2016. (authors)

07 ISOTOPE AND RADIATION SOURCES↗
DOE OSTI2016

Direct Feed Low Activity Waste (DFLAW) Program: Development, Progression and Risk Management - 16476

This Direct Feed Low-Activity Waste (DFLAW) Program paper describes the key programmatic elements to enable the startup of treatment and disposal of Hanford tank waste through a phased startup of the Hanford Tank Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP). Specifically the DFLAW Program consists of the Low- Activity Waste (LAW) vitrification facility, and the direct feed to LAW of treated tank farm supernatant from the Low-Activity Waste Pretreatment System (LAWPS). This document identifies the overall strategy, objectives, and processes of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of River Protection (ORP) and all supporting DOE subcontractors, and describes the scope of the program elements. In addition gaps, risks, and opportunities to successful integration for commissioning of all needed systems and facilities to produce immobilized LAW product (ILAW) are described. The scope of the DFLAW Program extends up to the point that LAW Facility hot commissioning is complete and all DFLAW systems are fully operational. The DFLAW Program coordinates, integrates, and monitors all the activities necessary to successfully commission and start up the WTP LAW facility. This involves integrating the readiness of all the plant, personnel and program/procedures that support startup of hot commissioning of tank farms systems, WTP systems, waste treatment and disposal systems, and site utility, infrastructure and services. Multiple Hanford contractors have responsibilities to execute and perform scope under the umbrella of the DFLAW Program. The primary focus of the One System organization, comprised of WTP Project and Tank Operations Contract (TOC) personnel, is to manage the coordination and integration across the interfaces of the work scope described above. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2015

Savannah River nuclear solutions criticality safety training and qualification program and professional development/retention - 14507

Many years ago, at the Savannah River Site, the need for technically competent and qualified criticality safety (CS) staff was identified. Over the intervening years an extensive training and qualification (T and Q) program was developed. In 2008 Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS), the current site M and O contractor, inherited the T and Q program developed by the prior site contractors. Since then SRNS has initiated changes to the T and Q program to better fit the current regulatory environment, ensuring compliance with ANSI/ANS-8.26 [1], and implementing the idea of continuous improvement. Currently, a significant fraction of the SRNS CS staff either will be or are eligible for retirement. Therefore, SRNS is pursuing recent Nuclear Engineering college graduates and/or experienced criticality engineers. The challenges associated with hiring and maintaining criticality staff include, but are not limited to, increased workforce mobility and increased competition for fewer criticality resources. For example, the recent trend in company benefits is to eliminate longer term benefits such as pensions to make the benefits more transportable in terms of 401 Ks and Health Savings Accounts. In addition, there have been reductions in DOE funding for professional development through participation in ANS committees or attendance at Criticality related conferences. SRNS has investigated a number of possibilities on how to retain CS staff, but in the current environment has not identified any 'golden eggs'. Regardless, SRNS is exploring additional paths to incentivize the engineers to stay long term. SRNS is working to improve/maintain its workforce by creating a CS engineer pipeline. SRNS provides a training budget for new engineers and offers a formalized and mentored training program. For experienced criticality engineers, the SRNS T and Q program is flexible enough to allow 'credit' for previous accomplishments at other sites. SRNS is also striving to be proactive in supporting professional development by identifying specific monies in the planning phases of the annual budget requests. The current posture of SRNS is to maintain 'open' requisitions for both experienced staff looking for other opportunities, and for recent college graduates. As opportunities arise, either from within or without, SRNS evaluates the potential candidates and advances offers of employment. Until the longer term need is met SRNS intends to hire at least two staff members per year. Those staff members then enter the T and Q program and when appropriate, based on their experience and/or training accomplishments, begin assisting the current staff with program/facility CS support. (authors)

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2025

A Microreactor Program Plan for The Department of Energy

The DOE Microreactor Program was established in FY 2019 to support research and development (R&D) of technologies related to the development, demonstration, and deployment of low-power, transportable reactors to provide power and heat for decentralized generation in civilian, industrial, and defense energy sectors. The program conducts both fundamental and applied R&D to de-risk technology performance and manufacturability readiness of microreactors. R&D projects and work packages are selected to support concept-neutral technology maturation. The intent is to ensure those concepts can be licensed and deployed by commercial entities to meet specific use case requirements. At the same time, the program will also support R&D specific to certain reactor technology groups (e.g., heat pipe reactors and gas-cooled reactors) to ensure relevancy and address the technology needs of commercial developers. The program will ensure coordination of work and activities across participating laboratories and universities, establish, and manage stakeholder interactions, and support program meetings. These stakeholders include, but are not limited to, industry developers, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Department of Energy, policymakers, and end users. This document provides an overview of the overall Microreactor Program, including its vision, key technical objectives, and scope of the current and proposed R&D portfolio. It covers a 5-year rolling currently from Fiscal year 2025 through Fiscal year 2030. This document will be revised at least biennially to reflect changing priorities.

99 - GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Apollo Next Generation Sample Analysis (ANGSA): an Apollo Participating Scientist Program to Prepare the Lunar Sample Community for Artemis

As a first step in preparing for the return of samples from the Moon by the Artemis Program, NASA initiated the Apollo Next Generation Sample Analysis Program (ANGSA). ANGSA was designed to function as a low-cost sample return mission and involved the curation and analysis of samples previously returned by the Apollo 17 mission that remained unopened or stored under unique conditions for 50 years. These samples include the lower portion of a double drive tube previously sealed on the lunar surface, the upper portion of that drive tube that had remained unopened, and a variety of Apollo 17 samples that had remained stored at -27 °C for approximately 50 years. ANGSA constitutes the first preliminary examination phase of a lunar “sample return mission” in over 50 years. It also mimics that same phase of an Artemis surface exploration mission, its design included placing samples within the context of local and regional geology through new orbital observations collected since Apollo and additional new “boots-on-the-ground” observations, data synthesis, and interpretations provided by Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt. ANGSA used new curation techniques to prepare, document, and allocate these new lunar samples, developed new tools to open and extract gases from their containers, and applied new analytical instrumentation previously unavailable during the Apollo Program to reveal new information about these samples. Most of the 90 scientists, engineers, and curators involved in this mission were not alive during the Apollo Program, and it had been 30 years since the last Apollo core sample was processed in the Apollo curation facility at NASA JSC. There are many firsts associated with ANGSA that have direct relevance to Artemis. ANGSA is the first to open a core sample previously sealed on the surface of the Moon, the first to extract and analyze lunar gases collected in situ, the first to examine a core that penetrated a lunar landslide deposit, and the first to process pristine Apollo samples in a glovebox at -20 °C. All the ANGSA activities have helped to prepare the Artemis generation for what is to come. The timing of this program, the composition of the team, and the preservation of unopened Apollo samples facilitated this generational handoff from Apollo to Artemis that sets up Artemis and the lunar sample science community for additional successes.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Community Solar Program Design Considerations & Modeling Inputs

Designing and modeling a community solar (CS) program is a complex process with numerous variable inputs that are interconnected. Modeling a CS program can be useful to inform the programs design itself while also providing stakeholders of all types with information. Accurate data inputs and assumptions are key to ensuring that a model is informative and as representative of real market conditions as possible. This report is an exploration of community solar program modeling considerations, especially as it relates to data inputs such as capital costs, administrative fees, and subscription size, using a CS program in North Carolina as a case study.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Potential of the Julia Programming Language for High Energy Physics Computing

Research in high energy physics (HEP) requires huge amounts of computing and storage, putting strong constraints on the code speed and resource usage. To meet these requirements, a compiled high-performance language is typically used; while for physicists, who focus on the application when developing the code, better research productivity pleads for a high-level programming language. A popular approach consists of combining Python, used for the high-level interface, and C++, used for the computing intensive part of the code. A more convenient and efficient approach would be to use a language that provides both high-level programming and high-performance. The Julia programming language, developed at MIT especially to allow the use of a single language in research activities, has followed this path. In this paper the applicability of using the Julia language for HEP research is explored, covering the different aspects that are important for HEP code development: runtime performance, handling of large projects, interface with legacy code, distributed computing, training, and ease of programming. The study shows that the HEP community would benefit from a large scale adoption of this programming language. The HEP-specific foundation libraries that would need to be consolidated are identified.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2022

Receiver willingness to participate in off-hour service programs

Service trips, a frequently overlooked segment of urban traffic, represent a disproportionately large share of the negative impacts associated with commercial activity. The reason is that although service trips are less frequent than freight trips, they often take longer and thus occupy a significant share of commercial parking. Demand management programs seeking to move service trips off-hours can potentially reduce congestion and emissions but they have been understudied. Here, this paper describes research conducted to investigate receivers’ willingness to participate in off-hour programs for planned service activity. The research reported in this paper analyzes results from a survey of 189 business establishments in New York City and the Capital Region in New York State using descriptive analyses of the data, and by estimating a discrete choice model to gain insight into how business characteristics influence willingness to participate in off-hour services. To assess the impacts of a hypothetical off-hour services program, the authors applied the discrete choice model, together with service trip attraction models, to quantify the hours of daytime parking that could be eliminated by the proposed program in certain ZIP Codes in New York City and the Albany area. The research conducted led to the identification of numerous policy implications that will help policymakers understand and maximize the potential benefits of implementing off-hour service programs.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Chemical classification program synthesis using generative artificial intelligence

Accurately classifying chemical structures is essential for cheminformatics and bioinformatics, including tasks such as identifying bioactive compounds of interest, screening molecules for toxicity to humans, finding non-organic compounds with desirable material properties, or organizing large chemical libraries for drug discovery or environmental monitoring. However, manual classification is labor-intensive and difficult to scale to large chemical databases. Existing automated approaches either rely on manually constructed classification rules, or are deep learning methods that lack explainability. This work presents an approach that uses generative artificial intelligence to automatically write chemical classifier programs for classes in the Chemical Entities of Biological Interest (ChEBI) database. These programs can be used for efficient deterministic run-time classification of SMILES structures, with natural language explanations. The programs themselves constitute an explainable computable ontological model of chemical class nomenclature, which we call the ChEBI Chemical Class Program Ontology (C3PO). We validated our approach against the ChEBI database, and compared our results against deep learning models and a naive SMARTS pattern based classifier. C3PO outperforms the naive classifier, but does not reach the performance of state of the art deep learning methods. However, C3PO has a number of strengths that complement deep learning methods, including explainability and reduced data dependence. C3PO can be used alongside deep learning classifiers to provide an explanation of the classification, where both methods agree. The programs can be used as part of the ontology development process, and iteratively refined by expert human curators.

Artificial Intelligence↗
DOE OSTI2015

On-Going International Research Program on Irradiated Concrete Conducted by DOE, EPRI and Japan Research Institutions. Roadmap, Achievements and Path Forward

The Joint Department of Energy (DOE)-Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) Program (Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) Program–Material Pathway–Concrete and Long-Term Operation (LTO) Program) and US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) research studies aim at understanding the most prominent degradation modes and their effects on the long-term operation of concrete structures to nuclear power generation. Based on the results of the Expanded Materials Degradation Analysis (EMDA), (NUREG/CR-7153, ORNL/TM-2011/545), irradiated concrete and alkali-silica reaction (ASR)-affected concrete structures are the two prioritized topics of on-going research. This report focuses specifically on the topic of irradiated concrete and summarizes the main accomplishments obtained by this joint program, but also provides an overview of current relevant activities domestically and internationally. Possible paths forward are also suggested to help near-future orientation of this program.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2018

2016 Nuclear Energy Voucher Pilot Program Final Summary

In March 2016, the Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy (DOE-NE) Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear (GAIN) initiative launched the NE Voucher pilot program for small businesses that develop advanced nuclear technologies. The intent of this program is to provide access to unique physical and intellectual capital that exists within the DOE National Laboratory complex for private-sector developers of innovative nuclear energy technologies. Vouchers allow recipients to have work performed on their behalf at select DOE laboratory facilities. The work is funded by DOE-NE and must be completed within approximately 12 months of the award date. Awards for the pilot had values of $50,000–300,000 each, depending on the complexity of the task requested. The program requires a 20% cost share by voucher recipients. In addition to providing the technical assistance sought by the awardees, the 2016 pilot award cycle showed that the program fosters relationships between these businesses and DOE laboratory staff, serving the GAIN mission to develop a private-public partnership framework that will enable accelerated commercialization of innovative concepts. For the inaugural voucher program, DOE-NE made a total of $2M available. In total, twenty-nine proposals were received and eight (Table 1) were chosen for award based on several criteria, including technical quality, level of innovation, commercialization potential, and relevance to the DOE-NE mission. After the review process, cooperative agreements were finalized, and work on all eight vouchers started in September 2016 and all but one were completed by the end of September, 2017. The single exception was completed in December, 2017.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗