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At least 343 records · Page 19

Event Definition for the Automated Detection of Nuclear Proliferation Activities

In FY2020, Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) in collaboration with the Discovery Analytics Center (DAC) at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (VT) began developing a demonstration prototype system that uses multiple machine learning and data analytic methods on largescale open data sources to identify new, developing, or undeclared nuclear programs. One of the most challenging aspects of applying machine learning techniques to such a problem is the high likelihood of extremely sparse data from disparate sources. To overcome this challenge, the current work will use a strategic combination of supervised, semi-supervised, and unsupervised learning techniques to ingest and fuse data streams to make a forecast of nuclear activities in a targeted geospatial location. Identifying potential data sources and training supervised learning algorithms is dependent upon the development of a robust foundation of targeted event domains that fundamentally define the nuclear activities of interest. This report documents the definition of a hierarchical structure for both nuclear activity and event domains that will be used to guide the research team in development or use of existing semantic dictionaries that are instrumental to searching, parsing, and categorizing events for the forecasting system’s use.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Detection of Defects in Additively Manufactured Metallic Materials with Machine Learning of Pulsed Thermography Images

Additive manufacturing (AM) is an emerging method for cost-efficient fabrication of nuclear reactor parts. AM of metallic structures for nuclear energy applications is currently based on laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) process, which can introduce internal material flaws, such as pores and anisotropy. Integrity of AM structures needs to be evaluated nondestructively because material flaws could lead to premature failures due to exposure to high temperature, radiation and corrosive environment in a nuclear reactor. Quality control (QC) requires nondestructive evaluation (NDE) of actual AM structures. Pulsed thermography is a potentially promising QC technique because it is scalable to arbitrary structure size. However, detection sensitivity of this method is limited by noises. We investigate separation of signal from noise in thermography images using several machine learning (ML) methods, including new spatio-temporal blind source separation (STBSS) and spatio-temporal sparse dictionary learning (STSDL) methods. Performance of the ML methods is benchmarked using thermography data obtained from imaging stainless steel 316L and Inconel 718 specimens produced LPBF method with imprinted calibrated porosity defects. The ML methods are ranked by F-score and execution runtime. The ML methods with higher accuracy require longer run time. However, this runtime is sufficiently short to perform QC within a realistic time frame.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Pulsed Thermal Tomography Nondestructive Examination of Additively Manufactured Reactor Materials (Second Annual Progress Report)

Additive manufacturing (AM) is an emerging method for cost-efficient fabrication of nuclear reactor parts. AM of metallic structures for nuclear energy applications is currently based on laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) process, which can introduce internal material flaws, such as pores and anisotropy. Integrity of AM structures needs to be evaluated nondestructively because material flaws could lead to premature failures due to exposure to high temperature, radiation and corrosive environment in a nuclear reactor. Thermal tomography (TT) provides a capability for non-destructive evaluation of sub-surface defects in arbitrary size structures. Thermal tomography is a computational method for heat diffusion-based imaging of solids, which provides 3D visualization of data from flash thermography measurements. We investigate thermal tomography imaging and nondestructive evaluation of stainless steel and nickel super alloy metallic structures produced with laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) additive manufacturing (AM) process. Metallic structures produced with LPBF contain defects, and there are limited capabilities to evaluate these structures non-destructively. Thermal tomography reconstruction of 3D apparent spatial effusivity provides information about AM structure geometry and internal material flaws. We study performance of thermal tomography in imaging of metallic structures through COMSOL computer simulations of transient heat transfer, and through reconstruction of data obtained from experimental measurements. Reconstruction of internal defects is investigated using a stainless steel 316L specimen with flat bottom hole (FBH) indentations, and Inconel 718 plate produced with laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) method, which contains imprinted hemispherical shape low density regions containing non-sintered metallic powder. The FBH’s have the same sizes as the imprinted defects in the LPBF specimens, but offer better imaging contrast. Thermal tomography reconstructions provide visualizations of internal defects, and allow for estimation of their sizes and locations. Detection sensitivity of TT is limited by noises. We investigate separation of signal from noise in thermography images using several machine learning (ML) methods, including new spatio-temporal blind source separation (STBSS) and spatio-temporal sparse dictionary learning (STSDL) methods. Performance of the ML methods is benchmarked using thermography data obtained from imaging stainless steel 316L and Inconel 718 specimens produced LPBF method with imprinted calibrated porosity defects. The ML methods are ranked by F-score and execution runtime. Finally, we investigate TT of AM stainless steel 316L specimen with imprinted internal porosity defects using relatively low-cost, small form factor infrared (IR) camera based on uncooled micro bolometer detector. Sparse coding related K-means singular value decomposition (SVD) machine learning, image processing algorithms are developed to improve quality of TT images through removal of Additive white Gaussian noise without blurring the images. Following initial qualification of an AM component for deployment in a nuclear reactor, a compact TT can also be used for in-service nondestructive evaluation (NDE). With capability to perform in-service NDE of the AM component lifecycle, TT data can be used for development of a component digital twin.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Freight Analysis Framework Version 5 (FAF5) Base Year 2017 Data Development Technical Report

The Freight Analysis Framework (FAF) integrates data from a variety of sources to create a comprehensive national picture of freight movements among states and major metropolitan areas by all modes of transportation. The latest of this data series is FAF5, which is the fifth generation FAF and is benchmarked on Commodity Flow Survey (CFS) 2017. Except for FAF1 that provided estimates for truck, rail, and water tonnage for calendar year 1998, later generations of FAF (FAF2 through FAF5) were built based on their benchmark year CFS data, for 2002, 2007, 2012, and 2017 respectively. The FAF is produced under a partnership between Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) and Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). As a major data product of the FAF program, the FAF regional database provides a national picture of freight flows to, from, and within the United States (among regions and states), by commodity and mode for the base year, as well as for forecasts up to 30 years into the future in a 5-year interval. Additional FAF data products also include FAF network flows database, where truck movements are routed onto the national highway network, estimates of annual projections, and synchronized historical data series. This report is a technical document prepared to describe the data sources and methodologies applied in the process of building the FAF5 base-year 2017 regional database, released as FAF5.0 in February 2021. This report offers a description of the diverse data sources and modeling methods used in constructing the base year FAF5 regional database. The FAF5 base-year database is used as the base for development of forecasts and for assignment of truck flows on highway network. Similarly, the FAF5 base-year database will be used as the base to generate FAF5 annual estimates. In addition to this report, users are encouraged to refer to the FAF5 User’s Guide, which provides basic information of the data, including definitions of the data attributes, information on how to access the data and tool, as well as detailed data dictionary and code tables.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Report on PTT Imaging of Defects in AM Metallic Materials-Part 2

Metal Additive Manufacturing (AM) is a promising method for cost-efficient fabrication of complex shape structures for applications in harsh environment, such as in a nuclear reactor. However, internal defects (pores) occur in high-strength AM alloys, which are manufactured with Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) AM method. Pulsed Infrared Thermography (PIT) is an efficient nondestructive evaluation (NDE) method to examine actual structures, because this method offers one-sided non-contact measurements, and fast processing of large sample areas. However, imaging of material defects, particularly defects with sizes at microscopic level, is challenging. In this report, we benchmark the performance of several Unsupervised Learning (UL) algorithms designed to enhance imaging of microscopic defects in metals with PIT. UL aims to learn the latent principal patterns (dictionaries) in PIT data to detect defects with minimal human supervision. Performance of Independent Component Analysis (ICA), Sparse Coding (SC), Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was compared using F-score, UL model training time and defects reconstruction time. We obtained the average F-score of 0.75, and a highest F-score of 0.89 for the EFA algorithm. Overall, EFA outperforms other UL algorithms considered in this study.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

ECP Software Technology Capability Assessment Report V3.0

The Exascale Computing Project (ECP) Software Technology (ST) focus area is responsible for (1) developing critical software capabilities that will enable the successful execution of ECP applications and (2) providing key components of a productive and sustainable exascale computing ecosystem that will position the US Department of Energy (DOE) and the broader high-performance computing (HPC) community with a firm foundation for future extreme-scale computing capabilities. This ECP ST Capability Assessment Report (CAR) provides an overview and assessment of current ECP ST capabilities and activities, giving stakeholders and the broader HPC community information that can be used to assess ECP ST progress and plan their own efforts accordingly. ECP ST leaders commit to updating this document on regular basis (every 6–12 months). Highlights from this version of the report are presented here. This version of the CAR contains the following updates relative to the previous revision: (1) This report highlights the progress with the Extreme-scale Scientific Software Stack (E4S) efforts. In particular, this report discusses how E4S continues to gain traction as a first-class entity in the HPC ecosystem, enabling new conversations with users, facilities, vendors, other US agencies, and international partners. (2) The several-page summaries of each ECP Level 4 project were updated to reflect recent progress and next steps (Section 4). Of particular note are the experiences of our teams on early-access systems for Frontier. (3) The E4S is described further. E4S is now updated via quarterly releases. E4S is the primary integration and delivery vehicle for ECP ST capabilities (Section 2.1.1). (4) The ECP ST software development kit (SDK) effort further refined its groupings (Section 2.1.2). The ECP ST focus area represents the key bridge between exascale systems and the scientists developing applications that will run on those platforms. ECP ST efforts contribute to approximately 70 software products (Section 2.1.3) in six technical areas (Table 1). Since publishing the previous revision of the CAR, the team has continued to evolve the product dictionary of official product names, which enables more rigorous mapping of ECP ST deliverables to stakeholders (Section 2.1.4).

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Pulsed Thermal Tomography Nondestructive Examination of Additively Manufactured Reactor Materials and Components (Final Technical Report)

Metal Additive Manufacturing (AM) is a promising method for cost-efficient fabrication of complex shape structures for applications in harsh environment, such as in a nuclear reactor. However, internal defects (pores) occur in high-strength AM alloys, which are manufactured with Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) AM method. Pulsed Infrared Thermography (PIT) is an efficient nondestructive evaluation (NDE) method to examine actual structures, because this method offers one-sided non-contact measurements, and fast processing of large sample areas. However, imaging of material defects, particularly defects with sizes at microscopic level, is challenging. In this report, we benchmark the performance of several Unsupervised Learning (UL) algorithms designed to enhance imaging of microscopic defects in metals with PIT. UL aims to learn the latent principal patterns (dictionaries) in PIT data to detect defects with minimal human supervision. Performance of Independent Component Analysis (ICA), Sparse Coding (SC), Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was compared using F-score, UL model training time and defects reconstruction time. We obtained the average F-score of 0.75, and a highest F-score of 0.89 for the EFA algorithm. Overall, EFA outperforms other UL algorithms considered in this study. In another approach, we investigate Thermal Tomography (TT), which is a computational method for reconstruction of depth profile of internal material defects from PIT nondestructive evaluation (NDE). TT algorithm obtains depth reconstructions of thermal effusivity, which has been shown to provide visualization of subsurface internals defects in metals. In many applications, one needs to determine the defect shape and orientation from reconstructed effusivity images. Interpretation of TT images is non-trivial because of blurring, which increases with depth due to heat diffusion-based nature of image formation. We have developed a deep learning convolutional neural network (CNN) to classify size and orientation of subsurface material defects in TT images. CNN was trained with TT images produced with computer simulations of 2D metallic structures (thin plates) containing elliptical subsurface voids. Performance of CNN was investigated using test TT images developed with computer simulations of plates containing elliptical defects, and defects with shape imported from scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images. CNN demonstrated the ability to classify radii and angular orientation of elliptical defects in previously unseen test TT images. We have also demonstrated that CNN trained on TT images of elliptical defects is capable of classifying shape and orientation of irregular defects. Training the CNN on irregular defect shapes instead of on elliptical shapes would make the resulting classifications more descriptive of actual defect shapes. However, this requires a much higher volume of SEM images of material defects, which are difficult to obtain because of random occurrence of defects in LPBF. To address this challenge, we developed a generative adversarial network (GAN) to augment the existing dataset of SEM defect images. The GAN model is demonstrated to create novel yet realistic defect shapes that can be used as input for simulated PTT images to train CNN. We also investigate several approaches based on Gaussian Random Circle and Bezier Curves for constructing parametric models of irregular-shape defects.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Historic Source Inspection Metadata

Although this data dictionary describes the raw data format, it is relevant only for data entered in 2017 and later. Entries in this date range represent formatted, standardized data that have been verified against original, raw data files by the database manager. She took ownership of the database in September 2022 and was able to standardize entries by comparing against raw data files back to 2017. Furthermore, for comparison of historic pre-source inspection data to new pre-source data supplied by the vendor and intended for action limit analysis purposes, this time period is of sufficient length.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Explosive Formulation Code Naming SOP

The purpose of this SOP is to provide a procedure for giving individual HME formulations code names. A code name for an individual HME formulation consists of an explosive family code, given by the classified code dictionary, followed by a dash, -, and a number.

42 ENGINEERING↗

R-Adaptivity to Enable Compression of Elementary Computations in Extreme-Scale Finite Element Simulators

Modern computing systems are capable of exascale calculations, which are revolutionizing the development and application of high-fidelity numerical models in computational science and engineering. While these systems continue to grow in processing power, the available system memory has not increased commensurately, and electrical power consumption continues to grow. A predominant approach to limit the memory usage in large-scale applications is to exploit the abundant processing power and continually recompute many low-level simulation quantities, rather than storing them. However, this approach can adversely impact the throughput of the simulation and diminish the benefits of modern computing architectures. We present three novel contributions to reduce the memory burden while maintaining, and sometimes improving, performance in simulations based on finite element discretizations. The first contribution develops dictionary-based data compression schemes that detect and exploit the structure of the discretization, due to redundancies across the finite element mesh. While these schemes are shown to reduce memory requirements by more than 99% on meshes with large numbers of identical mesh cells, there are applications where this structure does not exist. The second contribution leverages a recently developed augmented Lagrangian optimization algorithm to enable r-adaptivity for meshes with the goal of enhancing the redundancies in the mesh. The third contribution extends these methods to patch-based linear solvers and preconditioners by compressing local matrices. Numerical results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods to detect, enhance and exploit mesh structure on a suite of examples inspired by large-scale applications.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Queued Up: 2025 Edition – Characteristics of Power Plants Seeking Transmission Interconnection As of the End of 2024 [Slides]

Electric transmission system operators (ISOs, RTOs, or utilities) require proposed power plants seeking to connect to the transmission grid to undergo a series of impact studies before they can be built. This process establishes what new transmission equipment or upgrades may be needed before a project can connect to the system and assigns the costs of that equipment. The lists of projects in this process are known as “interconnection queues”. In collaboration with interconnection.fyi, Berkeley Lab compiled, aggregated, and cleaned interconnection queue data from >50 transmission grid operators (7 ISO/RTOs and 49 non-ISO balancing areas), which collectively represent ~97% of currently installed U.S. electric generating capacity. The dataset includes requests submitted to queues through the end of 2024, and only includes requests seeking to connect to the transmission grid (not distribution-connected or behind-the-meter projects). The files below include both a PDF report and an Excel data file. The PDF report analyzes interconnection data and metrics through the end of 2024. The Excel data file includes (a) the full project-level interconnection queue dataset through 2024, (b) a codebook (data dictionary) describing each data field, and (c) 35 additional tabs featuring tables summarizing a range of interconnection metrics. Key highlights from the Queued Up: 2025 Edition (featuring data through 2024) include: • As of the end of 2024, there were ~10,300 projects actively seeking grid interconnection in the U.S., representing 1,400 GW of generation and approximately 890 GW of storage. • Historic withdrawal rates alongside relatively fewer new requests resulted in a 12% decrease in total active queue volume compared to the prior year. • Active natural gas capacity (136 GW, +72% year-over-year) increased in 2024, while solar (956 GW, -12%), storage (890 GW, -13%), and wind (271 GW, -26%) capacity decreased. • 408 GW of capacity already has a draft or executed interconnection agreement (IA) but has not yet reached commercial operations. • The time projects spend in queues before reaching COD is increasing. For the regions with available data, the median duration from IR to COD has doubled from <2 years for projects built in 2000-2007 to over 4 years for those built in 2018-2024. • Ultimately, most of this proposed capacity will not be built. Only 13% of capacity that submitted interconnection requests from 2000-2019 had reached commercial operations by the end of 2024; 77% of that capacity had been withdrawn and 10% was still active. • FERC Order 2023 and various other reforms are being implemented. These are important measures to reduce interconnection bottlenecks and enhance grid system reliability, but it is too early to measure and assess their full impact. • New additions for the 2025 edition include: (a) additional detail on data processing and gaps; (b) updates on interconnection reforms; (c) new analysis on interconnection agreements, and more.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

California - Wind Sentinel (120), Humboldt / Reviewed Data

The purpose of the dataset is to provide filtered, averaged buoy data in NetCDF and CSV formats. The attached Lidar Buoy Data Dictionary provides further details on the various instruments mounted on the buoys, parameters measured by each instrument, and the frequency of data collection.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

California - Leosphere Windcube 866 (120), Humboldt / Reviewed Data

The purpose of this dataset is to provide filtered, averaged lidar data and standardize the data format of various data streams from the buoy into NetCDF. The attached Lidar Buoy Data Dictionary provides further details on the various instruments mounted on the buoys, parameters measured by each instrument, and the frequency of data collection.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

Buoy - California - Wind Sentinel (120), Humboldt - Processed Data

The purpose of the dataset is to provide preliminary filtered, averaged lidar data and standardize the data format of various datastreams from the buoy into NetCDF. The attached Lidar Buoy Data Dictionary provides further details on the various instruments mounted on the buoys, parameters measured by each instrument, and the frequency of data collection.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

Buoy - California - Wind Sentinel (130), Morro Bay - Processed Data

The purpose of the dataset is to provide preliminary filtered, averaged buoy data and standardize the data format of various data streams from the buoy into NetCDF. The attached Lidar Buoy Data Dictionary provides further details on the various instruments mounted on the buoys, parameters measured by each instrument, and the frequency of data collection.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

California - Wind Sentinel (130), Morro Bay / Reviewed Data

The purpose of the dataset is to provide filtered, averaged buoy data in NetCDF and CSV formats. The attached Lidar Buoy Data Dictionary provides further details on the various instruments mounted on the buoys, parameters measured by each instrument, and the frequency of data collection.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

Hawaii - Wind Sentinel (120), Oahu, Hawaii / Processed Data

The purpose of the dataset is to provide preliminary filtered, averaged lidar data and standardize the data format of various datastreams from the buoy into NetCDF. The attached Lidar Buoy Data Dictionary provides further details on the various instruments mounted on the buoys, parameters measured by each instrument, and the frequency of data collection.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

Lidar - California - Leosphere Windcube 866 (130), Morro Bay - Processed Data

The purpose of this dataset is to provide preliminary filtered, averaged lidar data and standardize the data format of various data streams from the buoy into NetCDF. The attached Lidar Buoy Data Dictionary provides further details on the various instruments mounted on the buoys, parameters measured by each instrument, and the frequency of data collection.

17 WIND ENERGY↗