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At least 37 records · Page 2

Sustainable transportation according to certification systems: A viability analysis based on neighborhood size and context relevance

Urban sustainability certification (USC) systems comprehensively assess and benchmark the sustainability of neighborhoods, communities, etc. However, it is important to understand what USCs mean by neighborhoods and communities in terms of definition and their certified developments' size. This study focuses on sustainable transportation and its measures in USCs in order to discern: how relevant are these measures to the varied local conditions, especially in developing countries? And whether they can generate palpable benefits vis-à-vis the certified developments' site areas. Taking descriptive analysis methods, this study focuses on four prominent USCs, namely, LEED for Neighborhood Development, BREEAM Communities, CASBEE for Urban Development, and The Pearl Community Rating System. The four USCs prescribed multiple measures for sustainable transportation, particularly in favor of active transportation and public transportation. However, the relatively small size of their citified developments and the varying transportation conditions among different contexts attenuate the viability and relevance of the advocated measures for both modes. In order to yield more benefits, USCs should underscore the integrative nature of neighborhoods and communities, and transportation within their prescribed criteria and measures. Moreover, sustainable transportation as a theme should be tailored to the local conditions rather than being adopted or adapted from global USCs. - Highlights: • Transportation measures in four prominent certification systems were investigated. • Most certified neighborhoods, communities and developments have small site areas. • Certifications are insensitive to realities of transport in developing countries. • Benefits from advocating active transport only within certified areas are minimal. • Certifications devalue the integrative nature of neighborhoods and transportation.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Defining the Value of IECRE Certifications for Providing Confidence in PV System Performance

The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) established a new conformity assessment system for renewable energy (IECRE) to address the industry's need to assure investors of the value of their PV power plants. There has been significant activity in the past three years devoted to defining the requirements for several types of PV system certificates, and publication of the international standards upon which these certifications are based. Now the IECRE system faces the challenge of defining the value proposition for certification and convincing stakeholders that it should be a standard requirement in the marketplace. This paper presents a detailed analysis of the present situation and the plan for promotion of IECRE certifications to help achieve wider market penetration of PV power generation.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Distributed Wind Certification Best Practices Guideline: January 16, 2023-January 15, 2026

This Distributed Wind (DW) Certification Best Practices Guideline describes the typical approach for certification of distributed wind turbines above and below 150 kilowatts (kW) in size based on the conformity assessment requirements in the United States. The purpose of the guideline is to clarify and consistently describe the complex path to certification for various systems and components. This is done via clarification of both the required turbine type certification elements, as well as third-party electrical safety listing of turbine system components and subassemblies.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

Simultaneous Authentication and Certification of Arms-Control Measurement Systems

Most arms-control-treaty-monitoring scenarios involve a host party that makes a declaration regarding its nuclear material or items and a monitoring party that verifies that declaration. A verification system developed for such a use needs to be trusted by both parties. The first concern, primarily from the host party's point of view, is that any sensitive information that is collected must be protected without interfering in the efficient operation of the facility being monitored. This concern is addressed in what can be termed a 'certification' process. The second concern, of particular interest to the monitoring party, is that it must be possible to confirm the veracity of both the measurement system and the data produced by this measurement system. The monitoring party addresses these issues during an 'authentication' process. Addressing either one of these concerns independently is relatively straightforward. However, it is more difficult to simultaneously satisfy host party certification concerns and monitoring party authentication concerns. Typically, both parties will want the final access to the measurement system. We will describe an alternative approach that allows both parties to gain confidence simultaneously. This approach starts with (1) joint development of the measurement system followed by (2) host certification of several copies of the system and (3) random selection by the inspecting party of one copy to be use during the monitoring visit and one (or more) copy(s) to be returned to the inspecting party's facilities for (4) further hardware authentication; any remaining copies are stored under joint seal for use as spares. Following this process, the parties will jointly (5) perform functional testing on the selected measurement system and then (6) use this system during the monitoring visit. Steps (1) and (2) assure the host party as to the certification of whichever system is eventually used in the monitoring visit. Steps (1), (3), (4), and (5) increase the monitoring party's confidence in the authentication of the measurement system.

98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL P↗

Training and Certification Program for Certified Energy Auditors (CEA) and Certified Building Commissioning Professionals (CBCP)

The Association of Energy Engineers (AEE) has offered energy efficiency training and certification programs for over 30 years. During that time AEE has certified more than 22,000 professionals. All of our certification programs are the result of extensive industry research and program development and oversight by certification boards. For this project award, AEE proposed to work with the Department of Energy to utilize and extend existing industry recognized Certified Energy Auditor (CEA) and Certified Building Commissioning Professional (CBCP) programs under this Training Program Development Announcement. These expanded training programs will have significant impact in training professionals for building commissioning and energy auditing to achieve the goal of bringing existing buildings up to their optimal energy performance potential and ensuring that new buildings maintain their expected optimal level of performance. The goals and objectives of the training development project were achieved with the development of new training programs that are now being offered as self-sustaining commercial training and certification programs. These new programs are training and certifying professionals who are accomplishing the goal of increasing building energy performance in both existing and new buildings.

Kent, Bill↗

Application and Certification of Comparative Vacuum Monitoring Sensors for Structural Health Monitoring of 737 Wing Box Fittings

Multi-site fatigue damage, hidden cracks in hard-to-reach locations, disbonded joints, erosion, impact, and corrosion are among the major flaws encountered in today's extensive fleet of aging aircraft and space vehicles. The use of in-situ sensors for real-time health monitoring of aircraft structures are a viable option to overcome inspection impediments stemming from accessibility limitations, complex geometries, and the location and depth of hidden damage. Reliable, structural health monitoring systems can automatically process data, assess structural condition, and signal the need for human intervention. Prevention of unexpected flaw growth and structural failure can be improved if on-board health monitoring systems are used to continuously assess structural integrity. Such systems are able to detect incipient damage before catastrophic failures occurs. Condition-based maintenance practices could be substituted for the current time-based maintenance approach. Other advantages of on-board distributed sensor systems are that they can eliminate costly, and potentially damaging, disassembly, improve sensitivity by producing optimum placement of sensors and decrease maintenance costs by eliminating more time- consuming manual inspections. This report presents a Sandia Labs-aviation industry effort to move SHM into routine use for aircraft maintenance. This program addressed formal SHM technology validation and certification issues so that the full spectrum of concerns, including design, deployment, performance and certification were appropriately considered. The Airworthiness Assurance NDI Validation Center (AANC) at Sandia Labs, in conjunction with Boeing, Delta Air Lines, Structural Monitoring Systems Ltd., Anodyne Electronics Manufacturing Corp. and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) carried out a certification program to formally introduce Comparative Vacuum Monitoring (CVM) as a structural health monitoring solution to a specific aircraft wing box application. Validation tasks were designed to address the SHM equipment, the health monitoring task, the resolution required, the sensor interrogation procedures, the conditions under which the monitoring will occur, the potential inspector population, adoption of CVM into an airline maintenance program and the document revisions necessary to allow for routine use of CVM as an alternate means of performing periodic structural inspects. To carry out the validation process, knowledge of aircraft maintenance practices was coupled with an unbiased, independent evaluation. Sandia Labs designed, implemented, and analyzed the results from a focused and statistically-relevant experimental effort to quantify the reliability of the CVM system applied to the Boeing 737 Wing Box fitting application. All factors that affect SHM sensitivity were included in this program: flaw size, shape, orientation and location relative to the sensors, as well as operational and environmental variables. Statistical methods were applied to performance data to derive Probability of Detection (POD) values for CVM sensors in a manner that agrees with current nondestructive inspection (NDI) validation requirements and also is acceptable to both the aviation industry and regulatory bodies. This report presents the use of several different statistical methods, some of them adapted from NDI performance assessments and some proposed to address the unique nature of damage detection via SHM systems, and discusses how they can converge to produce a confident quantification of SHM performance An important element in developing SHM validation processes is a clear understanding of the regulatory measures needed to adopt SHM solutions along with the knowledge of the structural and maintenance characteristics that may impact the operational performance of an SHM system. This report describes the major elements of an SHM validation approach and differentiates the SHM elements from those found in NDI validation. The activities conducted in this program demonstrated the feasibility of routine SHM usage in general and CVM in particular for the application selected. They also helped establish an optimum OEM-airline-regulator process and determined how to safely adopt SHM solutions. This formal SHM validation will allow aircraft manufacturers and airlines to confidently make informed decisions about the proper utilization of CVM technology. It will also streamline the regulatory actions and formal certification measures needed to assure the safe application of SHM solutions.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Certification of a weld produced by friction stir welding

Methods, devices, and systems for providing certification of friction stir welds are disclosed. A sensor is used to collect information related to a friction stir weld. Data from the sensor is compared to threshold values provided by an extrinsic standard setting organizations using a certification engine. The certification engine subsequently produces a report on the certification status of the weld.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

Efficient Certificate Verification for Vehicle-to-Grid Communications

While public charging stations are typically used for Electric Vehicle (EV) such as charging, home microgrids that may act as private charging stations are also expected to be used for meeting the increased EV charging demands in the future. Such home microgrids can be accessible through their smart meters, which makes advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) a viable alternative for vehicle-to-grid (V2G) communications. However, to ensure secure V2G communications using public-keys, smart meters will need to maintain certificate revocation lists (CRLs) not just for the AMI network but also for large number of EVs that may interact with them. For resource-constrained smart meters, this will increase the storage requirements and introduce additional overhead in terms of delay and CRL maintenance. To eliminate this burden, we propose keeping merely non-revoked certificates that belong to EVs, which are usually driven within the vicinity of that particular microgrid. The motivation comes from the fact that it is inefficient to distribute and store a large CRL that has revocation information about all EVs in the whole system as most of these EVs will never come to the geographic vicinity of that home microgrid. The approach ensures that any status changes of these certificates are communicated to the smart meters. We implemented the proposed approach in a realistic V2G communication scenario by using IEEE 802.11s mesh as the underlying AMI infrastructure using ns-3 simulator. The results confirmed that the proposed approach significantly reduces the certificate verification time and the storage requirements on smart meters.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

Practical Experience Integration into the Univ. of NV, Reno Nuclear Packaging Graduate Certificate - 18210

In 2015, the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) Mechanical Engineering (ME) Department began offering a 9-credit, regionally accredited Graduate Certificate in Nuclear Packaging (GCNP). The certificate's program educational objectives are to provide the necessary applied knowledge and skills that mechanical, materials, or nuclear engineers require to be successful as nuclear packaging designers, analysts and users. This includes knowing how to apply required quality assurance methods, regulations, and design goals. It also includes gaining added depth in those required topics, and/or a breadth beyond those topics, to support the certificate holder to excel in the nuclear packaging industry. The GCNP courses draw heavily on nuclear packaging safety content that experts at Argonne, Laurence Livermore and Savannah River National Laboratories developed and taught over the past 20 years with support from the US Department of Energy (DOE) Packaging and Certification Program (PCP). The national laboratories continue to teach the GCNP required courses, which present the essential information, and several elective courses. UNR offers some elective courses. Oak Ridge and Sandia National Laboratories are currently developing new elective courses. This paper describes the development and requirements of a new 3-credit elective course UNR is developing, entitled Nuclear Packaging Internship (ME 699). The student learning outcome of that course is to provide project-based supervised practical training at a national laboratory or DOE site that contributes to the student's depth and breadth of nuclear packaging knowledge and skills. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

Coordination of International Standards with Implementation of the IECRE Conformity Assessment System to Provide Multiple Certification Offerings for PV Power Plants

To help address the industry's needs for assuring the value and reducing the risk of investments in PV power plants; the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) has established a new conformity assessment system for renewable energy (IECRE). There are presently important efforts underway to define the requirements for various types of PV system certificates, and publication of the international standards upon which these certifications will be based. This paper presents a detailed analysis of the interrelationship of these activities and the timing for initiation of IECRE PV system certifications.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

SU-B-213-00: Education Council Symposium: Accreditation and Certification: Establishing Educational Standards and Evaluating Candidates Based on these Standards

The North American medical physics community validates the education received by medical physicists and the clinical qualifications for medical physicists through accreditation of educational programs and certification of medical physicists. Medical physics educational programs (graduate education and residency education) are accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Medical Physics Education Programs (CAMPEP), whereas medical physicists are certified by several organizations, the most familiar of which is the American Board of Radiology (ABR). In order for an educational program to become accredited or a medical physicist to become certified, the applicant must meet certain specified standards set by the appropriate organization. In this Symposium, representatives from both CAMPEP and the ABR will describe the process by which standards are established as well as the process by which qualifications of candidates for accreditation or certification are shown to be compliant with these standards. The Symposium will conclude with a panel discussion. Learning Objectives: Recognize the difference between accreditation of an educational program and certification of an individual Identify the two organizations primarily responsible for these tasks Describe the development of educational standards Describe the process by which examination questions are developed GS is Executive Secretary of CAMPEP.

61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY↗

SU-B-213-05: Development of ABR Certification Standards

The North American medical physics community validates the education received by medical physicists and the clinical qualifications for medical physicists through accreditation of educational programs and certification of medical physicists. Medical physics educational programs (graduate education and residency education) are accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Medical Physics Education Programs (CAMPEP), whereas medical physicists are certified by several organizations, the most familiar of which is the American Board of Radiology (ABR). In order for an educational program to become accredited or a medical physicist to become certified, the applicant must meet certain specified standards set by the appropriate organization. In this Symposium, representatives from both CAMPEP and the ABR will describe the process by which standards are established as well as the process by which qualifications of candidates for accreditation or certification are shown to be compliant with these standards. The Symposium will conclude with a panel discussion. Learning Objectives: Recognize the difference between accreditation of an educational program and certification of an individual Identify the two organizations primarily responsible for these tasks Describe the development of educational standards Describe the process by which examination questions are developed GS is Executive Secretary of CAMPEP.

61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY↗

SU-F-P-05: Initial Experience with an Independent Certification Program for Stereotactic Radiosurgery and Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy

Purpose: The ASTRO document “Safety is no accident: A FRAMEWORK FOR QUALITY RADIATION ONCOLOGY AND CARE” recommends external reviews of specialized modalities. The purpose of this presentation is to describe the implementation of such a program for Stereotactic Radiosurgery (SRS) and Stereotactic Body radiation Therapy (SBRT). Methods: The margin of error for SRS and SBRT delivery is significantly smaller than that of conventional radiotherapy and therefore requires special attention and diligence. The Novalis Certified program was created to fill an unmet need for specialized SRS / SBRT credentialing. A standards document was drafted by a panel of experts from several disciplines, including medical physics, radiation oncology and neurosurgery. The document, based on national and international standards, covers requirements in program structure, personnel, training, clinical application, technology, quality management, and patient and equipment QA. The credentialing process was modeled after existing certification programs and includes an institution-generated self-study, extensive document review and an onsite audit. Reviewers generate a descriptive report, which is reviewed by a multidisciplinary expert panel. Outcomes of the review may include mandatory requirements and optional recommendations. Results: 15 institutions have received Novalis Certification, including 3 in the US, 7 in Europe, 4 in Australia and 1 in Asia. 87 other centers are at various stages of the process. Nine reviews have resulted in mandatory requirements, however all of these were addressed within three months of the audit report. All reviews have produced specific recommendations ranging from programmatic to technical in nature. Institutions felt that the credentialing process addressed a critical need and was highly valuable to the institution. Conclusion: Novalis Certification is a unique peer review program assessing safety and quality in SRS and SBRT, while recognizing international practice standards. The approach is capable of highlighting outstanding requirements and providing recommendations to enhance both new and established programs. Timothy Solberg is co-owner of Global Radiosurgery services, LLC.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

Cybersecurity Certification Recommendations for Interconnected Grid Edge Devices and Inverter Based Resources

Escalating deployment of PV and grid-edge devices on the distribution grid has increased the sustainability and efficiency of the electric grid. However, the increasing number of distributed energy resources (DERs) deployed creates a heightened cyber-physical interdependency on the distribution grid and thus creates more vectors for cyber-attacks to exploit through information and communication technology (ICT) systems and networks. For example, control signal packets can be modified, intercepted, or corrupted due to vulnerabilities in communication protocols used by microgrid controllers and grid edge devices for power control. Therefore, to mitigate and prevent cyber-attacks on grid edge devices and the inverter-based resources connected to the distribution grid, the U.S. Department of Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) awarded funding to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratory (SNL) to research, develop, and harmonize cybersecurity standards for Photovoltaic (PV) systems and for other kinds of DERs. To help develop a standard for DER cybersecurity, NREL established certification recommendations and test cases, in consensus with the solar industry and UL, for ensuring intrinsic design security for DERs. These recommendations were developed to bolster the cybersecure functionalities such as TLS, MAC, CRL, session resumption/renegotiation, and password, system, and service security management within the DER devices. The proposed test cases verify authentication, authorization, confidentiality, and data integrity for data and communications of DERs that use Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). They were also developed to protect DER communications from eavesdropping, replay, man-in-the-middle, denial of service (DoS), spoofing through security certificates, least-privilege violation, and brute-force credentials. This report, which has been validated and reviewed by UL, expands upon those test cases to provide DER cybersecurity certification recommendations which increase DER resiliency and help to mitigate cyber-attacks. UL's collaboration with NREL and approval of this document will accelerate the adoption of a UL standard for DER cybersecurity.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

2020 Small Wind Turbine Certification Awardee: Star Wind Turbines

With support from the Competitiveness Improvement Project's Small Turbine Certification Award, Star Wind Turbines aims to earn third-party certification for their small wind turbine model STAR74-6. Certification will help instill public confidence in the product's performance and safety standards. This fact sheet provides an overview of Star Wind's project, how the company will achieve the goals of the award, and how the project fits within the overall Competitiveness Improvement Project.

CIP↗

Cybersecurity Certification Standard for Distributed Energy and Inverter Based Resources

NREL and UL co-presented on their joint effort to develop a cybersecurity certification standard for distributed energy resources (DERs) at a meeting of the Cybersecurity Advisory Team for State Solar (CATSS). The advisory team is hosted by NASEO & NARUC. The presentation outlined the benefits of a cybersecurity certification standard, the outcomes of previous initiatives, how this effort reflects the evolving electric grid, and the role of state energy offices. UL explained their role as a trusted third party with expertise to lead this effort and the process from Outline of Investigation (OOI) to a certification standard.

BPS↗

Cybersecurity Certification Standard for Distributed Energy Resources

Cybersecurity Certification Standard for Inverter Based Resources led by UL, and contributed to by NREL, is a certification standard for devices and their cyber security practices. The standard, which is being developed and led by UL, contains certification and testing processes for the devices to be certified before they are deployed in the field. The importance of the standard is to ensure that all DER devices have all the five pillars of cybersecurity, in which the baseline cybersecurity posture of the DER industry will be elevated.

certification standard↗

WIPP - February 2014 operational events and the compliance re-certification application (CRA) 2014 - 15293

On Wednesday, February 5, 2014, an underground mine fire involving a salt haul truck occurred at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). There were 86 workers in the mine when the fire occurred. All workers were evacuated. Nine days later, on Friday, February 14, 2014, there was an incident in the underground repository at WIPP which resulted in the release of americium and plutonium from one or more transuranic (TRU) waste containers into the environment. The release was detected by an underground continuous air monitor and then directed through high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter banks located in the surface exhaust building. However, a measurable portion bypassed the HEPA filters via leakage through two ventilation system dampers and was discharged directly to the environment from an exhaust duct. No personnel were determined to have received external contamination; however, some individuals that were on site were identified through bioassay to have initially tested positive for low level amounts of internal contamination. Trace amounts of americium and plutonium were detected off-site.While significant to day-to-day operations, these events have no impact to the long-term performance of the repository. Because WIPP's re-certification is based solely on the post-closure performance of the repository (40 CFR 191, Subparts B and C), these recent events do not affect the long-term performance predictions or its technical and scientific basis. In this paper we will further explore the requirements for WIPP's re-certification, and the basis for our contention that the recent WIPP operational events do not impact long-term repository performance or have any implications on salt as a geologic disposal media, and that re-certification efforts should continue uninterrupted. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗