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We report the genome sequence of Clostridium tetanomorphum DSM 4474T isolated from a septic wound. In addition to its potential as a human pathogen, this species may be useful in biofuel production due to its ability to synthesize butanol without the byproduct acetone. The genome is 4,374,054 bp.
Tilletia maclaganii is a smut fungal pathogen that causes significant biomass reduction of switchgrass ( Panicum virgatum ) used for animal forage and biofuel production. Here we present the annotated genome of T. maclaganii , strain Tm001-NY21, estimated at 42.79 Mb in size, in 53 assembled contigs and encoding 10,235 predicted genes. This genome will be important for future comparative studies of Ustilaginales across its geographic and host range.
We present genome assemblies of six Brucella melitensis strains isolated from goats and humans in Tanzania’s Kagera region. These sequences provide insight into circulating Brucella strains in Tanzania and East Africa. These data will support future comparative genomics, epidemiological investigations, and regional brucellosis control strategies.
This study describes the whole genome sequence of Dolosicoccus paucivorans 2991-95 (DSM 15742) isolated from human blood in Cleveland, Ohio. The genome length is approximately 1.8 Mbp with 107 contigs and a G + C content of 37.91%. Annotation identified 1,752 coding genes and multiple virulence factors.
The head smut (Tilletia maclaganii) is a significant pathogen of the bioenergy crop switchgrass. T. maclaganii typically is more prevalent in older stands of switchgrass and can contribute to significant biomass loss. Here, we outline the methods for the sequencing, assembly, and annotation of the first reference genome for Tilletia maclaganii.
Microreactors are compact reactors capable of producing less than 50 megawatts of electrical energy. Typically, these reactors are factory-fabricated and designed to be easily transportable by truck, rail, vessel, or air. Microreactor designs often assume that the unit can be transported containing either unirradiated or irradiated fuel. The interest in microreactors is driven by several factors, including the need to generate power on at remote locations, at military installations, at facilities such as data centers, and in areas recovering from natural disasters. The U.S. Department of Defense is actively pursuing the microreactor concept to meet the increasing energy demands of military operations that require portable and dense power sources. Commercial vendors are also exploring microreactor concepts. The report Microreactor Transportation Emergency Planning Challenges (Maheras et al. 2024) outlined the emergency planning challenges associated with the transportation of microreactors by road, rail, and by barge/ship. The successful commercial deployment and redeployment of microreactors will also require the development of microreactor transportation safety programs. The elements in these safety programs are not specific to microreactors; however, the transport of microreactors may pose unique challenges in these areas. This report builds on the report Microreactor Transportation Emergency Planning Challenges (Maheras et al. 2024) and develops the elements of a prototype microreactor transportation safety program that describes the elements that should be contained vendor-developed microreactor transportation safety programs, identifying the unique elements associated with microreactor transport. This will provide vendors and their transportation contractors a basis for their transportation planning and will accelerate the commercial deployment and redeployment of microreactors by identifying those issues unique to microreactor transport. The emphasis of this report is on highway transport of microreactors. This is based on a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission transportation package approval strategy of crawl-walk-run, where transport by highway is evaluated first (Coles et al. 2021, 2024, Maheras et al. 2021), then other surface modes (rail and barge/ship), and finally air transport. Evaluation of maritime transport of microreactors was recently initiated (Rigato et al. 2024, Maheras et al. 2025). The report first discusses microreactors in general and microreactor transportation safety program planning assumptions. The report then provides a description of the transportation safety planning process and provides an extensive discussion of the elements of transportation safety programs. Specific elements examined included transportation roles and responsibilities, transportation planning, transportation mode and route selection, carrier selection, transportation packaging, advance notification of shipments, public information and communications, emergency response plans and procedures, inspections, security, safe parking, shipment tracking, weather and road conditions, medical preparedness, training and exercises, and program evaluation. The report then identifies the unique elements of a transportation safety program associated with microreactor transport. These unique elements were in the areas of: the unusual nature of microreactor designs, compensatory measures, increased radiation dose rates in the vicinity of microreactors, transportation package approval versus 10 CFR 50.59, and the use of a risk-informed transportation package approval process.
The general objective of this white paper is to share lessons learned and provide interdisciplinary recommendations on how to use NLE to evaluate, assess and improve national nuclear security regimes. The specific objectives of this white paper are: — To describe the type of exercises, benefits and requirements — To outline the different capacity areas and capability performance levels — To provide concrete and actionable recommendations to INS’s partners on how to use NLE to improve national nuclear security regimes.
Poster for DOE ES Peer Review
The Handling Frame Assembly Table is a custom designed piece of equipment developed to support the NIF Sustainment Project. The NIF Sustainment project's goal is to refurbish the National Ignition Facility (NIF), the world’s largest and most energetic laser, so it can continue advancing research in fusion energy, national security, and high energy density physics. A key aspect of this effort involves replacing all 1,728 blast shields on the NIF, which requires specialized equipment such as the Handling Frame Assembly Table to support the production of new blast shields. This project follows a systems engineering approach that guides the design sequence. This report documents the design process from initial concept through final design, including stakeholder analysis, requirements development, conceptual design, design analysis and validation, and final design. Future work will focus on building and commissioning the system.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is developing the regulatory framework and technical expertise to support regulatory review of advanced non-water reactors, including molten salt reactors (MSRs). In an MSR, it is essential that the salt chemistry be maintained in a desired range in terms of redox potential for reliable operation and mitigation of corrosion to structural materials in the reactor, particularly the reactor vessel and heater exchanger. Measuring the redox potential of the salt in the reactor would also allow for the material lifetimes to be predicted more accurately, and chemical issues to be diagnosed more quickly. In addition to the chemical composition analysis by ICP-MS, electrochemical methods including potentiometry and linear wave scanning (LSC) were also used in molten salt reactor experiment (MSRE) for redox potential monitoring purposes. Electrochemcial methods offers unique advantages such as quick turnaround in results and unique capability of in-line monitoring of redox potential, and are considered popular electroanalytical techniques that can be used to monitor redox potentials and salt chemistry including impurities. The last two decades have seen significant advances in science and engineering of electrochemical methods for potential application to molten salts. The primary goal of this report is to assist NRC in understanding the monitoring of the salt chemistry by electrochemical methods and provide NRC reviewers with necessary information and tools to support regulatory review of MSR designs. This reports consists of two majors parts—Part 1, chemical potential of molten salts and effects by fission process in MSR; Part 2, assessment of electrochemical methods for application to MSRs. The TRLs of the typical relevant electrochemical methods for molten salts were evaluated based on the DOE TRL guidelines and upon a review of the current status of the electrochemical methods for two typical salt systems, fluoride and chloride, for MSRs.
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) have been contracted by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) Energy Division (ED) to perform a study which explores and selects an improved methodology to estimate avoided electricity transmission and distribution (T&D) infrastructure costs that can be attributed to the presence of distributed energy resources (DERs). PNNL is performing the study for avoided electricity transmission infrastructure costs and LBNL is performing the study for avoided electricity distribution infrastructure costs. This document summarizes CPUC’s research questions related to avoided transmission infrastructure costs and PNNL’s proposed technical approach to answer these questions.
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This report presents the thermophysical properties measurements conducted in the Fiscal Year 2024 to extend the database up to 1000?. The new values are compared against properties of high Molybdenum steels in the ASME Section II Part D tables. This report also shows the comparison between new measurements against the previously measured values in literature and provides recommended thermophysical properties for A709 code case. These values will support the thermophysical property tables in near term code case of A709.
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Methods are demonstrated that allow drilling response parameters to be evaluated in constraint models for improved performance. Electronic Data Records from Geysers Power Company/Calpine well GDC-36 have been used for the analyses.
Recently there has been development in the field of risk-informed performance-based (RIPB) design and licensing approaches, which leverage detailed risk assessments and performance-based metrics to allow flexibility and innovation. These RIPB approaches include the probabilistic treatment of external hazards, including low frequency events that are beyond the design basis. However, there are certain challenges that have been identified to the probabilistic treatment of low frequency external events, primarily due to uncertainty in the hazard curve and the associated plant response to rare, severe events. The NRC is currently developing 10 CFR Part 53 that would establish a technology-inclusive regulatory framework for use by applicants for new commercial advanced nuclear reactors. By examining the regulatory safety criteria contained within draft 10 CFR Part 53 and associated draft RIPB seismic design guidance, potential challenges were identified in demonstrating satisfaction of the safety criteria for low frequency external events, with specific difficulties associated with demonstrating compliance with the quantitative health objectives (QHOs). Non-LWRs are expected to utilize the direct calculation of offsite consequence, rather than use surrogates, for comparison to the QHOs, which can be particularly challenging as the previously identified uncertainties are compounded by uncertainties in the response of the neighboring population. The central recommendation from this effort is that it is necessary to develop an approach for demonstrating compliance with the safety criteria in draft Part 53 that addresses the key challenges while providing flexibility to applicants. This paper summarizes key findings, establishes a series of high-level goals, and reviews a newly developed approach to address the major challenges associated with assessing compliance with QHOs, with avenues to demonstrate compliance based on either the estimated consequence or the available margin to event occurrence, while also building on existing experience of seismic margins assessments. The paper also provides examples to demonstrate the application of the approach, as well as recommendations and potential future work.
This report describes the basis used to develop the radiological dose acceptance and design criteria contained in the draft updates to Army Regulation 50–7 (AR 50–7) Army Reactor Program and its accompanying draft Department of the Army (DA) Pamphlet (PAM), Army Reactor Program Procedures. These criteria will apply to Army nuclear reactors that fall under AR 50–7 and its accompanying DA PAM and ensure alignment with the overall objectives of the Army Reactor Program. The development basis for the radiological dose and design criteria supports a modern, technology-neutral, risk-informed, and performance-based approach to Army regulation of reactors and the demonstration of “adequate protection of the public.” To establish these criteria that support the Army’s unique operational requirements, multiple well-known and well-established standards and their supporting documentation were reviewed to ensure consistency with existing regulatory safety levels, including guidance from U.S. and international sources. These include the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC’s) regulations and policy, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission’s (CNSC’s) regulatory documents, the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA’s) safety standards, as well as industry input that is tailored specifically to advanced microreactors. This report walks through the key definitions and associated references used for these criteria, which are outlined in Section 2.0. Based on these definitions, the dose acceptance criteria were established for various receptors for routine reactor operations (Section 3.2), design basis accidents (Section 3.3), and beyond design basis accidents (Section 3.4). Comparisons of multiple national and international dose limits are provided in these sections. Lastly, Section 4.0 outlines the reactor safety design criteria contained in the draft DA PAM and their associated bases.
The current multi-year effort seeks to utilize national laboratory support from Argonne to expedite revival of the ANS-54.8 standard titled “Liquid Metal Fire Protection in LMR Plants.” To achieve that objective, the following tasks were identified: Task 1 involves working directly with ANS to revive the ANS-54.8 Working Group. This was to be accomplished by completing necessary paperwork, submitting that paperwork to ANS for approval, enlisting potential working group members from industry, the NRC, national laboratories, and universities, and organizing and leading Working Group activities. The overall purpose of the Working Group is to develop an updated draft of ANS-54.8 for review and approval by ANS consensus committees, the ANS Standards Board, and certification from ANSI. Task 2 focuses on leveraging historical information and expertise at Argonne related to sodium fire protection systems and strategies. For more than a decade, Argonne has worked on both international and domestic projects related to sodium fire protection system development and evaluation. The goal of this task is to utilize that experience to help inform the ANS-54.8 Working Group on important considerations that may be addressed in an updated draft of ANS-54.8. Task 3 focuses on leveraging Argonne experience in the development of and use of analysis methods and tools for the simulation of sodium fire scenarios and evaluation of the effectiveness of sodium fire protection systems and strategies. For more than a decade, Argonne has recovered, modified, and utilized several historical sodium fire analysis software tools. The goal of this task is to utilize that experience to help inform the ANS-54.8 Working Group of best practices for sodium fire progression analysis that may be addressed in an updated draft of ANS-54.8.