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DOE OSTI2024

Beam Optics Design of A Prototype 20 kW Conduction-Cooled SRF Accelerator for Medical Sterilization

Superconducting technology has significantly advanced the capabilities of particle accelerators, facilitating higher beam-power operations for fundamental research at a comparatively lower cost. However, the conventional implementation of superconducting technology introduces complexities in the form of cryogenic plants, cryogenic distribution systems and substantial construction and operational cost. In response to these challenges, recent research efforts at Fermilab have been dedicated to the development of a cryogen-free, conduction-cooled Nb3Sn-based superconducting technology. This paper outlines the beam optics design of a 20-kW conduction-cooled compact superconducting accelerator for medical sterilization. The paper reviews both the physics and practical constraints associated with high beam-power operation within the context of industrial applications. The focus is on providing insights into the potential of this innovative technology to overcome existing challenges and pave the way for more accessible and efficient industrial particle accelerators.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

DOE OSTI2024

Beam Optics Design of a Prototype 20 KW Conduction-cooled SRF Accelerator for Medical Sterilization

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

DOE OSTI2025

Business Plan for a Domestic Supply of Superconducting Radiofrequency Cavities

Superconducting radiofrequency (SRF) cavities are critical components of modern particle accelerators. The industrialization of SRF technology in the U.S. has a long history, with several companies becoming interested in the technology in the past 30 years. However, there is currently no U.S. manufacturer with the capability to produce fully assembled, ready-to-test SRF cavities. A majority of these companies have either left the field or shut their doors. As a result, government-sponsored SRF accelerator projects in the U.S. largely rely on European vendors for the cavity supply. This presents not only a supply chain risk for scientific use cases, but also severely limits the commercialization of accelerator-based technologies. SRF accelerators have a range of strategic applications, including environmental remediation, semiconductor lithography, medical isotope production, and irradiation/sterilization. The nurturing of a domestic SRF industry is critical to maintaining U.S. economic competitiveness.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

DOE OSTI2024

Amorphous Iridium Oxide-Integrated Anode Electrodes with Ultrahigh Material Utilization for Hydrogen Production at Industrial Current Densities

Herein, ionomer-free amorphous iridium oxide (IrO x ) thin electrodes are first developed as highly active anodes for proton exchange membrane electrolyzer cells (PEMECs) via low-cost, environmentally friendly, and easily scalable electrodeposition at room temperature. Combined with a Nafion 117 membrane, the IrO x -integrated electrode with an ultralow loading of 0.075 mg cm –2 delivers a high cell efficiency of about 90%, achieving more than 96% catalyst savings and 42-fold higher catalyst utilization compared to commercial catalyst-coated membrane (2 mg cm –2 ). Additionally, the IrO x electrode demonstrates superior performance, higher catalyst utilization and significantly simplified fabrication with easy scalability compared with the most previously reported anodes. Notably, the remarkable performance could be mainly due to the amorphous phase property, sufficient Ir 3+ content, and rich surface hydroxide groups in catalysts. Overall, due to the high activity, high cell efficiency, an economical, greatly simplified and easily scalable fabrication process, and ultrahigh material utilization, the IrO x electrode shows great potential to be applied in industry and accelerates the commercialization of PEMECs and renewable energy evolution.

08 HYDROGEN↗

DOE OSTI2025

NRIC Annual Report FY 2025

The National Reactor Innovation Center (NRIC), established in August 2019, is a national United States (U.S.) Department of Energy (DOE) program. NRIC’s mission is to partner with industry and national laboratories to bridge the gap between concept, demonstration, and commercialization of advanced nuclear technology. NRIC accomplishes this through building or enhancing existing DOE infrastructure to support testing of components and systems that are key to successfully deploying advanced nuclear technology. NRIC’s vision is that by 2028, NRIC will be partnered with industry and accelerating the demonstration and deployment of advanced nuclear technology using DOE national laboratory infrastructure and expertise. NRIC will establish four new experimental facilities and two large reactor test beds for integrated technology demonstrations and experimentation by 2028 and complete two advanced nuclear technology tests by 2030. Achieving this vision will enable urgently needed abundant and affordable clean energy both domestically and internationally. NRIC’s success will inspire our nation and the global community to embrace the promising contribution of innovative nuclear reactor technologies to the clean energy economy and re-establish the U.S. as the global leader in advanced nuclear energy. NRIC is tasked with expediting the development of advanced nuclear energy technologies by bringing together private-sector technology developers and the world-class capabilities of the DOE national laboratory system. Through this program, the U.S. private sector is given access to the physical infrastructure available at DOE national laboratories to test and demonstrate their reactor concepts. NRIC works closely with the DOE-Nuclear Energy (NE) program that grants access to technical, regulatory, and financial support for commercializing nuclear energy. NRIC builds upon these new reactor concepts and technology successes to effectively strengthen U.S. nuclear leadership.

22 - GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

DOE OSTI2025

NRIC FY 2025 Collaboration Initiatives Annual Report

The National Reactor Innovation Center (NRIC) is a national program established by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in 2019 and led by Idaho National Laboratory (INL). Its mission is to work with industry and national laboratories to bridge the gap between concept, demonstration, and commercialization of advanced nuclear technology. NRIC works to inspire stakeholders and the public, empower innovators, and deliver successful outcomes through efficient collaboration and coordination with partners. NRIC is partnered with industry to accelerate the demonstration and deployment of advanced nuclear technology using DOE’s national laboratory infrastructure and expertise. NRIC’s vision is to establish four new experimental facilitates and two large reactor test beds for integrated technology demonstrators and experimentation by 2028 and complete two advanced nuclear technology tests by 2030.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

DOE OSTI2024

National Reactor Innovation Center Annual Report

The National Reactor Innovation Center (NRIC), established in August 2019, is a national United States (U.S.) Department of Energy (DOE) program. NRIC’s mission is to partner with industry and national laboratories to bridge the gap between the concept, demonstration, and commercialization of advanced nuclear technology. NRIC accomplishes this through building or enhancing existing DOE infrastructure to support the testing of components and systems that are key to successfully deploying advanced nuclear technology. NRIC works to inspire stakeholders and the public, empower innovators, and deliver successful outcomes through efficient collaboration and coordination with partners. NRIC’s vision is that by 2028, NRIC will be partnered with industry and accelerating the demonstration and deployment of advanced nuclear technology using DOE national laboratory infrastructure and expertise. NRIC will establish four new experimental facilities and two large reactor test beds for integrated technology demonstrations and experimentation by 2028 and complete two advanced nuclear technology tests by 2030. Achieving this vision will enable urgently needed abundant and affordable clean energy both domestically and internationally. NRIC’s success will inspire our nation and the global community to embrace the promising contribution of innovative nuclear reactor technologies to the clean energy economy and re-establish the U.S. as the global leader in advanced nuclear energy. NRIC is tasked with expediting the development of advanced nuclear energy technologies by bringing together private-sector technology developers and the world-class capabilities of the DOE national laboratory system. Through this program, the U.S. private sector is given access to the physical infrastructure available at DOE national laboratories to test and demonstrate their reactor concepts. NRIC works closely with the Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear (GAIN),; which is the DOE-Nuclear Energy (NE) program that grantings access to technical, regulatory, and financial support for commercializing nuclear energy. As observed in Figure 1, NRIC builds upon these new reactor concepts and technology successes to effectively strengthen U.S. nuclear leadership.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

DOE OSTI2025

Artificial Intelligence and Digital Engineering as Enablers for System Engineering in the Energy Sector

Systems engineering is of utmost importance for the success of high-cost, high-complexity megaprojects, which are common in the energy sector. However, the traditional document-centric systems engineering approach tends to be labor-intensive and time-consuming, which has inhibited its full adoption despite proven metrics on its return on investment. However, with the modern approach of digital engineering and technological advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, the barriers to systems engineering adoption can finally be broken. This paper goes through the systems engineering V-model for lifecycle management and assesses the current state of implementation of digital engineering (especially, mod-el-based systems engineering, digital twins, and digital threads) and AI for each step. It was observed that a combination of digital engineering and AI is being used across different industries to accelerate and optimize systems engineering processes such as concept development, requirements management, architecture definition, system development, verification and validation, operations, and maintenance. Specifically in the energy sector, AI-augmented digital engineering has shown initial potential in accelerated development and deployment, performance optimization, anomaly detection, predictive maintenance, and configuration management. However, challenges remain in integrating DE and AI into an end-to-end system lifecycle management ecosystem safely and reliably. Addressing these challenges and continuously developing impactful tools will enable fast, efficient, and high-frequency deployment of power generation capabilities to keep up with the world’s energy demands and build energy security.

42 - ENGINEERING↗

DOE OSTI2025

Artificial Intelligence and Digital Engineering as Enablers for Systems Engineering in the Energy Sector

42 - ENGINEERING↗

DOE OSTI2025

Digital Twin Industry Standards and Opportunities from the Particle Accelerator Community

Digital twins (DTs) are predictive models of a physical system that dynamically update to reflect any changes. This concept was first conceived as early as 1993 by David Gelernter in his speculative non-fiction Mirror Worlds. DTs were coined in 2002 by Michael Grieves and applied to Product Lifecycle Management for manufacturing. Since then, industry has been developing tools to simplify the creation, deployment, and use of digital twins for manufacturing, fleet management, and biological systems. We will recommend industry standard technology and interfaces that we should adopt in the accelerator community. We further identify gaps in this technology to which we can add new capabilities and solutions, which can be expanded for our use cases.

Miceli, Tia [Fermilab] (ORCID:0000000265577789)↗

DOE OSTI2025

Novel Concepts for High Gradient Acceleration (Final Technical Report)

We have conducted an intensive, pioneering program to demonstrate novel concepts for achieving high gradient acceleration at frequencies from the conventional microwave bands up to the millimeter wave /THz bands. High gradient accelerators hold the promise of smaller and less costly accelerators for applications ranging from the largest scale accelerators used for discovery science down to the smallest accelerators used for industrial, homeland security and medical applications. The research consisted of two major research thrusts: 1.) Structure-based wakefield accelerator (SWFA) research in collaboration with the Argonne Wakefield Accelerator research group and 2.) Millimeter Wave / THz high gradient acceleration in collaboration with SLAC. The specific goals of the research program were: Design novel metallic metamaterial structures that increase the beam-wave coupling for the accelerator mode and reduce the effect of high order modes; test novel metamaterial structures to achieve higher output power, > 1 GW at X-Band (11.7 GHz), in test at the Argonne Wakefield Accelerator (AWA); determine the experimental breakdown threshold for nanosecond-scale pulses at X-Band in testing at the AWA; test a 110 GHz accelerator structure with a field emission electron gun, built at SLAC, using pulses from a 1 MW, 110 GHz gyrotron; design, build and test a 110 GHz quasi-optical, resonant-ring pulse compressor to compress microsecond pulses from the 1 MW gyrotron into > 20 MW, 5 ns output pulses for accelerator structure testing. The proposed research program built on our successes in our research program including: Generation of 510 MW, 2.1 ns (FWHM) pulses at 11.7 GHz from a metallic metamaterial structure in test at the Argonne Wakefield Accelerator using a train of eight 65 MeV electron bunches spaced at 1.3 GHz with a total charge of 280 nC. The metamaterial structure consisted of 100 copper unit cells each consisting of a “wagon-wheel” plate and a spacer plate with a total structure length of 0.2 m. The 510 MW pulse generated an on-axis wakefield of 130 MV/m that could be used to accelerate a trailing witness bunch. Demonstration of coupling of an unprecedented rf power level of 575kW into a 110 GHz accelerator structure using a quasi-optical setup. The standing structure consisted of a central copper cavity located between two matching cavities fed by a TM01 mode. The 6 ns input pulses were sliced from 3 microsecond pulses from the gyrotron using a laser-driven silicon switch. We obtained an unprecedented high gradient up to 230MV/m corresponding to a peak surface electric field of more than 520 MV/m.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

DOE OSTI2025

On operation and control of CW magnetrons for superconducting accelerators

CW magnetrons, developed for industrial RF heaters, were suggested to feed RF cavities of superconducting accelerators due to higher efficiency and lower cost of RF power than provide traditionally used klystrons, IOTs or solid-state amplifiers. RF amplifiers driven by a master oscillator serve as coherent RF sources. CW magnetrons are regenerative RF auto generators with a huge regenerative gain. This causes regenerative instability with a notable noise when a magnetron operates as an auto generator i.e., with the anode voltage above the threshold of self-excitation. Traditionally, an injection locking by a small signal is used for phase stabilization of magnetrons. In this case CW magnetrons with the injection-locked (coherent) oscillations generate a notable level of noise. This may preclude use of CW magnetrons in this mode in the Superconducting RF (SRF) accelerators. This paper reviews PIC modeling and previously obtained experimental results for the operation and control of CW magnetrons, which led to the development of techniques most suitable for various SRF accelerators using forced RF oscillation of magnetrons, when the magnetron is launched by an injected forcing signal, and regenerative noise is suppressed.

Kazakevich, G. [MUONS Inc., Batavia] (ORCID:000000↗

DOE OSTI2024

Five Year Wildfire Risk Reduction Action Plan for the Electric Power Industry

The U.S. DOE and the Electric Power Research Institute convened a wildfire advisory group to bring together knowledge of ignition risks, electric utility needs, the applicability of available technology, and existing technology gaps. The outcome is a five-year action plan, containing recommendations on RD&D projects, that if completed by the year 2030, may accelerate the power industry’s ability to substantially reduce wildfire ignition risks. When reviewing this document please consider it is a snapshot in time for the years 2023 and 2024, could be obsolete by the end of the decade. The following list comprises the titles and topics for the proposed follow-on demonstrations: 1. Hybrid Undergrounding RD&D, 2. Live Downed Conductor Detection RD&D, 3. Fault Energy Reduction RD&D, 4. Advanced Inspection and Response Drone, 5. Fault and PQ Event Signature Repository, 6. Advanced and Intelligent Sensor Nodes, 7. Fire Friendly Asset Coatings and Coverings, and 8. Environmental Monitoring Action Plan.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

DOE OSTI2026

A plan to revitalize the domestic superconducting radio-frequency industry

Superconducting radio-frequency (SRF) cavities are essential building blocks of modern particle accelerators for scientific research, and they offer unique capabilities that could be transformative for commercial applications. Growth of the domestic SRF industry in North America has faced several challenges over the past decades, as most of the international demand for cavities was supplied by European vendors. This contribution provides a brief review of the domestic industrial vendor space, an outlook of the global demand for SRF cavities and an outline of the challenges leading to this supply chain deficiency. One of the main challenges towards establishing a robust domestic SRF industry has been the large uncertainty in the demand. Meanwhile, research and development activities to raise technical readiness of SRF accelerators for industrial use have continued and several potential markets are emerging that may offer a consistent and growing demand for SRF cavities. Finally, reasons and means of establishing and sustaining competitive domestic suppliers are described.

Accelerator Physics↗

DOE OSTI2025

Development of Predictive Models for Advanced Reactor Autonomous Control

Advanced reactor designs including microreactors and small modular reactors will contribute to the clean production of cheap energy, and autonomous control for advanced reactors is an appealing option for reducing cost. However, there is a lack of industry experience applying autonomous control for advanced nuclear reactors. To accelerate the development and industry acceptance of autonomous control software for nuclear reactors, we aim to demonstrate autonomous control of the Purdue University research reactor (PUR-1) using INL-developed model predictive control (MPC) methods. To prepare for this demonstration, data-driven predictive models based on process data collected from PUR-1 have been developed and integrated with MPC and used to control a physics-based model of PUR-1. A data-driven dynamics model and a gated recurrent unit (GRU) network were both trained on process data from PUR-1. The dynamics model was shown to effectively control the reactor model with MPC when provided reactivity as a control variable but failed to control the model through the control rod positions. The GRU network produced more accurate predictions than the dynamics model when evaluated on operational data, and future work will include the evaluation of the GRU network in the controller.

22 - GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

DOE OSTI2024

Advancing Understanding of Geothermal Representation in the Power Sector to Accelerate Deployment

Driven mostly by decarbonization goals, geothermal interest in the US power sector has grown considerably, gradually evolving from being considered a niche technology, to being recognized as a viable source of clean, baseload, grid-balancing power, and renewable electric power generation. Furthermore, recent technical advances that could greatly accelerate deployment in the near future, and US federal incentives for low-carbon generation technologies, including geothermal, can enable opportunities for integrating geothermal into utilities resource planning portfolios. However, in general, utilities do not have in-house expertise to evaluate geothermal technologies and its potential role in helping decarbonize the grid as well as help them achieve their individual decarbonization goals. To date, geothermal is rarely included in Capacity Expansion Models (CEM) which utilities use in their planning activities and resource/technologies prioritization. To this end, EPRI and NREL are working together in a DOE-GTO funded research project to improve geothermal understanding (opportunities, value, risks) among the power industry to help accelerate geothermal deployment. In the present paper we describe the approach and preliminary findings of this work, focused on two topics: 1) Expand the degree of understanding on the value, opportunity, and risk of geothermal technologies among utilities and related companies/groups, specifically around geothermal for power generation. 2) Improve representation of geothermal power technologies in capacity expansion models (CEM).

capacity expansion models↗

DOE OSTI2024

High-Fidelity Multiphysics Modeling of a Heat Pipe Microreactor Using BlueCrab

Researchers who are actively developing nuclear microreactors are planning to employ innovative designs and features using traditional commercial modeling tools that may be inadequate for their design and licensing activities. The codes developed under the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) program provide flexibility in terms of geometry modeling and multiphysics coupling and are particularly well suited for modeling novel microreactor concepts. To test the maturity of these codes, this paper introduces a conceptual heat pipe microreactor (HP-MR) designed to gather various technologies of interest to microreactor developers such as control drums, heat pipes, and hydride moderators. Here, the objective of this effort is to demonstrate NEAMS tools capability to perform high-fidelity multiphysics simulations, using coupled neutronics (via the Griffin code), heat conduction (via the BISON code), heat pipe modeling (via the Sockeye code), and hydrogen redistribution in hydride metal moderator (via the SWIFT code). Codes are coupled in-memory through the Multiphysics Object-Oriented Simulation Environment (MOOSE) framework, which permits flexible multiphysics data transfer schemes. The analysis confirmed two key aspects of the HP-MR concept: (1) its ability to follow the power load requested from the heat pipe and (2) its ability to avoid heat pipe cascading failure unless designed with high power close to operating failure limits of its heat pipes. The developed computational model was distributed publicly on the Virtual Test Bed for training purposes to accelerate adoption by industry and to provide a high-fidelity multiphysics solution for benchmarking against other tools. Additional multiphysics analyses including other transients and coupled physics were identified as necessary future work, together with a focus on validating multiphysics behavior against experiments.

Microreactor↗

DOE OSTI2025

Leveraging AI and Spatial Data to Unlock Pipeline Integrity Insights: NETL’s Advanced Infrastructure Integrity Model (AIIM)

Maintaining the integrity of natural gas infrastructure plays a critical role in ensuring energy security. Robust, data-driven foundational AI models for pipeline integrity can help address risk management and mitigation issues. Trusted foundational models can help with industry adoption and accelerate innovation by enhancing integrity predictions, reduce costs, and informing infrastructure build-out. The AIIM dashboard was released in 2022 and utilizes multi-ML models for ensemble-type insights. It was expanded to include analytics on reported incidents. It was developed as an ESRI Dashboard to support data visualization & interrogation and contains pipeline data and model results.

Advanced Infrastructure Integrity Model (AIIM)↗