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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2021

PSMC Upgrade Development Documentation and Functional Testing

The functional verification consists of verifying that the calibration (a.k.a. gain matching) is accurate and that there is no double pulsing or signal cross talk and interference. The calibration is shown to be satisfactory from the plateau plots on the right. The absence of double pulsing and cross talk can be seen in the time-interval diagram below. Both phenomena are manifested by spikes in the time interval distribution around 1µs to 5µs. No such spike is present.

3-He detector electronics↗
DOE OSTI2022

NCSP – AWE Collaboration [Slides]

Several points of collaboration between NCSP and AWE are noted, including the CIDAAS IS589 installation plan, CIDAAS testing, nuclear verification and detector physics, nuclear material control and nuclear security, and hands on criticality safety training.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

233 U oxide Measurement Campaign Data: Passive and Active Neutron Multiplicity Measurements of Uranium Oxide Samples at Oak Ridge National Laboratory

During FY2023, three measurement campaigns were conducted at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The goal was to quantify the neutron signatures of samples of uranium oxide containing uranium 233 and uranium-235. This report presents the neutron multiplicity data obtained using the large volume active well coincidence counter (LV-AWCC).

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Utilizing ensemble learning for performance and power modeling and improvement of parallel cancer deep learning CANDLE benchmarks

Abstract Machine learning (ML) continues to grow in importance across nearly all domains in modeling to learn from data. Often a tradeoff exists between a model's ability to minimize bias and variance. In this article, we utilize ensemble learning to combine linear, nonlinear, and tree‐/rule‐based ML methods to cope with the bias‐variance tradeoff and result in more accurate models. We use the datasets collected for two parallel cancer deep learning CANDLE benchmarks, NT3 and P1B2, to build performance and power models based on hardware performance counters using single‐object and multiple‐objects ensemble learning to identify the most important counters for improvement on the Cray XC40 Theta at Argonne National Laboratory. Based on the insights from these models, we improve the performance and energy of P1B2 and NT3 by optimizing the deep learning environments TensorFlow, Keras, Horovod, and Python under the huge page size of 8 MB. Experimental results show that ensemble learning not only produces more accurate models but also provides more robust performance counter ranking. We achieve up to 61.15% performance improvement and up to 62.58% energy saving for P1B2 and up to 55.81% performance improvement and up to 52.60% energy saving for NT3 on up to 24,576 cores.

Wu, Xingfu↗
DOE OSTI2026

Transversely pumped laser driven particle accelerator

We present a novel acceleration scheme capable of accelerating electrons and ions in an underdense plasma. Transversely Pumped Acceleration (TPA) uses multiple arrays of counter-propagating laser beamlets that focus onto a central acceleration axis. Tuning the injection timing and the spacing between the adjacent beamlets allows for precise control over the position and velocity of the intersection point of the counter-propagating beam arrays. This results in an accelerating structure that propagates orthogonal to the direction of laser propagation. We present the theory that sets the injection timing of the incoming pulses to accelerate electrons and ions with a tunable phase velocity plasma wave. Simulation results are also presented which demonstrate 1.12 GeV proton beams accelerated in 3.6 mm of plasma and electron acceleration gradients on the order of 1 TeV/m in a scheme that circumvents dephasing. This work has potential applications as a compact accelerator for medical physics and high energy physics colliders.

Laser-produced plasmas↗
DOE OSTI2021

Binding of noble gas atoms by superhalogens

Because of their closed shells, noble gas (Ng) atoms (Ng = Ne, Ar, Kr, and Xe) seldom take part in chemical reactions, yet finding such mechanisms not only is of scientific interest but also has practical significance. Following a recent work by Mayer et al. [Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 116, 8167–8172 (2019)] on the room temperature binding of Ar to a superelectrophilic boron site embedded in a negative ion complex, B 12 (CN) 11 - , we have systematically studied the effect of cluster size and terminal ligands on the interaction of Ng by focusing on B 12 X 11 (Ng) (X = H, CN, and BO) and B 12 X 10 (Ng) 2 (X = CN and BO) whose stabilities are governed by the Wade–Mingos rule and on C 5 BX 5 (Ng) (X = H, F, and CN) and C 4 B 2 (CN) 4 (Ng) 2 whose stabilities are governed by the Huckel’s aromaticity rule. Our conclusion, based on density functional theory, is that both the cluster size and the terminal ligands matter—the interaction between the cluster and the Ng atoms becomes stronger with increasing cluster size and the electron affinity of the terminal ligands. Our studies also led to a counter-intuitive finding—removing multiple terminal ligands can enable electrophilic centers to bind multiple Ng atoms simultaneously without compromising their binding strength.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2021

DESIGN OF A THIRD HARMONIC CAVITY WITH LOW R/Q FOR THE ESR IN BNL EIC

For the electron Storage Ring (ESR) of Brookhaven Na-tional Lab Electron Ion Collider (BNL EIC), beam loading is a great concern due to the high beam current together with abortion gap, especially for harmonic cavities due to higher operational frequency. There were attempts to use feedback/feedforward control, using multiple cavities with counter-phasing [1]. A straightforward way to lower beam loading effect is to design a cavity with low R/Q. In this paper, we show such a design for the 3rd harmonic cavity for BNL EIC ESR.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2021

HOM DAMPER DESIGN FOR BNL EIC 197MHZ CRAB CAVITY

For the electron Storage Ring (ESR) of Brookhaven Na-tional Lab Electron Ion Collider (BNL EIC), beam loading is a great concern due to the high beam current together with abortion gap, especially for harmonic cavities due to higher operational frequency. There were attempts to use feedback/feedforward control, using multiple cavities with counter-phasing [1]. A straightforward way to lower beam loading effect is to design a cavity with low R/Q. In this paper, we show such a design for the 3rd harmonic cavity for BNL EIC ESR.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Surface plasmon polariton pulse shaping via two-dimensional Bragg grating pairs

Abstract We demonstrate control over the spatial and temporal properties of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) launched from nanohole arrays in silver. The arrays provide wave vector matching to allow the conversion of free-space photons into counter-propagating SPPs. SPPs launched from multiple arrays interfere at well-defined spatial positions, and the interference fringes form an all-SPP periodic nano-optical grating which evolves in space and time as the SPPs propagate. The spatio-temporal characteristics of the optical grating can be tuned through various nanohole array parameters such as tilt angle, separation, and array width. In addition, we examine multiperiodic arrays (MPAs) consisting of arrays with different pitches placed adjacent to one another. This platform allows the temporal interference of SPPs with different central wavelengths to be tailored through the MPA geometric and structural parameters. The temporal interference serves as an encoded signal, whereby the frequency components can be controlled by the array properties.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Definitions for Testing Whether Evaluated Nuclear Data Relative Uncertainties are Realistic in Size

This document describes various tests that can be used to check whether evaluated relative uncertainties stored in nuclear-data covariances are realistic. To be more specific, these tests check whether nuclear-data uncertainties could be either over- or under-estimated given the input that usually enters the evaluation of nuclear-data mean values and covariances. Warning and error messages on the reliability of nuclear-data uncertainties will result from these tests. If uncertainties of one specific nuclear-data observable trigger warning messages from multiple tests, an evaluator should counter-check the reliability of the relative uncertainties of this particular nuclear-data covariance matrix.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Multi-Sourced Collaboration for the Production and Refining of Rare Elements and Critical Metals (Final Technical Report)

The project objective was to develop a feasible and cost-effective method for recovering rare earth elements (REEs) and critical materials (CMs) from coal and coal byproducts, resulting in high-purity individually separated REEs and CMs. The targeted REEs included Y, Pr, Nd, Gd, Dy, and Sm, with a purity of over 99.5%, while the CMs included Co, Mn, Ga, Sr, Li, Ni, Zn, and Ge, with a purity of over 90%. The project aimed to design a prototype facility capable of producing 1-3 tonnes/day of high-purity REO mixes. The work was divided into four designated circuits: 1) REE extraction and concentration, 2) REE separation and purification, 3) RE metal production, and 4) CM production. To achieve these goals, the project involved 11 tasks, including technology reviews, research, process flow diagram development, mass balance estimation, and preliminary technical-economic analysis. The project team included researchers from the University of Kentucky, University of Alabama and Virginia Tech as well as process specialists from Argonne National Laboratory. MP Materials provided technical support regarding rare earth markets and processing while Alliance Coal performed resource assessment. The project included a market analysis for Nd/Pr, Tb, Dy, Gd, Y, Co, Mn, Li, Sr, Ga, Ni, Zn, and Ge. These analyses provided insights into the supply and demand trends as well as historic and future projections of market price relative to purity requirements for these elements. Two coal resources were selected for the project: the West Kentucky No. 13 (Baker) Seam and an undisclosed lignite resource in the Illinois coal basin. The estimated quantities of REEs in these resources were calculated based on production samples and drilling data. It was estimated that there is adequate supply for an operation producing one metric ton daily of higher purity mixed rare earth oxides (MREO) for approximately 20 years at a site located in western Kentucky. In Circuit 1, project data was obtained from a pilot heap leach and REE concentration facility. It was concluded that the existing circuit, which generated a MREO concentrate, two types of CM mixed products, and Li- and Sr-containing waters, would be suitable feed for circuits 2-4. Data from the first-of-its-kind coal coarse refuse heap leach pilot pad played a crucial role in estimating reliable elemental concentrations of the pregnant leaching solution (PLS). The average total REE concentration in the PLS was found to be 28.6 ppm. In Circuit 2, several concepts were explored including a novel process referred to as solvent-assisted chromatography (SAC). This concept involved a novel columnar reactor that incorporated multiple mixer/settlers, thereby enabling the operation of counter-flowing aqueous and organic phases. Unfortunately, due to project time constraints, a complete fundamental modeling analysis could not be completed to fully evaluate the technology. Molten salt electrowinning was considered as an alternative for circuit 3 following circuit 2 purification circuit utilizing the novel SAC process. A mass and energy balance of Nd reduction to metal in a fluoride containing molten salt electrolyte was conducted. Comparisons were made with the current state of Asian molten salt electrorefining, and potential improvements in siphoning rare earth metals (REM) from the reactor were presented. A cost estimate was performed for the production of 1 tonne per day, which yielded a total of $2.29 million for the nine electrowinning (EW) cells required. The selected option for circuits 2 and 3 was a plasma distillation process, which initially separates rare earth elements (REEs) from other elements. This is followed by selective electrowinning in various ionic liquids. The selection was made on the basis of thermodynamic modeling and experimental data previously published by a project partner. The combination offers an innovative approach to integrated refining and RE metal production. For Circuit 4, an extensive literature review was conducted for the processing of the CMs. The ultimate decision was to utilize a combined plasma and ionic liquid process as well to produce individual high-purity concentrates of Zn, Ni, Co, Mn, and Mg. A separate flowsheet for Li and Sr was recommended, which would yield carbonates of these elements. Due to the lack of suitable experimental data at this time, a process recommendation could not be provided but several methods have been proposed for consideration. Lastly, a techno-economic analysis (TEA) was conducted to assess the effectiveness of the proposed process for further investigation. The TEA results revealed a capital expense (CapEx) of $737 million and an annual operational expense (OpEx) of $220 million. Due to the selected elements, the hypothetical heap leach pad can produce 1 metric tonne per day of REO equivalent, but a conscious decision was made to only treat targeted REEs, resulting in the production of 0.4 metric tonne of REM. An estimated annual revenue of $90.87 million was projected based on standard market pricing information provided by the funding agency. During the TEA, ten different modules were evaluated for costing purposes. The precipitation circuit was identified as the largest single operational expense, followed by the Mg/Mn process due to the amount of treated metal. In terms of capital expenditures, the heap leach process incurred the highest cost, followed by the Mg/Mn process. The scalability of the plasma process is a crucial consideration since the reactors cannot be scaled beyond the largest demonstrated size due to their reliance on surface area of the slag and vapor phase. The purity estimate for the REEs are generally 98%±2% to produce a metal. The purity level being lower than the project objective was due to the lack of specific experimental data needed to tighten the tolerance of the estimates. Based on literature and previous experience, the CMs are estimated as follows; Ga (95%+, metal), Sr (95%+, carbonate), Li (95%+, carbonate), Ni (98%±2%, metal), Zn (95%+, metal sponge), Ge (95%+, metal), Co (98%±2%, metal), and Mn (98%±2%, metal).

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗
DOE OSTI2023

Cycloidal wave energy converter using fixed differential buoyancy to control operating torques

A floating mooring system for a single CycWEC applies counter forces and torques to keep a generator suitably stationary for power generation without requiring fixed attachments to the ocean floor or requiring a large frame interconnecting multiple CycWECs. The mooring system uses floats or floatation structure with differential ballasting to counter operating torque and drag plates to counter reactive forces. The floatation structures may be used to float the CycWEC for transport to a deployment location, where changing the overall ballasting of the floatation structures submerges the CycWEC to a desired depth and differential ballasting in the floatation structures counts expected operating torques.

Siegel, Stefan G.↗
DOE OSTI2022

Multiplicity trigger detector for the S π RIT experiment

A multiplicity trigger detector (MTD) was developed for the SπRIT experiment that aims to probe the high- density symmetry energy via heavy-ion collisions (HICs). The MTD is designed to measure the charged-particle multiplicity in HICs to provide a trigger signal that can be used to select high-multiplicity events induced by central collisions. The MTD consists of two side-walls segmented into 30 plastic scintillation paddles, each equipped with a multi-pixel photon counter. A custom board with EASIROC front-end ASIC is used as readout electronics. A multiplicity logic signal is generated by an on-board FPGA that processes the discriminated signals from EASIROCs. The overall latency of the whole detector system for outputting the trigger is less than 100 ns, including 52 ns of electronics latency for processing the signals. During the measurement of 112 Sn + 124 Sn reactions at an incident energy of 270 MeV/nucleon, the minimum multiplicity threshold of the MTD was set to 4, where the overall trigger efficiency was obtained to be about 39 % for inclusive nuclear reactions. Furthermore, a simulation study with a numerical calculation of HICs found that the central collisions of impact parameters of less than 4 fm can be triggered with a high efficiency of more than 95 % by the experimental trigger condition.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2026

In Search of Strategic Advantage: Understanding the Landscape of Technology Competition

In an era of seemingly ever-increasing global tensions, technology competition is often mentioned as a pathway for U.S. and allied success. The opening arguments are often very simple. “This is the most important struggle of the 21st century.” “We cannot afford to lose this competition.” “The United States must not fall behind in this race.” “We must be faster, more agile, more committed, more thoughtful than our competitors.” Competition around a particular technology is described as a once in a generational struggle with immense stakes. “This is a Sputnik moment” is a common analogy. The solutions proposed are fairly straightforward – more of everything. We should spend more money. We should build more widgets or more factories. We should innovate more. We should focus more. We should attract more talent. We should file more patents. We should produce more PhDs. If we do more of everything, we will have more technology than our opponents, they will see our technological advantage, they will not challenge us, and therefore we will win. If we fail to do these things, we will lose. To paraphrase Homer Simpson, in national security policy discussions technology competition has become the cause of, and solution to, all of life’s problems. And yet, beyond doing more across the board technology competition is not at all simple. First, it is a concept increasingly muddled together with other big issues such as innovation policy, national defense strategy, great power competition, allied cooperation, public-private partnerships, and a host of other issues. Certain policies, systems, coalitions, and so on may be excellent for tackling one challenge, but far less optional for others. Second, it is inherently dynamic, an action-reaction cycle between multiple players. A brilliant opening move can be squandered or successfully countered in subsequent moves. Third, there are limits to what you can do - limited time, limited financial resources, limited human capital, and limited knowledge of what lies ahead. One is forced to choose.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Modal dynamics of high-frequency transverse combustion instabilities

This paper investigates the modal dynamics of self-excited high frequency transverse instabilities in a multi-nozzle, swirl-stabilized can combustor. It utilizes results from multiple pressure sensors to decompose the disturbance into clockwise (CW) and counter-clockwise (CCW) waves, enabling a reconstruction of the pressure amplitude, phase, anti-nodal line location, and spin ratio. While these types of decompositions have been demonstrated on small scale combustors, particularly annular combustors, this is the first study to analyze these results for a high power, multi-nozzle can combustor. Its particular focus is in characterizing the system evolution in phase space and the nature of the system attractors under linearly unstable conditions; results are presented in spin ratio-phase difference space, so that limit cycle oscillations appear as fixed points. Results are shown for conditions where three different attractors dominate (standing, CW, and CCW) but are taken for very long time periods (~50,000 cycles) so that the system's interaction with these attractors can be observed. For the standing mode-dominated case, the phase portrait shows spiral trajectories converging to a single fixed point. For the spinning mode dominated cases, however, multiple fixed points and saddle points were observed, and the trajectories showed a more complicated structure. It was also shown that even though the CW mode is dominant, this mode intermittently switches to standing or CCW modes for short period. These results suggest that the strength of each attractor depends on test conditions and that random noise stochastically perturbs the system so that large regions of the phase space are explored. Lastly, one interesting observation is that the angular velocity of the anti-nodal line linearly varies with the spin ratio under standing-mode dominant conditions.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2023

Characterization of Impure Plutonium Oxide Neutron Calibration Standards through Evaluation by Neutron Multiplicity Equations

Plutonium oxide calibration standards STD4C, STD6C and STD8C have been historically used, and are currently the only MT52 standards in use, for calibration and measurement control program of Passive/Active Neutron Coincidence Counter known as PAN1 at PF-4. In this paper, previously measured high-statistics data are used in conjunction with neutron multiplicity equations to determine multiplication M and α parameter of these standards as the explicit knowledge of these parameters may allow quantification of precision and bias of accountability measurements of different material types and matrices of items.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Effect of rotation on negative triangularity plasmas in DIII-D

At the DIII-D tokamak, plasmas with negative triangularity (NT) have been found to have similar energy confinement times as H-mode plasmas with positive triangularity. These NT plasmas also have a stable edge that inhibits H-mode, lacks dangerous edge transients, and has naturally low impurity confinement. For these reasons, NT plasmas have the potential to be a transformative reactor scenario. To determine the importance of strong co-current neutral beam torque for NT performance at DIII-D, scans of neutral beam torque at constant neutral beam power have been performed. These scans have shown that the energy confinement time for a basic, inductive NT scenario (q 95 ≈ 2.8) decreases by 16% when torque is reduced to reactor levels. This reduction in confinement can be replicated with gyrofluid modeling that isolates the role of E x B shear in the change in transport. In a separate set of discharges with lower plasma current (q 95 ≈ 2.5), no significant correlation between confinement time and rotation was found. Throughout this investigation, excellent MHD stability was observed, even with very low toroidal rotation. Further, low impurity confinement was found at multiple rotation levels. Throughout the campaign, rotation near the edge was counter-current, consistent with the measurement of counter-current intrinsic edge rotation, and these observations agree with NT results from the TCV tokamak.

confinement↗