Results for “ROOM” — Page 21

DOE OSTI2017

Human Factors Engineering Aspects of Modifications in Control Room Modernization

This report describes the basic aspects of control room modernization projects in the U.S. nuclear industry and the need for supplementary guidance on the integration of human factors considerations into the licensing and regulatory aspects of digital upgrades. The report pays specific attention to the integration of principles described in NUREG-0711 (Human Factors Engineering Program Review Model) and how supplementary guidance can help to raise general awareness in the industry regarding the complexities of control room modernization projects created by many interdependent regulations, standards and guidelines. The report also describes how human factors engineering principles and methods provided by various resources and international standards can help in navigating through the process of licensing digital upgrades. In particular, the integration of human factors engineering guidance and requirements into the process of licensing digital upgrades can help reduce uncertainty related to development of technical bases for digital upgrades that will avoid the introduction of new failure modes.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

DOE OSTI2017

Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program Development of an Initial Business Case Framework for Fleet-Based Control Room Modernization

This milestone report presents a plan or framework for developing a generic business case for implementation of technology that supports Control Room Modernization (CRM) in existing power plants (NPP). The decision fund CRM activities often depends on demonstrating actual cost reductions that can be credited to budgets and thereby truly reduce operations and maintenance (O&M) or capital costs. The proposed Business Case Methodology (BCM) thus addresses the fact that the lack of a business case is often cited by utilities as a barrier to pursuing large-scale CRM activities. Using past BCM analyses for CRM as a model for this framework, this BCM proposes to base cost savings on advanced digital instrumentation and control (I&C), human-system interface (HSI), and work process technologies that allow NPP operators to conduct control room operations with improved human factors and efficiency, and therefore operate with fewer operational events. The technologies employed in CRM include large overview displays, task-based operator displays, computer- based procedures, advanced alarm systems, computerized operator support systems, and wireless networks, among others, but this initial plan will also focus only on a subset of these technologies. Thus, under this BCM model, labor savings can be harvested in terms of reduced overtime and redistribution of work. In short, the BCM addresses the benefits of the technology as opposed to the investment costs of the utility. The methodology provides the means to determine the maximum investment that will result in a positive return. Significant savings are also demonstrated as reduced time to bring the plant back on line after completion of outages. The benefits are quantified to a rough order of magnitude, providing directional guidance to NPPs that are interested in developing similar business cases.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

DOE OSTI2017

Regulatory Aspects of the Human Factors Engineering Process in Control Room Modernization

This report describes the basic aspects of control room modernization projects in the U.S. nuclear industry and the need for supplementary guidance on the integration of human factors considerations into the licensing and regulatory aspects of digital upgrades. The report pays specific attention to the integration of principles described in NUREG-0711 (Human Factors Engineering Program Review Model) and how supplementary guidance can help to raise general awareness in the industry regarding the complexities of control room modernization projects created by many interdependent regulations, standards and guidelines. The report also describes how human factors engineering principles and methods provided by various resources and international standards can help in navigating through the process of licensing digital upgrades. In particular, the integration of human factors engineering guidance and requirements into the process of licensing digital upgrades can help reduce uncertainty related to development of technical bases for digital upgrades that will avoid the introduction of new failure modes.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

DOE OSTI2018

Control Room Modernization End-State Design Philosophy

The Control Room Modernization (CRM) research effort is a part of the Light-Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) Program, which is a research and development program sponsored by Department of Energy (DOE) and performed in close collaboration with industry research and development programs that provides the technical foundations for licensing and managing the long-term, safe, and economical operation of current nuclear power plants. One of the primary missions of the LWRS program is to help the U.S. nuclear industry adopt new technologies and engineering solutions that facilitate the continued safe operation of the plants and extension of the current operating licenses. This report describes the background and technical basis for an end-state vision design philosophy for and advanced hybrid control room.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

DOE OSTI2019

Report for 2.2.1 Task 5: Develop and Document a State-Based Alarm System for a Nuclear Power Plant Control Room Using Machine Learning. Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program report

In legacy control rooms the operators might have 20 to 30 alarms to deal with on 12 control boards, during a reactor trip. The new digital alarm system in the upgraded control room will display between 150 and 200 alarm points on a single screen. This overload of information prevents the operators from identifying any abnormal alarms quickly without having to scroll through the alarm list looking for the abnormal alarms. One way to tackle this problem could be to attempt to create a state-based alarm system which would identify plant states and would identify which alarms are expected in those states and suppress them from the alarm screen so that any unexpected alarms would be displayed and easily identified to the operators. This can be done today but is very labor intensive in that an operator or training instructor would be required to run scenarios and log the alarms to be suppressed. The hope is that Machine Learning (ML) can provide an alternative solution with less manual effort required.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗

DOE OSTI2021

High Value Opportunities to Advance Automation in Electric Grid Control Rooms

Grid operators and electric utilities are increasingly driven to develop automated processes and introduce decision support tools to reduce cognitive demand on System Operations staff and aid in the operational decision-making process. However, System Operation staff are traditionally hesitant to implement and accept new solutions, automation processes, and tools within the control room. This paper explores high-value opportunities to advance automation in electric grid control rooms for the purpose of improving grid safety, reliability, and resiliency during normal and emergency operating conditions.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

DOE OSTI2026

Control Room of the Future Testbed Workshop – After-Action Report

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Electricity is supporting a one-year, multi-laboratory effort to define the needs and requirements for a Control Room of the Future testbed, or CROFT. The effort responds to increasing grid complexity driven by large new loads, dynamic generation resources, and the growing adoption of advanced technologies and tools, including artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). To support safe, secure, and effective grid modernization, CROFT will focus on how emerging technologies and tools can be rigorously evaluated in realistic operational settings, with attention to human-machine interaction, cognitive load, and workforce readiness. The project team includes Argonne National Laboratory, Idaho National Laboratory, National Laboratory of the Rockies, and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. As part of the scoping effort, the team conducted two industry-focused workshops: one at DTECH on February 5, 2026, informed by prior industry interviews, and a second on May 4, 2026, adjacent to IEEE T&D. These engagements brought together utilities, vendors, consultants, national laboratories, academia, and government stakeholders to identify and prioritize use cases, barriers, validation needs, data-sharing constraints, and near- and longer-term requirements. This feedback will directly inform CROFT’s architecture and research focus areas, ensuring the testbed is grounded in real-world operational needs and designed to evaluate emerging technologies and tools in realistic control-room environments.

artificial intelligence↗

DOE OSTI2021

Radioactive Thoron 220 Rn Exhalation From Unfired Mud Building Material Into Room Air of Earthen Dwellings

Thoron ( 220 Rn), an isotope of radon with a strong α-decay energy, and its short-lived metallic progeny can pose an elevated lung cancer hazard in room air when unfired-soil derived building materials are used in earthen dwellings. Changes in moisture content and density influencing the thoron exhalation rate from earthen materials into room air were studied in the laboratory with terra rossa from a village on the Ðòng Van Karst Plateau Geopark, Viêt Nam, where ethnic minorities construct traditional dwellings with unfired terra rossa walls and floors. Our results show that the thoron exhalation rate from mud surfaces depends on (i) the content of radioactive parental nuclides in mineral components; (ii) the moisture content of mud where ~5–10 weight % water maximizes the 220 Rn exhalation rate; and (iii) the density of dry mud as primarily controlled by internal macroscopic voids, fractures, and porosity. Additional time-series of 220 Rn exhalation data from an interior mud wall of a terra rossa-built house under different seasonal and weather conditions show that the temperature is influencing thoron exhalation via the water vapor pressure deficit (VPD) in air and the associated amount of atmospheric moisture adsorbed onto indoor mud surfaces. Our data suggest that occupants of “mud house” earthen dwellings in northern Viêt Nam are exposed to an increased thoron geohazard during cooler weather, low VPD, and high relative humidity in air. Detailed studies are needed to evaluate the thoron geohazard for inhabitants of mud-built dwellings in other climates and geological terrains.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2023

Room-Temperature Eutectic Synthesis for Upcycling of Cathode Materials

Ni-rich LiNixMnyCo1−x−yO2 (NMC) materials have been adopted in a range of applications, including electric vehicles. The recycled NMC material from a spent cell would be much more valuable if it could be upgraded to a Ni-rich, more energy-dense version of the material. This work demonstrates a simple, inexpensive, and facile method to upcycle LiNi1/3Mn1/3Co1/3O2 (NMC111, 160 mAh∙g−1), a cathode used in early generations of electric vehicle batteries, to LiNi0.8Mn0.1Co0.1O2 (NMC811, 190 mAh∙g−1), a more energy-dense cathode material. In this study, a preliminary investigation into a room-temperature eutectic synthesis of NMC811 is performed using NMC111, LiOH, and nickel nitrate as precursors. The synthesized material showed the desired crystal structure and stoichiometry, though the cycle life and Li diffusion coefficient need improvement when compared to commercially available NMC811. This study demonstrates an interesting proof of concept of the room-temperature eutectic synthesis process for LIB cathodes and could be improved by tuning the synthesis conditions.

lithium-ion battery↗

DOE OSTI2021

Quaternary Semiconductor Cd1−xZnxTe1−ySey for High-Resolution, Room-Temperature Gamma-Ray Detection

The application of Cd0.9Zn0.1Te (CZT) single crystals, the primary choice for high-resolution, room-temperature compact gamma-ray detectors in the field of medical imaging and homeland security for the past three decades, is limited by the high cost of production and maintenance due to low detector grade crystal growth yield. The recent advent of its quaternary successor, Cd0.9Zn0.1Te1−ySey (CZTS), has exhibited remarkable crystal growth yield above 90% compared to that of ~33% for CZT. The inclusion of Se in appropriate stoichiometry in the CZT matrix is responsible for reducing the concentration of sub-grain boundary (SGB) networks which greatly enhances the compositional homogeneity and growth yield. SGB networks also host defect centers responsible for charge trapping, hence their reduced concentration ensures minimized charge trapping. Indeed, CZTS single crystals have shown remarkable improvement in electron charge transport properties and energy resolution over CZT detectors. However, our studies have found that the overall charge transport in CZTS is still limited by the hole trapping. In this article, we systematically review the advances in the CZTS growth techniques, its performance as room-temperature radiation detector, and the role of defects and their passivation studies needed to improve the performance of CZTS detectors further.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

NASA NTRS1965

Microbial profile of laminar flow clean rooms

Microbial profile of laminar flow clean rooms - viable particle concentrations on surfaces of spacecraft and table tops and in air of occupied and empty downflow and cross flow rooms

PARTICLE PRODUCTION↗

NASA NTRS1966

The Bacteriology of ''clean Rooms'' Final Report

Microbial sampling in industrial clean rooms, hand contact contamination experiments, and evaluation of vertical laminar flow room

CLEAN ROOM↗

NASA NTRS1967

The bacteriology of clean rooms

Space hardware sterlization studies including clean rooms, hand contact contamination experiments, and vertical laminar flow room evaluation

CLEAN ROOM↗

NASA NTRS2014

Line Coupling Effects in the Isotropic Raman Spectra of N2: A Quantum Calculation at Room Temperature

We present quantum calculations of the relaxation matrix for the Q branch of N2 at room temperature using a recently proposed N2-N2 rigid rotor potential. Close coupling calculations were complemented by coupled states studies at high energies and provide about 10200 two-body state-to state cross sections from which the needed one-body cross-sections may be obtained. For such temperatures, convergence has to be thoroughly analyzed since such conditions are close to the limit of current computational feasibility. This has been done using complementary calculations based on the energy corrected sudden formalism. Agreement of these quantum predictions with experimental data is good, but the main goal of this work is to provide a benchmark relaxation matrix for testing more approximate methods which remain of a great utility for complex molecular systems at room (and higher) temperatures.

nitrogen↗

NASA NTRS2026

Highly Porous Polyimide Gel for Use as Battery Separator with Room Temperature Ionic Liquid Electrolytes

Advanced aerospace vehicular concepts require advances in many existing technologies, including space power and energy storage systems. Batteries represent one of the major areas in need of improvement, both in terms of energy density and safety, with growing concerns over the fire safety of commercial lithium-ion batteries. This has prompted efforts to develop nonflammable battery components, namely the electrolyte and separator. Existing commercial lithium-ion batteries utilize polyolefin microporous membranes as separators with an electrolyte consisting of a lithium salt dissolved in a mixture of cyclic carbonate solvents. This separator/electrolyte combination has ionic conductivities in the range of 10 −2 to 10 −3 S/cm. However, the cyclic carbonate solvents are inherently flammable. Room-temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) appear to be a safer alternative. They offer good ionic conductivities and are inherently nonvolatile and nonflammable, giving them a safety advantage. However, many promising RTILs for battery electrolytes are not compatible with commercial polyolefin separator materials. Alternative separator materials, such as polyimides, are non-flammable and are capable of accepting RTILs into their structure. Polyimide gels, with a composition of 4,4′-oxydianiline, 3,3′,4,4′-tetracarboxylic dianhydride and cross-linked with Desmodur N3300A, possess an open-porous, fibrillar network architecture which offers a high degree of porosity (typically greater than 85% porosity) for lithium-ion transport and conduction, as well as good mechanical properties. Furthermore, these polyimide gels are compatible with selected imidazolium-based RTILs. Nonflammable separator/electrolyte systems with room-temperature conductivities in the range of 10 −3 S/cm have been evaluated. It has been demonstrated that 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide was the most promising among six RTILs screened, in terms of both ionic conductivity and constant current cycling.

Polyimide↗

DOE OSTI2017

A HUMAN FACTORS ENGINEERING PROCESS TO SUPPORT HUMAN-SYSTEM INTERFACE DESIGN IN CONTROL ROOM MODERNIZATION

The primary objective of the United States (U.S.) Department of Energy (DOE) Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) program is to sustain operation of the existing commercial nuclear power plants (NPPs) through a multi-pathway approach in conducting research and development (R&D). The Advanced Instrumentation, Information, and Control (II&C) System Technologies pathway conducts targeted R&D to address aging and reliability concerns with legacy instrumentation and control (I&C) and other information systems in existing U.S. NPPs. Control room modernization is an important part following this pathway, and human factors experts at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) have been involved in conducting R&D to support migration of new digital main control room (MCR) technologies from legacy analog and legacy digital I&C. This paper describes a human factors engineering (HFE) process that supports human-system interface (HSI) design in MCR modernization activities, particularly with migration of old digital to new digital I&C. The process described in this work is an expansion from the LWRS Report INL/EXT-16-38576, and is a requirements-driven approach that aligns with NUREG-0711 requirements. The work described builds upon the existing literature by adding more detail around key tasks and decisions to make when transitioning from HSI Design into Verification and Validation (V&V). The overall objective of this process is to inform HSI design and elicit specific, measurable, and achievable human factors criteria for new digital technologies. Upon following this process, utilities should have greater confidence with transitioning from HSI design into V&V.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

DOE OSTI2017

A Human Factors Engineering Process to Support Human-System Interface Design in Control Room Modernization

The primary objective of the United States (U.S.) Department of Energy (DOE) Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) program is to sustain operation of the existing commercial nuclear power plants (NPPs) through a multi-pathway approach in conducting research and development (R&D). The Advanced Instrumentation, Information, and Control (II&C) System Technologies pathway conducts targeted R&D to address aging and reliability concerns with legacy instrumentation and control (I&C) and other information systems in existing U.S. NPPs. Control room modernization is an important part following this pathway, and human factors experts at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) have been involved in conducting R&D to support migration of new digital main control room (MCR) technologies from legacy analog and legacy digital I&C. This paper describes a human factors engineering (HFE) process that supports human-system interface (HSI) design in MCR modernization activities, particularly with migration of old digital to new digital I&C. The process described in this work is an expansion from the LWRS Report INL/EXT-16-38576, and is a requirements-driven approach that aligns with NUREG-0711 requirements. The work described builds upon the existing literature by adding more detail around key tasks and decisions to make when transitioning from HSI Design into Verification and Validation (V&V). The overall objective of this process is to inform HSI design and elicit specific, measurable, and achievable human factors criteria for new digital technologies. Upon following this process, utilities should have greater confidence with transitioning from HSI design into V&V.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

DOE OSTI2020

A Tool for Performing Link Analysis, Operational Sequence Analysis, and Workload Analysis to Support Nuclear Power Plant Control Room Modernization

Nuclear power continues to have an imperative role for the U.S.’s electricity generation. However, for these nuclear power plants (NPPs) to remain economically viable, new strategies for reducing operations and maintenance costs must be explored. The U.S. Department of Energy Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program is researching how to digitally transform existing analog and hybrid main control rooms into a fully integrated control room that addresses this challenge. The transformation will fundamentally change the conduct of operations for these U.S. NPPs. Human factors engineering has a vital role in this effort, where traditional task analysis methods are important in informing the design of advanced human-system interface displays. This work describes a preliminary tool to support task analysis for the development of these advanced displays. Details on the use of this tool, including the specific task analysis methods offered, are presented in this paper.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗