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At least 433 records · Page 24
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

Development of the Table of Initial Isolation and Protective Action Distances for the 2024 Emergency Response Guidebook

The transportation of hazardous materials creates numerous opportunities for the release of toxic substances into the environment, whether caused by traffic accidents, train derailments, equipment failures, or human error. Such releases can pose acute hazards to the general public and to emergency response personnel who are the first to arrive at the scene. To help first responders determine whether a shipment is potentially hazardous and decide what actions should be taken if a toxic spill does occur, the Emergency Response Guidebook (ERG) is published by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), Transport Canada, and the Secretariat of Transport and Communications of Mexico; with contributions from Centro de Informaciòn Quìmica para Emergencias of Argentina. The most recent version is the 2024 edition of the ERG (ERG 2024), titled 2024 Emergency Response Guidebook (ERG2024). The ERG provides essential information about firefighting, spill response, and potential public health effects. For chemicals that are toxic by inhalation (TIH) and chemicals that produce TIH gases upon reaction with water (TIH by water reactivity or TIHWR), the ERG provides initial isolation distances (IIDs) and protective action distances (PADs). The IID defines the radius of the zone around the spill that should be accessed solely by people who are directly involved in emergency response. The PAD is the distance downwind of the source of the release within which persons should be either evacuated or sheltered in place, depending on the severity of the incident and the nature of the population (e.g., density, age, health).

63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRON. POLLUTAN↗
DOE OSTI2023

Geochemical Modeling Using OLI Systems Mixed Solvent Electrolyte Model in Support of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant

Aqueous electrolyte thermodynamic models were developed for synthetic Salado (GWB) and Castile (ERDA-6) brines to inform the experimental design and to facilitate laboratory data interpretation in geochemical studies supporting disposal in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). The thermodynamic models, which include the relevant vapor-liquid-solid equilibria for the oxidation-reduction conditions of interest, enable computation of system parameters such as activity-based pH, E h [vs. standard hydrogen electrode (SHE)], ionic strength, total dissolved solids, and solution density; the chemical speciation of all phases; saturation tendencies for thermodynamically feasible solids; and changes in brine chemistry because of the addition of H 2 (g), argon, MgO, Fe(0), and other waste form components. The impacts of oxidation-reduction potential (ORP) and pH on aqueous speciation and dominant solid phases were also assessed with the aid of real-solution Pourbaix diagrams for key elements of interest. In addition to the OLI modeling results, limited measurement data for pH and ORP standards are provided, analyzed, and discussed.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2025

An Assessment of the Error Due to Computing Waste Isolation Pilot Plant Porosity Using the Porosity Response Surface Approach

The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant Performance Assessment (WIPP PA) must predict the likelihood that radionuclides will escape into the biosphere via mechanisms that depend on geohydraulic flow. Ideally, one would predict the geohydraulic flow using coupled geohydraulic and geomechanical simulations, but such coupled simulations are not computationally tractable. Instead, Sandia has historically used a look-up table of porosities for a given fluid pressure and time, called the porosity response surface, but this approach can introduce porosity errors because it largely ignores the porosity’s dependence on the past fluid pressure history. This report discusses efforts to quantify these porosity errors for both the legacy and new porosity response surfaces. Six hundred different fluid pressure histories were fed through the legacy/new geomechanical model and the legacy/new porosity response surface to generate six hundred porosity error histories. The error associated with the legacy porosity surface was substantial, while the error associated with the new porosity surface was typically small, except when fluid pressures exceeded the lithostatic pressure at the repository. In response to the errors at high pressures, a preliminary study of the WIPP PA’s sensitivity to these porosity errors was conducted. The study found that reducing the porosity errors at high pressures negligibly affected predictions of radionuclide releases. Finally, an initial machine-learned model for porosity was developed. This ML model significantly reduced the porosity error at high pressures, but sizable errors remained, so more development is necessary before coupling an ML model to the geohydraulic model.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2025

Effects of Salt Concentration, Ionic Strength, and Water Activity on the Growth of a WIPP Archaeal Isolate, Halobacterium sp.

An extremely halophilic archaeon ( Halobacterium sp., WIPP strain), isolated from WIPP halite, was tested for its ability to grow in media containing various combinations of sodium and magnesium chloride that influenced overall ionic strength and water activity. Halobacterium sp. grew well in most tested salt combinations, and its growth appeared to depend more upon the relative contribution of sodium to overall ionic strength than on other parameters. Growth rates were highest when media consisted of at least 2 M NaCl and lowest when NaCl dropped below 20% of the ionic strength (usually less than 0.5 M). High magnesium concentrations ( 1 and 1.5 M MgCh 2 ) did not prevent Halobacterium sp. growth, as long as the sodium contribution was sufficient. Water activity was not a definitive factor in determining growth, because this value did not reach an extreme lower limit in the experimental media.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2025

Targeted Mobile Measurements to Isolate the Impacts of Aerosols and Meteorology on Deep Convection

One of the main goals of the Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Tracking Aerosol Convection Interactions Experiment (TRACER) field campaign near Houston, TX was to improve understanding of meteorology and aerosol effects on deep convective storms. To help TRACER achieve its goals of disentangling aerosol-cloud interactions from meteorology, the Texas A&M University (TAMU) team deployed the new fully mobile Rapid Onsite Atmospheric Measurement Van (ROAM-V) carrying instruments to measure aerosol and atmospheric properties that was moved to multiple locations on a deployment day of isolated convection initiated by the sea breeze.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2026

Computer vision-based rock bolt detection in orthomosaic imagery obtained in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant underground facility

Assessing structural integrity of large underground tunnel facilities is often a time consuming and human-labor intensive task. Thus, research using various modes of sensing and automated detection of key structural components in mines is posed to aid in safety assessments and establishing overall structural health. We propose an approach utilizing off-the-shelf camera and lidar technology fixed to a custom sensing platform, image stitching techniques, fine-tuned object detection models, and specialized model-inference methods to automatically detect, count, and map roof bolts for assessment of structural safety in man-made underground tunnels. Results show a novel workflow for effective object counting in orthomosaic tunnel ceiling images generated from collections in GPS-denied mining environments. Additionally, we demonstrate effective fine-tuning of EfficientDet object detectors utilizing state-of-the-art image augmentation techniques known as the mosaic and mixup transformations. Our work is demonstrated on sensed data and imagery collected from the Department of Energy (DOE) Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) where miles of tunnel ceiling must be assessed for structural integrity.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2022

Siena College 2022 MRA Genome Announcement Narrative - 6 Isolates

Soil bacteria and endospore forming bacteria in particular play critical environmental roles in biomass degradation, plant health, and many have also been sources for commercially important secondary metabolites including antibiotics. Sequencing multiple isolates of known species also can identify new genes and gene clusters not found in other members of the same species, increasing our understanding of microbial diversity.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

KBase Narrative - Genome sequences of four bacterial strains isolated from organofluorine enrichment cultures

These genome announcement narratives are associated with the manuscript "Genome sequences of four bacterial strains isolated from organofluorine enrichment cultures" by Jennifer L. Goff, Chris Hahn, Rebecca A. Ingrassia, Chanistha Tiyapun, Gray G. Waldschmidt, Emma R. Smith, Miranda N. Marini, Olga Shevchenko, and Julia A. Maresca Assembeled genome sequences for all four genomes are available on this page and in the individual genome announcement narratives listed below. All methodological details can be found within the individual narratives.

Goff, Jennifer↗
DOE OSTI2020

Complete Genome Sequence of Starkeya sp. Strain ORNL1, a Soil Alphaproteobacterium Isolated from the Rhizosphere of Populus deltoides

Starkeya sp. strain ORNL1 is an alphaproteobacterium isolated from the rhizosphere of an Eastern cottonwood tree. Starkeya spp. are physiologically versatile, using a wide range of nutritional and energetic resources and serving important ecological roles in carbon and sulfur cycling. The 6.3-Mb chromosome of Starkeya sp. strain ORNL1 was completely sequenced and will help in understanding nutrient cycles.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

Complete Genome Sequence of the Novel Roseimicrobium sp. Strain ORNL1, a Verrucomicrobium Isolated from the Populus deltoides Rhizosphere

Roseimicrobium sp. strain ORNL1 is a soil bacterium that belongs to the phylum Verrucomicrobia and was isolated from the rhizosphere of a forest Eastern cottonwood tree, Populus deltoides, in Tennessee. Its 7.9-Mb chromosome was completely sequenced using PacBio long reads and is predicted to encode 6,288 proteins and 76 RNAs.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Two-dimensional heteronuclear single quantum coherence (HSQC) NMR spectra of lignin isolated from field grown transgenic poplar

Here we present a curated dataset of a series of two-dimensional heteronuclear single quantum coherence (HSQC) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra of lignin isolated from a field grown transgenic poplar engineered with a monolignol 4-O-methyltransferase (MOMT4). The poplar was collected from a 2-year-old rotation trees within a three-year field trial experiment. The poplar was Soxhlet-extracted with toluene/ethanol and the extractives-free poplar was then ball-milled in a Retsch PM100 planetary ball mill using a porcelain jar with ceramic balls at 600 rpm for 2 h (in 5 min on and 5 min off cycles to avoid excessive sample heating). The ball-milled materials were then subjected to enzymatic hydrolysis for 48 h followed by centrifugation and washing with deionized water. The solid residue was extracted twice with 96:4 (v/v) 1,4-dioxane/water mixture at room temperature overnight. The extracts were combined, rotary evaporated, and freeze-dried to recover the lignin. The dry lignin samples were dissolved in deuterated dimethyl sulfoxide for NMR experiments. 13C–1H HSQC experiments were performed in a Bruker Avance III HD 500 MHz NMR spectrometer operating at a frequency of 125.12 MHz for the 13C nucleus using a standard Bruker pulse sequence (hsqcetgpsisp2.2) on a Prodigy platform cryoprobe. The NMR spectra were acquired under the following acquisition conditions: 220 ppm spectral width in F1 (13C) dimension with 256 data points and 12 ppm spectral width in F2 (1H) dimension with 1024 data points, a 90° pulse, a one bond C–H coupling constant of 145 Hz, a 1.0 s pulse delay, and 64 scans. All the data was processed using the Bruker’s TopSpin 3.6 software. The NMR spectra provides structural characteristics information about lignin in field grown transgenic MOMT4 poplar. Additional meta data is embedded in the raw spectra figures.

Lignin structure, HSQC, poplar, field trial, MOMT4↗
DOE OSTI2024

Carbon-13 NMR spectra of lignin isolated from field grown transgenic poplar

Here we present a curated dataset of a series of 13C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra of lignin isolated from transgenic monolignol 4-O-methyltransferase (MOMT4) engineered poplar. The transgenic poplar was collected from a 3-year field trial experiment. The poplar was Soxhlet-extracted with toluene/ethanol and the extractives-free poplar was then ball-milled in a Retsch PM100 planetary ball mill using a porcelain jar with ceramic balls at 600 rpm for 2 h. The ball-milled materials were then subjected to enzymatic hydrolysis for 48 h followed by centrifugation and washing with deionized water. The solid residue was extracted twice with 96:4 (v/v) 1,4-dioxane/water mixture at room temperature overnight. The extracts were combined, rotary evaporated, and freeze-dried to recover the lignin. The dry lignin samples were dissolved in deuterated dimethyl sulfoxide for NMR characterization. 13C experiments were performed in a Bruker Avance III HD 500 MHz NMR spectrometer operating at a frequency of 125.12 MHz for the 13C nucleus using a standard Bruker pulse sequence (zgpg) on a Prodigy platform cryoprobe. The NMR spectra were acquired under the following conditions: spectra width 229 ppm, 64k data points, 1s pulse delay, and 6k scans. All the data was processed using the Bruker’s TopSpin 3.6 software. Additional meta data is embedded in the raw spectra files.

13C NMR, lignin, poplar, field trial, MOMT4, CBI↗
DOE OSTI2024

Proton NMR spectra of lignin isolated from field grown transgenic poplar

Here we present a curated dataset of a series of 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra of lignin isolated from transgenic monolignol 4-O-methyltransferase (MOMT4) engineered poplar. The transgenic poplar was collected from a 2-year-old rotation trees within a three-year field trial experiment. Two replicates were collected for each transgenic poplar for the 1H NMR analysis. The poplar samples were Soxhlet-extracted with toluene/ethanol to remove the extractives and the extractives-free poplar was then ball-milled in a Retsch PM100 planetary ball mill using a porcelain jar with ceramic balls at 600 rpm for 2 h. The ball-milled materials were subjected to enzymatic hydrolysis for 48 h followed by centrifugation and washing with deionized water. The solid residue was extracted twice with 96:4 (v/v) 1,4-dioxane/water mixture at room temperature overnight. The extracts were combined, rotary evaporated, and freeze-dried to recover lignin. The dry lignin samples were dissolved in deuterated dimethyl sulfoxide and transferred into a 5 mm NMR tube. 1H NMR experiments were performed in a Bruker Avance III HD 500 MHz NMR spectrometer operating at a frequency of 125.12 MHz for the 13C nucleus using a standard Bruker pulse sequence (zg) on a Prodigy platform cryoprobe. The NMR spectra were acquired with 16 ppm spectra width, 32k data points, 3s pulse delay, and 16 scans. All the data was processed using the Bruker’s TopSpin 3.6 software. Additional meta data is embedded in the raw spectra files.

1H NMR, lignin, poplar, field trial, MOMT4, CBI↗
DOE OSTI2024

HSQC spectra of lignin isolated from poplar stems

Here we present a curated dataset of two-dimensional heteronuclear single quantum coherence (HSQC) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra of lignin isolated from stems of genetically engineered poplar through auxin signaling gene modification. The plants were grown in greenhouse with temperatures between 21 and 23 °C. Plants were harvested and the aboveground stems were cut off an approximately five-inch-long segment from the bottom end of the plant stem, debarked and air-dried for three weeks. The dried stem samples were Wiley milled (mesh size 20), Soxhlet-extracted with toluene/ethanol for 24 h to remove extractives. The extracted biomass was ball-milled in a Retsch PM100 planetary ball mill using a porcelain jar with ceramic balls at 600 rpm for 2 h (in 5 min on and 5 min off cycles to avoid excessive sample heating). The ball-milled materials were then subjected to enzymatic hydrolysis for 48 h followed by centrifugation and washing with deionized water. The solid residue was freeze-dried to recover the lignin. The dry stem lignin samples were dissolved in deuterated dimethyl sulfoxide (d6) and transferred into a 5 mm tube. 13C–1H HSQC experiments were performed in a Bruker Avance III HD 500 MHz NMR spectrometer operating at a frequency of 125.12 MHz for the 13C nucleus using a standard Bruker pulse sequence on a Prodigy platform cryoprobe. The NMR spectra were acquired under the following acquisition conditions: 230 ppm spectral width in F1 (13C) dimension with 256 data points and 12 ppm spectral width in F2 (1H) dimension with 2048 data points, a 90° pulse, a one bond C–H coupling constant of 145 Hz, a 1.0 s pulse delay, and 64 scans. Spectra were processed using the Bruker TopSpin 3.6 software. Additional meta data is embedded in the raw spectra figures.

HSQC, lignin, poplar, stems, CBI↗