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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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At least 451 records · Page 25
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

Mid-Year Progress Update on ORNL Support for Developing the Guidance for Microreactor Manufacturing Licenses

Factory fueling and assembly, multi-site operation, and the associated transportation of advanced nuclear systems present both new opportunities and challenges for microreactor deployment. These areas have not been demonstrated under Nuclear Regulatory Commission rules and regulations. A goal of the Systems Integration and Analysis technical area under the US Department of Energy Microreactor Program for the current fiscal year is to articulate these challenges and provide industry recommendations. This mid-year progress report describes the progress and some of the contributions to this effort by the Advanced Reactor Engineering and Development section at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The content provided here is preliminary and may change before being incorporated into a later report, which is expected to be completed in September 2022.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2022

FY2022 Progress on Imbibition Testing in Containment Science

Estimation of two-phase fluid flow properties is important to understand and predict water and gas movement through the vadose zone for agricultural, hydrogeological, and engineering applications, such as for vapor-phase contaminant transport and/or containment of noble gases in the subsurface. In this second progress report of FY22, we present two ongoing activities related to imbibition testing on volcanic rock samples. We present the development of a new analytical solution predicting the temperature response observed during imbibition into dry samples, as discussed in our previous first progress report for FY22. We also illustrate the use of a multi-modal capillary pressure distribution to simulate both early- and late-time imbibition data collected on tuff core that can exhibit multiple pore types. These FY22 imbibition tests were conducted for an extended period (i.e., far beyond the time required for the wetting front to reach the top of the sample), which is necessary for parameter estimation and characterization of two different pore types within the samples.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2022

Sodium Fire Collaborative Study Progress (CNWG Fiscal Year 2022)

This report discusses the progress on the collaboration between Sandia National Laboratories (Sandia) and Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) on the sodium fire research in fiscal year (FY) 2022 and is a continuation of the FY 2021 progress report. We only report the changes made to the current sodium pool fire model in MELCOR. We modified and corrected many control functions to enhance the fraction of oxygen consumed that reacts to form monoxide (FO2) parameter in the current model from the FY2021 report. This year's enhancements relate to better agreement of the suspended aerosol measurement from JAEA's F7 series tests. Staff from Sandia and JAEA conducted the validation studies of the sodium pool fire model in MELCOR. To validate this pool fire model with the latest enhancement, JAEA sodium pool fire experiments (F7-1 and F7-2) were used. The results of the calculation, including the code-to-code comparisons are discussed as well as suggestions for further model improvement. Finally, recommendations are made for new MELCOR simulations for FY 2023.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2023

PR100 One-Year Progress Summary Report: Preliminary Modeling Results and High-Resolution Solar and Wind Data Sets

The Puerto Rico Grid Resilience and Transitions to 100% Renewable Energy Study (PR100) is a 2-year study by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Grid Deployment Office and six national laboratories to comprehensively analyze stakeholder-driven pathways to Puerto Rico's clean energy future. In Year 1 of the study, the PR100 team rigorously modeled and analyzed scenarios that meet Puerto Rico's renewable energy targets and achieve short-term recovery goals and long-term energy resilience. This report, which summarizes PR100 progress in Year 1, provides considerations that can inform potential funding and implementation decisions by key federal and local agencies and stakeholders. The summary report follows the publication in July 2022 of a PR100 Six-Month Progress Update (in English and Spanish), as well as public webinars in February 2022 to kick off the study and in July 2022 to present the 6-month update. A final written report and web-based visuals will be published in late 2023. All publications and public events associated with the study will be available in Spanish and English. This report is also available in Spanish https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy23osti/85144.pdf.

100%↗
DOE OSTI2022

Progress on Associated-Particle Imaging Algorithms, 2022

The present work describes progress on developing imaging algorithms that use fast neutron signatures acquired using the associated-particle imaging (API) method. The present work complements ongoing work to develop neutron source and detector hardware to enable field inspection by investigating algorithms that are capable of discriminating among critical materials or extracting three-dimensional (3D) geometrical information from single-sided or transmission measurements. The present work is divided into three approaches: 1.Iterative reconstruction of inelastic gamma-ray emissions to perform 3D time-of-flight (TOF) imaging in a single view in either transmission or backscatter configurations. Iterative reconstruction enables image resolution better than the inherent TOF resolution. 2.Decomposition of registered neutron and x-ray radiographs into an assumed material list for each pixel in the image. 3.Material identification using full spectral analysis that includes the emergent neutron and gamma ray energies, times, and angles. Progress for each approach is summarized for fiscal year (FY) 2022.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2022

Modeling Activities Related to Waste Form Degradation: Progress Report

This report represents the milestone deliverable M4SF-22SN010309092 “Modeling Activities Related to Waste Form Degradation: Progress Report” that describes the progress of R&D activities of ongoing modeling investigations specifically on nuclear waste glass degradation, Density Functional Theory (DFT) studies on clarkeite structure and stability, and electrochemical model development of spent nuclear fuel (SNF). These activities are part of the Waste Form Testing, Modeling, and Performance work package at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL). This work package is part of the “Inventory and Waste Form Characteristics and Performance” control account that includes various experimental and modeling activities on nuclear waste degradation conducted at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), SNL, Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL).

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2024

Progress and Challenges in Traveling-Wave SRF cavity development at Fermilab

Traveling-wave (TW) technology can push the accelerator field gradient of niobium SRF cavity to 70MV/m or higher beyond the limit of 50~60MV/m in Standing-wave (SW) technology. The early stages of TW SRF cavity developments had been funded by several SBIR grants to Euclid Techlabs and completed in collaboration with Fermilab through a 1-cell prototype and a proof-of-principle 3-cell TW cavity. The TW resonance excitation in the 3-cell TW cavity at 2K was demonstrated through the low power RF test in early 2024. A high-power test of the 3-cell in TW mode being prepared. To advance a design and technology to fabricate a novel high gradient TW SRF cavity, FNAL proposed a half-meter TW RF design and R&Ds to realize that are in progress. Here we will report the recent progress in the 3-cell TW cavity and the challenges towards a half-meter scale TW cavity.

Furuta, F.↗
DOE OSTI2024

Advanced Measurements for Resilient Integration of Inverter-Based Resources: PROGRESS MATRIX Final Report

As nearly every aspect of the electric power grid undergoes rapid change, measurement technologies that support grid operation and planning must evolve as well. The rapid large-scale deployment of inverter-based resources (IBRs) vital to achieving the nation’s clean energy goals has in some cases led to negative impacts on the reliability and security of the bulk power system (BPS). Advanced power system measurements, including synchronized phasor and waveform measurements, are key to making IBR integration secure and reliable. To this end, the Department of Energy (DOE) initiated the PROGRESS MATRIX project to develop advanced measurement capabilities and analytics that will accelerate adoption of IBRs while improving the reliability and resilience of the BPS. This report discusses the outcomes of the project, which was a joint effort between the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). In the project’s first year, PNNL, NREL, and ORNL partnered with the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), the Western Area Power Administration (WAPA), and Kauai Island Utility Cooperative (KIUC) to understand their existing measurement capabilities and the gaps limiting deployment of IBR-focused measurement systems and analytics. The other primary activity in the first year was deployment of GridSweep instruments, which provide unprecedented precision in waveform measurement while probing distribution systems. The instruments were deployed at Dominion Energy and the University of California, Riverside. In the project’s second year, the input from partner utilities and collected measurements were used to advance measurement capabilities. Twelve analytical methods spanning disturbance analysis, power plant evaluation, feeder evaluation, and modeling were developed. Two software tools were developed, one to analyze GridSweep measurements and another to automatically evaluate the control performance of power plants connected to the BPS. Testbeds at ORNL and NREL were augmented to better enable studies of IBR integration. The project culminated in demonstrations of these analytical methods, software tools, and testbeds, both in the field and in the laboratory. This report discusses these various accomplishments and documents the significant progress in developing advanced measurement capabilities to support the secure, reliable, and accelerated adoption of IBRs in the BPS.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2024

The Mu2e Experiment and Progress in the Year 2024

The Mu2e Experiment is a search for Charged Lepton Flavor Violation (CLFV) in the process of a coherent neutrinoless mu- N -> e- N transition. This process is allowed under the Standard Model in the presence of neutrino mixing; albeit, at unobservable rates (branching ratio below 10-50). The sensitivity of the Mu2e experiment is a factor of 104 improvement over the current limit. This search both compliments and extends current searches for muon to electron+gamma at MEG and new physics searches at the LHC. Another interesting process that Mu2e will search for is the neutrionless conversion of stopped negative muons into positrons: mu- N -> e+ N'. This process violates both lepton flavor and lepton number (LNV) and would provide proof that neutrinos are Majorana particles. Progress has been made in many areas in preparation for beam. A description of the Mu2e Experiment and a synopsis of this experiment s progress in the year 2024 towards data collection will be presented.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2023

Progress on Long-Term Objectives for the Development of Advanced Reactor Mechanistic Source Term Modeling and Simulation Tools

To assist both the advanced reactor industry and U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in the pursuit of reactor design and licensing, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) program has established a mechanistic source term (MST) research project under the auspices of the Multiphysics Applications technical area. MST analysis is central to the reactor licensing process and a focus of the NRC regarding their mission to provide reasonable assurance of adequate protection of public health and safety and environment. The MST research project is a collaboration between Argonne National Laboratory (Argonne) and Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) with a high-level objective to coordinate the development of comprehensive advanced reactor MST mod/sim capabilities to support risk-informed design and licensing decisions. As part of this effort, an MST mod/sim development pathway was developed in FY21, which outlines the high-level objectives and near-term tasks necessary to achieve the project objectives. Since publication of the development pathway, Argonne and SNL have focused initial efforts on addressing the “near-term tasks” outlined in the report, and the current work provides a status update of the progress achieved in FY22. This report is a progress update on 6 tasks supporting molten salt reactor (MSR) and sodium fast reactor (SFR) MST analyses which were initiated in FY22 as recommended high priority near-term tasks. These tasks were continued into FY23 as they also support previously recommended long-term development objectives to advance MST analyses for these advanced reactors.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Advanced Engine and Fuel Technologies 2021 Annual Progress Report

This report highlights progress achieved by the Advanced Engine and Fuel Technologies Program during fiscal year 2021. The nature, current focus, and recent progress of the Program are described together with summaries of National Laboratory, industry, and university projects that provide an overview of the exciting work being conducted to address critical technical barriers and challenges to commercializing higher-efficiency engine, emissions control, and fuel technologies for passenger and commercial vehicles.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Analysis Program 2021 Annual Progress Report

During fiscal year 2021 (FY 2021), the U.S. Department of Energy Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO) funded analysis projects supportive of VTO’s goals to pursue early-stage research in vehicle and mobility system technologies to reduce petroleum dependence, increase energy reliability and security, improve transportation affordability, and promote economic growth. VTO analysis projects result in a foundation of data, analytical models, and applied analyses that provide insights into critical transportation energy problems and assist in research investment prioritization and portfolio planning. This document presents a brief overview of VTO analysis efforts and progress for projects funded in FY 2021. Each of the progress reports includes project objectives, approach, and highlights of the technical results that were accomplished during the fiscal year (FY).

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Electrification 2021 Annual Progress Report

During fiscal year 2021 (FY 2021), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO) funded early-stage research, development, demonstration, & deployment (RDD&D) projects that address Batteries and Electrification of the U.S. transportation sector. The VTO Electrification Sub-Program is composed of Electric Drive Technologies, and Grid Integration activities. The Electric Drive Technologies group conducts R&D projects that advance electric motors and power electronics technologies. The Grid and Charging Infrastructure group conducts R&D projects that advance grid modernization and electric vehicle charging technologies. This document presents a brief overview of the Electrification Sub-Program and progress reports for its R&D projects. Each of the progress reports provide a project overview and highlights of the technical results that were accomplished in fiscal year (FY) 2021.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Progress Towards NQA-1 for Cardinal in FY25

Cardinal is a wrapping of the GPU-oriented spectral element Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code NekRS and the Monte Carlo particle transport code OpenMC within the Multiphysics Object-Oriented Simulation Environment (MOOSE). Cardinal provides high-resolution thermal-hydraulics and/or radiation transport feedback to MOOSE multiphysics simulations. Multiphysics feedback is implemented in a geometry-agnostic manner which eliminates the need for rigid one-to-one mappings. A generic data transfer implementation also allows NekRS and OpenMC to couple to any MOOSE application, enabling a broad set of multiphysics capabilities. Cardinal simulations can also leverage combinations of MPI, OpenMP, and GPU resources. Cardinal continuous development and improvement efforts have led to the software being considered as a high-fidelity design and licensing tool for key areas of nuclear reactor relevant physics, including neutron transport, fluid flow, heat transfer, and mechanical processes. The fast development and expansion of the software from a pure R&D framework towards its application in the nuclear industry and regulation require a focus on developing, enhancing,and maintaining Cardinal’s software quality through strict adherence to a Software Quality Assurance (SQA) framework and SQA program. To facilitate compliance with SQA standards, the Cardinal SQA Program was initiated during Fiscal Year 2023 (FY23). During the development of the Cardinal SQA Program, multiple gaps have been identified. These gaps are primarily related to model verification and code pedigree as they relate to the use of Cardinal as an analysis tool. These gaps were captured in a report published in 2023. A second report highlighted the progress made during Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24) and described Argonne’s effort to document and integrate software verification within Cardinal’s software development process. This report documents the progress made towards NQA-1 for Cardinal in the Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25). All cases in the expanded Continuous Integration (CI) suite of NekRS are included in this report which test the solvers and modules available in NekRS exhaustively. The NekRS tests are integrated with the Cardinal CI suite and made available in publicly accessible Github documentation. Following the CI practice permits integrating of source code changes frequently and ensuring that the integrated codebase clears the verification testing for the software. Also in this report is a brief overview of the development of the Cardinal Software Quality Assurance Plan (SQAP) that was done in FY25, though it should be noted that the rest of the documentation for the SQA program needs to be developed in a future step of this task.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Building 100 Groundwater Bioremediation at the Former DOE Pinellas Plant, Florida: Review of Progress and Opportunities

Weapons research, development, and production operations at the former Pinellas Plant, which includes the Building 100 area, released chlorinated organic solvents into the subsurface, contaminating the underlying soil and groundwater. The site was sold to Pinellas County and is now home to a thriving industrial park known as the Young - Rainey Science, Technology, and Research (STAR) Center. The US Department of Energy (DOE) has applied bioremediation at the Building 100 Area as a key technology to clean up the chlorinated volatile organic compound (cVOC) contamination in soil and groundwater. The monitoring data indicate significant progress toward remedial objectives over the past two decades. Starting conditions in the 1980s-1990s included areas containing residual undissolved dense nonaqueous phase liquids (DNAPLs) and the associated presence of an extensive high concentration plume in the groundwater. The original parent cVOCs were primarily tetrachloroethene (PCE) and trichloroethene (TCE). After several informative pilot studies, bioremediation was implemented at the Building 100 Area of the site and relies on reductive biological pathways and the sequential removal of chlorine from the parent cVOCs forming dichloroethane (DCE) and chloroethene (vinyl chloride, VC). As bioremediation sites evolve toward cleanup, the trends in VC concentrations often serve as a critical indicator for progress and remediation timeframe because VC typically has a lower concentration target remedial objective (nominally 1 to 2 μg/L) compared to PCE and TCE (nominally 3 to 5 μg/L).

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2026

LSST Scheduler & Progress Monitoring

The NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory scheduling team is providing a set of tools for monitoring the scheduler and progress on the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). These slides provide an overview of available pages and assorted figures on them: the night summary provides an overview of a completed night of observing, including maps of exposures and plots of data quality metrics; the pre-night briefing, an analysis of a simulation of an upcoming night; and a handful of figures that provide information on long-term progress toward LSST survey goals.

H.Neilsen, Eric, Jr. [Fermilab] (ORCID:00000002735↗
DOE OSTI2026

FY26 Progress Report on the Operation of the Activated Materials Laboratory at the Advanced Photon Source as a Nuclear Science User Facilities Partner Facility

The Activated Materials Laboratory (AML), located in the Long Beamline Building of the Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), provides a centralized radiological capability for preparing, handling, and supporting synchrotron experiments on activated materials. As a Nuclear Science User Facilities (NSUF) partner facility, the AML enables the receipt of radioactive shipments, open-form sample handling, encapsulation, transport of specimens to and from APS beamlines, and experimentation with dedicated equipment. The partnership includes the APS 1-ID and 20-ID beamlines, which provide high-energy x-ray scattering, tomography, and diffraction microscopy techniques for ex-situ, in-situ, and grainresolved three-dimensional (3D) characterization. All samples supported through the AML and partner beamlines must meet radiological limits of less than 100 mrem/h at 30 cm. This FY26 progress report summarizes the first full year of AML operations as an NSUF partner facility and highlights progress in both user support and capability development. By the end of FY26, the AML had received a total of 10 NSUF-awarded projects, including 2 Consolidated Innovative Nuclear Research (CINR), 7 Rapid Turnaround Experiment (RTE), and 1 Super RTE projects. Beamtime was fully delivered for 3 RTE projects and partially delivered for 1 CINR project, demonstrating successful workflows for receipt, encapsulation, beamline transfer, and radiological experiment execution. These efforts demonstrated safe radiological experiments at APS beamlines for samples with dose rates above the historical 5 mrem/h threshold and now up to 100 mrem/h at 30 cm, marking an important milestone for neutron-irradiated materials research. During FY26, the AML also expanded its experimental capabilities. A Psylotech xTS load frame with in-grip rotation was deployed for room-temperature mechanical testing with threedimensional x-ray characterization during interrupted loading. A Linkam TS1500V vacuum heater was commissioned for thermally driven studies, and temperature calibration experiments were performed to establish specimen-relevant thermal profiles. In parallel, a customized split-tube furnace for high-temperature mechanical testing entered commissioning, and initial work began on robotic sample handling to reduce worker dose and improve operational efficiency. Data workflow and beamline operations continued to mature. Together, these developments demonstrate that the AML is becoming a unique national resource for safe, efficient, and scientifically advanced characterization of activated materials at the APS.

Zhang, Xuan↗