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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 469 records · Page 26

Investigating an API for resilient exascale computing.

Increased HPC capability comes with increased complexity, part counts, and fault occurrences. In- creasing the resilience of systems and applications to faults is a critical requirement facing the viability of exascale systems, as the overhead of traditional checkpoint/restart is projected to outweigh its bene ts due to fault rates outpacing I/O bandwidths. As faults occur and propagate throughout hardware and software layers, pervasive noti cation and handling mechanisms are necessary. This report describes an initial investigation of fault types and programming interfaces to mitigate them. Proof-of-concept APIs are presented for the frequent and important cases of memory errors and node failures, and a strategy proposed for lesystem failures. These involve changes to the operating system, runtime, I/O library, and application layers. While a single API for fault handling among hardware and OS and application system-wide remains elusive, the e ort increased our understanding of both the mountainous challenges and the promising trailheads. 3

Stearley, Jon R.↗

Dashboard for Marine Energy Site Assessment and Monitoring

The marine energy (ME) industry presently relies upon fragmented site assessment solutions that require high resource expenditure for deployment at each site and do not leverage the wealth of readily available tools and information. A wave energy resource assessment dashboard, currently in development, will substantially improve siting, permitting, operations, and maintenance of ME projects by providing an integrated solution that is a one-stop-shop for a developer’s needs. The Site Energy Assessment and MOnitoring Dashboard (SEAMOD) will be of commercial interest to anyone seeking to deploy an ME project and is easily expandable to include tidal and wind energy site assessments. The integrated dashboard is being developed using state-of-the-art database and cloud computing methods and data-assimilative modeling tools that can be coupled with low-cost, rapidly deployable wave buoys and environmental sensing hardware. The combined software and hardware dashboard will reduce wave energy site characterization and wave climate monitoring costs by more than 60 percent and provide assessments that meet international industry standards. To realize a thriving global ME industry, the physical environment at a potential deployment site must be understood, not only for resource characterization, but also for optimization of device and power conversion performance. SEAMOD directly addresses these needs with a commercially marketable product. SEAMOD is a low-cost solution that provides comprehensive ME resource assessments, baseline environmental monitoring, and offshore characterizations required for successful ME development. The key technical objectives for Phase I were a series of software development goals, which when implemented with monitoring solutions, produced an initial proof-of-concept low-cost wave energy resources dashboard. In Phase II, the development of the prototype SEAMOD continued. The basic framework employed was the development of a revised dashboard and monitoring tool customized for ME applications by focusing on IEC site assessment and method requirements. Development was focused on the integration of full hindcast metocean products to provide hindcast resource characterization and environmental information. The final integrated dashboard provides a low-cost solution that delivers comprehensive, scalable, industry-standard energy resource assessments and offshore characterizations required for successful ME development. The integrated dashboard offers visibility of the most recent site modeling, measurements, and historical data. The application and integration of consensus-based standards for wave energy resource assessment, as determined by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), are crucial for the impact and value of SEAMOD. SEAMOD includes monthly, seasonal, and yearly statistics, as well as the total 30-year record, offering temporal resolution of the IEC parameters to aid potential developers in determining the available wave energy resources in their area of interest.

16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER↗

Surrogate Neural Architecture Codesign Package (SNAC-Pack)

Neural architecture search (NAS) is a powerful approach for automating model design, but existing methods often optimize for accuracy alone or rely on proxy metrics such as bit operations (BOPs) that correlate poorly with hardware cost. This gap is particularly large for FPGA deployment, where cost is dominated by a multi-dimensional budget of lookup tables, DSPs, flip-flops, BRAM, and latency. We present the Surrogate Neural Architecture Codesign Package (SNAC-Pack), an open-source AutoML framework for hardware-aware neural architecture codesign and end-to-end FPGA deployment. SNAC-Pack runs a multi-objective global search with Optuna and NSGA-II, loading trials to a shared SQLite store that enables parallel workers across compute nodes. A hardware surrogate model outputs per-trial resource and latency estimates, avoiding the synthesis cost that would otherwise dominate the search loop. A local search stage then applies quantization-aware training (QAT) together with iterative magnitude pruning in a combined compression loop, after which the final model is synthesized to FPGA firmware via the hls4ml Python library. A YAML configuration and an optional agentic frontend let users run the pipeline on new datasets without modifying the framework. We demonstrate SNAC-Pack on jet classification at the Large Hadron Collider and superconducting qubit readout, discovering compact architectures that match or exceed strong baselines on the task metric while reducing FPGA resource utilization and, in the qubit readout case, reducing the design space exploration process from months of manual fine-tuning to hours of automated search.

Weitz, Jason [UC, San Diego]↗

Cygnus Dual Beam Radiographic Facility Refurbishment completed at U1A tunnel in Nevada NNSS meeting Level 2 milestone (P-23 Highlights 6/10/12)

A moratorium was placed on U.S. underground nuclear testing in 1992. In response, the Stockpile Stewardship Program was created to maintain readiness of the existing nuclear inventory through several efforts such as computer modeling, material analysis, and subcritical nuclear experiments (SCEs). As in the underground test era, the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS), formerly the Nevada Test Site, provides a safe and secure environment for SCEs by the nature of its isolated and secure facilities. A major tool for SCE diagnosis installed in the 05 drift laboratory is a high energy x-ray source used for time resolved imaging. This tool consists of two identical sources (Cygnus 1 and Cygnus 2) and is called the Cygnus Dual Beam Radiographic Facility (Figs. 2-6). Each Cygnus machine has 5 major elements: Marx Generator, Pulse Forming Line (PFL), Coaxial Transmission Line (CTL), 3-cell Inductive Voltage Adder (IVA), and Rod Pinch Diode. Each machine is independently triggered and may be fired in separate tests (staggered mode), or in a single test where there is submicrosecond separation between the pulses (dual mode). Cygnus must operate as a single shot machine since on each pulse the diode electrodes are destroyed. The diode is vented to atmosphere, cleaned, and new electrodes are inserted for each shot. There is normally two shots per day on each machine. Since its installation in 2003, Cygnus has participated in: 4 Subcritical Experiments (Armando, Bacchus, Barolo A, and Barolo B), a 12 shot plutonium physics series (Thermos), and 2 plutonium step wedge calibration series (2005, 2011), resulting in well over 1000 shots. Currently the Facility is in preparation for 2 SCEs scheduled for this calendar year - Castor and Pollux. Cygnus has performed well during 8 years of operations at NNSS. Many improvements in operations and performance have been implemented during this time. Throughout its service at U1a, major maintenance and replacement of many hardware items were delayed due to programmatic requirements. It is anticipated that Cygnus will be in service at U1a for another 5 years. With this assumption, it was realized that significant resources and effort should be allotted to bring the hardware back to its original condition, or even to improve elements when appropriate. The Cygnus Refurbishment and Enhancement Project started in April, 2011 with the intent to encompass a major overhaul of Cygnus.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Using Low-Cost “Garage Band” Recording Technology for Acquiring High Resolution High-Speed Data

The Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has developed and tested a novel system architecture for acquiring high fidelity high-speed data. The approach uses a consumer grade audio recording device that is normally associated with “garage band” recording of music. ORNL has coupled this low-cost data acquisition hardware with computing technology running open-source software. The main advantage of this approach is per-channel cost; an instrument grade data acquisition system typically costs between $800 to $2000 per channel compared to less than $50 per channel for these consumer grade components. Three systems, each featuring four channels, have been deployed for acquiring data from geophones and the electrical supply system that supports the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) and the Radiochemical Engineering Development Center (REDC) at ORNL. Each channel samples at 96 kHz at 24-bit resolution. The deployed systems operate continuously 24/7 and produce about 4 terabytes of data per month per system. This paper provides a technical overview of this approach, its implementation, and some preliminary results from qualification testing. This work was conducted in support of the Multi-Informatics for Nuclear Operations Scenarios (MINOS).Keywords: Data acquisition Measurement Informatics

Wetherington Jr, G↗

Comparative Implementation of High Performance Computing for Power System Dynamic Simulations

Dynamic simulation for transient stability assessment is one of the most important, but intensive, computations for power system planning and operation. Present commercial software is mainly designed for sequential computation to run a single simulation, which is very time consuming with a single processer. The application of High Performance Computing (HPC) to dynamic simulations is very promising in accelerating the computing process by parallelizing its kernel algorithms while maintaining the same level of computation accuracy. This paper describes the comparative implementation of four parallel dynamic simulation schemes in two state-of-the-art HPC environments: Message Passing Interface (MPI) and Open Multi-Processing (OpenMP). These implementations serve to match the application with dedicated multi-processor computing hardware and maximize the utilization and benefits of HPC during the development process.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

National Security Programs - Cyber: MMAREJBLIGE – Modular Multi Agent Grid Emulation for Joined Breakdowns in Linked Generative Emulations - 23-0644

Modular Multi Agent Grid Emulations for Joined Breakdowns in Linked Generative Emulations (MMAREJBLIGE) introduces an agent-based modeling framework into real-time cyber-physical emulation to achieve a context-aware environment that introduces operator/attacker/external-condition variability to improve emulation fidelity and testing rigor. We detail our agent framework design, internal communication via message passing, and time synchronization, as well as the individual components of the system. We include a brief analysis of several scenarios run on a real-time, hardware-in-the-loop, Industrial Control Systems (ICS) test-bed which include normal operation, physical disruption, disruption with mitigation, and disruption with mitigation during a cyber denial-of-service (DOS) attack.

42 ENGINEERING↗

White Box Access to Quantum Testbeds for Co-Design

At Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), we operate and maintain the Quantum Device and Integration Testbed (QuDIT) facility, a small quantum testbed that supports about 10 active research teams (including our own) and over 50 internal and external collaborators. This testbed is designed to give remote white box access to users for research, training, and outreach. A guiding principle behind the development of our testbed infrastructure, software and user interfaces is to empower users to perform experiments at the cutting edge of quantum information science at any level of abstraction, from materials studies, device physics and control and characterization techniques to algorithm development and quantum operating system design. Our testbed targets a multilevel quantum system (qudit) to expand the accessible Hilbert space of a simple-to-manufacture quantum device and focuses on quantum simulation, typically implemented through custom gates designed with quantum optimal control methods, rather than on a universal computing framework with a fixed gate set. We leverage the Lab’s high-performance computing (HPC) program and related expertise to simulate quantum systems, develop hybrid algorithms, and generate gates optimized for given simulations. Additionally, we have adopted a co-design philosophy from the HPC community in designing new hardware, so that the systems we develop are optimized for the specific physics simulations we plan to use them for.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

An X-ray Intensity Operations Monitor (AXIOM) (Final LDRD Project Report)

The Saturn accelerator has historically lacked the capability to measure time-resolved spectra for its 3-ring bremsstrahlung x-ray source. This project aimed to create a spectrometer called AXIOM to provide this capability. The project had three major development pillars: hardware, simulation, and unfold code. The hardware consists of a ring of 24 detectors around an existing x-ray pinhole camera. The diagnostic was fielded on two shots at Saturn and over 100 shots at the TriMeV accelerator at Idaho Accelerator Center. A new Saturn x-ray environment simulation was created using measured data to validate. This simulation allows for timeresolved spectra computation to compare the experimental results. The AXIOM-Unfold code is a new parametric unfold code using modern global optimizers and uncertainty quantification. The code was written in Python, uses Gitlab version control and issue tracking, and has been developed with long term code support and maintenance in mind.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

5G Enabled Energy Innovation: Advanced Wireless Networks for Science (Workshop Report)

Rapidly expanding, new telecommunications infrastructure based on 5G technologies will disrupt and transform how we design, build, operate, and optimize scientific infrastructure and the experiments and services enabled by that infrastructure, from continental-scale sensor networks to centralized scientific user facilities, from intelligent Internet of Things devices to supercomputers. Concurrently, 5G will introduce, or exacerbate, challenges related to protecting infrastructure and associated scientific data as well as to fully leveraging opportunities related to expanded infrastructure scale and complexity. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science operates scientific infrastructure, supporting some of the nation’s most advanced intellectual discoveries, spanning the country and including 30 world-class user facilities from supercomputers to accelerators. Along with field experiments and remote observatories, every aspect of DOE’s scientific enterprise will be affected by 5G, which amounts to a complete renovation of the underpinnings of the nation’s information infrastructure. In this report we explore the scientific opportunities and new research challenges associated with 5G, ranging from scalability to heterogeneity to cybersecurity. The rapid commercial deployment of 5G opens the opportunity to rethink and reinvent DOE’s scientific infrastructure and experimentation, from intelligent sensor networks at unprecedented scales to a digital continuum of cyberinfrastructure spanning low-power sensors, high-performance computing embedded within and at the edge of the network, and DOE’s large-scale user instrument and computing facilities. New programming paradigms, workflow and data frameworks, and AI-based system design, operation, and autonomous adaptation and optimization will be necessary in order to exploit these new opportunities. Field deployments and centralized scientific instruments can also be revolutionized, moving (without traditional performance penalties) from wired to wireless connectivity for data and control systems, improving flexibility, and opening new sensing modalities, including the use of the 5G electromagnetic spectrum itself as an environmental probe. For DOE science, in contrast to commercial 5G applications and settings, devices will be deployed in extreme environments such as cryogenically cooled instrument control systems and in remote settings with harsh conditions, requiring the design of new materials for RF communication and edge processing to operate in these regimes. Concurrently, 5G infrastructure comprises both hardware and sophisticated software systems - currently closed and proprietary. The cybersecurity challenges to 5G-empowered reinvention mirror the complexity and variety of new 5G features, from virtualization to private network slices to ubiquitous access. Research is also needed in order to accelerate the development of secure and open 5G software infrastructure, reducing reliance on hardware and software produced outside the United States and providing the transparency and rigorous evaluation and testing afforded through open software. Twelve broad research thrusts are laid out in four chapters, with a companion fifth chapter (and three additional research thrusts) underscoring the needs and opportunities for an aggressive testbed program co-designed by networking experts and scientists involved in the 15 research thrusts. The urgency of undertaking this research is fueled by a global, accelerating deployment of new telecommunications infrastructure that is designed for entertainment and commercial applications - barely scratching the surface of what 5G can do to extend U.S. leadership in scientific discovery.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Distributed Energy Systems: Security Implications of the Grid of the Future

Distributed Energy Resources (DER) are being added to the nation's electric grid, and as penetration of these resources increases, they have the potential to displace or offset large-scale, capital-intensive, centralized generation. Integration of DER into operation of the traditional electric grid requires automated operational control and communication of DER elements, from system measurement to control hardware and software, in conjunction with a utility's existing automated and human-directed control of other portions of the system. Implementation of DER technologies suggests a number of gaps from both a security and a policy perspective.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

CFD-trained ANN Model for Approximating Near-occupant Condition in Real-time Simulations

The main drawback of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations has been the time and resource consuming nature which is not suitable for real-time applications. In this work, we first generated numerous CFD models of a given indoor space to obtain airspeed, temperature, and mean radiant temperature near an occupant as training data. Several artificial neural networks (ANN) models were trained using this CFD simulated data to approximate near real-time environmental conditions for a given occupant. This trained ANN model approach is a part of a real-time simulation of building operations using a combination of software and real hardware (HVAC equipment) approaches. The preliminary results suggest that the CFD- generated training data and the trained ANN model can accurately approximate such conditions in a real-time application, a method that has great potential in building simulation and building digital twin areas of research.

Zhang, Yun↗

Fault propagation and effects analysis for designing an online monitoring system for the secondary loop of a nuclear power plant part of a hybrid energy system - 393

This paper studies the propagation and effects of faults of critical components that pertain to the secondary loop of a nuclear power plant found in Nuclear Hybrid Energy Systems (NHES). This information is used to design an on-line monitoring (OLM) system which is capable of detecting and forecasting faults that are likely to occur during NHES operation. In this research, the causes, features, and effects of possible faults are investigated by simulating the propagation of faults in the secondary loop. The simulation is accomplished by using the Integrated System Failure Analysis (ISFA). ISFA is used for analyzing hardware and software faults during the conceptual design phase. In this paper, the models of system components required by ISFA are initially constructed. Then, the fault propagation analysis is implemented, which is conducted under the bounds set by acceptance criteria derived from the design of an OLM system. The result of the fault simulation is utilized to build a database for fault detection and diagnosis, provide preventive measures, and propose an optimization plan for the OLM system. (authors)

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Autonomous elemental characterization enabled by a low cost robotic platform built upon a generalized software architecture

Despite the rapidly growing applications of robots in industry, the use of robots to automate tasks in scientific laboratories is less prolific due to the lack of generalized methodologies and the high cost of hardware. This paper focuses on the automation of characterization tasks necessary for reducing cost while maintaining generalization and proposes a software architecture for building robotic systems in scientific laboratory environments. A dual-layer (Socket.IO and ROS) action server design is the basic building block, which facilitates the implementation of a web-based front end for user-friendly operation and the use of ROS Behavior Trees for convenient task planning and execution. A robotic platform for automating mineral and material sample characterization is built upon the architecture, with an open-source, low-cost three-axis computer numerical control gantry system serving as the main robot. A handheld laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) analyzer is integrated with a 3D printed adapter, enabling (1) automated 2D chemical mapping and (2) autonomous sample measurement (with the support of an RGB-Depth camera). We demonstrate the utility of automated chemical mapping by scanning the surface of a spodumene-bearing pegmatite core sample with a 1071-point dense hyperspectral map acquired at a rate of 1520 bits per second. Furthermore, we showcase the autonomy of the platform in terms of perception, dynamic decision-making, and execution, through a case study of LIBS measurement of multiple mineral samples. The platform enables controlled and autonomous chemical quantification in the laboratory that complements field-based measurements acquired with the same handheld device, linking resource exploration and processing steps in the supply chain for lithium-based battery materials.

Cao, Xuan [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (↗

Nuclear Thermal Rocket Emulator for a Hardware-in-the-Loop Test Bed

To support NASA’s mission to use nuclear thermal rockets for future Mars missions, an instrumentation and control test bed has been built at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The system is designed as a hardware-in-the-loop test bed for testing control elements and autonomous control algorithms for nuclear thermal propulsion rockets. The mock reactor system consists of a modular and scalable framework, using inexpensive components and open-source software. The hardware system consists of a two-phase flow loop and a mock reactor with six control drums. A single-board computer (NVIDIA Jetson) handles reactor core emulation and hosts a message queuing telemetry transport broker that allows user-deployed control algorithms to interact with the system hardware. The reactor emulator receives sensor data from the hardware and provides the simulated performance of the reactor under steady-state, transient, and fault conditions. The emulator uses a reactivity lookup table and the point kinetics equations to solve for the reactor dynamics in real time. Emulated reactor dynamics and sensor input inform the autonomous control algorithm’s decision-making in a closed-loop manner. The current system is capable of operating at 10 Hz, but faster cycle rates are an area of ongoing research. This test bed will enable NASA and other space vendors to rigorously test their autonomous control systems for NTP rockets under transient (reactor startup and shutdown), steady-state, and fault conditions to reduce development time and risk for autonomous control systems in future missions.

autonomous control↗

Nuclear characterization of a general-purpose instrumentation and materials testing location in TREAT

The Transient Reactor Test facility (TREAT) was constructed in the late 1950s, provided thousands of transient irradiations before being placed in standby in 1994, and resumed operations in 2017 in order to reclaim its crucial role in nuclear-heated safety research. The latter half of TREAT’s historic operation was best known for integral-scale testing of fuel specimens under postulated reactor plant accident conditions, while TREAT’s earlier history included extensive simpler phenomena identification tests that elucidated fundamental behaviors and paved the way for these integral-scale tests. Advances in modern computational capabilities and a resurgence of interest in novel reactor technology have created an opportunity for emphasizing modernized science-based and separate effects test capabilities once again at TREAT. An innovative approach to this type of testing has been developed to leverage minor radioactivity built-in during brief TREAT irradiations in low activation hardware to facilitate handling for materials and instrumentation testing. This capability, termed the Minimal Activation Retrievable Capsule Holder (MARCH) irradiation vehicle system, will be used for inaugural fueled experiments in TREAT’s modern era as well as novel approaches to study materials undergoing neutron irradiation and instrumentation development and qualifications. This paper describes a comprehensive nuclear characterization, obtained via computational modeling, of the test position in the MARCH system. Though directly applicable to the MARCH system, the results also provide general quantification of the nuclear performance of the reactor and potential test materials, crucial for evaluating potential experiment design and response in TREAT. The neutron and photon flux environment was calculated via MCNP with ENDF/B-VII.1 nuclear data. Wire heating rate and DPA calculations were also performed and evaluated using historic TREAT test data. Furthermore, these calculations were performed to provide steady-state baseline reference values typical in both half- and full-slotted TREAT core configurations, enabling design scoping analysis prior to development of more specific design testing needs and transient testing experimentation.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Spin-neurons: A possible path to energy-efficient neuromorphic computers

Recent years have witnessed growing interest in the field of brain-inspired computing based on neural-network architectures. In order to translate the related algorithmic models into powerful, yet energy-efficient cognitive-computing hardware, computing-devices beyond CMOS may need to be explored. The suitability of such devices to this field of computing would strongly depend upon how closely their physical characteristics match with the essential computing primitives employed in such models. In this work, we discuss the rationale of applying emerging spin-torque devices for bio-inspired computing. Recent spin-torque experiments have shown the path to low-current, low-voltage, and high-speed magnetization switching in nano-scale magnetic devices. Such magneto-metallic, current-mode spin-torque switches can mimic the analog summing and “thresholding” operation of an artificial neuron with high energy-efficiency. Comparison with CMOS-based analog circuit-model of a neuron shows that “spin-neurons” (spin based circuit model of neurons) can achieve more than two orders of magnitude lower energy and beyond three orders of magnitude reduction in energy-delay product. The application of spin-neurons can therefore be an attractive option for neuromorphic computers of future.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

A Cryogenic Muon Tagging System Integrated with a Superconducting Qubit Device for Radiation-Induced Error Mitigation

Superconducting qubits are highly sensitive to ionizing radiation, which can induce correlated errors and limit scalable fault-tolerant quantum computing. In particular, cosmic-ray muons can deposit energy in the substrate, generating phonon bursts that break Cooper pairs and produce quasiparticles, leading to correlated decoherence events across multiple qubits. We present the development of a cryogenic muon tagging system based on Kinetic Inductance Detectors (KIDs) and its integration with superconducting quantum hardware. Originally developed within the ACE-SuperQ project and validated as a standalone detector, the system demonstrated a muon tagging efficiency of approximately 90% and excellent agreement with Monte Carlo simulations. Building on this validation, the tagging system has been integrated with a multi-qubit superconducting chip operated in a dilution refrigerator. The detector configuration consists of a multi-layer KID stack arranged above and below the quantum device, enabling time-coincident identification of muon-induced events within the same cryogenic environment. The integrated setup has been successfully commissioned, enabling simultaneous operation of the qubit chip and the muon tagging system. A first measurement campaign has been carried out, and preliminary data show time-correlated events between the muon tagging detectors and the qubit readout. A quantitative analysis of radiation-induced effects on qubit performance is currently ongoing. This work represents a step toward the implementation of event-level radiation tagging as a tool for characterizing and potentially mitigating correlated errors in superconducting quantum processors, while establishing a modular platform for future studies at the interface between particle physics and quantum information science.

Roy, Tanay [Fermilab] (ORCID:000000019442862X)↗