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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 487 records · Page 27
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2023

DSPS: Differentiable stellar population synthesis

ABSTRACT Models of stellar population synthesis (SPS) are the fundamental tool that relates the physical properties of a galaxy to its spectral energy distribution (SED). In this paper, we present DSPS: a python package for SPS. All of the functionality in DSPS is implemented natively in the JAX library for automatic differentiation, and so our predictions for galaxy photometry are fully differentiable, and directly inherit the performance benefits of JAX, including portability onto GPUs. DSPS also implements several novel features, such as i) a flexible empirical model for stellar metallicity that incorporates correlations with stellar age, ii) support for the Diffstar model that provides a physically-motivated connection between the star formation history of a galaxy (SFH) and the mass assembly of its underlying dark matter halo. We detail a set of theoretical techniques for using autodiff to calculate gradients of predictions for galaxy SEDs with respect to SPS parameters that control a range of physical effects, including SFH, stellar metallicity, nebular emission, and dust attenuation. When forward modelling the colours of a synthetic galaxy population, we find that DSPS can provide a factor of 5 speed-up over standard SPS codes on a CPU, and a factor of 300-400 on a modern GPU. When coupled with gradient-based techniques for optimization and inference, DSPS makes it practical to conduct expansive likelihood analyses of simulation-based models of the galaxy–halo connection that fully forward model galaxy spectra and photometry.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

NSR&D Program Fiscal Year 2015 Funded Research Stochastic Modeling of Radioactive Material Releases Final Report

Nonreactor nuclear facilities operating under the approval authority of the U.S. Department of Energy use unmitigated hazard evaluations to determine if potential radiological doses associated with design basis events challenge or exceed dose evaluation guidelines. Unmitigated design basis events that sufficiently challenge dose evaluation guidelines or exceed the guidelines for members of the public or workers, merit selection of safety structures, systems, or components or other controls to prevent or mitigate the hazard. Idaho State University, in collaboration with Idaho National Laboratory, has developed a portable and simple to use software application called SODA (Stochastic Objective Decision-Aide) that stochastically calculates the radiation dose distribution associated with hypothetical radiological material release scenarios. Rather than producing a point estimate of the dose, SODA produces a dose distribution result to allow a deeper understanding of the dose potential. SODA allows users to select the distribution type and parameter values for all of the input variables used to perform the dose calculation. Users can also specify custom distributions through a user defined distribution option. SODA then randomly samples each distribution input variable and calculates the overall resulting dose distribution. In cases where an input variable distribution is unknown, a traditional single point value can be used. SODA, developed using the MATLAB coding framework, has a graphical user interface and can be installed on both Windows and Mac computers. SODA is a standalone software application and does not require MATLAB to function. SODA provides improved risk understanding leading to better informed decision making associated with establishing nuclear facility material-at-risk limits and safety structure, system, or component selection. It is important to note that SODA does not replace or compete with codes such as MACCS or RSAC; rather it is viewed as an easy to use supplemental tool to help improve risk understanding and support better informed decisions. The SODA development project was funded through a grant from the DOE Nuclear Safety Research and Development Program.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2025

The Water Table Model (WTM) (v2.0.1): coupled groundwater and dynamic lake modelling

Abstract. Ice-free land comprises 26 % of the Earth's surface and holds liquid water that delineates ecosystems, affects global geochemical cycling, and modulates sea levels. However, we currently lack the capacity to simulate and predict these terrestrial water changes across the full range of relevant spatial (watershed to global) and temporal (monthly to millennial) scales. To address this knowledge gap, we present the Water Table Model (WTM), which integrates coupled components to compute dynamic lake and groundwater levels. The groundwater component solves the 2D horizontal groundwater flow equation using non-linear equation solvers from the C++ PETSc (Portable, Extensible Toolkit for Scientific Computation) library. The dynamic lake component makes use of the Fill–Spill–Merge (FSM) algorithm to move surface water into lakes, where it may evaporate or affect groundwater flow. In a proof-of-concept application, we demonstrate the continental-scale capabilities of the WTM by simulating the steady-state climate-driven water table for the present day and the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM; 21 000 calendar years before present) across the North American continent. During the LGM, North America stored an additional 14.98 cm of sea-level equivalent (SLE) in lakes and groundwater compared to the climate-driven present-day scenario. We compare the present-day result to other simulations and real-world data. Open-source code for the WTM is available on GitHub and Zenodo.

Callaghan, Kerry L. (ORCID:0000000226740838)↗
DOE OSTI2021

Enabling particle applications for exascale computing platforms

The Exascale Computing Project (ECP) is invested in co-design to assure that key applications are ready for exascale computing. Within ECP, the Co-design Center for Particle Applications (CoPA) is addressing challenges faced by particle-based applications across four “sub-motifs”: short-range particle–particle interactions (e.g., those which often dominate molecular dynamics (MD) and smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) methods), long-range particle–particle interactions (e.g., electrostatic MD and gravitational N-body), particle-in-cell (PIC) methods, and linear-scaling electronic structure and quantum molecular dynamics (QMD) algorithms. Our crosscutting co-designed technologies fall into two categories: proxy applications (or “apps”) and libraries. Proxy apps are vehicles used to evaluate the viability of incorporating various types of algorithms, data structures, and architecture-specific optimizations and the associated trade-offs; examples include ExaMiniMD, CabanaMD, CabanaPIC, and ExaSP2. Libraries are modular instantiations that multiple applications can utilize or be built upon; CoPA has developed the Cabana particle library, PROGRESS/BML libraries for QMD, and the SWFFT and fftMPI parallel FFT libraries. Success is measured by identifiable “lessons learned” that are translated either directly into parent production application codes or into libraries, with demonstrated performance and/or productivity improvement. The libraries and their use in CoPA’s ECP application partner codes are also addressed.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2016

WE-FG-BRA-04: A Portable Confocal Microscope to Image Live Cell Damage Response Induced by Therapeutic Radiation

Purpose: To construct a custom and portable fluorescence confocal laser-scanning microscope (FCLSM) that can be placed in the path of therapeutic radiation beams to study real-time radiation-induced damage response in live cells. Methods: We designed and constructed a portable FCLSM with three laser diodes for excitation (405, 488, and 635 nm). An objective lens focuses the excitation light and collects fluorescence from the sample. A pair of galvanometer mirrors scans/collects the laser beam/fluorescence along the focal plane (x/y-directions). A stepper motor stage scans in the axial direction and positions the x/y of the image field. Barrier filters and dichroic mirrors are used to route the spectral emission bands to the appropriate photodetector. An avalanche photodiode collects near-infrared fluorescence; a photodiode collects back-reflected 635 nm light; and a photomultiplier tube collects green fluorescence in the range of eGFP/eYFP. A 200-µm diameter pinhole was used to implement the confocal geometry for near-infrared and red channels and a 150-µm diameter pinhole for the green channel. Data acquisition and system control were achieved using a high-throughput data acquisition card. In-house software developed in LabVIEW was used to control the hardware, collect data from the photodetectors and reconstruct the confocal images. Results: 6 frames/s can be acquired for a 25 µm{sup 2} (128×128 pixels) field of view, visualizing the entire volume of the cell nucleus (∼10 µm depth) in <10 s. To demonstrate the usefulness of our FCLSM, we imaged gold nanoshells in live cells, radiation-induced damage in fibrosarcoma cells expressing eGFP tagged to a DNA repair protein, and neurons expressing eGFP. The system can also image particle tracks in fluorescent nuclear track detectors. Conclusion: We developed a versatile and portable FCLSM that allows radiobiology studies in live cells exposed to therapeutic radiation. The FCLSM can be placed in any vertical beam line for top-to-bottom exposures. This research was supported by the Sister Institution Network Fund and the Center for Radiation Oncology Research at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas. Gabriel Sawakuchi has research support from Elekta Inc.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2014

Fast Multiresolution Reads of Massive Simulation Datasets

Today’s massively parallel simulation codes can produce output ranging up to many terabytes of data. Utilizing this data to support scientific inquiry requires analysis and visualization, yet the sheer size of the data makes it cumbersome or impossible to read without computational resources similar to the original simulation. We identify two broad classes of problems for reading data and present effective solutions for both. The first class of data reads depends on user requirements and available resources. Tasks such as visualization and user-guided analysis may be accomplished using only a subset of variables with a restricted spatial extent at a reduced resolution. The other class of reads requires full resolution multivariate data to be loaded, for example to restart a simulation. We show that utilizing the hierarchical multiresolution IDX data format enables scalable and efficient serial and parallel read access on a variety of hardware from supercomputers down to portable devices. Here, we demonstrate interactive view-dependent visualization and analysis of massive scientific datasets using low-power commodity hardware, and we compare read performance with other parallel file formats for both full and partial resolution data.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2021

UEMtomaton: A Source-Available Platform to Aid in Start-up of Ultrafast Electron Microscopy Labs

The steady rise in the number of ultrafast electron microscopy (UEM) labs, in addition to the opacity and lack of detailed descriptions of current approaches that would enable point-by-point construction, has created an opportunity for sharing common methods and instrumentation for (for example) automating data acquisition to assist in efficient lab start-up and to learn about common and robust protocols. In the spirit of open sharing of methods, we provide here a description of an entry-level method and user interface (UI) for automating UEM experiments, and we provide access to the source code and scripts (source-available) for ease of implementation or as a starting reference point for those entering or seeking to enter the field (https://github.com/CEMSFlannigan/UEMtomaton/releases/tag/v1.0). Core instrumentation and physical connections in the UEM lab at Minnesota are described. Interface communication schemes consisting of duo server-client pairs between critical components – the optical delay stage and the UEM digital camera – are presented, with emphasis placed on describing the logic and communications sequence designed to conduct automated series acquisitions. An application designed and programmed with C++/CLI as Windows Forms in Microsoft Visual Studio – dubbed UEMtomaton – is also presented. Key to the UI layout is centralization of the automation tasks and establishment of communication within the software rather than by interfacing with each individual workstation. It is our hope that this note provides useful insight for current and future UEM researchers, particularly with respect to generalizability and portability of the approach to emerging labs. Here, we note that while this basic, entry-level approach is certainly not the most sophisticated or comprehensive of those currently in use, we feel there is nevertheless value in clearly communicating a proven straightforward method to hopefully lower the barrier to entry into the field.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2014

TH-A-12A-01: Medical Physicist's Role in Digital Information Security: Threats, Vulnerabilities and Best Practices

I. Information Security Background (Speaker = Kevin McDonald) Evolution of Medical Devices Living and Working in a Hostile Environment Attack Motivations Attack Vectors Simple Safety Strategies Medical Device Security in the News Medical Devices and Vendors Summary II. Keeping Radiation Oncology IT Systems Secure (Speaker = Bruce Curran) Hardware Security Double-lock Requirements “Foreign” computer systems Portable Device Encryption Patient Data Storage System Requirements Network Configuration Isolating Critical Devices Isolating Clinical Networks Remote Access Considerations Software Applications / Configuration Passwords / Screen Savers Restricted Services / access Software Configuration Restriction Use of DNS to restrict accesse. Patches / Upgrades Awareness Intrusion Prevention Intrusion Detection Threat Risk Analysis Conclusion Learning Objectives: Understanding how Hospital IT Requirements affect Radiation Oncology IT Systems. Illustrating sample practices for hardware, network, and software security. Discussing implementation of good IT security practices in radiation oncology. Understand overall risk and threats scenario in a networked environment.

98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL P↗
DOE OSTI2012

Compiled MPI: Cost-Effective Exascale Applications Development

The complexity of petascale and exascale machines makes it increasingly difficult to develop applications that can take advantage of them. Future systems are expected to feature billion-way parallelism, complex heterogeneous compute nodes and poor availability of memory (Peter Kogge, 2008). This new challenge for application development is motivating a significant amount of research and development on new programming models and runtime systems designed to simplify large-scale application development. Unfortunately, DoE has significant multi-decadal investment in a large family of mission-critical scientific applications. Scaling these applications to exascale machines will require a significant investment that will dwarf the costs of hardware procurement. A key reason for the difficulty in transitioning today's applications to exascale hardware is their reliance on explicit programming techniques, such as the Message Passing Interface (MPI) programming model to enable parallelism. MPI provides a portable and high performance message-passing system that enables scalable performance on a wide variety of platforms. However, it also forces developers to lock the details of parallelization together with application logic, making it very difficult to adapt the application to significant changes in the underlying system. Further, MPI's explicit interface makes it difficult to separate the application's synchronization and communication structure, reducing the amount of support that can be provided by compiler and run-time tools. This is in contrast to the recent research on more implicit parallel programming models such as Chapel, OpenMP and OpenCL, which promise to provide significantly more flexibility at the cost of reimplementing significant portions of the application. We are developing CoMPI, a novel compiler-driven approach to enable existing MPI applications to scale to exascale systems with minimal modifications that can be made incrementally over the application's lifetime. It includes: (1) New set of source code annotations, inserted either manually or automatically, that will clarify the application's use of MPI to the compiler infrastructure, enabling greater accuracy where needed; (2) A compiler transformation framework that leverages these annotations to transform the original MPI source code to improve its performance and scalability; (3) Novel MPI runtime implementation techniques that will provide a rich set of functionality extensions to be used by applications that have been transformed by our compiler; and (4) A novel compiler analysis that leverages simple user annotations to automatically extract the application's communication structure and synthesize most complex code annotations.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2019

Dose Modeling for Harborview Research and Training Facility

The Harborview Research and Training (R&T) Facility at the University of Washington (UW) was accidently contaminated from a breached sealed source of Cesium-137. The release occurred during removal of the sealed source from its holder within a portable hot cell in the loading dock area near room 220. The loading dock and northeast corner of the building above the ground floor were impacted by the release, whereas the remaining portions of the R&T Facility were minimally affected. Detailed descriptions of the R&T Facility and the affected area/rooms are included in Section 2. The RESRAD Team in the Environmental Science Division of Argonne National Laboratory visited the site on August 12, 2019, and interviewed the R&T Facility building manager and staff working in the building at that time. Site- and building-specific data were collected including building floor plan CAD drawings, building occupants’ working hours, contaminated rooms photos and their dimensions, building air exchange rates, building materials and “curtain wall” details, and so forth. These data are being used in the dose modeling for potential occupants of the building after it is remediated. The dose modeling was performed using the RESRAD-BUILD computer code, which is designed for the evaluation of radiologically contaminated buildings (Yu et al. 2003). Two hypothetical building occupants of the Harborview R&T Facility were evaluated: a researcher occupying room 726 (a research laboratory on the seventh floor) and a custodian occupying room 220 (loading dock and trash compactor room with a rollup door). A maintenance worker that will be spending less time in impacted areas was not modeled because it will be bounded by other two hypothetical building occupants modeled. A summary description of the RESRAD-BUILD is provided in Appendix A, and the modeling of potential doses to a researcher and a custodian is described in detail in Section 3. A summary and a discussion of the dose modeling results are included in Section 4. The parameters used in the RESRAD-BUILD modeling are included in Appendix B. This report documents the dose modeling results; it does not describe measurements of the actual radioactivity levels at the Harborview R&T Facility, nor does it set any expectation for the actual final radioactivity levels. The radiation doses presented are modeling results based on the generic screening values of Cs-137 and several conservative assumptions and are meant only to assist in decision making regarding decontamination of the Harborview R&T Facility.

61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY↗
DOE OSTI2011

Tailoring the Neutron Spectrum from a 14-MeV Neutron Generator to Approximate a Spontaneous-Fission Spectrum

Many applications of neutrons for non-invasive measurements began with isotopic sources such as AmBe or Cf-252. Political factors have rendered AmBe undesirable in the United States and other countries, and the supply of Cf-252 is limited and significantly increasing in price every few years. Compact and low-power deuterium-tritium (DT) electronic neutron generators can often provide sufficient flux, but the 14-MeV neutron spectrum is much more energetic (harder) than an isotopic neutron source. A series of MCNP simulations was run to examine the extent to which the 14-MeV DT neutron spectrum could be softened through the use of high-Z and low-Z materials. Some potential concepts of operation require a portable neutron generator system, so the additional weight of extra materials is also a trade-off parameter. Using a reference distance of 30 cm from the source, the average neutron energy can be lowered to be less than that of either AmBe or Cf-252, while obtaining an increase in flux at the reference distance compared to a bare neutron generator. This paper discusses the types and amounts of materials used, the resulting neutron spectra, neutron flux levels, and associated photon production.

07 ISOTOPE AND RADIATION SOURCES↗
DOE OSTI2017

Graphics processing unit accelerated phase field dislocation dynamics: Application to bi-metallic interfaces

We present the first high-performance computing implementation of the meso-scale phase field dislocation dynamics (PFDD) model on a graphics processing unit (GPU)-based platform. The implementation takes advantage of the portable OpenACC standard directive pragmas along with Nvidia's compute unified device architecture (CUDA) fast Fourier transform (FFT) library called CUFFT to execute the FFT computations within the PFDD formulation on the same GPU platform. The overall implementation is termed ACCPFDD-CUFFT. The package is entirely performance portable due to the use of OPENACC-CUDA inter-operability, in which calls to CUDA functions are replaced with the OPENACC data regions for a host central processing unit (CPU) and device (GPU). A comprehensive benchmark study has been conducted, which compares a number of FFT routines, the Numerical Recipes FFT (FOURN), Fastest Fourier Transform in the West (FFTW), and the CUFFT. The last one exploits the advantages of the GPU hardware for FFT calculations. The novel ACCPFDD-CUFFT implementation is verified using the analytical solutions for the stress field around an infinite edge dislocation and subsequently applied to simulate the interaction and motion of dislocations through a bi-phase copper-nickel (Cu–Ni) interface. It is demonstrated that the ACCPFDD-CUFFT implementation on a single TESLA K80 GPU offers a 27.6X speedup relative to the serial version and a 5X speedup relative to the 22-multicore Intel Xeon CPU E5-2699 v4 @ 2.20 GHz version of the code.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2012

Operating System Support for Fine-Grained Task Migration

With the end of clock scaling and the limited power budget available (20-30MW), future supercomputers will meet exascale performance primarily through a higher level of parallelism. Current operating (OS) and runtime (RT) systems are designed for the classical SMP model and based on the static and coarse-grained process/thread paradigm. They do not provide the required level of flexibility, especially within a single compute node, to meet the requirements imposed by exascale systems in terms of power/energy efficiency, resilience, managing concurrency and performance portability. The high level of concurrency poses new challenges specific to exascale systems that need to be addressed by novel solutions. In particular, requiring the user to manage billions of concurrent threads could easily result in poor data locality, clogged interconnection networks, unchecked propagation of soft errors, and lack of control over power/energy consumption. Equally important, managing such level of concurrency interferes with the user’s focus on the application and the algorithm. We envision that the computation will be encapsulated into fine-grained tasks that can be isolated and protected from the other tasks running in the system. Whenever a task needs to work on some data that is not stored on the local node, the OS/RT allows the task to be migrated to the node that owns the data. Each task is associated with a contained state (set or architectural registers, stack frame, running node, etc.) that describes the progress of the task and that should be moved together with the task’s code. We believe system support for task migration is a fundamental function that can ease the job of tackling several of the exascale challenges.

Gioiosa, Roberto↗
DOE OSTI2025

Development of a River Dynamical Core for E3SM to simulate compound flooding on Exascale-class heterogeneous supercomputers

Flooding events pose significant risk to human life, property, and infrastructure. Physically-consistent quantification of altered flood risks in global models requires hyper-resolution (~1 km) or fine flood simulations using two-dimensional (2D) physics schemes, both of which are unavailable in the current generation Earth System Models. Here, in this work, we have developed the River Dynamical Core (RDycore), which is an open-source, 2D shallow water equation (SWE) library for the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM). RDycore uses PETSc and libCEED libraries that allows it to run efficiently on CPUs and GPUs, as well as select a time-integration algorithm at runtime without requiring any code modifications. RDycore achieves spatial error convergence rates for problems with analytical and manufactured solutions similar to those reported previously in the literature, or consistent with the implemented first-order spatial discretization scheme. RDycore's accuracy in predicting flooding for a well-studied dam break problem is comparable to existing SWE models. For a problem with 471 million grid cells, RDycore achieves a speedup of 6.6x and 7.6x on GPUs compared to CPUs when using 320 compute nodes on DOE's Perlmutter and Frontier supercomputers, respectively. The one-way coupling of the RDycore library within E3SM is demonstrated by performing multiple 5-day flooding simulations during Hurricane Harvey driven by five precipitation datasets. The E3SM--RDycore simulations at 30 m spatial resolution accurately simulate maximum water height during the hurricane when benchmarked against a previously published study and achieve a speedup of 15x (Perlmutter) and 21x (Frontier) on GPUs relative to CPUs. The work presented here is the foundational step in providing hardware and algorithmic portability framework for simulating kilometer-scale river dynamics within E3SM.

Flood Simulation↗
DOE OSTI2022

CondiDiag1.0: a flexible online diagnostic tool for conditional sampling and budget analysis in the E3SM atmosphere model (EAM)

Abstract. Numerical models used in weather and climate prediction take into account a comprehensive set of atmospheric processes (i.e., phenomena) such as the resolved and unresolved fluid dynamics, radiative transfer, cloud and aerosol life cycles, and mass or energy exchanges with the Earth's surface. In order to identify model deficiencies and improve predictive skills, it is important to obtain process-level understanding of the interactions between different processes. Conditional sampling and budget analysis are powerful tools for process-oriented model evaluation, but they often require tedious ad hoc coding and large amounts of instantaneous model output, resulting in inefficient use of human and computing resources. This paper presents an online diagnostic tool that addresses this challenge by monitoring model variables in a generic manner as they evolve within the time integration cycle. The tool is convenient to use. It allows users to select sampling conditions and specify monitored variables at run time. Both the evolving values of the model variables and their increments caused by different atmospheric processes can be monitored and archived. Online calculation of vertical integrals is also supported. Multiple sampling conditions can be monitored in a single simulation in combination with unconditional sampling. The paper explains in detail the design and implementation of the tool in the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) version 1. The usage is demonstrated through three examples: a global budget analysis of dust aerosol mass concentration, a composite analysis of sea salt emission and its dependency on surface wind speed, and a conditionally sampled relative humidity budget. The tool is expected to be easily portable to closely related atmospheric models that use the same or similar data structures and time integration methods.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2015

Task 4 - EMI/RFI Issues Potentially Impacting Electromagnetic Compatibility of I&C Systems (NRCHQ6014D0015)

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC’s) regulations in Part 50, “Domestic Licensing of Production and Utilization Facilities,” of Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR Part 50) state that structures, systems, and components important to safety in a nuclear power plant are to be designed to accommodate the effects of environmental conditions (i.e., remain functional under all postulated service conditions) and that design control measures such as testing are to be used to check the adequacy of design. Regulatory Guide (RG) 1.180 was developed to provide guidance to licensees and applicants on methods acceptable to the NRC staff for complying with the NRC’s regulations on design, installation, and testing practices for addressing the effects of electromagnetic and radio-frequency interference (EMI/RFI) and power surges on safety-related instrumentation and control (I&C) systems. The first revision of RG 1.180 was issued in January 2000 and a second revision was issued in October 2003*. The second revision differed from the first revision in endorsing Military Standard (MIL-STD)-461E and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) Standard (Std) 61000 series of EMI/RFI test methods, extending the guidance to cover signal line testing, incorporating frequency ranges where portable communications devices are experiencing increasing use, and relaxing the operating envelopes (test levels) when experience and confirmatory research warranted. It also offered exemptions from specific test criteria based on technical considerations such as plant conditions and the intended location of the safety-related I&C equipment. Since the last revision, new requirements have been identified, associated RGs have been created and updated, and additional industry guidance has been developed. Additionally, the operational environment has changed with the increase in wireless communication technology for both personal (smartphone) and industrial (remote I&C) purposes. Also, specific concerns and issues with testing methods and methodologies have been identified that must be addressed. Further, most of the standards that serve as the basis for the RG have been revised. Therefore, the NRC’s Office of Regulatory Research has contracted with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to incorporate new information and resolve the identified issues under NRC-HQ-60-14-D-0015, “Update to RG 1.180, Revision 2, Guidelines for Evaluating Electromagnetic and Radio-Frequency Interference in Safety-Related Instrumentation and Control Systems.” The ultimate goal of this project is to provide NRC the technical basis for developing and publishing a new revision of the RG. The focus of Task 4 was for ORNL to identify and address any new or additional EMI/RFI issues that could potentially impact the EMC of I&C systems. More specifically, ORNL was to evaluate the impact of any new issue on safety equipment in their local environments and then determine whether the issues should be included and discussed in the revision to RG 1.180 that is currently under way.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Accelerated application development: The ORNL Titan experience

The use of computational accelerators such as NVIDIA GPUs and Intel Xeon Phi processors is now widespread in the high performance computing community, with many applications delivering impressive performance gains. However, programming these systems for high performance, performance portability and software maintainability has been a challenge. In this paper we discuss experiences porting applications to the Titan system. Titan, which began planning in 2009 and was deployed for general use in 2013, was the first multi-petaflop system based on accelerator hardware. To ready applications for accelerated computing, a preparedness effort was undertaken prior to delivery of Titan. In this paper we report experiences and lessons learned from this process and describe how users are currently making use of computational accelerators on Titan.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2012

A plastic miniature x-ray emission spectrometer based on the cylindrical von Hamos geometry

We present a short working distance miniature x-ray emission spectrometer (miniXES) based on the cylindrical von Hamos geometry. We describe the general design principles for the spectrometer and detail a specific implementation that covers K{beta} and valence level emission from Fe. Large spatial and angular access to the sample region provides compatibility with environmental chambers, microprobe, and pump/probe measurements. The primary spectrometer structure and optic is plastic, printed using a 3-dimensional rapid-prototype machine. The spectrometer is inexpensive to construct and is portable; it can be quickly set up at any focused beamline with a tunable narrow bandwidth monochromator. The sample clearance is over 27 mm, providing compatibility with a variety of environment chambers. An overview is also given of the calibration and data processing procedures, which are implemented by a multiplatform user-friendly software package. Finally, representative measurements are presented. Background levels are below the level of the K{beta}{sub 2,5} valence emission, the weakest diagram line in the system, and photometric analysis of count rates finds that the instrument is performing at the theoretical limit.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗