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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 523 records · Page 29

TH-CD-209-05: Impact of Spot Size and Spacing On the Quality of Robustly-Optimized Intensity-Modulated Proton Therapy Plans for Lung Cancer

Purpose: To investigate how spot size and spacing affect plan quality, especially, plan robustness and the impact of interplay effect, of robustly-optimized intensity-modulated proton therapy (IMPT) plans for lung cancer. Methods: Two robustly-optimized IMPT plans were created for 10 lung cancer patients: (1) one for a proton beam with in-air energy dependent large spot size at isocenter (σ: 5–15 mm) and spacing (1.53σ); (2) the other for a proton beam with small spot size (σ: 2–6 mm) and spacing (5 mm). Both plans were generated on the average CTs with internal-gross-tumor-volume density overridden to irradiate internal target volume (ITV). The root-mean-square-dose volume histograms (RVH) measured the sensitivity of the dose to uncertainties, and the areas under RVH curves were used to evaluate plan robustness. Dose evaluation software was developed to model time-dependent spot delivery to incorporate interplay effect with randomized starting phases of each field per fraction. Patient anatomy voxels were mapped from phase to phase via deformable image registration to score doses. Dose-volume-histogram indices including ITV coverage, homogeneity, and organs-at-risk (OAR) sparing were compared using Student-t test. Results: Compared to large spots, small spots resulted in significantly better OAR sparing with comparable ITV coverage and homogeneity in the nominal plan. Plan robustness was comparable for ITV and most OARs. With interplay effect considered, significantly better OAR sparing with comparable ITV coverage and homogeneity is observed using smaller spots. Conclusion: Robust optimization with smaller spots significantly improves OAR sparing with comparable plan robustness and similar impact of interplay effect compare to larger spots. Small spot size requires the use of larger number of spots, which gives optimizer more freedom to render a plan more robust. The ratio between spot size and spacing was found to be more relevant to determine plan robustness and the impact of interplay effect than spot size alone. This research was supported by the National Cancer Institute Career Developmental Award K25CA168984, by the Fraternal Order of Eagles Cancer Research Fund Career Development Award, by The Lawrence W. and Marilyn W. Matteson Fund for Cancer Research, by Mayo Arizona State University Seed Grant, and by The Kemper Marley Foundation.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

SECARB Project Overview Book

In 2003, the United States Department of Energy (DOE) issued awards initiating seven Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships (RCSP) spanning the United States and portions of Canada. Managed by DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), the RCSPs currently represent more than 400 state agencies, universities, and private companies, spanning 43 states, three Native American Organizations, and four Canadian provinces. The Southern States Energy Board (SSEB) received an award on October 1, 2003, which established the Board’s overall management and administration of the Southeast Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership, or SECARB. The geographical region currently includes 13 states and a network of more than 100 stakeholders. The Nation’s leading scientists, university researchers, national laboratories, industrial representatives, environmental organizations, and many others have taken a proactive approach at identifying and characterizing the most promising options for technology deployment and carbon dioxide (CO2) utilization and storage (CCUS) for the Southeast. The results obtained during these injections will be important to the future commercialization of CCUS technologies and the continued use of fossil fuels as a significant energy source in a manner that is environmentally responsible. Each of the six SECARB project locations has been locally coordinated by its own field team. The field teams assume responsibility for the technical scope of work, local education and outreach, permitting, monitoring, verification, and accounting (MVA), and maintaining the validation test’s schedule and budget. Each team contributes new information to the continued characterization of the region. In addition, a task is dedicated to integrating field data and filling gaps in regional characterization data sets. Data and tools developed in the Continued Characterization task are incorporated into a relational database and geographic information system (GIS). All field tests, the continued characterization project, and the cross-cutting functions are designed to support the DOE roadmap by validating technologies and identifying locations throughout the region that could support full-scale CCUS deployment opportunities. Detailed fact sheets for the SECARB projects are available on the SECARB website at www.secarbon.org (see “Projects” tab).

RCSP↗

Using Industry's Own Words to Evaluate ISO 50001 Energy Management Systems Adoption

A growing body of research is starting to qualitatively and quantitatively reveal the drivers, benefits, and challenges of implementing an ISO 50001 energy management system (EnMS). To date, a few surveys of ISO 50001-compliant firms, mostly in Europe, have been conducted. An as yet unused data source springs from the annual Energy Management Leadership Awards, held by the Clean Energy Ministerial. Launched in 2016, this international awards program requires ISO 50001 certified organizations to develop a case study describing their implementation experience, using a uniform template. This report analyzes these case studies from 2016 and 2017 using the method of content analysis, a well-established practice widely used in the social sciences to examine qualitative information.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

National Bio-fuel Energy Laboratory

The National Biofuel Energy Laboratory or NBEL was a consortia consisting of non-profits, universities, industry, and OEM’s. NextEnergy Center (NEC) in Detroit, Michigan was the prime with Wayne State University as the primary subcontractor. Other partners included: Art Van Furniture; Biodiesel Industries Inc. (BDI); Bosch; Clean Emission Fluids (CEF); Delphi; Oakland University; U.S. TARDEC (The Army); and later Cummins Bridgeway. The program was awarded to NextEnergy by U.S. DOE-NREL on July 1, 2005. The period of performance was about five (5) years, ending June 30, 2010. This program was executed in two phases: 1.Phase I focused on bench-scale R&D and performance-property-relationships. 2.Phase II expanded those efforts into further engine testing, emissions testing, and on-road fleet testing of biodiesel using additional types of feedstock (i.e., corn, and choice white grease based). NextEnergy – a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization based in Detroit was originally awarded a $1.9 million grant from the U.S. Dept. of Energy for Phase I of the NBEL program. A few years later, NextEnergy and its partners received an additional $1.9MM in DOE funding to complete Phase II. The NBEL funding was completely exhausted by the program end date of June 30, 2010 and the cost share commitment of 20% minimum has been exceeded nearly two times over. As a result of the work performed by the NBEL consortia, the following successes were realized: 1.Over one hundred publications and presentations have been delivered by the NBEL consortia, including but not limited to: R&D efforts on algae-based biodiesel, novel heterogeneous catalysis, biodiesel properties from a vast array of feedstock blends, cold flow properties, engine testing results (several Society of Automotive Engineers [SAE] papers have been published on this research), emissions testing results, and market quality survey results. 2.One new spinoff company (NextCAT) was formed by two WSU Chemical Engineering professors and another co-founder, based on a novel heterogeneous catalyst that may be retrofitted into idled biodiesel manufacturing facilities to restart production at a greatly reduced cost. 3.Three patents have been filed by WSU and granted based on the NextCAT focus. 4.The next-generation advanced biodiesel dispensing unit (CEF F.A.S.T. unit version 2) was developed by Clean Emission Fluids (CEF). 5.NBEL aided in the preparing a sound technical basis for setting an ASTM B20 standard: ASTM Standard D7467-08 was passed in June of 2008 and officially published on October of 2008. 6.NBEL has helped to understand composition-property-performance relationships, from not only a laboratory and field testing scale, for biodiesel blends from a spectrum of feedstocks. 7.NBEL helped propel the development of biodiesel with improved performance, cetane numbers, cold flow properties, and oxidative stability. 8.Data for over 30,000 miles has been logged for the fleet testing that select members of the consortia participated in. There were five vehicles that participated in the fleet testing. Art Van provided two vehicles, one that remained idle for most of the time and one that was used often for commercial furniture deliveries, Oakland University provided one vehicle, NEC provided one vehicle, and The Night Move provided one vehicle. These vehicles were light to medium duty (2.0 to 6.6 L displacement), used B5 or B20 blends from multiple sources of feedstock (corn-, choice white grease-, and soybean-based blends) and sources (NextDiesel, BDI, or Wacker Oil), experienced a broad range in ambient temperatures (from -9 °F in Michigan winters to 93 °F in the summertime), and both city and highway driving conditions.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗

Aligned mesoporous architectures and devices.

This is the final report for the Presidential Early Career Award for Science and Engineering - PECASE (LDRD projects 93369 and 118841) awarded to Professor Yunfeng Lu (Tulane University and University of California-Los Angeles). During the last decade, mesoporous materials with tunable periodic pores have been synthesized using surfactant liquid crystalline as templates, opening a new avenue for a wide spectrum of applications. However, the applications are somewhat limited by the unfavorabe pore orientation of these materials. Although substantial effort has been devoted to align the pore channels, fabrication of mesoporous materials with perpendicular pore channels remains challenging. This project focused on fabrication of mesoporous materials with perpendicularly aligned pore channels. We demonstrated structures for use in water purification, separation, sensors, templated synthesis, microelectronics, optics, controlled release, and highly selective catalysts.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

2010 Neutron Review: ORNL Neutron Sciences Progress Report

During 2010, the Neutron Sciences Directorate focused on producing world-class science, while supporting the needs of the scientific community. As the instrument, sample environment, and data analysis tools at High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR ) and Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) have grown over the last year, so has promising neutron scattering research. This was an exciting year in science, technology, and operations. Some topics discussed are: (1) HFIR and SNS Experiments Take Gordon Battelle Awards for Scientific Discovery - Battelle Memorial Institute presented the inaugural Gordon Battelle Prizes for scientific discovery and technology impact in 2010. Battelle awards the prizes to recognize the most significant advancements at national laboratories that it manages or co-manages. (2) Discovery of Element 117 - As part of an international team of scientists from Russia and the United States, HFIR staff played a pivotal role in the discovery by generating the berkelium used to produce the new element. A total of six atoms of ''ununseptium'' were detected in a two-year campaign employing HFIR and the Radiochemical Engineering Development Center at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and the heavy-ion accelerator capabilities at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia. The discovery of the new element expands the understanding of the properties of nuclei at extreme numbers of protons and neutrons. The production of a new element and observation of 11 new heaviest isotopes demonstrate the increased stability of super-heavy elements with increasing neutron numbers and provide the strongest evidence to date for the existence of an island of enhanced stability for super-heavy elements. (3) Studies of Iron-Based High-Temperature Superconductors - ORNL applied its distinctive capabilities in neutron scattering, chemistry, physics, and computation to detailed studies of the magnetic excitations of iron-based superconductors (iron pnictides and chalcogenides), a class of materials discovered in 2008. This research is yielding new insights into the relationship between magnetism and superconductivity and has established several key features of this family of high-temperature superconducting (HTS ) materials: the maximum magnetic field at which they can function, the nature of the electrons involved in the superconductivity, the dependence of the properties upon chemical substitution, and the character of the magnetic fluctuations in the material. The results suggest that despite important differences between these materials and the HTS copper oxides, a universal mechanism may be responsible for the unconventional superconductivity. (4) Coal Sequestration Research: A New Home for Greenhouse Gases - One possibility for slowing down the increasing levels of carbon dioxide (CO{sub 2}) in the atmosphere is to capture the gas in natural underground features such as coal seams. Critical to the feasibility of this technology is determining how much CO{sub 2} can be stored, no method for which has been found - until now. (5) Accelerator Reliability Passes 92% - In December 2010, SNS set a new record for itself when the accelerator ran at 1 MW with 100% reliability. Target Performance Exceeds All Expectations - The mercury target used at SNS is the first of its kind. During the design and planning for SNS, many people were skeptical that the target would work. In 2010, it was confirmed that the target was working not only well but much better than anyone would have imagined. (6) Changing the World of Data Acquisition - Researchers at SNS are starting to benefit from event-based data analysis. Event data mode captures and stores an individual data set for every single neutron that strikes a detector - precisely when and where the neutron is detected. This technique provides numerous advantages over traditional methods. Event data mode allows researchers to process their data at the highest resolution possible with no loss of data. This method of data collection provides a much more efficient way for users to gather data and get the most from their beam time. (7) New Laboratories for Users - The HFIR and SNS user communities continue to grow dramatically. In 2010, HFIR hosted 862 users and SNS 796, outpacing projections for both facilities. To meet the needs of those users, a new complex of 13 laboratories is now open for users at SNS. (8) Innovative Detectors Provide Relief from Helium-3 Shortage - Helium-3 ({sup 3}He) has been the gas of choice for gaseous detectors since the early days of neutron science. About two years ago, detector scientists worldwide faced the reality that stockpiles of {sup 3}He are dwindling rapidly, while demand for it has risen by a factor of five. The Neutron Sciences Detectors Group has developed two new types of detectors that don't rely on {sup 3}He: the Anger camera and the wavelength shifting fiber neutron detector, both of which use lithium ({sup 6}Li).

High Flux isotope reactor↗

Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP) Prismatic HTGR Conceptual Design Project - Final Technical Report

This report is the Final Technical Report for the Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP) Prismatic HTGR Conceptual Design Project conducted by a team led by General Atomics under DOE Award DE-NE0000245. The primary overall objective of the project was to develop and document a conceptual design for the Steam Cycle Modular Helium Reactor (SC-MHR), which is the reactor concept proposed by General Atomics for the NGNP Demonstration Plant. The report summarizes the project activities over the entire funding period, compares the accomplishments with the goals and objectives of the project, and discusses the benefits of the work. The report provides complete listings of the products developed under the award and the key documents delivered to the DOE.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗

Development of Reagents for Application of At-211 to Targeted Radionuclide Therapy of Cancer

This grant covered only a period of 4 months as the major portion of the award was returned to DOE due to an award of funding from NIH that covered the same research objectives. A letter regarding the termination of the research is attached as the last page of the Final Report. The research conducted was limited due to the short period of this grant, but the results obtained in that period are outlined in the Final Report. The studies addressed in the research effort were directed at a problem that is of critical importance to the in vivo application of the alpha-particle emitting radionuclide At-211. That problem, low in vivo stability of many astatinated molecules, severely limits the use of At-211 in therapeutic applications. The advances sought in the studies were expected to expand the types of biomolecules that can be used as carriers of At-211, and provide improved in vivo targeting of the radiation dose compared with the dose delivered to normal tissue.

38 RADIATION CHEMISTRY, RADIOCHEMISTRY, AND NUCLEA↗

Siting Study for a Hydrokinetic Energy Project Located Offshore Southeastern Florida: Protocols for Survey Methodology for Offshore Marine Hydrokinetic Energy Projects

Dehlsen Associates, LLC was awarded a grant by the United States Department of Energy (DOE) Golden Field Office for a project titled 'Siting Study Framework and Survey Methodology for Marine and Hydrokinetic Energy Project in Offshore Southeast Florida,' corresponding to DOE Grant Award Number DE-EE0002655 resulting from DOE funding Opportunity Announcement Number DE-FOA-0000069 for Topic Area 2, and it is referred to herein as 'the project.' The purpose of the project was to enhance the certainty of the survey requirements and regulatory review processes for the purpose of reducing the time, efforts, and costs associated with initial siting efforts of marine and hydrokinetic energy conversion facilities that may be proposed in the Atlantic Ocean offshore Southeast Florida. To secure early input from agencies, protocols were developed for collecting baseline geophysical information and benthic habitat data that can be used by project developers and regulators to make decisions early in the process of determining project location (i.e., the siting process) that avoid or minimize adverse impacts to sensitive marine benthic habitat. It is presumed that such an approach will help facilitate the licensing process for hydrokinetic and other ocean renewable energy projects within the study area and will assist in clarifying the baseline environmental data requirements described in the U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (formerly Minerals Management Service) final regulations on offshore renewable energy (30 Code of Federal Regulations 285, published April 29, 2009). Because projects generally seek to avoid or minimize impacts to sensitive marine habitats, it was not the intent of this project to investigate areas that did not appear suitable for the siting of ocean renewable energy projects. Rather, a two-tiered approach was designed with the first step consisting of gaining overall insight about seabed conditions offshore southeastern Florida by conducting a geophysical survey of pre-selected areas with subsequent post-processing and expert data interpretation by geophysicists and experienced marine biologists knowledgeable about the general project area. The second step sought to validate the benthic habitat types interpreted from the geophysical data by conducting benthic video and photographic field surveys of selected habitat types. The goal of this step was to determine the degree of correlation between the habitat types interpreted from the geophysical data and what actually exists on the seafloor based on the benthic video survey logs. This step included spot-checking selected habitat types rather than comprehensive evaluation of the entire area covered by the geophysical survey. It is important to note that non-invasive survey methods were used as part of this study and no devices of any kind were either temporarily or permanently attached to the seabed as part of the work conducted under this project.

16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER↗

Solar Energy Grid Integration Systems: Final Report of the Princeton Power Systems, Inc. Development of the 100kW Demand Response Inverter (DRI)

Initiated in 2008, the Solar Energy Grid Integration (SEGIS) program is a partnership involving the U.S. Department of Energy, Sandia National Laboratories, electric utilities, academic institutions and the private sector. Recognizing the need to diversify the nation's energy portfolio, the SEGIS effort focuses on specific technologies needed to facilitate the integration of large-scale solar power generation into the nation's power grid Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) awarded a contract to Princeton Power Systems, Inc., (PPS) to develop a 100kW Advanced AC-link SEGIS inverter prototype under the Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Program for near-term commercial applications. This SEGIS initiative emphasizes the development of advanced inverters, controllers, communications and other balance-of-system components for photovoltaic (PV) distributed power applications. The SEGIS Stage 3 Contract was awarded to PPS on July 28, 2010. PPS developed and implemented a Demand Response Inverter (DRI) during this three-stage program. PPS prepared a 'Site Demonstration Conference' that was held on September 28, 2011, to showcase the cumulative advancements. This demo of the commercial product will be followed by Underwriters Laboratories, Inc., certification by the fourth quarter of 2011, and simultaneously the customer launch and commercial production sometime in late 2011 or early 2012. This final report provides an overview of all three stages and a full-length reporting of activities and accomplishments in Stage 3.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

SUPPORT FOR STUDENTS AND YOUNG SCIENTISTS TO PARTICIPATE IN THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY SYMPOSIUM ENTITLED LANHTANIDES AND ACTINIDES: A CHEMISTS'S PERSPECTIVE MARCH 21-25, 2010 HELD IN SAN FRANCISCO, CA

DOE Award DE-SC0003653 of $6,000.00 was used to support early career scientist to attend the Lanthanide and Actinide Symposium at the ACS meeting in March in San Francisco 2010. The award was for $6,000.00 and was used to support 12 early career scientists at $500.00/each.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

From Bombs to Breast Cancer Imaging: Los Alamos National Laboratory

In the United States, one in eight women will be affected by breast cancer. According to the American Cancer Society, breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed - as well as the second most fatal - cancer in American women. It is estimated that there will be nearly 200,000 diagnoses of breast cancer this year; more than 40,000 of these will be fatal. Although advances in medical technologies have greatly increased the odds of surviving the disease, the increase in screenings has not resulted in a significant reduction in the breast cancer mortality rate. Moreover, recent studies have even suggested that an increase in these methods might, in itself, cause cancer. A new tool for early detection and diagnosis of breast cancer, supported by an award from the Breast Cancer Research Program (BCRP) of the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs of Department of Defense, could give women a new advantage in the fight against breast cancer. This LANL-led project will integrate ultrasound tomography (UST) with recent discoveries in the field of cell and tissue biomechanics to improve breast cancer detection and characterization. UST uses ultrasound waves instead of X-rays to identify and characterize breast tumors. This technology reveals small mechanical-property changes within the breast. These changes are often the earliest signs of breast cancer. Additionally, UST is effective for women with dense breast tissue, who have a higher risk of developing breast cancer. Because the technology does not use radiation, UST can also be used as frequently as needed for women with a high risk of developing breast cancer. In contrast, mammography, the only routine breast-cancer screening tool currently available, is not effective for women with dense breast tissue and may come with unwanted side-effects caused by ionizing radiation. UST has great potential to become an alternative breast-cancer screening tool because of UST's advantages and benefits over mammography. Currently, there is fierce debate surrounding the age at which breast cancer screening should begin, and once begun, how often it should occur. The American Cancer Society recommends yearly mammograms starting at age 40. On the other hand, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends against routine so early. Rather, the Task Force recommends biennial mammography screening for women aged 50 to 74 years. The ten-year discrepancy in the onset of screening results from recent data suggesting that the frequent use of X-ray radiation during screenings could potentially increase the likelihood of developing cancer. This danger is increased by the low sensitivity and accuracy of mammograms, which sometimes require multiple screenings to yield results. Furthermore, mammograms are often not only inaccurate, but average appalling misdiagnoses rates: about 80% false positives and 15% false negatives. These misdiagnoses lead to unwarranted biopsies at an estimated health care cost of $2 billion per year, while at the same time, resulting in excessive cases of undetected cancer. As such, the National Cancer Institute recommends more studies on the advantages of types and frequency of screenings, as well as alternative screening options. The UST technology developed at LANL could be an alternative option to greatly improve the specificity and sensitivity of breast cancer screening without using ionizing radiation. LANL is developing high-resolution ultrasound tomography algorithms and a clinical ultrasound tomography scanner to conduct patient studies at the UNM Hospital. During UST scanning, the patient lies face-down while her breast, immersed in a tank of warm water, is scanned by phased-transducer arrays. UST uses recorded ultrasound signals to reconstruct a high-resolution three-dimensional image of the breast, showing the spatial distribution of mechanical properties within the breast. Breast cancers are detected by higher values of mechanical properties compared to surrounding tissues. Thus, high-resolution breast images obtained using LANL's novel UST algorithms have the potential to detect breast cancer at its earliest stage. The goal of this Multi-Team Award project is two-fold: (1) develop a novel, safe and cost-effective breast-imaging technique, and (2) improve the specificity and sensitivity of breast cancer imaging. The project is expected to integrate basic research with clinical studies, perform substantive cross-disciplinary training among scientists on the teams and involve participation of consumer advocates. Those involved in the project are optimistic about future developments.

45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEF↗

Recovery Act - PEM Fuel Cell Systems Providing Emergency Reserve and Backup Power (Final Technical Report)

The STI product is the Final Technical Report from ReliOn, Inc. for contract award DE-EE0000487: Recovery Act PEM Fuel Cell Systems Providing Emergency Reserve and Backup Power. The program covered the turnkey deployment of 431 ReliOn fuel cell systems at 189 individual sites for AT&T and PG&E with ReliOn functioning as the primary equipment supplier and the project manager. The Final Technical Report provides an executive level summary, a comparison of the actual accomplishments vs. the goals and objectives of the project, as well as a summary of the project activity from the contract award date of August 1, 2009 through the contract expiration date of December 31, 2011. Two photos are included in the body of the report which show hydrogen storage and bulk hydrogen refueling technologies developed as a result of this program.

08 HYDROGEN↗

Clean Technology Evaluation & Workforce Development Program

The overall objective of the Clean Technology Evaluation portion of the award was to design a process to speed up the identification of new clean energy technologies and match organizations to testing and early adoption partners. The project was successful in identifying new technologies targeted to utilities and utility technology integrators, in developing a process to review and rank the new technologies, and in facilitating new partnerships for technology testing and adoption. The purpose of the Workforce Development portion of the award was to create an education outreach program for middle & high-school students focused on clean technology science and engineering. While originally targeting San Diego, California and Cambridge, Massachusetts, the scope of the program was expanded to include a major clean technology speaking series and expo as part of the USA Science & Engineering Festival on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

AMS/DOE Graduate Fellowship

The American Meteorological Society (AMS) Fellowship Program was established in 1991. To date, AMS has awarded over 150 Fellowships. This five year DOE award provided for one Fellowship a year for five years. The objective of this program is to provide enough funding to a student so as to allow the student to focus solely on coursework requirements, thus allowing them to begin their research at an earlier date.

96 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND PRESERVATION↗

A Scalable and Extensible Earth System Model for Climate Change Science

The objective of this award was to build a scalable and extensible Earth System Model that can be used to study climate change science. That objective has been achieved with the public release of the Community Earth System Model, version 1 (CESM1). In particular, the development of the CESM1 atmospheric chemistry component was substantially funded by this award, as was the development of the significantly improved coupler component. The CESM1 allows new climate change science in areas such as future air quality in very large cities, the effects of recovery of the southern hemisphere ozone hole, and effects of runoff from ice melt in the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. Results from a whole series of future climate projections using the CESM1 are also freely available via the web from the CMIP5 archive at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Many research papers using these results have now been published, and will form part of the 5 th Assessment Report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which is to be published late in 2013.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Laboratory Studies of Spontaneous Reconnection and Intermittent Plasma Objects (Final Report)

The study of the collisionless magnetic reconnection constituted the primary work carried out under this grant. The investigations utilized two magnetic configurations with distinct boundary conditions. Both configurations were based upon the Versatile Toroidal Facility (VTF) at the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center and the MIT Physics Department. The NSF/DOE award No. 0613734, supported two graduate students (now Drs. W. Fox and N. Katz) and material expenses. The grant enabled these students to operate the VTF basic plasma physics experiment on magnetic reconnection. The first configuration was characterized by open boundary conditions where the magnetic field lines interface directly with the vacuum vessel walls. The reconnection dynamics for this configuration has been methodically characterized and it has been shown that kinetic effects related to trapped electron trajectories are responsible for the high rates of reconnection observed. This type of reconnection has not been investigated before. Nevertheless, the results are directly relevant to observations by the Wind spacecraft of fast reconnection deep in the Earth magnetotail. The second configuration was developed to be relevant to specifically to numerical simulations of magnetic reconnection, allowing the magnetic field-lines to be contained inside the device. The configuration is compatible with the presence of large current sheets in the reconnection region and reconnection is observed in fast powerful bursts. These reconnection events facilitate the first experimental investigations of the physics governing the spontaneous onset of fast reconnection. In the Report we review the general motivation of this work and provide an overview of our experimental and theoretical results enabled by the support through the awards.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗