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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 55 records · Page 3
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2013

Radioactive Iodine and Krypton Control for Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing Facilities

Nuclear fission results in the production of fission products and activation products, some of which tend to be volatile during used fuel reprocessing. These can evolve in volatile species in the reprocessing facility off-gas streams, depending on the separations and reprocessing technologies that are used. Radionuclides that have been identified as “volatile radionuclides” are noble gases (most notably isotopes of Kr and Xe); 3H; 14C; and 129I. Radionuclides that tend to form volatile species that evolve into reprocessing facility off-gas systems are more challenging to efficiently control compared to radionuclides that tend to stay in solid or liquid phases. Future used fuel reprocessing facilities in the United States can require efficient capture of some volatile radionuclides in their off-gas streams to meet regulatory emission requirements. In aqueous reprocessing, these radionuclides are most commonly expected to evolve into off-gas streams in tritiated water [3H2O (T2O) and 3HHO (THO)], radioactive CO2, noble gases, and gaseous HI, I2, or volatile organic iodides. The fate and speciation of these radionuclides from a non-aqueous fuel reprocessing facility is less well known at this time, but active investigations are in progress. An Off-Gas Sigma Team was formed in late FY 2009 to integrate and coordinate the Fuel Cycle Research and Development (FCR&D) activities directed towards the capture and sequestration of the these volatile radionuclides (Jubin 2012a). The Sigma Team concept was envisioned to bring together multidisciplinary teams from across the DOE complex that would work collaboratively to solve the technical challenges and to develop the scientific basis for the capture and immobilization technologies such that the sum of the efforts was greater than the individual parts. The Laboratories currently participating in this effort are Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), and Sandia National Laboratories (SNL). This article focuses on control of volatile radionuclides that evolve during aqueous reprocessing of UNF. In particular, most of the work by the Off-gas Sigma Team has focused on the capture and sequestration of 129I and 85Kr, mainly because, as discussed below, control of 129I can require high efficiencies to meet regulatory requirements, and control of 85Kr using cryogenic processing, which has been the technology demonstrated and used commercially to date, can add considerable cost to a reprocessing facility.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2015

The Cires facility in Morvilliers: from a VLL waste disposal facility to the development of industrial activities - 15252

The disposal facility of CIRES for very low level wastes was designed to provide safe and cost effective services to waste generators, in particular for decommissioning works. The facility could significantly increase waste annual deliveries to meet waste generators' needs and accommodate large disused components as PWR steam generators after decontamination. However an anticipated saturation of its capacity is foreseen as needs for disposal has doubled since its start-up. The geometry of the cells was optimized and the technical capacity of the repository is presently by 40% above its licensed capacity. Saturation has been delayed; however a new facility will be necessary by 2030 and other waste management options are to be considered as recycling of metallic wastes or crushed concrete rubble. CIRES facility also became Andra's industrial platform for the management of institutional wastes. A grouping and a storage facility have been built and a new processing facility should start up in 2016. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2011

Central Facilities Area Facilities Radioactive Waste Management Basis and DOE Manual 435.1-1 Compliance Tables

Department of Energy Order 435.1, 'Radioactive Waste Management,' along with its associated manual and guidance, requires development and maintenance of a radioactive waste management basis for each radioactive waste management facility, operation, and activity. This document presents a radioactive waste management basis for Idaho National Laboratory's Central Facilities Area facilities that manage radioactive waste. The radioactive waste management basis for a facility comprises existing laboratory-wide and facilityspecific documents. Department of Energy Manual 435.1-1, 'Radioactive Waste Management Manual,' facility compliance tables also are presented for the facilities. The tables serve as a tool for developing the radioactive waste management basis.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2013

Lessons Learned from the 200 West Pump and Treatment Facility Construction Project at the US DOE Hanford Site - A Leadership for Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold-Certified Facility

CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Company (CHPRC) designed, constructed, commissioned, and began operation of the largest groundwater pump and treatment facility in the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) nationwide complex. This one-of-a-kind groundwater pump and treatment facility, located at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation Site (Hanford Site) in Washington State, was built to an accelerated schedule with American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds. There were many contractual, technical, configuration management, quality, safety, and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) challenges associated with the design, procurement, construction, and commissioning of this $95 million, 52,000 ft groundwater pump and treatment facility to meet DOE’s mission objective of treating contaminated groundwater at the Hanford Site with a new facility by June 28, 2012. The project team’s successful integration of the project’s core values and green energy technology throughout design, procurement, construction, and start-up of this complex, first-of-its-kind Bio Process facility resulted in successful achievement of DOE’s mission objective, as well as attainment of LEED GOLD certification, which makes this Bio Process facility the first non-administrative building in the DOE Office of Environmental Management complex to earn such an award.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2017

SRS Defense Waste Processing Facility - the Nation's Only Operating Vitrification Facility - Completes 20 Years of Radioactive Operations - 17407

Savannah River Remediation (SRR) is the current Liquid Waste contractor at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Savannah River Site (SRS), located near Aiken, South Carolina, and operates the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF), along with the other SRS liquid waste facilities. The DWPF, the nation's only operating vitrification facility, completed 20 years of radioactive operations in 2016. During this period, DWPF has safely treated the high-level liquid waste at this DOE facility since radioactive operations began with the first transfer of sludge waste feed to DWPF on March 12, 1996. A little over a month later, on April 29, 1996, the first radioactive canister was poured. DWPF poured its 4,000. canister of vitrified waste on December 31, 2015. As of September 30, 2016, DWPF has removed approximately 59.9 million curies from the liquid waste system at SRS and placed them in 4,106 canisters. SRS has operationally closed 8 high-level waste tanks. The DWPF melter has poured nearly 7.14 million kg of molten glass, and the facility has used only two melters in its lifetime. Melter 1 poured 1,339 canisters (1996-2002), while melter 2 to date (September 30, 2016) has poured 2,767 canisters (2003-present). Melter 2 continues to safely and efficiently operate. In order to achieve these accomplishments, the facility has chronicled a history of continued operational improvements such as the installation of bubblers in the melter to increase production, incorporation of glass compositions to achieve higher waste loadings, and improvements to melter design to extend melter life. As SRR moves forward to the next 20 years, continued improvements as well as maintaining the aging infrastructure through a proactive system health program are key priorities. This paper chronicles 20 years of challenges, improvements and accomplishments, and discusses future operations and infrastructure upgrades including implementation of a key flowsheet change to significantly reduce hydrogen generation in the Chemical Process Cell. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2015

Addressing an aging facility: improving reliability of the defense waste processing facility at the Savannah River Site - 15539

The High Level Waste program at the Savannah River Site significantly reduces environmental risks associated with the storage of radioactive waste from legacy efforts to separate fissionable nuclear material from irradiated targets and fuels. The Defense Waste Processing Facility treats and immobilizes High Level Waste into a durable borosilicate glass for safe, permanent storage. Construction of the facility began in 1983 and radioactive operations commenced in 1996. In an effort to support the disposition of radioactive waste and accelerate tank closure for the balance of the Savannah River Site mission, the Defense Waste Processing Facility recently underwent an extensive reliability review in 2013 to understand future needs as well as to address aging infrastructure. As a product of this review, a Performance Improvement Plan was developed to systematically address three major focus areas including, a) asset preservation, b) facility housekeeping, and 3) process improvements. Since issuance of the plan, significant progress has been made in each of these areas to improve the reliability and predictability of the Defense Waste Processing Facility. Providing consistent, constructive, and concise communications is vital in the face of a changing budgetary environment. The Savannah River Site case study provides an example of the U.S. Department of Energy - Savannah River (DOE-SR) and SRR partnering to inform stakeholders about cleanup progress at the site. DOE-SR and SRR periodically and consistently provide both annual written progress reports under the Federal Facility Agreement and quarterly written progress reports under the landfill permit to the government regulators. Through the Liquid Waste System Plans, DOE-SR and SRR constructively and concisely summarize both the significant progress made and explain how a changed budget can impact the goals moving forward. Furthermore, DOE-SR and SRR informs the community and general public about the Site's progress and future during Citizens Advisory Board meetings. In addition, through the new proposed model for complex-wide communications, stakeholders can better understand how budget constraints will affect them. The set-aside program would also encourage stakeholder participation and involvement in helping each state and site obtain extra funding through performance evaluations. Waste management organizations can benefit in a number of ways from an effective partnership approach to communicate with stakeholders about available funding. Keeping an open and honest dialogue with regulatory agencies can help preserve confidence, thus mitigating or completely avoiding costly and distracting fines and penalties. Informing the public not only promotes trust, but also spurs the public to exercise its right to demand more information and voice any concerns to elected or DOE officials. With this approach, DOE can receive better understanding and cooperation from stakeholders in a changing budgetary landscape. Furthermore, a set-aside competitive program would encourage efficiency and innovation that could lead to further cost savings for the government while providing extra funding for cleanup efforts. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2018

Facile Dehydrogenation of Ethane on the IrO 2 (110) Surface

Realizing the efficient and selective conversion of ethane to ethylene is important for improving the utilization of hydrocarbon resources, yet remains a major challenge in catalysis. Herein, ethane dehydrogenation on the IrO 2 (110) surface is investigated using temperature-programmed reaction spectroscopy (TPRS) and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The results show that ethane forms strongly bound σ-complexes on IrO 2 (110) and that a large fraction of the complexes undergo C–H bond cleavage during TPRS at temperatures below 200 K. Further, continued heating causes as much as 40% of the dissociated ethane to dehydrogenate and desorb as ethylene near 350 K, with the remainder oxidizing to CO x species. Both TPRS and DFT show that ethylene desorption is the rate-controlling step in the conversion of ethane to ethylene on IrO 2 (110) during TPRS. Partial hydrogenation of the IrO 2 (110) surface is found to enhance ethylene production from ethane while suppressing oxidation to CO x species. DFT predicts that hydrogenation of reactive oxygen atoms of the IrO 2 (110) surface effectively deactivates these sites as H atom acceptors, and causes ethylene desorption to become favored over further dehydrogenation and oxidation of ethane-derived species. Finally, the study reveals that IrO 2 (110) exhibits an exceptional ability to promote ethane dehydrogenation to ethylene near room temperature, and provides molecular-level insights for understanding how surface properties influence selectivity toward ethylene production.

bond cleavage oxidation↗
DOE OSTI2016

Facile solvolysis of a surprisingly twisted tertiary amide

In this study, a bicyclo[2.2.2]octane derivative containing both a tertiary amide and a methyl ester was shown crystallographically to adopt a conformation in which the amide is in the cis configuration, which is sterically disfavored, but electronically favored. The steric strain induces a significant torsion (15.9°) of the amide, thereby greatly increasing the solvolytic lability of the amide to the extent that we see competitive amide solvolysis in the presence of the normally more labile methyl ester also present in the molecule.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2016

A novel method to recover DD fusion proton CR-39 data corrupted by fast ablator ions at OMEGA and the National Ignition Facility

CR-39 detectors are used routinely in inertial confinement fusion (ICF) experiments as a part of nuclear diagnostics. CR-39 is filtered to stop fast ablator ions which have been accelerated from an ICF implosion due to electric fields caused by laser-plasma interactions. In some experiments, the filtering is insufficient to block these ions and the fusion-product signal tracks are lost in the large background of accelerated ion tracks. A technique for recovering signal in these scenarios has been developed, tested, and implemented successfully. The technique involves removing material from the surface of the CR-39 to a depth beyond the endpoint of the ablator ion tracks. The technique preserves signal magnitude (yield) as well as structure in radiograph images. The technique is effective when signal particle range is at least 10 μm deeper than the necessary bulk material removal.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2018

Rational Design of Mononuclear Iron Porphyrins for Facile and Selective 4e-/4H+ O2 Reduction: Activation of O-O Bond by 2nd Sphere Hydrogen Bonding

Facile and selective 4e-/4H+ electrochemical reduction of O2 to H2O in aqueous medium has been a sought-after goal for several decades. Elegant but synthetically demanding cytochrome c oxidase mimics have demonstrated selective 4e-/4H+ electrochemical O2 reduction to H2O is possible with rate constants as fast as 105 M-1 s-1 under heterogeneous conditions in aqueous media. Over the past few years, in situ mechanistic investigations on iron porphyrin complexes adsorbed on electrodes have revealed that the rate and selectivity of this multielectron and multiproton process is governed by the reactivity of a ferric hydroperoxide intermediate. The barrier of O-O bond cleavage determines the overall rate of O2 reduction and the site of protonation determines the selectivity. In this report, a series of mononuclear iron porphyrin complexes are rationally designed to achieve efficient O-O bond activation and site-selective proton transfer to effect facile and selective electrochemical reduction of O2 to water. Indeed, these crystallographically characterized complexes accomplish facile and selective reduction of O2 with rate constants >107 M-1 s-1 while retaining >95% selectivity when adsorbed on electrode surfaces (EPG) in water. These oxygen reduction reaction rate constants are 2 orders of magnitude faster than all known heme/Cu complexes and these complexes retain >90% selectivity even under rate determining electron transfer conditions that generally can only be achieved by installing additional redox active groups in the catalyst.

Bhunia, Sarmistha↗
DOE OSTI2016

Electrostatic levitation facility optimized for neutron diffraction studies of high temperature liquids at a spallation neutron source

Neutron diffraction studies of metallic liquids provide valuable information about inherent topological and chemical ordering on multiple length scales as well as insight into dynamical processes at the level of a few atoms. However, there exist very few facilities in the world that allow such studies to be made of reactive metallic liquids in a containerless environment, and these are designed for use at reactor-based neutron sources. We present an electrostatic levitation facility, NESL (for Neutron ElectroStatic Levitator), which takes advantage of the enhanced capabilities and increased neutron flux available at spallation neutron sources (SNSs). NESL enables high quality elastic and inelastic neutron scattering experiments to be made of reactive metallic and other liquids in the equilibrium and supercooled temperature regime. The apparatus is comprised of a high vacuum chamber, external and internal neutron collimation optics, and a sample exchange mechanism that allows up to 30 samples to be processed between chamber openings. Two heating lasers allow excellent sample temperature homogeneity, even for samples approaching 500 mg, and an automated temperature control system allows isothermal measurements to be conducted for times approaching 2 h in the liquid state, with variations in the average sample temperature of less than 0.5%. To demonstrate the capabilities of the facility for elastic scattering studies of liquids, a high quality total structure factor for Zr{sub 64}Ni{sub 36} measured slightly above the liquidus temperature is presented from experiments conducted on the nanoscale-ordered materials diffractometer (NOMAD) beam line at the SNS after only 30 min of acquisition time for a small sample (∼100 mg)

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2013

High intensity neutrino oscillation facilities in Europe

The EUROnu project has studied three possible options for future, high intensity neutrino oscillation facilities in Europe. The first is a Super Beam, in which the neutrinos come from the decay of pions created by bombarding targets with a 4 MW proton beam from the CERN High Power Superconducting Proton Linac. The far detector for this facility is the 500 kt MEMPHYS water Cherenkov, located in the Fréjus tunnel. The second facility is the Neutrino Factory, in which the neutrinos come from the decay of μ + and μ – beams in a storage ring. The far detector in this case is a 100 kt magnetized iron neutrino detector at a baseline of 2000 km. The third option is a Beta Beam, in which the neutrinos come from the decay of beta emitting isotopes, in particular 6 He and 18 Ne, also stored in a ring. The far detector is also the MEMPHYS detector in the Fréjus tunnel. EUROnu has undertaken conceptual designs of these facilities and studied the performance of the detectors. Based on this, it has determined the physics reach of each facility, in particular for the measurement of CP violation in the lepton sector, and estimated the cost of construction. These have demonstrated that the best facility to build is the Neutrino Factory. Furthermore, if a powerful proton driver is constructed for another purpose or if the MEMPHYS detector is built for astroparticle physics, the Super Beam also becomes very attractive.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2013

Lessons Learned from the 200 West Pump and Treatment Facility Construction Project at the US DOE Hanford Site - A Leadership for Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold-Certified Facility - 13113

CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Company (CHPRC) designed, constructed, commissioned, and began operation of the largest groundwater pump and treatment facility in the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) nationwide complex. This one-of-a-kind groundwater pump and treatment facility, located at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation Site (Hanford Site) in Washington State, was built to an accelerated schedule with American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds. There were many contractual, technical, configuration management, quality, safety, and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) challenges associated with the design, procurement, construction, and commissioning of this $95 million, 52,000 ft groundwater pump and treatment facility to meet DOE's mission objective of treating contaminated groundwater at the Hanford Site with a new facility by June 28, 2012. The project team's successful integration of the project's core values and green energy technology throughout design, procurement, construction, and start-up of this complex, first-of-its-kind Bio Process facility resulted in successful achievement of DOE's mission objective, as well as attainment of LEED GOLD certification (Figure 1), which makes this Bio Process facility the first non-administrative building in the DOE Office of Environmental Management complex to earn such an award. (authors)

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2018

Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF) Facility Stewardship Plan: Revision 2.1

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), has established the Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF) on the campus of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and has designated it as a DOE user facility. This 182,500-ft2 research facility provides state-of-the-art laboratory and support infrastructure to optimize the design and performance of electrical, thermal, fuel, and information technologies and systems at scale. This Facility Stewardship Plan provides DOE and other decision makers with information about the existing and expected capabilities of the ESIF and the expected performance metrics to be applied to ESIF operations. This plan is a living document that will be updated and refined throughout the lifetime of the facility.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2012

Lessons Learned From The 200 West Pump And Treatment Facility Construction Project At The US DOE Hanford Site - A Leadership For Energy And Environmental Design (LEED) Gold-Certified Facility

CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Company (CHPRC) designed, constructed, commissioned, and began operation of the largest groundwater pump and treatment facility in the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) nationwide complex. This one-of-a-kind groundwater pump and treatment facility, located at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation Site (Hanford Site) in Washington State, was built in an accelerated manner with American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds and has attained Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) GOLD certification, which makes it the first non-administrative building in the DOE Office of Environmental Management complex to earn such an award. There were many contractual, technical, configuration management, quality, safety, and LEED challenges associated with the design, procurement, construction, and commissioning of this $95 million, 52,000 ft groundwater pump and treatment facility. This paper will present the Project and LEED accomplishments, as well as Lessons Learned by CHPRC when additional ARRA funds were used to accelerate design, procurement, construction, and commissioning of the 200 West Groundwater Pump and Treatment (2W P&T) Facility to meet DOE's mission of treating contaminated groundwater at the Hanford Site with a new facility by June 28, 2012.

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

Facile Integration of Robots into Experimental Orchestration at Scientific User Facilities

Integration of robots into scientific user facilities, such as the National Synchrotron Light Source II, improves their efficiency and capacity. Many such facilities use the opensource Bluesky project for experimental control and orchestration. However, there remains an open challenge in deploying robotic solutions at these facilities that are reconfigurable, extensible, and compatible with pre-existing software infrastructure. Herein, we introduce a framework that uses the Robotic Operating System 2 (ROS2) and Bluesky to provide extensible robotic applications, while working under the operational constraints of a large-scale user facility. We demonstrated this framework by integrating a robotic arm to pick and place a sample holder at a beamline, recording a 90% repeatability rate. This provides the groundwork for further new robotics applications at large-scale scientific user facilities that depend on Bluesky.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2023

High Performance Computing Facility Operational Assessment 2022: Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility

The Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF) was established to accelerate scientific discovery by providing world-leading computational performance and advanced data infrastructure. As a US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science user facility, the OLCF has managed the successful deployment and operation of a succession of leadership-class resources dedicated to open science. In addition to these resources, the OLCF staff continually strive to develop innovative processes and technologies, improve security, and empower users through allocation management and comprehensive user support and training. These efforts support the advancement of science by the OLCF users and benefit high-performance computing (HPC) facilities around the world. In calendar year (CY) 2022, the OLCF supported 1,681 users and 570 projects and exceeded all targets for user satisfaction. The facility received an average satisfaction score of 4.6 out of 5 on the annual user survey, and 96% of respondents reported a high satisfaction rate with the OLCF overall. Of the 3,212 user tickets submitted in CY 2022, OLCF staff resolved 97% within 3 business days. The facility also introduced several new services for users this year, including weekly virtual office hours with subject matter experts from ORNL and vendor partners; new views in MyOLCF that allow users to analyze allocation and compute usage for a project; the ability to build and run containers on Summit; and improved data visualization support and training resources.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗