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Brief Overview of the NCSP [Slides]

The mission of the NCSP is to provide sustainable expert leadership, direction, and the technical infrastructure necessary to develop, maintain, and disseminate the essential technical tools, training, and data required to support safe, efficient fissionable material operations within the Department of Energy. The vision of the NCSP is a continually improving, adaptable, and transparent program that communicates and collaborates globally to incorporate technology, practices, and programs to be responsive to the essential technical needs of those responsible for developing, implementing, and maintaining nuclear criticality safety.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

University Pipeline (with UNM) for Criticality Safety Professionals [Slides]

The scope of the University Pipeline is to provide students with knowledge of NCS and to inspire students to pursue a career in NCS after graduation. There are several benefits of the University Pipeline: reduced training time and costs; interested students that naturally self-sort and pursue the discipline at the university level; and a pipeline of criticality safety candidates readily available within the DOE Complex so that unexpected organizational or mission changes can be reacted to with increased agility.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

AFRRI TRIGA Reactor Neutron and Gamma Dose Characterization Preliminary Results

Integral Experiment Request (IER) 484 is part of a series of dose characterization and nuclear accident dosimeter (NAD) exercises performed under the Department of Energy (DOE) Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP). The Armed Forces Radiobilogy Research Institute (AFRRI) 1.1 MW Training, Research, Isotopes, General Atomics (TRIGA) Mark-F reactor is the third facility to undergo a dose study to establish reference dose values. A preliminary measurement was performed earlier this year, where a variety of foils were irradiated and activation gamma rays were measured using a high-purity germanium (HPGe) detector. The data was taken and analyzed to calculate the neutron spectrum in the irradiation facility. This paper will present preliminary results of the neutron dose measured. The characterization of the AFRRI dose field is planned in August.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Health Physics Research Reactor Criticality Accident Alarm System Benchmark Overview [Slides]

This presentation discusses the Health Physics Research Reactor (HPRR) or Fast Burst Reactor (FBR) and how available data from Health Physics Research Reactor (HPRR) operation to can be used to create a benchmark report for inclusion in the ICSBEP, as a Criticality Accident Alarm System (CAAS) shielding benchmark. The evaluation of experimental data is also presented, specifically four experimental candidates are considered of potential value for the benchmark: 1. Neutron source estimation from a HPRR pulse (energy spectrum, fission yield), 2. Threshold Detector Unit (TDU) measurements at different distances from a HPRR pulse, shielded and unshielded, 3. Sulfur pellet activation at different distances from a HPRR pulse, shielded and unshielded, and 4. Total neutron fluence from a HPRR pulse measured by Bonner Sphere Spectrometry, shielded and unshielded. Additionally, a benchmark model overview is discussed as are sample calculation results.

61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY↗

In the Lab with Nuclear Scientists: Critical and Subcritical Assemblies

This presentation talks on the Critical experiments performed on the NCERC machines. Plutonium ( 239 Pu and 240 Pu), Highly Enriched Uranium, Low-Temperature (-40°C). This is all based on a simple design useful for modeling and validation. The design is made to incorporate materials of interest such as Tantalum, hafnium, lithium & more.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Brief Overview of the NCSP [Slides]

The mission of the NCSP is to provide sustainable expert leadership, direction, and the technical infrastructure necessary to develop, maintain, and disseminate the essential technical tools, training, and data required to support safe, efficient fissionable material operations within the Department of Energy. The vision of the NCSP is a continually improving, adaptable, and transparent program that communicates and collaborates globally to incorporate technology, practices, and programs to be responsive to the essential technical needs of those responsible for developing, implementing, and maintaining nuclear criticality safety.

2021 NCSP TPR Best Paper Award↗

Overview of the NCSP Nuclear Data Program [Slides]

The mission of the NCSP is to provide sustainable expert leadership, direction and the technical infrastructure necessary to develop, maintain and disseminate the essential technical tools, training and data required to support safe, efficient fissionable material operations within the Department of Energy. The vision of the NCSP is to create a continually improving, adaptable and transparent program that communicates and collaborates globally to incorporate technology, practices and programs to be responsive to the essential technical needs of those responsible for developing, implementing and maintaining nuclear criticality safety.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

LLNL FY21 NCSP Overview [Slides]

This presentation details the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on LLNL in fiscal year 2021, as well as budget information and major accomplishments for the lab in IE, analytical methods, nuclear data, training and education, and IPD.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Nondestructive Assay Technical Infrastructure Program Mission and Vision

The Nondestructive Assay Program (NDAP) mission and vision is achieved by identifying and accomplishing a set of programmatic goals that correspond with eight broad technical program elements. The NDAP was created as a result of Defense Nuclear Facility Safety Board Recommendation 2007-1, entitled “Safety-Related In Situ Nondestructive Assay of Radioactive Materials,” which emphasized the need to improve in situ measurements of radioactive material at US Department of Energy (DOE) defense nuclear facilities. An NDAP five-year plan will define tasks to accomplish specific goals identified in the NDAP mission and vision. This mission and vision is applicable for eight technical program elements: Hardware/Software Development, Algorithm Development and Nuclear Data, Uncertainty Quantification, Nuclear Materials, Staffing, Personnel, And Training, Data Management, Requirement and Standards, and Information Preservation and Dissemination. An additional program element is technical support, which provides daily execution management support for the NDAP, site scope, and deliverable tracking via site task managers, along with technical advisement and support from the technical support group. The NDAP mission and vision provides attributes with specific goals for each program element, and some goals benefit multiple program elements. The goals and attributes defined herein are implemented via an NDAP five-year execution plan that defines site work scope, budget, and deliverables, all of which are updated annually. The NDAP is designed to benefit nondestructive assay (NDA) needs to support DOE nuclear criticality safety programs, ensuring that NDA technology is sufficiently capable of guaranteeing the safety of those who handle, store, process, or transport fissionable materials in the complex. Especially important for the NDAP is to maximize capabilities to identify, characterize, and manage in situ fissile material deposits in process equipment to ensure nuclear criticality safety at processing facilities.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

NCSP – AWE Collaboration [Slides]

Several points of collaboration between NCSP and AWE are noted, including the CIDAAS IS589 installation plan, CIDAAS testing, nuclear verification and detector physics, nuclear material control and nuclear security, and hands on criticality safety training.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

LANL FY21 NCSP Highlights [Slides]

This presentation highlights the activities of Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in fiscal year 2021.These include the celebration of the tenth anniversary of NCERC operations, a large experiment campaign (IER 488 - MUSiC: Measurements of Uranium Subcritical and Critical), preparation for FY22 experiments, the completion of several ongoing experiments, and a control system upgrade project.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

An Alternative to Solution Experiments for Nuclear Data Validation: Reflection and Interaction of Juxtaposed Uranium (RAIJU) Experiment Design

The need for solution experiments was thoroughly discussed at the recent NCERC (National Criticality Experiments Research Center) Futures Meeting in September 2022 for multiple applications including criticality safety, training, and nuclear data. However, this capability does not exist anywhere in the United States. NCERC, located at the Nevada National Security Site and operated by LANL (Los Alamos National Laboratory) is the only general-purpose critical experiments laboratory in the United States. However, solution experiments are not authorized at NCERC, and obtaining that authorization would be too time consuming and costly to happen in the foreseeable future. An alternative is needed – an experimental configuration with the homogeneity of liquid experiments, but without being a liquid. This project, Reflection and Interaction of Juxtaposed Uranium (RAIJU) will fill the gap in capability within LANL, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the international community and will support current and future nuclear material processing needs.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Godiva Experiments for the Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP)

Godiva IV is a fast burst critical assembly constructed of approximately 65 kg of highly enriched uranium (HEU) fuel alloyed with 1.5 percent molybdenum for strength. Godiva is one of the last such critical assemblies in the United States, and can be used for studies of super-prompt critical behavior as well as irradiations and demonstrations. A demonstration of a Godiva burst is usually performed as a highlight of the hands-on portion of the Criticality Safety Training Classes taught at the National Criticality Experiment Research Center (NCERC). The Godiva burst is used to demonstrate the concept of super-prompt critical and the time-scale of a criticality accident. In addition, several NCSP projects have been conducted on Godiva IV over the past two years. One experiment focused on collecting data to support multiphysics simulations using Photo-Doppler Velocimetry (PDV) to measure surface movement and gamma detectors to measure the burst output as the burst develops from background to peak over ten orders of magnitude. Another experiment was performed to demonstrate the functionality of the Criticality Accident Alarm System (CAAS) system developed for installation in the Y-12 Uranium Processing Facility (UPF). The system must not only respond to a criticality event and alarm, but must also be shown to operate in a high dose environment.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Machine learning applied to classifying neutron resonances

The performance of nuclear reactors and other nuclear systems depends on a precise understanding of the neutron interaction cross sections for materials used in these systems. These cross sections exhibit resonance structure whose shape is determined in part by the angular momentum quantum numbers of the resonances. The correct assignment of the quantum numbers of neutron resonances is therefore of paramount importance. In this project, we apply a machine learning technique, namely decision trees, to automate the quantum number assignments. The tree is trained from simulated data generated to mimic the errors found in real data. We explore the use of several physics-motivated features for training our trees, including the nearest neighbor spacing distribution, cumulative level distribution, and channel width distributions. Initial results using random matrix theory motivated fits which demonstrated that we can determine resonance spin groups somewhat reliably. If we use these fits as features in our trees, we can train them to spot outliers corresponding to misassigned resonances. We found that with the large number of features used in this project that the decision tree tended to over t training data resulting in poor performance with respect to the test data. By reducing the number of features, we can achieve nearly perfect assignment of quantum numbers with our training data.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

National Community Solar Partnership Credit Ready Solar Initiative

This fact sheet discusses the Credit Ready Solar Initiative, which will leverage working groups, technical assistance, training, and strategic partnerships to build a pipeline of credit-ready community solar projects and broad access to a community solar marketplace that connects owners, developers, lenders, and philanthropy to support more equitable deployment of community solar.

solar, solar energy, community solar, national com↗

Generating Models of the Flattop Critical Assembly for Benchmark Experiments with Python

Los Alamos National Laboratory has been performing nuclear criticality experiments since 1946 at the Pajarito site, starting the Los Alamos Critical Experiments Facility in 1948. A transition period occurred between 2004 and 2011 as operations moved to the National Criticality Experiments Research Center (NCERC), where criticality experiments are now performed. Criticality experiments are essential for determination and verification of nuclear data used in calculations and modeling—such as radiation transport codes—throughout the industry, enhancing nuclear criticality safety. In addition to nuclear data validation and benchmarking, the remotely operated critical assemblies at NCERC are used for a variety of experiments and training classes supporting criticality safety.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗