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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 OSTI2025

Energy-resolved neutron imaging and diffraction including grain orientation mapping using event camera technology

Time-of-flight neutron diffraction and energy-resolved imaging each provide unique perspectives into material properties. Neutron diffraction is useful for assessing microstructural parameters such as phase composition, texture, and dislocation densities, though it typically provides averaged data over the sampled volume. Energy-resolved imaging, on the other hand, offers both spatial and spectral information by detecting Bragg edges and neutron absorption resonances, which enables detailed mapping of microstructure and isotopic composition. When combined, these techniques have the potential to enrich our understanding of material behavior across different scales, enhancing our understanding of complex materials. Traditionally, these modalities are conducted on separate instruments, which is time-consuming and poses challenges for data integration. Here, we report the integration of the LumaCam, an event-mode energy-resolved neutron imaging camera with the HIPPO time-of-flight diffractometer at LANSCE. This integration enables simultaneous diffraction and imaging across the full spectrum, with analysis optimized for diffraction and Bragg-edge imaging in the thermal range (0.45–10 Å) and resonance imaging in the epithermal range (0.5–3000 eV), facilitating comprehensive multi-modal analysis. We demonstrate its capabilities through case studies, including spatial mapping of grain orientations in a steel sample and accurate thickness estimations for irregular samples including a depleted uranium cylinder and a natural silver-containing mineral specimen. The combined setup enhances real-time sample alignment and provides comprehensive data for crystal structure, texture, and isotopic composition analysis. This approach opens new possibilities for advanced applications in nuclear engineering, archaeology, and materials science.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2023

Economic Impacts of Nuclear Plants in Communities

The U.S. nuclear industry currently employs nearly 475,000 people in full-time jobs (direct and secondary). 100,000 of these are direct, career-length and skilled. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Nuclear Energy Institute, the nuclear electric power generation sector directly employs between 50,000 and 60,000 workers. Nuclear vendors and manufacturers add another 60,000 positions. Compensation is also high and in 2021, nuclear power reactor operators received a median annual pay of over $100,000. While operators are not required by Nuclear Regulatory Commission regulations to have a college degree, the average nuclear engineer with a bachelor’s degree earned over $120,000. The defining characteristics of a nuclear power plant make it an economic hub because of the broad range of work roles required during construction and normal operation. This ranges from jobs in the skilled trades like electricians and pipefitters, to scientists and engineers whose backgrounds are in multiple disciplines.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2024

NEAMS-Multiphysics MOOSE End Year Framework Activities FY20

The Multiphysics Object Oriented Simulation Environment (MOOSE) is a general finite element package meant for high performance solution of multiphysics problems in science and engineering. In this report, we present additions and enhancements to MOOSE funded by the Nuclear Engineering Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) program. NEAMS-funded MOOSE framework library improvements include: expansion of support for multi-level multi-application restart; enhancement of coupling between native MOOSE applications and external libraries; addition of a sparse automatic differentiation (AD) container enabling non-local degree of freedom coupling; block-specific quadrature rules; further development of an eigenvalue executioner; faster setup of periodic boundary conditions; and creation of a mesh meta-data system streamlining simulation startup. Besides developing the framework library, NEAMS funds were used to overhaul a swath of important MOOSE infrastructure in order to substantially improve user experience. These critical infrastructure changes included adapting MOOSE to python 3, improving the test harness to catch race conditions, and most importantly transitioning MOOSE to use Conda, a globally known packaging system, that greatly eases software adoption.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2023

An Architectural Survey of the Area 25 Nuclear Rocket Development Station, Nevada National Security Site, Nye County, Nevada, Volume 3 Of 3

The purpose of the current architectural survey is to record the Nuclear Rocket Development Station (NRDS) district, which is recommended eligible for listing to the NRHP under all four criteria as the testing center for the Rover/NERVA (Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application) program from the initial boundary survey in 1956 to the end of nuclear rocket development on January 5, 1973. Resources in the NRDS district were evaluated to determine if they are eligible for listing to the National Register as district contributors. The current survey identified the Reactor Control Point subdistrict to provide a temporal, spatial, and functional framework for organizing the resources involved in the NRDS operations. However, the subdistrict was not evaluated as a potential historic district against the Secretary of Interior’s Significance Criteria.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

An Architectural Survey of the Area 25 Nuclear Rocket Development Station, Nevada National Security Site, Nye County, Nevada, Volume 2 Of 3

The purpose of the current architectural survey is to record the Nuclear Rocket Development Station (NRDS) district, which is recommended eligible for listing to the NRHP under all four criteria as the testing center for the Rover/NERVA (Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application) program from the initial boundary survey in 1956 to the end of nuclear rocket development on January 5, 1973. Resources within the boundary of the NRDS district were evaluated to determine if they are eligible for listing to the National Register as district contributors. Subdistricts within the larger NRDS district were defined to provide a temporal, spatial, and functional framework for organizing the resources involved in the NRDS operations. However, developing contexts for the individual subdistricts was beyond the scope of the NRDS survey. Therefore, the potentially eligible subdistricts were not individually evaluated under any of the Secretary of Interior’s Significance Criteria for eligibility to the National Register.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Characterization of radiation damage effects in high-energy neutrino target graphite using low-energy ions

Exposure of graphite targets to high intensity proton beams at neutrino production facilities causes changes in the target material that can result in a shortened operation lifetime. The dominant factors in this process are currently thought to be mechanical in nature resulting primarily from microstructural effects that lead to thermal and structural changes in bulk material properties. As currently planned beam facilities with increased proton energy and intensity begin to come online it will be important to thoroughly understand these processes, and ideally to be able to predict the effects of new beam designs on target properties. Direct analysis of targets exposed to existing high-energy proton beams is complicated by several factors, such as very limited access to proton beam facilities, high associated costs, irradiation times on the order of months, and the resulting radioactivity of irradiated samples that requires special facilities for post-irradiation examination. Much of the existing literature concerning irradiation damage in graphite has been focused on the needs of the nuclear engineering community, however high-energy proton targets operate in a much different environment. In comparison to graphite irradiated in a nuclear reactor, graphite used in proton beam targets receives a higher dose rate, have greater gas production, and experience short irradiation pulses as opposed to continuous irradiation. Low-energy ion irradiation offers a method of inducing similar levels of radiation damage to high-energy protons while avoiding many of the difficulties and limitations associated with high-energy proton beams and the corresponding activated specimen testing. My research described in this thesis focused on investigating how low-energy ion irradiation could be used to induce the same or similar types of microstructural alteration and mechanical property degradation as that seen in high-energy neutrino production target graphites by varying damage le vels and irradiation temperatures prior to post-irradiation characterisation.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2024

A Perspective on Scalable AI on High-Performance Computing and Leadership Class Supercomputing Facilities [Industrial and Governmental Activities]

Many scientific applications that support the mission of the US Department of Energy (US-DoE) require modeling complex engineering and/or physical systems. Here, examples of such complex systems arise from: (a) materials science to develop new compounds with exceptional mechanical and thermodynamical properties (e.g., resistance to mechanical stresses and high temperatures), (b) structural and nuclear engineering to model the temporal evolution of the structural damage of concrete shields exposed to continuous neutron and gamma radiations emitted by the nuclear reactor core, (c) urban sciences (e.g., transportation and smart buildings), and (d) power grid systems.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2024

Digital engineering implementation in nuclear demonstration and nonproliferation projects at Idaho National Laboratory

Digital engineering and digital twins are increasingly being used in nuclear energy projects with important impacts. At Idaho National Laboratory, these approaches have been applied in a variety of nuclear energy research, development, and demonstration projects, with key lessons and evolutions occurring for each. In this paper, we describe the use of digital engineering and digital twins in the Versatile Test Reactor design, National Reactor Innovation Center test beds, and nonproliferation analysis of the AGN-201 reactor design. We share key lessons learned for these projects related to tool selection, adoption and training, and working with existing assets versus beginning at the design phase. We also share highlights of future potential uses of digital twins and digital engineering, including using artificial intelligence to perform repetitive design tasks and digital twins to move towards semiautonomous nuclear power plant operations.

98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL P↗
DOE OSTI2026

Tokamak Energy’s pre-concept design for a fusion power plant: an overview of ST-E1

Climate change and rapidly rising energy demand, driven in part by artificial intelligence and data-centre growth, create an urgent need for stable, low-carbon, and abundant power. Fusion is a promising long-term solution, yet its commercialisation faces a fundamental paradox in today’s investment environment: pilot plants are essential to de-risk physics, engineering, and operations, but their limited lifetime energy output and high upfront costs make them difficult to finance. This paper presents Tokamak Energy’s response: ST-E1, a pre-concept design for a low-aspect-ratio tokamak power plant engineered specifically to overcome this challenge. ST-E1 is designed from the outset for phased operation—pilot and commercial phases, with an upgrade phase in between—with emphasis on commercial viability, maintainability, nuclear engineering, modularity, and upgradability. A key design principle is the deliberate separation of long-lived assets, such as the magnet cage and vacuum vessel, from replaceable in-vessel systems. This provides an attractive and credible investment approach to generate operational data and de-risk key technologies while preserving most capital-intensive assets for later commercial phases. The architecture supports continuous optimisation toward high net electric power (targeting 800–1000 MW net electric), a normalised capital expenditure of $\$$ 12–14k/kW of net electric power, and high availability (targeting > 80%). A tokamak core with a 5 m major radius, aspect ratio of 2.3, and on-plasma axis toroidal field of 5.25 T was selected to meet these objectives. This paper summarises the ST-E1 design philosophy, principal features, and development methodology. It introduces a Focus Collection of 11 papers detailing the pre-concept design of the entire tokamak and corresponding plant.

ST-E1↗
DOE OSTI2023

Verifying MCNP Models of the TEX High 240 Plutonium Benchmark

Computational modeling programs are invaluable tools that allow us to understand systems, safely develop new processes, and make reliable predictions about future designs. However, the effectiveness of these codes is limited by the degree to which their parameters match the real world. In the field of nuclear engineering, cross section data is one of these vital parameters. Accurate cross section data on important fissile and fissionable isotopes promotes the design of safer and more efficient fabrication, transportation, storage, and stockpiling of nuclear fuel. Unfortunately, there are knowledge gaps in data on key isotopes. In 2011, a multinational meeting hosted by the US Department of Energy Nuclear Criticality Safety Program ranked the priority of certain cross section data needs. In response, Lawrence Livermore National Lab (LLNL) designed the Thermal and Epithermal eXperiment (TEX) series of benchmark experiments. Benchmark experiments are used to validate current cross section data. They validate data by comparing the results of an actual experiment to the predicted results from a computational model. The data a benchmark applies to depends on the isotope and energy range the experiment’s neutron multiplication factor ( k eff ) is most sensitive to. The development and testing of the TEX High 240 Plutonium Benchmark will help validate 240 Pu cross section data. The configuration and materials of this benchmark are designed to be most sensitive to 240 Pu's intermediate energy range (from 0.625 ev to 100 keV ). MCNP® models of the assembly have been developed by LLNL and the results have been written in the final design report. In order for the discrepancies between benchmark models and experiments to be attributed to cross section inaccuracies, the accuracy of the models needs to be verified. The goal of this project is to verify of the results of LLNL's modeling by creating a new set of MCNP models and comparing the results.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

INL's Reactor Physics Capabilities

I was invited to give a seminar to students and faculty of nuclear engineering and radiological sciences (NERS) at the university of Michigan, Ann Arbor. the presentation is about reactor physics capaibility at INL

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Review of recent activities with MOOSE, an open-source finite element & finite volume multi-fidelity simulation framework

Modeling and simulation are an increasing part of engineering. This is undoubtedly driven by the high costs of constructing experimental facilities, but also enabled by the exponential increase in computing powers over the last decades, which allows computational models to be closer than ever to reality. One of the main drivers for the development of MOOSE is supporting advanced nuclear reactor simulations. A challenging aspect of modeling advanced nuclear reactors is the plurality of physics involved, including neutronics, thermal hydraulics and fuel performance. These physics are all coupled to some extent and are generally solved in a sequential but iterative fashion. The United States (U.S.) national laboratories have been developing MOOSE, an open source multiphysics framework since its inception at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) in 2008. This framework enables seamless coupling of multiphysics simulations and facilitates the implementation of new physics and material governing laws. It is continuously expanded with novel numerical methods and new pre-implemented physics module. Numerous applications, developed within the Department of Energy (DOE) laboratories, academia, and industry, including outside of nuclear engineering, have been developed to study specialized physics problems. International collaborations are welcome on this open-source modeling and simulation project.

22 - GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Nuclear Safety and Regulatory Research R&D [Slides]

Included are slides for a MIT nuclear engineering department invited seminar. The talking points are: (1) Current R&D at INL in safety, risk, and reliability; (2) Technical focus; and (3) Future directions.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Advanced Reactors Development in USA

Small and micro-reactor advanced reactor development in the USA. Advanced Reactor programs, nuclear renaissance, and INL as a test bed facility. These slides are for presentations in general on the past, INL and nuclear engineering worldwide, GEN IV reactor designs, SMRs and micro Rx designs, multiple commercial designs, and what INL as a test bed means and who uses this to their advantage.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2024

GDSA framework, a computational framework for complex modeling problems in radioactive waste management

This paper details a computational framework to produce automated, graphical workflows, and how this framework can be deployed to support complex modeling problems like those in nuclear engineering. Key benefits of the framework include: automating previously manual workflows; intuitive construction and communication of workflows through a graphical interface; and automated file transfer and handling for workflows deployed across heterogeneous computing resources. This paper demonstrates the framework's application to probabilistic post-closure performance assessment of systems for deep geologic disposal of nuclear waste. However, the framework is a general capability that can help users running a variety of computational studies.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗