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DOE OSTI2022

Domestic and International Standards for Nuclear Criticality Safety – Overview and Status

The domestic and international consensus standards for nuclear criticality safety (NCS) have provided guidance for staff performing hands-on work in operations with fissionable materials. These consensus standards have contributed directly to the significant reduction in the rate of criticality accidents in process facilities since the 1940s. The last known criticality accident inside the United States was in 1978 (nearly 43 years ago) at the Idaho Chemical Processing Plant, and outside the United States, an accident occurred at Tokai-mura, Japan, in 1999 (23 years ago). The domestic consensus standards for NCS include the American Nuclear Society (ANS) standards. The ANS Standards Board, the NCS Consensus Committee, and the ANS-8 Subcommittee oversee the development and maintenance of these standards. There are currently eighteen standards in the ANS-8 series. Currently, there are six ANS-8 standards in revision mode and eleven in a maintenance mode with one new standard under development. The international consensus standards for NCS calculations, procedures, and practices are maintained and developed within the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), Technical Committee 85 on Nuclear Energy, Subcommittee 5 on Nuclear Fuel Technology, and Working Group 8, “Nuclear Criticality Safety.” Eleven standards are currently available, three standards are in revision mode, and two standards are development. This paper provides the NCS community with an overview and status report of domestic and international NCS consensus standards to stimulate interest and to support their continued development.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Domestic and International Standards for Nuclear Criticality Safety - Overview & Status [Abstract]

The domestic and international consensus standards for nuclear criticality safety (NCS) have provided guidance for staff performing hands-on work in operations with fissionable materials. These consensus standards have contributed directly to the significant reduction in the rate of criticality accidents in process facilities since the 1940s. The last known criticality accident inside the United States was in 1978 (nearly 43 years ago) at the Idaho Chemical Processing Plant, and outside the United States, an accident occurred at Tokai-mura, Japan, in 1999 (22 years ago). The domestic consensus standards for NCS include the American Nuclear Society (ANS) standards. The ANS Standards Board, the NCS Consensus Committee, and the ANS-8 Subcommittee oversee the development and maintenance of these standards. There are currently eighteen standards in the ANS-8 series. Currently, there are six ANS-8 standards in re- vision mode and eleven in a maintenance mode with one new standard under development. The international consensus standards for NCS calculations, procedures, and practices are maintained and developed within the International Organization for Standardization, Technical Committee 85 on Nuclear Energy, Subcommittee 5 on Nuclear Fuel Technology, and Working Group 8, “Nuclear Criticality Safety.” Eleven standards are currently available, three standards are in revision mode, and two standards are development. This paper provides the NCS community with an overview and status report of domestic and international NCS consensus standards to stimulate interest and to support their continued development.

96 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND PRESERVATION↗
DOE OSTI2021

Comparison of ISO and ANSI/ANS Nuclear Criticality Safety Standards [Slides]

This paper provides a high-level comparison between the international and domestic nuclear criticality safety (NCS) standards, as requested by members of the Nuclear Criticality Safety Division. Currently, there are 18 enacted American National Standards Institute (ANSI)/American National Standards (ANS) standards, and 1 ANSI/ANS standard, in progress. There are 11 NCS standards from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), Technical Committee 85 (TC85) on Nuclear Energy, Subcommittee 5 (SC5) on Nuclear Fuel Cycle, Working Group 8 (WG8). NCS standard revisions are in progress for both standards organizations. The key differences between the ISO TC85/SC5/WG8 and ANSI/ANS-8 consensus NCS standards are summarized. The hard work done by the ANS-8 and WG8 volunteers allows for applicable, high-quality consensus standards for use by the NCS community. This paper defines the current status of each ANSI/ANS and ISO standard, the work in in progress, the revisions/amendments in progress, and WG8/ANS-8 non-standard business in progress. A forthcoming paper will compare the development process for ISO and ANSI/ANS standards.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

ANS-8 Nuclear Criticality Safety Consensus Standards - Current Initiatives

The nuclear criticality safety (NCS) consensus standards are developed as using rigorous procedures of the Standards Board of the American Nuclear Society. These procedures have been accredited by the American National Standards Institute, Inc., as meeting the criteria for American National Standards. The Nuclear Criticality Safety Consensus Committee (NCSCC) that approved all 18 NCS consensus standards is balanced to ensure that competent, concerned, and varied interests have had an opportunity to participate. The ANS-8 subcommittee (ANS-8) consists of 17 NCS experts with many years of experience as end users of ANS standards who serve on standard working groups to develop and maintain standards. ANS-8 ensures that the technical content of the standards is adequate for NCS community use. Attempts are made to ensure that ANS-8 consists of NCS professionals with a diverse range of experience such that all standards are applicable to as many sites as possible. ANS-8 is a very active subcommittee, and some active projects in progress are discussed in this paper: basis statement development for all standards, development of a glossary for consistency of definitions across all ANS-8 standards, and Considering the Criticality Safety Support Group (CSSG) Recommendation 2016-04 to the ANS Standards Board for changes in several ANS-8 standards.

96 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND PRESERVATION↗
DOE OSTI2019

OVERVIEW AND STATUS OF DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS FOR NUCLEAR CRITICALITY SAFETY

For many years, the United States (US) and international consensus standards for nuclear criticality safety (NCS) have provided guidance for those with hands-on operations involving fissionable materials. These consensus standards have been crucial to reducing the number of criticality accidents in process facilities. The last known criticality accident inside the United States was in 1978 (nearly 41 years ago) at the Idaho Chemical Processing Plant, and outside the United States, an accident occurred at Tokai-mura, Japan, in 1999 (20 years ago). The domestic consensus standards for NCS include the American Nuclear Society (ANS) standards. The ANS Standards Board, the NCS Consensus Committee, and the ANS-8 Subcommittee oversee the development and maintenance of these standards. Currently there are 18 standards in the ANS-8 series: 6 are in revision mode and 12 are in maintenance mode. The international consensus standards for NCS calculations, procedures, and practices are maintained and developed within the International Organization for Standardization, Technical Committee 85 on Nuclear Energy, Subcommittee 5 on Nuclear Fuel Technology, and Working Group 8, “Nuclear Criticality Safety.” Eight standards are currently available, three standards are in revision mode, and four proposed standards are at various stages of development. This paper provides the NCS community with an overview and status report on domestic and international NCS consensus standards to stimulate interest and to support their continued development.

Bowen, Douglas G.↗
DOE OSTI2025

Fostering Geothermal Machine Learning Success: Elevating Big Data Accessibility and Automated Data Standardization in the Geothermal Data Repository

The Department of Energy's (DOE's) Geothermal Data Repository (GDR) has implemented improvements to both its data lakes and its data standards and automated data pipelines. The GDR data lakes have reduced storage and compute-related barriers to using large geothermal datasets, enabling these large datasets to be accessed by anyone with a modern computer and internet access. More recently, the GDR has been working to further reduce barriers through streamlining the data intake process, educating users on the process and requirements, and helping users access data from the data lakes. These improvements have augmented the quantity of datasets the GDR is able to accept into its data lakes and have enabled users who are new to cloud tools to access these datasets more easily, overall increasing the accessibility of big geothermal data for use in machine learning and other projects. In addition, the GDR now has built-in data standards and pipelines for drilling data, geospatial data, and distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) data. These standardization efforts aim to enhance the real-world applicability of geothermal machine learning outcomes by improving the quality of training data. Specifically, through standardizing high-value datasets, the GDR is reducing project-specific data curation requirements, thus allowing more time for actual research. By automating this process, the burden of standardization is lifted from the user, ultimately increasing the availability of standardized data. This paper provides an update on recent improvements made to the GDR's data lakes and automated data pipelines, including: (1) streamlining the data lake intake process, (2) better educating users on the process and requirements through a new data lakes page, (3) adding data lake direct access links to GDR data lake submission pages, (4) implementing a DAS data pipeline to convert DAS data uploaded in SEG-Y format to a standardized hierarchical data format v5 (HDF5), (5) extending this pipeline to encompass data in the GDR data lake, (6) adding metadata requirements for geospatial data, (7) making user interface/user experience (UX) enhancements to the data pipelines' documentation pages, and (8) improving the GDR's data standards and pipelines pages to better guide users in ensuring that their data is standardized by the GDR's automated data pipelines. 2024 Geothermal Resources Council. All rights reserved.

accessibility↗
DOE OSTI2021

Comparison of ISO and ANSI/ANS Nuclear Criticality Safety Standards

This paper provides a high-level comparison between the international and domestic Nuclear Criticality Safety (NCS) standards, as requested by members of the Nuclear Criticality Safety Division. Currently, there are 18 enacted American National Standards Institute (ANSI)/American National Standards (ANS) and 1 ANSI/ANS standard in progress. There are 11 NCS standards from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), Technical Committee 85 (TC85) on Nuclear Energy, Subcommittee 5 (SC5) on Nuclear Fuel Cycle, Working Group 8 (WG8). There are NCS standard revisions in progress for both standards organizations.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Energy and economic impacts of U.S. federal energy and water conservation standards adopted from 1987 through 2024

This paper presents estimates of the key impacts of U.S. national energy and water conservation standards adopted from 1987 through 2024. The standards for consumer products, commercial and industrial equipment, lighting products, and plumbing products include those set by legislation as well as standards adopted by the Department of Energy (DOE) through rulemaking. In 2024 alone, these standards are estimated to have saved an estimated 6.0 quads of primary energy, which is equivalent to 6.5% of total U.S. energy consumption, and 1.7 trillion gallons of water, which is equivalent to approximately 12% of the annual water withdrawals for public supply in the U.S in 2015. The estimated reduction in CO 2 emissions associated with the standards in 2024 was 270 million metric tons, which is equivalent to 5.6% of total annual U.S. CO 2 emissions from energy consumption. The annual savings in operating costs for households and businesses totaled $\$$105 billion, and the average household saved $\$$576 in operating costs as a result of standards on residential appliances and plumbing products. The estimated cumulative past and future energy and water savings from these standards amount to 307 quads of energy and almost 53 trillion gallons of water. The estimated cumulative CO 2 emissions reduction from the standards come to 10.3 billion metric tons. Accounting for the increased upfront costs of more-efficient products and the energy and water cost savings over the products’ lifetime, the standards have a cumulative net present value of benefit of $\$$3.2 trillion using 3 percent discount rate and $\$$3.5 trillion using 7 percent discount rate when discounting past and future benefits to 2024.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2019

History and Status of DoE's Standardized Canister - 19657

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is responsible for managing spent nuclear fuel (SNF) currently in its possession, as well as SNF that will come into its possession in the future. DOE will rely upon the standardized canister to confine radionuclides and precluding the moderator in order to ensure safe, long-term management and disposition of SNF in its possession. This strategy helps minimize characterization costs (i.e., funds and exposure) and other technical challenges associated with the traditional approach of relying on fuel-specific properties to demonstrate compliance with the regulator. The use of the standardized canister offers the following benefits: - The standardized canister design is complete. It has been tested under a variety of drop and accident scenarios and was subsequently licensed under 10 CFR 72 as a storage system as part of the Foster Wheeler Environmental Corporation (FWENC) Facility. It is also part of the license submittal for Yucca Mountain. - There is high confidence that the standardized canister design can be stored within commercially-available storage casks and licensed as part of a transportation-system package. - A robust standardized canister simplifies accident analyses and does not rely on characterization of the contained waste. This simplifies safety analysis, provides a greater level of confidence with stakeholders and reduces cost and risk. - A common design for the associated packaging, closure, and loadout facilities results in significant savings. - The DOE standardized canister would simplify design efforts, procurement, and fabrication. - Standardizing handling activities and associated training, procedures, equipment, and tooling leads to enhanced safety and surety of operations. The standardized canister is the preferred package for these materials. It withstood scrutiny by the Yucca Mountain Repository License Application, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste, the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, an American Society of Mechanical Engineers peer review, and the FWENC storage license application. This evaluation summarizes and documents the status of the design and rationale for the DOE standardized canister, and outlines remaining needs before deployment. In addition, it discusses the factors that have the potential to influence storage, transportation, and disposal of DOE SNF. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2023

Improving the Quality of Geothermal Data Through Data Standards and Pipelines Within the Geothermal Data Repository: Preprint

For machine learning outputs to be applicable to real world problems, high quality data are needed to ensure high quality results. With the more recent emphasis on machine learning in geothermal, there is an increasing need for greater focus on the quality of the data available for use in these projects. For example, Geothermal Operational Optimization Using Machine Learning (GOOML) utilized large quantities of geothermal power plant operational data to inform power plant operational configurations to maximize power generation. High quality datasets result from dependable sensors or devices collecting data, high frequency of measurements, sufficient data points, adequate metadata, reliable storage of data, and sufficient data curation. Another component that contributes to high quality data is reusability, which can be enhanced through data standardization. Data Standardization creates consistency in formatting and contents of like datasets, lessening preprocessing requirements and ensuring adequate information provided by a given dataset. The Geothermal Data Repository (GDR) aims to help improve data quality through automated data standardization for high-value datasets through the implementation of data pipelines alongside reliable and accessible long-term storage for datasets. As such, the GDR has decided to shift away from recommending the use of Excel-based content models and towards the implementation of automated data pipelines. This takes the burden of data standardization off the user and project team and will increase the availability of standardized geothermal data available through the GDR. A set of recommendations, or a data standard for each data type will exist with each data pipeline in order to advise data collection for maximum usability for future research. This paper serves to describe the GDR's proposed transition towards data standardization through automated data pipelines, to discuss the need for and value of such a shift, and to call for suggestions from the community regarding the most useful data standards and pipelines.

data↗
DOE OSTI2024

Criticality Analysis of FSV Spent Nuclear Fuel in the DOE Standard Canister

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is responsible for managing over 300 types of spent nuclear fuel (SNF). To manage this large variety of fuel types, DOE plans to employ standardized canisters for the transportation, long-term storage, and eventual disposal of SNF. Idaho National Laboratory is currently supporting DOE’s SNF Packaging Demonstration Project, in which Fort Saint Vrain (FSV) fuel assemblies will be loaded into a DOE Standard Canister. This paper presents criticality calculations demonstrating that all four or five FSV fuel assemblies loaded into the DOE Standard Canister will remain subcritical in any expected normal or credible abnormal conditions. Previous criticality analyses were performed for one FSV fuel assembly and 12 Peach Bottom Core 2 fuel elements loaded into a DOE Standard Canister. This paper covers the criticality analysis performed for loading both four and five FSV fuel assemblies into a DOE Standard Canister. Various intact and degraded mode configurations were modeled in conducting the criticality calculations. This analysis encompassed three different configurations: (1) a single DOE Standard Canister loaded into a concrete storage overpack, (2) seven DOE Standard Canisters loaded into a concrete storage overpack, and (3) nine DOE Standard Canisters loaded into a concrete storage overpack. The overpack dimensions were varied for each of the three configurations, and transport, storage, and disposal scenarios were analyzed for each configuration. For transport scenarios, a pair of degradation cases was analyzed. In the first case, the fuel compacts became degraded and were removed from the fuel block, then deposited at the bottom of a horizontally placed canister, thereby simulating a drop event. The canister was considered to remain intact. In the second case, the spacing between horizontally placed canisters in a nine-canister overpack was reduced such that the canisters were piled on top of each other, simulating a drop event. For this case, no degradation of the canister internals or fuel was considered. For storage scenarios, the water moderator location in the system was varied to enable identification of the most reactive configurations. Dry and wet conditions were analyzed for the fuel materials, canister, and overpack. For disposal scenarios, two degradation cases were analyzed. In the first, the stainless-steel internals of the canister degraded to either hematite or goethite under both dry and wet conditions. In the second case, degraded FSV fuel formed a uranium-water slurry that filled the coolant/void holes. None of the cases presented exceeded the application specific upper subcritical limit.

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

Considerations for Managing DOE Standard Canisters within an Over-canister as Part of an Integrated Waste Management System PPT

To better enable informed decision making regarding the back-end of the nuclear fuel cycle, the Integrated Waste Management Program within the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Energy (DOE-NE) has been sponsoring research into a comprehensive integrated waste management system (IWMS) that considers all major back-end aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle (i.e., transportation, storage, and disposal). An important aspect of the IWMS is DOE-managed Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF). DOE and its predecessor agencies have generated, transported, received, stored, and reprocessed SNF at DOE facilities nationwide, and DOE is responsible for managing the SNF currently in its possession. These fuels come from a wide range of reactor types that employ various cladding materials, fuel materials, and enrichments. To enable interim, road-ready dry storage (RRDS) of the wide variety of SNF types found in the DOE inventory, a standardized canister system (i.e., the DOE Standard Canister) was proposed for the packaging demonstration. This robust, welded canister system is designed to confine radionuclides, prevent criticality by precluding content moderation, and satisfy other requirements as part of a larger storage, transportation, and disposal system. While SNF has yet to be loaded into a DOE Standard Canister, DOE Standard Canister designs were included in past storage facility and disposal facility design licensing endeavors. In a renewed effort to evaluate packaging SNF at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) in a RRDS configuration, researchers are planning the RRDS Packaging Demonstration. This demonstration is supplemented by analytical structural, criticality, and material compatibility evaluations that support management of SNF in DOE Standard Canisters, taking advantage of past analysis work to the extent possible. One of the largest differences between the current Packaging Demonstration and past analytical evaluations is the inclusion of an over-canister containing multiple DOE Standard Canisters. For the Packaging Demonstration, DOE Standard Canisters loaded with SNF are planned to be placed in a larger diameter over-canister. The sealed over-canister could then be placed in a storage overpack for onsite storage, or in a transportation overpack for shipment to an offsite storage location or disposal site once one becomes available. This paper examines the relevant considerations and provides a preliminary evaluation of integrating the over-canister configuration into the storage, transportation, and disposal processes of the overall waste management system. For storage and transportation, the over-canister can be considered analogous to a multi-purpose canister (MPC) for commercial SNF. For disposal, the DOE Standard Canisters could be removed from the over-canister and placed in a co-disposal waste package with canisters containing vitrified high-level radioactive waste (HLW) similar to configurations examined previously, or the sealed over-canisters might be capable of direct disposal in a waste package.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Considerations for Managing DOE Standard Canisters within an Over-canister as Part of an Integrated Waste Management System

To better enable informed decision making regarding the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle, the Integrated Waste Management Program within the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Energy (DOE-NE) has been sponsoring the research into a comprehensive integrated waste management system (IWMS) that considers all major back-end aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle (i.e., transportation, storage, and disposal). An important aspect of the IWMS is DOE-managed SNF. DOE and its predecessor agencies have generated, transported, received, stored, and reprocessed SNF at DOE facilities nationwide, and DOE is responsible for managing the SNF currently in its possession. These fuels come from a wide range of reactor types that employ various cladding materials, fuel materials, and enrichments. To enable interim, road-ready dry storage (RRDS) of the wide variety of SNF types found in the DOE inventory, a standardized canister system (i.e., the DOE Standard Canister) was proposed. This robust, welded canister system is designed to confine radionuclides, prevent criticality by precluding content moderation, and satisfy other requirements as part of a larger storage, transportation, and disposal system. While SNF has yet to be loaded into a DOE Standard Canister, DOE Standard Canister designs were included in past storage facility and disposal facility design licensing endeavors. In a renewed effort to evaluate packaging SNF at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) in a RRDS configuration, researchers are planning the RRDS Packaging Demonstration. This demonstration is supplemented by analytical structural, criticality, and material compatibility evaluations that support management of SNF in DOE Standard Canisters, taking advantage of past analysis work to the extent possible. One of the largest differences between the current Packaging Demonstration and past analytical evaluations is the inclusion of an over-canister containing multiple DOE Standard Canisters. For the Packaging Demonstration, DOE Standard Canisters loaded with SNF are planned to be placed in a larger diameter over-canister. The sealed over-canister could then be placed in a storage overpack for onsite storage, or in a transportation overpack for shipment to an offsite storage location or disposal site once one becomes available. This paper examines the relevant considerations and provides a preliminary evaluation of integrating the over-canister configuration into the storage, transportation, and disposal processes of the overall waste management system. For storage and transportation, the over-canister can be considered analogous to a multi-purpose canister (MPC) for commercial SNF. For disposal, the DOE Standard Canisters could be removed from the over-canister and placed in a co-disposal waste package with canisters containing vitrified HLW similar to configurations examined previously, or the sealed over-canisters might be capable of direct disposal in a waste package.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2021

A Guide to Using GitHub for Developing and Versioning Data Standards and Reporting Formats

Abstract Data standardization combined with descriptive metadata facilitate data reuse, which is the ultimate goal of the Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR) principles. Community data or metadata standards are increasingly created through an approach that emphasizes collaboration between various stakeholders. Such an approach requires platforms for collaboration on the development process that centers on sharing information and receiving feedback. Our objective in this study was to conduct a systematic review to identify data standards and reporting formats that use version control for developing data standards and to summarize common practices, particularly in earth and environmental sciences. Out of 108 data standards and reporting formats identified in our review, 32 used GitHub as the version control platform, and no other platforms were used. We found no universally accepted methodology for developing and publishing data standards. Many GitHub repositories did not use key features that could help developers to gather user feedback, or to create and revise standards that build on previous work. We provide guidance for community‐driven standard development and associated documentation on GitHub based on a systematic review of existing practices.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2026

ZTF-SEDm Type Ia supernova sample for Twins Embedding spectrophotometric standardization

Aims. This paper has two aims: the first aim is to build a large homogeneous spectrophotometric sample of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) from the second data release of the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF DR2). We used the spectrum sample from the low-resolution ( R ∼ 100) SEDmachine (SEDm) Integral Field Spectrograph (IFS) that gathered 3069 spectra. This is one of the largest samples of such collections that can attempt to reproduce the Twins Embedding (TE) spectrophotometric standardization method. This is our second objective. The method was developed based on high-quality spectra from 200 SNe Ia of the Nearby Supernova factory (SNfactory) and led to an exceptionally low value of 0.073 mag for the intrinsic scatter. Methods. As the SEDm is not designed as a spectrophotometric instrument, we first improved the flux-calibration accuracy of the SN Ia spectrum sample using the ZTF photometric data, which were calibrated at the percent level. We corrected the spectra for second-order polynomials, fitted by comparing the synthetic photometry in the ZTF g , r , i filters with the light-curve (LC) data. We then applied the three steps of the TE parameterization to a subset of 783 ZTF SN spectra near maximum light while comparing results from SNfactory and ZTF. We finally analyzed the standardization methods based on the TE parameters. Results. The precision of the phase-correction model, which is the first step of the TE, is estimated at 0.01 mag in g band based on ZTF data. Despite the challenge posed by the spectrum-extraction pipeline associated with the SEDm (flux calibration, leftover host signal, low signal-to-noise ratio, and low resolution), we applied a first standardization in color based on the second step of the TE, called read between the lines (RBTL), to the ZTF sample. We reached a Hubble residual scatter of 0.153 mag, all in normalized median absolute deviation, which is to be compared to the ∼0.11 mag obtained with the SNfactory data. The SALT color and stretch standardization reaches a scatter of 0.164 mag for the same ZTF SN Ia sample, and its host steps are ∼0.1 mag and zero for RBTL. When considering the scatter due to the redshift error and flux calibration error, we estimated a RBTL scatter of ∼0.129 mag for this ZTF sample as an upper limit because we identified an additional contribution from a systematic error in color. We tested the standardization based on the nonlinear TE parameters, and, as expected from the low spectrum quality, it did not improve the overall dispersion. Conclusions. We release 1897 flux calibrated spectra of 1607 SNe Ia with an estimated photometric accuracy of 0.07 mag. We further demonstrate that some amount of spectrophotometric SN Ia standardization can be done with limited-quality spectra. The RBTL standardization is more efficient than that of SALT with one parameter less, and the resulting host steps are consistent with zero. This makes it less prone to astrophysical bias. For future spectroscopic surveys, targeting the extraction pipeline for a thorough flux calibration and good signal-to-noise ratio would enable us to compute the full TE standardization, which would further reduce the scatter in the distance estimate.

Ganot, C↗
DOE OSTI2023

Database work for the new cross section standards evaluation

An effort is now underway to produce a new evaluation of the neutron standards. It is important to maintain experimental programs to increase the quality and extend the database for the neutron cross section standards in order to improve evaluations of them that will be used to convert cross section measurements made relative to those standards. Measurements have been made for most of the standard cross sections since the last evaluation of the standards. The improved database includes the cross sections for the H(n,n), 6Li(n,t), 10B(n,αγ), 10B(n,α), C(n,n), Au(n,γ), 235U(n,f) and 238U(n,f) standard reactions and ratios among them. The database also includes the 238U(n,γ) and 239Pu(n,f) cross sections in addition to the standard cross sections. Those data were included since there are many ratio measurements of those cross sections with the standards and absolute data are available for them.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

A Detailed Vehicle Simulation Process to Support CAFE and CO 2 Standards (MY 2021–2026 Final Rule Analysis)

In 1975, Congress passed the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA), requiring standards for corporate average fuel economy (CAFE), and charging the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) with the establishment and enforcement of these standards. The Secretary of Transportation has delegated these responsibilities to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). NHTSA has contracted the DOT Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (Volpe Center) to provide analytical support for NHTSA’s regulatory and analytical activities related to fuel economy standards. Unlike long-standing safety and criteria pollutant emissions standards, fuel economy standards apply to manufacturers’ overall fleets rather than to individual vehicle models. In developing the standards, NHTSA made use of the CAFE Compliance and Effects Modeling System (the “CAFE model”), which was developed by DOT’s Volpe Center for the 2005-2007 CAFE rulemaking and has been continually updated since. The model is the primary tool used by the agency to evaluate potential CAFE stringency levels by applying technologies incrementally to each manufacturer’s fleet until the requirements under consideration are met. The CAFE model relies on numerous technology-related and economic inputs such as market forecasts and technology cost and effectiveness estimates; these inputs are categorized by vehicle classification, technology synergies, phase-in rates, cost learning curve adjustments, and technology “decision trees.” The Volpe Center assists NHTSA in the development of the engineering and economic inputs to the CAFE model by analyzing the application of potential technologies to the current automotive industry vehicle fleet to determine the feasibility of future CAFE standards, the associated costs, and the benefits of the standards.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2020

Sensitivities to neutrino non-standard interactions from the disappearance of muon (anti)neutrinos at the NOvA experiment

The experimental confirmation of the phenomenon of neutrino oscillations provided evidence for a non-zero value for the mass of neutrinos, a property not initially predicted by the Standard Model of Physics. Investigations of the existence of the so called Physics Beyond the Standard Model is a subject of growing interest and effort in the field of particle physics. Interactions of neutrinos with matter are well described by the Standard Model, however in the presence of new Physics, additional phenomena regarding neutrino properties would be possible, including non-standard interactions of neutrinos with matter. The NOvA experiment, at Fermilab, has been investigating neutrino oscillations through studies of ν µ produced at the Fermilab accelerator facilities, and also comprise a suitable environment for investigation of additional phenomena taking part in the neutrino oscillation framework. We show in this thesis the results of the sensitivity studies to neutrino non standard interactions in the NOvA experiment through investigation of the disappearance of muon (anti)neutrinos during their evolution in the NOvA 810 km baseline. We investigate the effect of the NSI parameters, |ε µτ | and δ µτ , on the determination of the standard oscillation parameters sin 2 (θ 23 ) and Δ$m^2_{32}$, as well as the relation between each parameter, for both neutrino mass hierarchies. This study makes use of an exposure of 9.48 × 10 20 POT for neutrino beam (FHC), and 12.33 × 10 20 POT for antineutrino beam (RHC). No deviations from the standard oscillation scenario is found at the 90% CL limit. The joint neutrino and antineutrino fit yields a limit of |ε µτ | ≤ 0.086 (0.085) for a fixed value of δ µτ = 0, and |ε µτ | ≤ 1.054 (1.053) for the case where both NSI parameters are fitted, for the normal (inverted) neutrino mass hierarchy, at the 90% CL. In the current sensitivity, all values of δ µτ are found to be allowed. The 90% CL interval for the standard oscillation parameters are Δ$m^2_{32}$ ϵ [2.379, 2.580] and sin 2 (θ 23 ) ϵ [0.420, 0.602] for the normal hierarchy scenario, and Δ$m^2_{32}$ ϵ [-2.639, - 2.438] and sin 2 (θ 23 ) ϵ [0.418, 0.602] for the inverted hierarchy scenario.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗