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This is the 2015 Annual Report for the Nuclear Science User Facility. This report includes information on university-run research projects along with a description of the program and the capabilities offered researchers.
The latest version of the U.S. Lighting Market Characterization estimates the installed stock, energy use, and lumen production of all general-illumination lighting products operating in the U.S. in 2015. Latest update in an ongoing series of reports.
The Brookhaven National Laboratory 2015 Site Environmental Report is a public document that is distributed to various U.S. Department of Energy sites, local libraries, and local regulators and stakeholders.
The average cost to utilities to save a kilowatt-hour (kWh) in the United States is 2.5 cents, according to the most comprehensive assessment to date of the cost performance of energy efficiency programs funded by electricity customers. These costs are similar to those documented earlier. Cost-effective efficiency programs help ensure electricity system reliability at the most affordable cost as part of utility planning and implementation activities for resource adequacy. Building on prior studies, Berkeley Lab analyzed the cost performance of 8,790 electricity efficiency programs between 2009 and 2015 for 116 investor-owned utilities and other program administrators in 41 states. The Berkeley Lab database includes programs representing about three-quarters of total spending on electricity efficiency programs in the United States.
This report describes rare plant monitoring and restoration activities conducted at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s (LLNL) Experimental Test Site (Site 300) in 2015, 2016, and 2017. Section A describes monitoring and field activities conducted at Site 300 native and experimental populations and the Carnegie Canyon native population of the State and federally-endangered plant, Amsinckia grandiflora (the large - flowered fiddleneck) .
This report provides a synopsis of ongoing environmental management performance and compliance activities conducted during 2015, meeting the requirements DOE Order 231.1B, Admin Chg 1, Environmental, Safety and Health Reporting, and DOE Order 458.1, Radiation Protection of the Public and the Environment. The report addresses the operations occurring on the PNNL Campus in Richland, Washington, and at the PNNL Marine Sciences Laboratory (MSL) in Sequim, Washington. It describes the location and background for each facility; addresses compliance with all applicable DOE, federal, state, and local regulations and site-specific permits; documents environmental monitoring efforts and their status; presents potential radiation doses to staff and the public in the surrounding areas; and describes DOE-required data quality assurance methods used for data verification.
The third Neuro-Inspired Computational Elements (NICE) Workshop was held February 23-25, 2015 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The goal of the Workshop was to bring together researchers from different scientific disciplines and application areas to provide a common point from which to develop the next generation of information processing/computing architectures that go beyond stored program architecture and Moore’s Law limits. Conventional, stored program architecture systems are designed for algorithmic and exact calculations. Many high impact problems, however, involve large, noisy, incomplete, “natural” data sets that do not lend themselves to convenient solutions from current systems. This Workshop series has focused on addressing these problems by building upon the convergence among neuroscience, microelectronics, and computational systems to develop new architectures designed to handle these natural data sets. An international group of nearly 100 registered attendees with a wide range of expertise and experience (e.g., neuroscience, systems, microelectronics, applications, and potential funding agencies) participated in this year’s event by offering knowledgeable insight regarding: Applications that look for solutions beyond the capabilities of current computational systems; Technical approaches that are at the early to middle stages of development for new computational systems; Pathways and resources to accelerate the development of these new systems.
The goals of the workshop were 1) to enhance interactions and communications between the climate-prediction and the climate modeling and projection communities, 2) to summarize and synthesize the current status of the research and also document the challenges in initialized high-resolution simulations in both communities, and 3) to identify the criteria for establishing a multi-model experimental framework to optimally address major pressing questions in the context of available computing resources. The two-and-a-half-day workshop was hosted September 30 to October 2, 2015, at the NOAA Center for Weather and Climate Prediction.
The Environmental System Science (ESS) activity within the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER) seeks to advance a robust, predictive understanding of terrestrial environments, extending from bedrock to the top of the vegetative canopy and from molecular to global scales, through an iterative cycle of model-driven experimentation and observation dubbed MODEX. Considerable progress has been made toward achieving this overarching goal, but widely recognized is the fragmentation across projects and disciplines of the relevant modeling and simulation capabilities, observational and experimental data, analysis algorithms, and workflow tools. This fragmentation creates significant challenges for studying impacts and feedbacks in these complex multiscale systems. These challenges are further exacerbated by ongoing disruptive changes in high-performance computational architectures and the exponential growth in the types and volume of data that render obsolete the conventional approaches to software development and data management. Overcoming these challenges will require the development of a BER Climate and Environmental Sciences Division (CESD)–wide enabling cyberinfrastructure to support data management, cross-domain modeling, data analysis, and collaborative research. To explore the potential for working groups to initiate and guide a more integrated and community-based cyberinfrastructure, BER held the ESS Workshop on Model-Data Integration: Modeling Frameworks, Data Management, and Scientific Workflows on April 30-May 1, 2015, following the ESS Principal Investigator Meeting in Potomac, Maryland. Participants included model developers, software engineers, and data management specialists from eight national laboratories, which represented a wide range of projects and programs from CESD as well as cross-cutting projects from DOE’s Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR; both BER and ASCR are operated from within DOE’s Office of Science). A series of plenary talks provided background information and clarified the workshop’s three objectives: (1) develop requirements for this community-based cyberinfrastructure to ensure enhanced scientific productivity of the community as a whole; (2) identify challenges associated with developing this new cyberinfrastructure using a phased approach guided by project-driven use cases; and, given these requirements and challenges, (3) chart a path forward for ESS working groups to lead the phased development of the new cyberinfrastructure.
Sandia National Laboratories, New Mexico, is a government-owned/contractor-operated facility. Sandia Corporation (Sandia), a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, manages and operates the Laboratories for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). The DOE/NNSA Sandia Field Office administers the contract and oversees contractor operations at the site. This Annual Site Environmental Report (ASER) summarizes data and the compliance status of Sandia's sustainability, environmental protection, and monitoring programs during calendar year 2015. Major environmental programs include air quality, water quality, groundwater protection, terrestrial surveillance, waste management, pollution prevention, environmental restoration, oil and chemical spill prevention, and implementation of the National Environmental Policy Act.
This paper discusses the results of a study to determine the impact of culture on engineering. The study took place during the 2015 Nonlinear Mechanics and Dynamics Summer Research Institute, a six-week research program sponsored by Sandia National Laboratories and the University of New Mexico consisting of 24 graduate students participating in seven different projects. Twenty-two of the participants and two of the mentors were interviewed to study the effects of cultural background on engineering processes and interactions. The results of this study indicate that cultural differences drive engineering practices.
This Environmental Restoration Operations Consolidated Quarterly Report (ER Quarterly Report) provides the status of ongoing corrective action activities being implemented by Sandia National Laboratories, New Mexico (SNL/NM) for the October, November, and December 2015 quarterly reporting period.
Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) is a multiprogram laboratory managed and operated by Sandia Corporation (Sandia), a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) under contract DE-AC04-94AL85000. The DOE/NNSA Sandia Field Office administers the contract and oversees contractor operations at the SNL, Tonopah Test Range (SNL/TTR) in Nevada and the SNL, Kaua‘i Test Facility (SNL/KTF) in Hawai‘i. Sandia manages and conducts operations at SNL/TTR in support of the DOE/NNSA’s Weapons Ordnance Program and has operated the site since 1957. Navarro Research and Engineering subcontracts with Sandia to administer most of the environmental programs at SNL/TTR. The DOE/NNSA/Nevada Field Office retains responsibility for cleanup and management of SNL/TTR Environmental Restoration sites. Sandia operates SNL/KTF as a rocket preparation launching and tracking facility. This Annual Site Environmental Report (ASER) summarizes data and the compliance status of Sandia’s sustainability, environmental protection, and monitoring programs at SNL/TTR and SNL/KTF during calendar year 2015. Major environmental programs include air quality, water quality, groundwater protection, terrestrial surveillance, waste management, pollution prevention, environmental restoration, oil and chemical spill prevention, and implementation of the National Environmental Policy Act. Sandia is responsible only for those environmental program activities related to its operations. This ASER is prepared in accordance with and as required by DOE O 231.1B, Admin Change 1, Environment, Safety, and Health Reporting .
The objective of the Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP) Analytical Methods program element is to sustain state-of-the-art radiation transport modeling capabilities and the expertise necessary to develop, maintain, and disseminate the analytical tools and data libraries in a manner that is responsive to the needs of those responsible for developing, implementing, and maintaining criticality safety. To this end, the objective of the AMPX Development and Maintenance Subtask is to ensure that the AMPX cross-section processing system is available to prepare cross-section and covariance libraries that are needed by SCALE and other radiation transport packages to support criticality safety analyses of systems with fissionable material. Moreover, the task ensures that the cross-section processing software is current and up-to-date with the Evaluated Nuclear Data File (ENDF/B) formats and procedures for disseminating evaluated cross-section data provided through new measurement and evaluation work efforts. The AMPX subtask provides for the production of data libraries needed for criticality safety analyses. As such, the task provides the “bridge” between the nuclear data evaluations and the radiation transport software. In the absence of the AMPX cross-section processing task, the ability to maintain and update the SCALE nuclear data libraries (cross-section and covariance data) would be hindered. Therefore, the AMPX Development and Maintenance Subtask ensures that SCALE is up-to-date with the latest cross-section data for supporting criticality safety analyses. This letter report provides a summary of the FY 2015 AMPX development and maintenance activities that have been performed in support of the NCSP. Specifically, the report summarizes the AMPX code system updates and modernization accomplishments that have been made to the software package. Also, the report documents the cross-section library updates that have been made for the SCALE radiation transport package. In addition, the report documents testing activities that have been performed to process available cross-section and covariance data files to ensure the latest ENDF/B data files can be processed properly. This report satisfies the following reporting milestone in the NCSP FY16-20 Five Year Plan: Document AMPX modernization and technical support for SCALE continuous energy (CE), multigroup (MG), and covariance libraries and report status annually to the NCSP Manager (AM3: Q2)
This report summarizes the environmental status of Ames Laboratory for calendar year 2015. It includes descriptions of the Laboratory’s site, mission, the status of its compliance with applicable environmental regulations, its planning and activities to maintain compliance, and a comprehensive review of its environmental protection, surveillance and monitoring activities.
A review of dosimetry results from 1 January 2011 through 31 December 2015 was conducted to demonstrate that radiation protection methods used are compliant with regulatory limits and conform to the philosophy to keep exposures to radiation As Low As is Reasonably Achievable (ALARA). This included a review and evaluation of personnel dosimetry (external and internal) results at Sandia National Laboratories, New Mexico as well as at Sandia National Laboratories, California. Additionally, results of environmental monitoring efforts at Sandia National Laboratories, New Mexico were reviewed. ALARA is a philosophical approach to radiation protection by managing and controlling radiation exposures (individual and collective) to the work force and to the general public to levels that are As Low As is Reasonably Achievable taking social, technical, economic, practical, and public policy considerations into account. ALARA is not a dose limit but a process which has the objective of attaining doses as far below applicable dose limits As Low As is Reasonably Achievable. In the case of Sandia National Laboratories, a need for formal ALARA goals has not been identified. Collective and individual doses are kept at acceptable through Operational ALARA practices implemented during the development of radiological Technical Work Documents.
This report from the Better Buildings Challenge contains information about partner projects, energy and cost savings, and new program initiatives. The 2015 Progress Report also recognizes the latest group of Better Buildings Goal Achievers - organizations who have met their energy, water, and/or financing commitments under the Better Buildings or Better Plants Challenge.
This memo summarizes the results of verification tests on a cone-socket fitting to the ISO 5356-1:2015 standard, annexes B and F. The components were found to meet requirements holding 50N tensile force and more than 35 N-cm of torque for 10 seconds without separating at 35°C with a fresh socket. Humidity control was unavailable; consequently, humidity was significantly lower than the values in the ISO standard. Several repeat tests of the fitting with force, torque, and time excursions give us confidence that the fittings perform suitably to the ISO standard. Force overload tests suggest that the samples will disengage under tension at around 69 N, while torque overload tests under a force of 50 N will fail at 79 N-cm of torque. If repeated tests are performed on the same component, the socket can deform and lead to the connection failing the standard requirements. However, such failures only occur with repeated testing, and the gripping of such units can be modified so that they pass the standard. This observation demonstrates that socket gripping is responsible for those failures and would not be a problem in application.