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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2015

Assessment of the Technical Maturity of Generation IV Concepts for Test or Demonstration Reactor Applications, Revision 2

The United States Department of Energy (DOE) commissioned a study the suitability of different advanced reactor concepts to support materials irradiations (i.e. a test reactor) or to demonstrate an advanced power plant/fuel cycle concept (demonstration reactor). As part of the study, an assessment of the technical maturity of the individual concepts was undertaken to see which, if any, can support near-term deployment. A Working Group composed of the authors of this document performed the maturity assessment using the Technical Readiness Levels as defined in DOE’s Technology Readiness Guide . One representative design was selected for assessment from of each of the six Generation-IV reactor types: gas-cooled fast reactor (GFR), lead-cooled fast reactor (LFR), molten salt reactor (MSR), supercritical water-cooled reactor (SCWR), sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR), and very high temperature reactor (VHTR). Background information was obtained from previous detailed evaluations such as the Generation-IV Roadmap but other technical references were also used including consultations with concept proponents and subject matter experts. Outside of Generation IV activity in which the US is a party, non-U.S. experience or data sources were generally not factored into the evaluations as one cannot assume that this data is easily available or of sufficient quality to be used for licensing a US facility. The Working Group established the scope of the assessment (which systems and subsystems needed to be considered), adapted a specific technology readiness scale, and scored each system through discussions designed to achieve internal consistency across concepts. In general, the Working Group sought to determine which of the reactor options have sufficient maturity to serve either the test or demonstration reactor missions.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Post-Closure Inspection Report for the Tonopah Test Range, Nevada, for Calendar Year 2013

This report provides the results of the annual post-closure inspections conducted at the closed Corrective Action Units (CAUs) located on the Tonopah Test Range (TTR), Nevada. This report covers calendar year 2013 and includes inspection and repair activities completed at the following CAUs: • CAU 400: Bomblet Pit and Five Points Landfill (TTR) • CAU 407: Roller Coaster RadSafe Area (TTR) • CAU 424: Area 3 Landfill Complexes (TTR) • CAU 453: Area 9 UXO Landfill (TTR) • CAU 487: Thunderwell Site (TTR) Inspections were conducted according to the post-closure plans in the approved Closure Reports and subsequent correspondence with the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection. The post-closure inspection plans and subsequent correspondence modifying the requirements for each CAU are included in Appendix B. The inspection checklists are included in Appendix C. Field notes are included in Appendix D. Photographs taken during inspections are included in Appendix E. The annual post-closure inspections were conducted on May 14, 2013. Maintenance was performed at CAU 400, CAU 424, and CAU 453. At CAU 400, animal burrows were backfilled. At CAU 424, erosion repairs were completed at Landfill Cell A3-3, subsidence was repaired at Landfill Cell A3-4, and additional lava rock was placed in high-traffic areas to mark the locations of the surface grade monuments at Landfill Cell A3-3 and Landfill Cell A3-8. At CAU 453, two areas of subsidence were repaired and animal burrows were backfilled. Vegetation monitoring was performed at the CAU 400 Five Points Landfill and CAU 407 in June 2013. The vegetation monitoring report is included in Appendix F.

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

Post-Closure Inspection Report for the Tonopah Test Range, Nevada, for Calendar Year 2014

This report provides the results of the annual post-closure inspections conducted at the closed Corrective Action Units (CAUs) located on the Tonopah Test Range (TTR), Nevada. This report covers calendar year 2014 and includes inspection and repair activities completed at the following CAUs; CAU 400: Bomblet Pit and Five Points Landfill (TTR); CAU 407: Roller Coaster RadSafe Area (TTR); CAU 424: Area 3 Landfill Complexes (TTR); CAU 453: Area 9 UXO Landfill (TTR); and CAU 487: Thunderwell Site (TTR) Inspections were conducted according to the post-closure plans in the approved Closure Reports and subsequent correspondence with the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection. The post-closure inspection plans and subsequent correspondence modifying the requirements for each CAU are included in Appendix B. The inspection checklists are included in Appendix C. Photographs taken during inspections are included in Appendix D. The annual post-closure inspections were conducted on May 28, 2014. Maintenance was required at CAU 407. Animal burrows were backfilled and erosion repairs were performed. Vegetation monitoring was performed at CAU 407 in June 2014. The vegetation monitoring report is included in Appendix E.

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

Field Evaluation of the Performance of the RTU Challenge Unit: Daikin Rebel

Packaged rooftop air-conditioning units (RTUs) are used in 44% (2.5 million) of all commercial buildings, serving over 57% (46 billion square feet) of the commercial building floor space in the United States (EIA 2012). The primary energy consumption associated with RTUs is over 2.2 quads annually. Therefore, even a small improvement in efficiency or part-load operation of these units can lead to significant reductions in energy use and carbon emissions. Starting in 2011, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Building Technologies Office funded a series of projects related to RTUs. Some projects were intended to improve the operating efficiency of the existing RTUs, while others were focused on improving the operating efficiency of new units. This report documents the field-testing and comparison of the seasonal efficiency of a state-of-art RTU Challenge unit and a standard unit. Section II provides the background for the work. Section III describes the measurement and verification plan for the field tests. Section IV describes the measurement and verification evaluation plan. The results are described in Section V. The lessons learned and recommendations for future work are presented in Section VI. A list of references is provided in Section VII.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2016

Post-Closure Inspection Report for the Tonopah Test Range, Nevada. For Calendar Year 2015, Revision 0

This report provides the results of the annual post-closure inspections conducted at the closed corrective action units (CAUs) located on the Tonopah Test Range (TTR), Nevada. This report covers calendar year 2015 and includes inspection and repair activities completed at the following CAUs; CAU 400: Bomblet Pit and Five Points Landfill (TTR); CAU 407: Roller Coaster RadSafe Area (TTR); CAU 424: Area 3 Landfill Complexes (TTR); CAU 453: Area 9 UXO Landfill (TTR); and CAU 487: Thunderwell Site (TTR) Inspections were conducted according to the post-closure plans in the approved closure reports and subsequent correspondence with the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection. The post-closure inspection plans and subsequent correspondence modifying the requirements for each CAU are included in Appendix B. The inspection checklists are included in Appendix C. Field notes are included in Appendix D. The annual post-closure inspections were conducted on May 12, 2015. Maintenance was required at CAU 453. Cracking along the north trench was repaired. One monument is missing at CAU 424; it will be replaced in 2016. Postings at CAUs 407, 424, 453, and 487 contain contact information for TTR Security. It was noted that protocols may not be in place to ensure that the U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration Nevada Field Office (NNSA/NFO) is notified if access is needed at these sites. NNSA/NFO is working with the U.S. Air Force and Sandia to determine whether more appropriate contact information or new protocols are warranted for each CAU. Based on these inspections, there has not been a significant change in vegetation, and vegetation monitoring was not recommended at CAU 400 or CAU 407 in 2015.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2018

Post-Closure Inspection Report for the Tonopah Test Range, Nevada: For Calendar Year 2017, Revision 0

This report provides the results of the annual post-closure inspections conducted at the closed corrective action units (CAUs) located on the Tonopah Test Range (TTR) and the Nevada Test and Training Range (NTTR). This report covers calendar year 2017 and includes visual inspection and repair activities completed at the following CAUs: CAU 400: Bomblet Pit and Five Points Landfill (TTR) CAU 407: Roller Coaster RadSafe Area (TTR) CAU 424: Area 3 Landfill Complexes (TTR) CAU 453: Area 9 UXO Landfill (TTR) CAU 487: Thunderwell Site (TTR) Visual inspections were conducted according to the post-closure plans in the approved closure reports and subsequent correspondence with the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection. The annual post-closure inspections were conducted on May 23, 2017. No maintenance or repair issues were noted at CAU 400 and CAU 487. Maintenance items and subsequent repairs include the following: CAU 407: A large animal burrow was observed in the southeast corner of the cover during the inspection. Two additional animal burrows were discovered during repair actions. All cover defects were repaired on January 9, 2018. CAU 424: CAS 03-08-002-A304 (Landfill Cell A3-4): A new monument was installed and the subsidence area was repaired on January 9, 2018. CAU 424: CAS 03-08-002-A308 (Landfill Cell A3-8): Lava rock, used to mark the two eastern monument locations, was noted as missing during the inspection. The lava rock was replaced on January 9, 2018. CAU 453: Five large animal burrows, located near the east–central portion of cover, was noted during the inspection. Eight additional animal burrows were discovered during repair actions. All cover defects were repaired on January 9, 2018.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

The Energy and Operational Impacts of Using 0-10V Control for LED Streetlights

Lighting systems have historically utilized either a proprietary control method, or one of a handful of standardized methods (e.g., 0-10V, DALI, DMX512) aimed at facilitating vendor interoperability. The utility and market success of the standardized methods has been limited for a variety of reasons. Although 0-10V is presently the most commonly available control interface for indoor and outdoor products in North America – even after the emergence of LED products and “connected lighting systems” with more modern network interfaces and luminaire-level sensors and intelligence – the use of 0-10V methods has significant tradeoffs. For instance, it is difficult to predict relative luminaire light output and input power at any particular control voltage, and performance across luminaires is inconsistent. This study characterizes 23 LED streetlights that claimed dimmability via a 0-10V interface, quantifies the performance variation found in market-available LED drivers, and explores the potential impact of the most recent 0-10V voluntary standard (ANSI C137.1-2022). Notably, the tested products were all manufactured prior to the release of this standard, and thus do not make compliance claims. Variation in response to 0-10V control voltages was expected to be more significant across different make/model luminaires than different units of the same make/model; the test population was structured based on this expectation. The 23 tested luminaires comprised 21 unique make/model streetlights from 14 different manufacturers. Three samples of one make/model streetlight were included in the test population to facilitate a limited exploration of unit-to-unit variation. The 21 unique make/model luminaires contained 20 unique make/model LED drivers from eight different driver manufacturers. Luminaire input power and current were measured at 11 control voltages (0.5 V and 1–10 V in 1 V increments).

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2022

Emissions mitigation technology for advanced water-lean solvent-based CO 2 capture processes

This technical final report submitted to DOE/NETL presents all the research activities performed during the entirety of DE-FE0031660 project-Emissions Mitigation Technology for Advanced Water-Lean Solvent-Based CO 2 Capture Processes which spans from October 2018 through March 2022. RTI International has been conducting studies from fundamental and operational aspects to reduce the overall amine emissions from the advanced Water-Lean Solvent (WLS) systems, specifically RTI’s Non-Aqueous Solvent (NAS). This technical final report will highlight the key findings from project which align closely to the project objectives which are: Identify the contribution of vapor loss, entrainment, and aerosols to the overall emissions of water-lean systems; Determine the significance of CO 2 capture system operating parameters to the amine emissions; Develop an emissions model based on critical operating parameters; Evaluate the effectiveness of emissions mitigation devices to reduce the amine emissions to <1 ppm under flue coal-fired flue gas; and, Determine the contribution of the ECTs to the overall CO 2 capture cost. The following are the key findings based on numerous tests using both lab-scale setups and parametric testing performed at RTI’s Bench-scale Gas Absorption System (BsGAS). During the BP1, the aerosol generation system and monitoring equipment were installed at BsGAS to produce and determine the aerosol characteristics during the NAS CO 2 capture process. The aerosol produced by this setup produced aerosols with the peak diameter and concentration of 50 micron and 1.2E10 7 cm -3 , respectively. These particle sizes and concentrations are matched to those observed in the actual coal-fired power plant flue gases and expected to be found at the absorber inlet of the CO 2 capture system. Over 1,300 hours of parametric testing have been conducted to evaluate the impact of the aerosols and operating conditions during the CO 2 capture with NAS on the overall amine emissions in the treated flue gas. At the worse condition tested, the presence of the aerosols in the flue gas could increase the overall emissions by 10X compared to the baseline emissions from NAS’s vapor pressure. CO 2 capture rate was found to be a main factor impacting the overall emissions as well as aerosol size and concentrations in the absorber off-gas. The higher CO 2 capture rate, the higher amine emissions in the treated gas. The temperature difference between the temperature bulge seen in the absorber and the water wash temperature also impacts the particle growth where the larger the temperature difference, the more amine emissions from aerosols in the treated gas. The majority of the aerosols did not grow substantially in the system, and the particle concentrations remained nearly constant between the absorber inlet and wash outlet. Only a small portion of the particles were found to grow significantly. The high efficiency demister with mesh size of 5-10 micron can be installed to remove a portion of the aerosols from the gas stream leaving the water wash. Overall, these results from parametric testing have established the emission baseline and validate our assumption on the need of emission control technologies (ECT) in order to minimize the emissions from the baseline NAS CO 2 capture process. Over 2,000 of BsGAS operating hours was used to investigate a handful of process improvements which led to a selection of the vital few changes that effectively control the amine emissions. These process improvements are lime-coated-filters for absorber gas inlet, advanced demister at the top of the absorber, a second water wash with amine recovery unit were designed, installed, and tested at BsGAS at the end of BP1. The result showed that the NAS CO 2 capture process with these additional emission control devices could lower the amine emission in the treated gas to about 1 ppm using a simulated coal-fire flue gas stream. The main contributor in lowering the amine emission came from the second water wash with amine recovery unit where the amine concentration in the scrubbing water was kept below 2 wt% through a continuous amine removal via an adsorbent bed, resulting in a low amine vapor pressure. The adsorbent bed was regenerated via a direct steam regeneration and the recover amine was returned to the absorber to minimize wastewater and makeup amine. A flue gas generation system was designed and installed during the first half of BP2 to support the emission testing using a real coal-derived flue gas. The system is capable of generating both coal- and natural gas- derived flue gases with the composition of the gaseous species highly resemble to that of the power plant flue gases. The particulates detected in the coal-derived flue gas showed the mean diameter of 1 micron. The CO 2 capture operating was then proceed using the real coal-derived flue gas where the amine emission was controlled to be about 0-3 ppm for the total run time of about 200 hours. Similar testing was conducted with natural gas-derived flue gas and the result showed a highly amine emission of 30 ppm under the total run time of 200 hours. The Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and the Partial Least Squares Projection to Latent Structures (PLS) techniques were applied to the parametric testing data to derive a multivariate statistical model. The model was validated and trained with half of the data collected, and the predictive ability of the model was evaluated using the remaining half of the data. The resulting empirical model was capable of predicting the overall emissions from the NAS process without the ECTs with ±15% accuracy (average absolute deviation, AAD) in BP1. As more emission data were obtained under the real coal-flue gas in the BP2, the model incorporated these new set of data to reflect the final process configuration, operating parameters, and amine emission. This results in the updated empirical model predicting the amine emission from the NAS CO 2 capture process with 84% goodness-of-fit (R 2 ), 85% predictability (Q 2 ), and 15% AAD. The study evaluates the use of RTI’s Non-Aqueous Solvent technology for 90% CO 2 capture from a net 650 MWe pulverized coal power plant, downstream of the flue-gas desulfurization unit. The captured CO 2 has a purity of > 95% CO 2 , and is dried, compressed to 15.3 MPa (2,215 psia), ready for sequestration. The analysis uses Case B12B from the DOE Baseline study on Bituminous Coal, Revision 4 where the Cansolv CO 2 capture plant is replaced by the RTI CO 2 Capture plant. The CO 2 capture plant has been sized to capture >90% CO 2 from flue gas derived from a net 650 MWe supercritical pulverized coal power plant. The CO 2 capture plant is equipped with emission control technologies that limits the amine emissions to < 1 ppm. Two different cases were evaluated for the technoeconomic study. The key difference between the two cases is the regenerator pressure. In Case 1, the regenerator operates at 0.195 MPa (28.3 psia), whereas in Case 2, the regenerator pressure is 0.44 MPa (64 psia) thus removing the need for the first stage of compression of the eight-stage compression train. Results from the TEA are compared against the DOE reference cases for SCPC plant with and without CO 2 Capture (Case B12A and Case B12B of the DOE Baseline study, respectively). Case 2 with CO 2 regeneration at higher pressure results in the lower cost of CO 2 capture. The total capital cost of the capture process has been estimated using 2018 dollars in Aspen Process Economic Analyzer and was estimated to be $579 MM. The capture plant operation leads to a total parasitic power loss rate of 96 MWe, resulting in a decrease in pulverized coal power plant efficiency of 7.8% points. The resulting cost of electric power increases from 64.4 mills/kWh, for no capture, to 97.5 mills/kWh, with 90% capture, an increase of 51% in the COE. The cost of capturing 90% CO 2 was estimated to be $38.2/tonne-CO 2 , and meets the DOE target of $40/t-CO 2 . Emission control technologies (ECT) investigated in this project includes a second water wash with use of activated carbon beds for removal of amine from the wash water prior to recirculation in the water wash. These ECT allow operation of the CO 2 capture plant with < 1 ppm amine emissions with the treated flue gas and contributes to $2.4/t-CO 2 captured. Amine emissions derived from thermal and oxidative degradations were investigated under this project along with the emissions derived from aerosols for the NAS system. The thermally degraded of the lean NAS showed less than 4% decreased of the original total amine content in the NAS at 150 °C while the result obtained at 120 °C showed no drop in total amine content, suggesting that thermal degradation of the NAS is minimal. These results also suggested that the thermally degraded species are not likely formed and contributed to the emissions due to the low regeneration temperature of the NAS at 90-105 °C. The oxidative degradation, on the other hand, could become problematic as some of these oxidative degraded species were observed during the NAS-5 testing at National Carbon Capture Center (NCCC) and SINTEF in our previous project. The rapid screening of selected inhibitors suggested that oxidative degradation of NAS can be suppressed using thiol containing compounds in amounts of at least 1 mol%. The detailed mechanistic degradation pathway was conceived for a specific amine used in NAS formulation during BP2. he reduction of the nitrosamines caused by the NO x present in the flue gas was also examined. The study suggested that the thermo-chemical treatment of the NAS solvent would be a more effective and economically viable compared to removing NO x at the DCC.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗
DOE OSTI2019

Selection of Glasses in Support of the Sludge Batch 9 Sulfate Solubility Limit for Coupled Operation with the Salt Waste Processing Facility

For Sludge Batches 3 through 8, the sulfate (SO 4 2- )solubility limit for the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) has been determined by laboratory-scale crucible testing. In preparation for Sludge Batch 9 (SB9) processing, a comparison demonstrated that minor compositional differences existed between the Sludge Batch 8 (SB8)-Frit 803 and SB9-Frit 803 glass composition regions for sludge-only and coupled operations with the Actinide Removal Process (ARP) and Modular Caustic Side Solvent Extraction Unit (MCU). Thus, no experimental testing was necessary and the SB8 SO 4 2- limit of 0.65 wt.% was recommended for SB9 processing. This previous SB9 assessment did not address coupled processing with streams from the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF), which is anticipated to start operations in November 2019. These high activity streams will include monosodium titanate (MST) and sludge solids from the Sludge Solids Receipt Tank (SSRT) as well as Cs-containing strip effluent (SE). The incorporation of these SWPF streams is expected to reach TiO 2 concentrations in glass greater than 2 wt.% based on single and double MST strike scenarios. In support of coupled operation with SWPF, the DWPF Product Composition Control System was revised and allows a TiO 2 concentration of up to 6 wt.% (minus measurement uncertainty) in glass. For the SB8-Frit 803 SO 4 2- solubility study, the maximum TiO 2 concentration evaluated was 0.94 wt.%. Since the influence of increased TiO 2 on the retention of SO 4 2- in the SB9 glass region is unknown, a test matrix of ten glass compositions has been proposed to determine whether the 0.65 wt.% SO 4 2- limit is still appropriate for SB9 coupled operation with SWPF. This report documents the development of a test matrix that will support this study.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2022

Warm Unit Stand Analysis for Proton Improvement Project II

The Proton Improvement Project II, commonly referred to as PIP II, is a linear accelerator overhaul at Fermilab to eventually double the output of its existing proton beam to continue to be the leading force in high energy physics. The proton beam is created through a series of high frequency cryomodules that must be connected utilizing a combination of magnets and vacuum pumps to ensure the beam is properly aligned. A housing mechanism for the magnets and vacuum pumps (Warm Units) will be placed between the cryomodules for realignment and require multiple stages of 6 degree-of-freedom adjustment options, to ensure that the beam alignment can fit all realistic requirements. Extensive testing and design modifications on the Warm Unit stand was completed to confirm not only the strength of the unit in nominal configuration, but also at each possible adjustment orientation for each 6 degree-of-freedom option. Structural analysis was also completed for various unique loading conditions i ncluding transportation loading and confirming the unit satisfies international building code. Simultaneously, testing and design modifications were done to confirm that the frequency modes of the system resided outside of concern ranges, which is determined by Fermilab safety codes and is set to exceed 15 Hz. Design changes that simultaneously stiffen the system to raise the lowest frequency modes while expanding access for technicians and allow for easier fabrication were developed and implemented into the Warm Unit stand. Various relationships between the design changes and the overall vibrational patterns were also developed for future use and study as the rest of PIP II matures.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Technical Assessment of Proposed LAW Simulant for Cold Commissioning

Prior to radioactive operations, the Hanford Tank Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) will implement a cold-commissioning plan or strategy that will include water runs and other melter feed simulants to not only test the various engineering systems, unit operations, and processing strategies with respect to safety and performance, but to also allow facility operations to gain operational experience before introducing radioactive material into the vitrification facilities. Based on direction from Bechtel National, Inc. to eliminate nitrogen oxide (NOx) generation, EnergySolutions has recommended the use of a simple NaOH solution with glass formers to support this stage of testing during cold commissioning.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2019

Utilization of stress testing for low-risk patients with chest discomfort in the emergency department

Background: The management of patients presenting to an emergency department with chest discomfort at low-risk for acute coronary syndrome represents a common clinical challenge. Such patients are often triaged to chest pain units for monitoring and cardiac stress testing for further risk stratification. Methods: We conducted a retrospective study of 292 low-risk patients who presented to an emergency department with chest discomfort. We performed physician-adjudicated chart reviews of all patients with positive stress tests to assess downstream testing, subsequent coronary revascularization, and outcomes. Results: Of the 292 patients, 33 (11.3%) had stress tests positive for ischemia, and 12 (4.1%) underwent diagnostic cardiac catheterization. Of the 292 patients, 4 (1.4%) underwent coronary revascularization that may have resulted in a mortality benefit. Conclusion: These data suggest a very low yield of detecting clinically significant coronary disease with stress testing low-risk patients with chest discomfort in emergency department chest pain units.

62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE↗
DOE OSTI2022

WBG-Enabled Current-Source Inverters for Integrated PM Motor Drives

This project takes advantage of the special capabilities of wide-bandgap (WBG) power semiconductor devices to develop innovative power electronics in the form of new current-source inverters (CSIs) that offer promising advantages over the dominant voltage-source inverter (VSI) topology. These CSIs, in turn, are extremely well-suited for integration into the housings of permanent magnet synchronous machines (PMSMs) to form integrated motor drives (IMDs). These new IMDs offer great promise for achieving major energy savings in a wide variety of applications that benefit from adjustable-speed control, including air conditioners, laundry appliances, industrial pumps/compressors, electric vehicles, and aerospace drives. WBG devices play a critical enabling role in these new IMDs because of their transformative features including much higher switching frequencies, lower losses, and compatibility with high operating temperatures. When incorporated into new CSI-based IMDs with PM machines, these WBG switches open the door to achieving major increases in power density, drive system efficiency, and fault tolerance, as well as substantial reductions in electromagnetic interference (EMI), manufacturing cost, and temperature-induced failures. The higher operating temperature capability of WBG devices compared to conventional silicon power devices is very appealing in IMD applications because the power electronics is mounted in close proximity to the motors which typically operate at temperatures well above the maximum limits of today’s silicon-based power electronics. This project has succeeded in designing, building, and testing multiple prototype versions of this CSI-IMD that have overcome many technical challenges in order to demonstrate the impressive performance improvements that can be achieved by the WBG-enabled CSI-IMD. The preliminary demo and bench-top versions of the current-source inverter developed during the first two years of the project were critical to laying the technical foundations for the 3 kW prototype CSI-IMD unit that was successfully built and tested during the third year. This prototype CSI-IMD unit was designed to fit within the housing envelope of the original permanent magnet (PM) synchronous machine in order to meet the demanding power density requirements that were set at the beginning of the project. All of the remaining performance objectives set for the prototype CSI-IMD unit including efficiency and electromagnetic interference (EMI) were also met. The last 18 months of the project were devoted to developing further enhancements of the WBG-enabled CSI-IMD technology that better prepare it for commercial production. More specifically, an upgraded version of the prototype CSI-IMD unit was developed that moved the power electronics into the same machine housing chamber as the motor, substantially raising the thermal demands on the power electronics. Tests with five different combinations of motor enclosure types and air cooling configurations were evaluated. Importantly, this work confirmed that the power electronics can deliver its full rated power and still operate well within its maximum temperature limits even for worst-case conditions when the housing is “totally-enclosed” without any openings for air to enter or exit the enclosure, and no blower/fan is provided to blow air over the outside surface of the enclosure. Reaching the full performance and energy-savings potential of this disruptive CSI-IMD motor drive technology is highly consistent with ARPA-E’s stated mission to “enhance the economic and energy security of the United States” while also supporting its commitment to “ensure that the U.S. maintains a technological lead in developing and deploying advanced energy technologies”. Follow-on projects are under way to explore the scalability of WBG-enabled CSI-IMD technology to 100 kW (peak) electric vehicle traction drives and fault-tolerant modular motor drives for future electrified aircraft propulsion applications.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2015

SU-E-T-400: Evaluation of Shielding and Activation at Two Pencil Beam Scanning Proton Facilities

Purpose: To verify acceptably low dose levels around two newly constructed identical pencil beam scanning proton therapy facilities and to evaluate accuracy of pre-construction shielding calculations. Methods: Dose measurements were taken at select points of interest using a WENDI-2 style wide-energy neutron detector. Measurements were compared to pre-construction shielding calculations. Radiation badges with neutron dose measurement capabilities were worn by personnel and also placed at points throughout the facilities. Seven neutron and gamma detectors were permanently installed throughout the facility, continuously logging data. Potential activation hazards have also been investigated. Dose rates near water tanks immediately after prolonged irradiation have been measured. Equipment inside the treatment room and accelerator vault has been surveyed and/or wipe tested. Air filters from air handling units, sticky mats placed outside of the accelerator vault, and water samples from the magnet cooling water loops have also been tested. Results: All radiation badges have been returned with readings below the reporting minimum. Measurements of mats, air filters, cooling water, wipe tests and surveys of equipment that has not been placed in the beam have all come back at background levels. All survey measurements show the analytical shielding calculations to be conservative by at least a factor of 2. No anomalous events have been identified by the building radiation monitoring system. Measurements of dose rates close to scanning water tanks have shown dose rates of approximately 10 mrem/hr with a half-life less than 5 minutes. Measurements around the accelerator show some areas with dose rates slightly higher than 10 mrem/hr. Conclusion: The shielding design is shown to be adequate. Measured dose rates are below those predicted by shielding calculations. Activation hazards are minimal except in certain very well defined areas within the accelerator vault and for objects placed directly in the path of the beam.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Cross Section Generation Capability in Griffin

The Griffin code is a Multiphysics Object-Oriented Simulation Environment (MOOSE) based reactor multiphysics analysis application jointly developed by Idaho National Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory. The code includes a variety of steady-state solvers for fixed-source, k-eigenvalue, adjoint, and subcritical multiplication, as well as transient solvers for point-kinetics, improved quasi-static, and spatial dynamics. The code reads multigroup cross sections in the ISOXML format generated from external deterministic or Monte Carlo cross section generation codes. The implementation of the cross section generation capability in Griffin was initiated last year by plugging in the cross section application programming interface (CSAPI) and reviewing the methodologies for treating particulate fuels. The focus this year was on improving the CSAPI integration and implementing advanced self-shielding methods for applications to advanced reactor problems with TRISO fuels. First, the process for cross section library generation was updated to accurately and rigorously produce isotopic cross section data. Second, the equivalent Dancoff factor cell method performing slowing down calculations on the fly for the resonance treatment was implemented in CSAPI to improve the accuracy of effective multigroup cross sections in the resonance energy range. Third, the iterative local spatial self-shielding method was implemented under the calculation framework of the equivalent Dancoff factor cell method to accurately deal with the double heterogeneity effect of particulate fuel. The updated CSAPI with the advanced self-shielding methods, together with the cross section libraries generated based on the improved process, were tested for pin-cell, unit-cell, and fuel assembly problems with various resonance self-shielding conditions based on very high temperature reactor, high temperature test reactor, and Empire benchmark cores, indicating that the updated CSAPI in Griffin is able to produce multigroup cross sections accurately and efficiently. We also showed that the methodology worked well for pebble bed fuel from HTR-10, but the capability still needs to be fully integrated into CSAPI. In the future, further benchmark tests will be performed for various thermal reactor core problems, including particulate fuel-based pebble bed reactors.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Conceptual Neutronics Scoping for Ramp Testing in the Advanced Test Reactor

With the closer of the Halden Boiling Water Reactor in 2018, the global capacity for in-reactor power ramp testing has been lost. As such tests provide valuable data for understanding pellet-cladding interaction (PCI) phenomena, finding new facilities for ramp testing is of interest to the United States Accident-Tolerant Fuel (ATF) Program. Several options at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) are being evaluated for adding ramp test capabilities. In the Transient Reactor Test Facility (TREAT), one option is testing inside a Transient Water Irradiation System in TREAT (TWIST) capsule. In the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR), one option under consideration is testing in an I-Loop toward the outer edge of the core. Another is testing in Loop-2A, located in the Center Flux Trap (CFT) of the ATR. In this paper, we examine the conceptual scoping for the Loop-2A experiment known as ATF-2Ramp.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Conceptual Neutronics Scoping for Ramp Testing in the Advanced Test Reactor

With the closure of the Halden Boiling Water Reactor in 2018, the global capacity for in-reactor power ramp testing has been lost. As such tests provide valuable data for understanding pellet-cladding interaction (PCI) phenomena, finding new facilities for ramp testing is of interest to the United States Accident-Tolerant Fuel (ATF) Program. Several options at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) are being evaluated for adding ramp test capabilities. In the Transient Reactor Test Facility (TREAT), one option is testing inside a Transient Water Irradiation System in TREAT (TWIST) capsule. In the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR), one option under consideration is testing in an I-Loop toward the outer edge of the core. Another is testing in Loop-2A, located in the Center Flux Trap (CFT) of the ATR. In this paper, we examine the conceptual scoping for the Loop-2A experiment known as ATF-2Ramp.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗