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At least 685 records · Page 38

Connecting People to Data: Enabling Data Connected Communities through Enhancements to the Geothermal Data Repository

The Department of Energy's (DOE) Geothermal Data Repository (GDR) has implemented a series of new features designed to connect people to data. These features, which are based on feedback from the GDR user community and surveys of the greater geothermal research community, are designed to improve data quality and empower members of all communities to better engage with geothermal data resources by providing universal access to data and by improving the connections between data providers, subject matter experts, and the communities of people using GDR data. This paper will explore some of the recent enhancements made to the GDR to improve data discoverability, reduce submission time, and result in better quality data submissions. These improvements include the ability for users to save a list of their favorite datasets, search for insight into geothermal datasets or data availability, or sign up to receive notifications of future updates to specific datasets. These improvements aim to enhance the overall user experience of the GDR while further connecting communities to the data they need to inform decisions, advance geothermal research, and develop innovative solutions to local energy problems.

access↗

DiMER

SAND2025-04145O DiMER is a Python based tool that helps researchers understand the functions of genes by searching through multiple biological databases. It takes user-provided data and scans various databases to find the best matches for gene functions, generating a clear summary of results. DiMER identifies the most relevant functional annotations and improves upon previous annotations by replacing instances of "unknown protein function" with more accurate descriptions. DiMER requires minimal setup. Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA0003525.

Mageeney, Catherine [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-CA)↗

Pycheron: A Python-Based Seismic Waveform Data Quality Control Software Package

Supplementing an existing high-quality seismic monitoring network with openly available station data could improve coverage and decrease magnitudes of completeness; however, this can present challenges when varying levels of data quality exist. Without discerning the quality of openly available data, using it poses significant data management, analysis, and interpretation issues. Incorporating additional stations without properly identifying and mitigating data quality problems can degrade overall monitoring capability. If openly available stations are to be used routinely, a robust, automated data quality assessment for a wide range of quality control (QC) issues is essential. To meet this need, we developed Pycheron, a Python-based library for QC of seismic waveform data. Pycheron was initially based on the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology’s Modular Utility for STAtistical kNowledge Gathering but has been expanded to include more functionality. Pycheron can be implemented at the beginning of a data processing pipeline or can process stand-alone data sets. Its objectives are to (1) identify specific QC issues; (2) automatically assess data quality and instrumentation health; (3) serve as a basic service that all data processing builds on by alerting downstream processing algorithms to any quality degradation; and (4) improve our ability to process orders of magnitudes more data through performance optimizations. This article provides an overview of Pycheron, its features, basic workflow, and an example application using a synthetic QC data set.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

AmeriFlux FLUXNET-1F US-xKZ NEON Konza Prairie Biological Station (KONZ)

This is the AmeriFlux Management Project (AMP) created FLUXNET-1F version of the carbon flux data for the site US-xKZ NEON Konza Prairie Biological Station (KONZ). This is the FLUXNET version of the carbon flux data for the site US-xKZ NEON Konza Prairie Biological Station (KONZ) produced by applying the standard ONEFlux (1F) software. Site Description - Konza Prairie Biological Station (KPBS) was established to provide a "natural laboratory" to conduct ecological research and is located on a 3,487 hectare native tallgrass prairie preserve. KPBS is a field research station dedicated to conservation, education and long-term ecological research. Over 1,580 scientific papers have been published by scientists conducting studies at KPBS. The study of ecological patterns and processes in native tallgrass prairie ecosystems is the primary subject of research.

Network), NEON (National Ecological Observatory↗

Assessment of Materials-Based Options for On-Board Hydrogen Storage for Rail Applications

The objective of this project was to evaluate material- and chemical-based solutions for hydrogen storage in rail applications as an alternative to high-pressure hydrogen gas and liquid hydrogen. Three use cases were assessed: yard switchers, long-haul locomotives, and tenders. Four storage options were considered: metal hydrides, nanoporous sorbents, liquid organic hydrogen carriers, and ammonia, using 700 bar compressed hydrogen as a benchmark. The results suggest that metal hydrides, currently the most mature of these options, have the highest potential. Storage in tenders is the most likely use case to be successful, with long-haul locomotives the least likely due to the required storage capacities and weight and volume constraints. Overall, the results are relevant for high-impact regions, such as the South Coast Air Quality Management District, for which an economical vehicular hydrogen storage system with minimal impact on cargo capacity could accelerate adoption of fuel cell electric locomotives. The results obtained here will contribute to the development of technical storage targets for rail applications that can guide future research. Moreover, the knowledge generated by this project will assist in development of material-based storage for stationary applications such as microgrids and backup power for data centers.

08 HYDROGEN↗

Microreactor Automated Control System - Digital Twin Models and Advanced Control Systems Updates

Automation of control systems is expected to be important in the economic and safe operation of microreactors. Therefore, there is a need to develop and demonstrate automated control for microreactors, along with the development of testbeds for this purpose. This report provides updates on the status of a nonnuclear microreactor automated control system (MACS)—a real-time, hardware-in-the-loop testbed for non-nuclear testing of microreactor control system automation. A real-time hardware-in-the-loop testbed incorporates the realistic dynamics of physical systems into control system development and testing. The collaborative effort between Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Idaho National Laboratory (INL) resulted in the development of a prototypic microreactor plant-level digital twin that includes the reactor and a balance of plant system. Advanced control strategies were incorporated to demonstrate testing of control automation solutions. The gRPC communication protocol, which was implemented in the hardware-in-the-loop testbed by INL, was coupled to a digital twin model developed using the TRANsient Simulation Framework of Reconfigurable Models (TRANSFORM) library in Modelica. This digital twin simulation was tested with the ViBRANT hardware for realistic feedback and visual representation of control action in real time. A modular Python client structure was developed to manage functional mock-up unit-based simulation and real-time gRPC communication. Hardware-in-the-loop testing indicated that the modeled reactor—a natural-convection, molten-salt coolant loop configuration—responds well to control of drum positioning for modulation of reactor core power, as well as system-level control and downstream demand changes. Ongoing research is focused on integrating additional control algorithms that utilize data from newly included sensors within the MACS hardware testbed, as well as demonstrating and assessing the performance of the different automated control algorithms on multiple additional operational scenarios.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Deploying and Operating CephFS for Scientific Applications at Fermilab

Fermilab has been running a Ceph cluster in production for several years to support high-throughput scientific computing. Our primary use case is CephFS, which serves interactive data analysis workloads, with growing interest in using RGW for scalable object storage of scientific datasets. In this talk, we'll share lessons learned from successfully deploying and maintaining our Ceph cluster with cephadm, including challenges faced, performance tuning, and operational practices. We'll also present custom tools we've developed to streamline monitoring and management and discuss how Ceph fits into our broader storage architecture for large-scale scientific research.

Peisker, Alison [Fermilab]↗

SULI End of Summer Presentation

This presentation made on Power Point is a brief summary of my work enhancing the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) architecture for Idaho National Lab’s Critical Infrastructure Test Range Complex (CITRC). This work was part of an on-going project to create a digital twin of CITRC that will be implemented for resiliency research. Resiliency is growing more important as extreme weather, aging infrastructure, and increasing load all exert stress on the United States power grid. This presentation highlights how I documented the existing devices and data flow on site and then updated specific device settings to better support the needs of the project. It also examines future use of this data in the digital twin data warehouse (DeepLynx), and future Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Distribution Management System applications. It will be presented to the B751 Water and Energy Systems Analysis group at INL during my last week.

24 - POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Yield From Iowa's First Commercial Miscanthus Fields: Implications of Spatial Variability for Productivity and Sustainability Beyond Research Plots

The cultivation of sterile giant miscanthus (Miscanthus × giganteus, M × g) for bioenergy and bioproducts has expanded into grain-cropped land in the United States (US) as local markets developed for this high-yielding perennial grass (10–30 Mg DM ha −1 ). However, the magnitude of spatial and temporal variability in yield within US Corn Belt fields, along with impacts on economic return and sustainable land management, is poorly understood. This study established a diagnostic model relating remote sensing-derived vegetation indices to ground truth data from 105 hand-harvested stem biomass samples, which were strategically selected to represent the full range of vegetation index observations. The high-resolution satellite-sensed vegetation indices captured > 90% of the yield variation measured within fields. This model was then used to predict yield variability and assess economic performance across four of the first commercial M × g fields in the Corn Belt state of Iowa, US. Significant spatial variability in biomass dry matter (DM) yields (9.3–18.1 Mg DM ha −1 ) and net profits ($\$$83 to $\$$1211.5 ha −1 ) was observed. All fields were profitable in all site-years. When low profit occurred, it was explained by limited management experience of the crop in Iowa. The breakeven yield at a selling price of $\$$130 Mg −1 varied from 9.0–12.1 Mg ha −1 at 15% moisture content (7.6–10.3 Mg DM ha −1 ). Breakeven prices ranged from $\$$73 to $\$$122.4 Mg −1 , matching ranges used in the Department of Energy Billion Ton Report (US Department of Energy, 2023). Notably, M × g yield and profits were commensurate with grain crops particularly with favorable precipitation. This study provides insight on the M × g management “learning curve”, performance on marginal land and in drought conditions, and demonstrates that addressing yield gaps, reducing costs, and implementing precision agriculture strategies can enhance profitability. These findings emphasize the value of remote sensing technologies in guiding sustainable and competitive commercial-scale M × g production.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

Using Systems Theoretic Process Analysis and Causal Analysis to Map and Manage Organizational Information to Enable Digitalization and Information Automation

The overarching goal of this Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program–supported research and development project is to provide planning tools and comprehensive guidance to utilities considering or undertaking full nuclear plant modernization. The results of this research will provide the nuclear industry with a comprehensive and usable solution, including guidance, lessons learned, methods, and planning tools. This research is currently working to provide guidance on digitalization and information automation to enable the evolution of data to information, insight, and action—thereby allowing utilities to operate safely and cost-competitively with all other electrical generation sources. Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program researchers have also recently started investigating how human and technology integration principles, information automation, and digitalization enable data evolution. These researchers are currently in the process of validating the use of System-Theoretic Process Analysis to define high-level safety constraints in the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s problem identification and resolution process (i.e., a plant compliance information gathering activity). The next step in this research, which is described in the following sections of this report, is to map out data evolution in a use case to identify inefficiencies in another aspect of plant compliance information gathering and communication activities—event investigations and root cause analyses.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗

Shallow EGS Regional Resource Potential and Map - Snake River Plain

SMU Geothermal Lab developed a methodology to estimate shallow (1 km to 4 km) Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) resource potential using an approach that utilizes recent geology and geophysical research along with new well data to improve the thermal conductivity model, mitigate impacts from groundwater flow in the thermal model, and examine radioactivity data variations. By incorporating the results of the most recent projects with the SMU shallow methodology, we developed a more accurate, updated resource estimate for the Snake River Plain (SRP). The resulting maps and resource estimates can be used by the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL), Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and the public to determine how best to move forward with future project development.

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY↗

AmeriFlux FLUXNET-1F US-Bar Bartlett Experimental Forest

This is the AmeriFlux Management Project (AMP) created FLUXNET-1F version of the carbon flux data for the site US-Bar Bartlett Experimental Forest. This is the FLUXNET version of the carbon flux data for the site US-Bar Bartlett Experimental Forest produced by applying the standard ONEFlux (1F) software. Site Description - The Bartlett Experimental Forest (448170 N, 71830 W) is located within the White Mountains National Forest in north-central New Hampshire, USA. The 1050 ha forest extends across an elevational range from 200 to 900 m a.s.l. It was established in 1931 and is managed by the USDA Forest Service Northeastern Research Station in Durham, NH. The climate is humid continental with short, cool summers (mean July temperature, 19.8C) and long, cold winters (mean January temperature, 9.8C). Annual precipitation averages 130 cm and is distributed evenly throughout the year. Soils are developed from glacial till and are predominantly shallow, well-drained spodosols. At lowto mid-elevation, vegetation is dominated by northern hardwoods (American beech, Fagus grandifolia; sugar maple, Acer saccharum; yellow birch, Betula alleghaniensis; with some red maple, Acer rubrum and paper birch, Betula papyrifera). Conifers (eastern hemlock, Tsuga canadensis; eastern white pine, Pinus strobus; red spruce, Picea rubens) are occasionally found intermixed with the more abundant deciduous species but are generally confined to the highest (red spruce) and lowest (hemlock and pine) elevations. In 2003, the site was adopted as a NASA North American Carbon Program (NACP) Tier-2 field research and validation site. A 26.5 m high tower was installed in a low-elevation northern hardwood stand in November, 2003, for the purpose of making eddy covariance measurements of the forest–atmosphere exchange of CO2, H2O and radiant energy. Continuous flux and meteorological measurements began in January, 2004, and are ongoing. Average canopy height in the vicinity of the tower is approximately 20–22 m. In the tower footprint, the forest is predominantly classified into red maple, sugar maple, and American beech forest types. Leaf area index in the vicinity of the tower is 3.6 as measured by seasonal litterfall collection, and 4.5 as measured by the optically based Li-Cor LAI-2000 instrument. Further site information: http://www.fs.fed.us/ne/durham/4155/bartlett.htm

Richardson, Andrew↗

AmeriFlux FLUXNET-1F US-IAB Iowa State University NE tower

This is the AmeriFlux Management Project (AMP) created FLUXNET-1F version of the carbon flux data for the site US-IAB Iowa State University NE tower. This is the FLUXNET version of the carbon flux data for the site US-IAB Iowa State University NE tower produced by applying the standard ONEFlux (1F) software. Site Description - This is a 4 ha (200 m x 200 m) crop rotation established at the Sustainable Advanced Bioeconomy Research (SABR) farm at Iowa State University. The site has a long history of conventional row-cropping, predominantly corn-soy rotations. In the immediately preceding growing season, soybeans were grown at the SABR farm.

(Rojda), Guler Aslan Sungur↗

Nuclear Power Fault Diagnostics and Preventative Maintenance Optimization

The nuclear industry is beginning to see reactors shut down—even after their operating licenses have been extended—because they are not economically competitive with other energy sources. These early closures happen primarily due to economic reasons, despite excellent safety records. Therefore, it is imperative to reduce costs in order to prevent these early closures. One of the contributors to these economic reasons is the large operations and maintenance costs. This paper showcases recent research on advanced fault diagnostics techniques and preventative maintenance optimization (PMO) for reducing NPP maintenance costs. Specifically, it focuses on the feedwater and condensate system (FWCS) for both pressurized- and boiling-water reactor (BWR) systems. The computerized maintenance management system (CMMS), which contains the plant’s digital record of all corrective maintenance (CM) and preventative maintenance (PM) work orders, provided the ground truth for locating potential faults and labeling the process data as either healthy or faulted. Various feature extraction techniques were used to further differentiate the faulted data from the healthy data. Through a cross-validation procedure, support vectors machines were used to label other test sets of process data as either healthy or faulted. With relatively few faults identified in the BWR system, the potential for PMO opens up, since an unnecessary amount of PM leads to inflated maintenance costs. The steps for PMO are summarized, from component health determinations to recommendations for action. An example of PMO assessment is presented for condensate pumps, condensate booster pumps, and the respective motors that drive them.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Nuclear Power Fault Diagnostics and Preventative Maintenance Optimization NPIC presentation

The nuclear industry is beginning to see reactors shut down—even after their operating licenses have been extended—because they are not economically competitive with other energy sources. These early closures happen primarily due to economic reasons, despite excellent safety records. Therefore, it is imperative to reduce costs in order to prevent these early closures. One of the contributors to these economic reasons is the large operations and maintenance costs. This paper showcases recent research on advanced fault diagnostics techniques and preventative maintenance optimization (PMO) for reducing NPP maintenance costs. Specifically, it focuses on the feedwater and condensate system (FWCS) for both pressurized- and boiling-water reactor (BWR) systems. The computerized maintenance management system (CMMS), which contains the plant’s digital record of all corrective maintenance (CM) and preventative maintenance (PM) work orders, provided the ground truth for locating potential faults and labeling the process data as either healthy or faulted. Various feature extraction techniques were used to further differentiate the faulted data from the healthy data. Through a cross-validation procedure, support vectors machines were used to label other test sets of process data as either healthy or faulted. With relatively few faults identified in the BWR system, the potential for PMO opens up, since an unnecessary amount of PM leads to inflated maintenance costs. The steps for PMO are summarized, from component health determinations to recommendations for action. An example of PMO assessment is presented for condensate pumps, condensate booster pumps, and the respective motors that drive them.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Assessing the Performance and Impact of PV Technologies on Storage in Hybrid Renewable Systems

Traditional monofacial photovoltaic (mPV) systems are commonly adopted and well-documented because of their lower upfront costs in comparison to bifacial photovoltaic (bPV) systems. This study investigates how PV technologies impact energy storage in grid-scale hybrid renewable systems, focusing on optimizing and assessing the performance of mPV and bPV technologies integrated with pumped storage hydropower. Using Ludington City, Michigan as a case study and analyzing real-world data such as solar irradiance, ambient temperature, and utility-scale load profiles, the research highlights the operational and economic benefits of bPV systems. The results reveal that bPV systems can pump approximately 10.38% more water annually to the upper reservoir while achieving a lower levelized cost of energy ($0.0578/kWh for bPV vs. $0.0672/kWh for mPV). This study underscores the outstanding potential of bPV systems in enhancing energy storage and management strategies, contributing to a more sustainable and resilient renewable energy future.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗

Modeling Water Quality in Watersheds: From Here to the Next Generation

In this synthesis, we assess present research and anticipate future development needs in modeling water quality in watersheds. We first discuss areas of potential improvement in the representation of freshwater systems pertaining to water quality, including representation of environmental interfaces, in-stream water quality and process interactions, soil health and land management, and (peri-)urban areas. In addition, we provide insights into the contemporary challenges in the practices of watershed water quality modeling, including quality control of monitoring data, model parameterization and calibration, uncertainty management, scale mismatches and provisioning of modeling tools. Finally, we make three recommendations to provide a path forward for improving watershed water quality modeling science, infrastructure and practices. These include building stronger collaborations between experimentalists and modelers, bridging gaps between modelers and stakeholders, and cultivating and applying procedural knowledge to better govern and support water quality modeling processes within organizations.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Standardized naming of microbiome samples in Genomes OnLine Database

The power of next-generation sequencing has resulted in an explosive growth in the number of projects aiming to understand the metagenomic diversity of complex microbial environments. The interdisciplinary nature of this microbiome research community, along with the absence of reporting standards for microbiome data and samples, poses a significant challenge for follow-up studies. Commonly used names of metagenomes and metatranscriptomes in public databases currently lack the essential information necessary to accurately describe and classify the underlying samples, which makes a comparative analysis difficult to conduct and often results in misclassified sequences in data repositories. The Genomes OnLine Database (GOLD) (https:// gold.jgi.doe.gov/) at the Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute has been at the forefront of addressing this challenge by developing a standardized nomenclature system for naming microbiome samples. GOLD, currently in its twenty-fifth anniversary, continues to enrich the research community with hundreds of thousands of metagenomes and metatranscriptomes with well-curated and easy-to-understand names. Through this manuscript, we describe the overall naming process that can be easily adopted by researchers worldwide. Additionally, we propose the use of this naming system as a best practice for the scientific community to facilitate better interoperability and reusability of microbiome data.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗