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DOE OSTI2025

Equipment List Comparing Balance of Plant Containing a Heat Pump against a Reference Electricity Generating Plant

Approximately two-thirds of U.S. energy consumption in the industrial and transportation sectors relies on fossil fuels. These sectors require high-quality heat, i.e., thermal energy at very high temperatures, for molecular transformation processes. The Integrated Energy Systems (IES) program aims to assess the economic potential of utilizing nuclear-grade heat from Advanced Reactors (ARs) to meet the high-quality heat demands. By having industrial processes (IPs) supplied with nuclear-generated heat, manufacturers could benefit from more stable and potentially lower energy costs, reducing reliance on volatile fossil fuel markets. The main outcome of the FY24 research was the thermodynamic assessment and gap analysis of steam generation for IP applications. The study completed in June 2024 demonstrated that the required steam temperatures could be achieved by integrating a heat pump into an AR power plant. After identifying the thermal demands of target IPs, multiple balance of plant configurations for the Xe-100 reactor by X-energy, incorporating a heat pump, were analyzed. Their technical feasibilities were assessed, including the design of suitable axial compressors for these applications. Comparative performance analysis showed that thermal efficiency alone is insufficient to evaluate system suitability. To address this, a new indicator (heat factor) was introduced in the report released in September 2024 to quantify the low-quality thermal power needed to produce one unit of high-quality heat for the IP. Results showed that integrating heat pumps into Rankine cycles enables higher steam temperatures, though at the expense of increased thermal energy input. This report builds upon and completes the foundational work previously undertaken. It focuses on the design of two Balance of Plant (BOP) configurations, both based on Rankine energy conversion cycles: “Case 1”, which involves electricity generation only, and “Case 2”, which combines electricity and high-temperature heat generation for industrial use. For each configuration, a comprehensive equipment list was developed, detailing all major components such as turbines, compressors, heat exchangers, pumps, and control systems. These lists will serve as the basis for future comparative cost analyses, with the goal of assessing the number and type of components required to integrate a heat pump into the Rankine cycle and to establish a heat transport system capable of delivering thermal energy from the nuclear plant to an industrial facility. Using the constitutive equations presented in the June 2024 milestone, the operating conditions of all BOP components for both “Case 1” and “Case 2” were evaluated. These parameters—such as temperature, pressure, mass flow rate, and steam quality—served as the basis for calculating the associated thermal and mechanical power flows. The net power required from the heat pump to raise the steam temperature to the target level was also determined. The thermodynamic performance of the configuration was then assessed using the heat factor metric. The key outcome of this analysis is a comparative table that presents the equipment that was used in the “Case 1” and “Case 2” configurations. This study offers a preliminary comparison of the two designs, providing insight into the impact of integrating a heat pump in terms of component requirements and thermal efficiency. This equipment list, together with the evaluated operating conditions, also serves as a foundation for the economic analyses scheduled for the current fiscal year.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

DOE OSTI2025

Extreme Longitudinal Compression of Optimized Beams for MEV Ultrafast Electron Diffraction (Final Technical Report)

We worked out the design of a high repetition rate MeV energy ultrafast electron diffraction instrument based on the existing Cornell photoinjector, which can readily be applied to the presented findings. This example is a blueprint of other similarly arranged UED setups. Using particle tracking simulations in conjunction with multiobjective genetic algorithm optimization, we explored the smallest bunch lengths, emittance, and probe spot sizes achievable. As two limits, we defined stroboscopic conditions (with single electrons per pulse) and operation with 10 5 electrons per bunch which may be suitable for single-shot diffraction images. In the stroboscopic case, the flexibility provided by the many cavity bunching and acceleration allows for longitudinal phase space linearization without a higher harmonic field, providing sub-fs bunch lengths at the sample. Given low emittance photoemission conditions, these small bunch lengths can be maintained with probe transverse sizes at the single micron (1 μm) scale and below. In the case of 10 5 electrons per pulse, we simulated state-of-the-art 5D brightness conditions: rms bunch lengths of 10 fs with 3-nm normalized emittances, while permitting repetition rates as high as 1.3 GHz. We showed that in conjunction with collimating apertures, a novel focusing scheme achieves very high-quality emittance compensation for the central core of the beam composing 40% of particles, for a resulting beam size of 5 μm (rms). Finally, to aid in the design of new SRF-based ultrafast electron diffraction machines, we simulated the trade-off between the number of cavities used and achievable bunch length and emittance. In the longitudinal dimension, we made use of the fact that MeV UED requires much lower energy than the 15-MeV maxi mum energy of Cornell’s CBETA injector, and we may therefore use several of the SRF cavities for bunch length compression. In practice, we used a genetic optimization algorithm to choose the phases and amplitudes of the cavities appropriately for optimal bunching. In the zero space charge case, we found that bunching and acceleration are distributed across the six cavities in a way that produces a linearizing effect. And we showed that the ultimate bunch length can be limited by time-of-flight differences arising from transverse size and transverse momentum spread. The space charge code developed and used for this development is now permanent part of the Bmad accelerator simulation code and has already contributed to other developments, e.g., for the EIC electron cooler design.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

DOE OSTI2020

Assessment of the Griffin Reactor Multiphysics Application Using the Empire Micro Reactor Design Concept

In late 2019, INL and ANL agreed to jointly develop the reactor physics code named Griffin based on the integration of the two code suites, MAMMOTH/Rattlesnake (INL) and MC2 - 3/PROTEUS (ANL). Griffin is being developed based on the MOOSE framework and MOOSE quality assurance procedures. This decision was made to be able to allow DOE-NE to efficiently invest funding to this area and to provide effective and timely support for existing and potential users; the latter includes industry and government organizations who are developing various types of advanced reactors in the near and long term. Since MAMMOTH/Rattlesnake has been developed based on the MOOSE framework, the INL/ANL Griffin development team agreed to build Griffin beginning with a merger of MAMMOTH and Rattlesnake into a single code and moving forward by implementing capabilities from the PROTEUS suite into Griffin. Moving forward, both ANL and INL efforts are equally invested in the Griffin project, with management support, to provide an advanced reactor multiphysics tool to assist in reactor design, optimization, and safety analysis. Much work remains in moving Griffin forward to migrate PROTEUS capabilities and to optimize performance to meet user needs. The main objective of this work is to assess the current status of Griffin capabilities in terms of performance and accuracy, to determine priorities for PROTEUS migration, and to identify capabilities and features to improve for supporting the code integration effort. For this assessment, the Empire micro reactor problem that was developed in the ARPA-E MEITNER program was selected as an advance reactor concept of interest to the technical community. The Empire reactor problem was expanded from its original incomplete specification to be a small heat-pipe-cooled micro reactor core with ~113 cm radius and 70 cm in height, composed of 18 fuel assemblies, 12 control drums, and beryllium radial and axial reflectors. In the current model, using 5 cm axial reflectors specified in the original Empire assembly model, more than 10% of neutrons leak axially and through the empty center safety hole, as well as through heat pipe channels in fuel assembly elements that extend through the top reflector region. Several calculation models of the core were defined for systematic assessment, including 2-D and 3-D fuel assemblies and whole cores with cylindrical boundaries. Cross sections were generated using Serpent 2, and meshes were produced using the Argonne mesh tool or the INL neutronics meshing tools combined with CUBIT. Cross sections and meshes were converted to the ISOXML and Exodus formats, respectively, so that Griffin and PROTEUS could use consistent data for solving the reactor problems. With the prepared cross sections and meshes, PROTEUS was run first to ensure that all input data were correctly generated and input options in terms of angle, mesh, and energy group were accurately determined. Comparisons against Serpent 2 solutions were made in terms of eigenvalue and pin power. The same calculations and comparisons were then conducted using Griffin. For the fuel assembly and whole core problems, the PROTEUS eigenvalues agreed well with reference Serpent 2 solutions within 100 and 30 pcm, respectively, and pin power differences relative to Serpent 2 were overall less than 2.2% and RMS 0.8% for the whole core models. This indicated that all input data were properly prepared. Using the same data, Griffin was run selecting the SAAF-CFEM SN solver with Legendre-Gaussian quadrature and NDA and DSA for acceleration. It was found that the SAAF-CFEM solver of Griffin required finer meshes to achieve eigenvalue and pin power solutions in good agreement with Serpent 2, consequently requiring more memory requirement and longer computation time. On the other hand, the SPH-Diffusion 2-D core calculations performed using Griffin were able to recover the exact eigenvalue from the reference Serpent 2 solutions, resulting in a pin-power distribution with an RMS of 0.6% and maximum absolute difference of less than 1.4%. The runtimes for SPH-Diffusion for the 2-D core were less than 3 minutes on 40 cores. During this evolution of this evaluation, many updates were made in Griffin by the Griffin development team of INL (focusing on software updates) and ANL (reviewing and supporting software updates) to complete this assessment. Observations from the code assessment are presented in the conclusion section of this report, followed by a discussion of recommendations for future work.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗

DOE OSTI2022

Power quality disturbances diagnosis: A 2D densely connected convolutional network framework

The fast and accurate diagnosis of power quality disturbances (PQD) aids in avoiding shutdowns and unnecessary procedures, concerning electric energy distribution systems. As such, a number of techniques have been tested and applied in order to reach this objective. Majority of the techniques applied are two-step based. On the first step, power quality disturbances features are extracted. Second step, considering features extracted, disturbance classification is implemented. Recently, relevant literature has presented data-driven signal processing-based approaches, as deep convolutional neural networks (DCNN), which can implement both processing steps while providing automated recognition of patterns and outliers in data. However, not considered by state-of-art, power quality disturbances are evolving in nature, while all possible regularities might not be represented in the dataset. In this work a 2 Dimension Densely Connected Convolutional Network (2D-DenseNet) framework is presented. Further, a case study with synthetic disturbance events are analyzed. Easy-to-implement formulation, built on the 2D-DenseNet, without hard-to-design parameters, highlight potential aspects for real-life implementation.

42 ENGINEERING↗

DOE OSTI2020

On the Computational Viability of Quantum Optimization for PMU Placement

Using optimal phasor measurement unit placement as a prototypical problem, we assess the computational viability of the current generation D-Wave Systems 2000Q quantum annealer for power systems design problems. We reformulate minimum dominating set for the annealer hardware, solve the reformulation for a standard set of IEEE test systems, and benchmark solution quality and time to solution against the CPLEX optimizer and simulated annealing. For some problem instances the 2000Q outpaces CPLEX. For instances where the 2000Q underperforms with respect to CPLEX and simulated annealing, we suggest hardware improvements for the next generation of quantum annealers.

hardware↗

DOE OSTI2023

Measurement of isotopic separation of argon with the prototype of the cryogenic distillation plant Aria for dark matter searches

The Aria cryogenic distillation plant, located in Sardinia, Italy, is a key component of the DarkSide-20k experimental program for WIMP dark matter searches at the INFN Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, Italy. Aria is designed to purify the argon, extracted from underground wells in Colorado, USA, and used as the DarkSide-20k target material, to detector-grade quality. In this paper, we report the first measurement of argon isotopic separation by distillation with the 26 m tall Aria prototype. We discuss the measurement of the operating parameters of the column and the observation of the simultaneous separation of the three stable argon isotopes: ${}^{36}\hbox {Ar}$, ${}^{38}\textrm{Ar}$, and ${}^{40}\textrm{Ar}$. We also provide a detailed comparison of the experimental results with commercial process simulation software. This measurement of isotopic separation of argon is a significant achievement for the project, building on the success of the initial demonstration of isotopic separation of nitrogen using the same equipment in 2019.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

DOE OSTI2021

Griffin: A Moose-based Reactor Multiphysics Application For Radiation Transport And Depletion Simulations

Griffin is a MOOSE-based reactor multiphysics application that streamlines the analysis of a variety of nuclear multiphysics applications, including steady-state and transient radiation transport, core performance, fuel depletion, criticality and decay heat calculations, reprocessing and post-irradiation examination. This streamlining is accomplished via enhanced flexibility of the tools, uniform syntax in the MOOSE framework, dynamic linking of all relevant physics and a single point of execution. The design for flexible multi-physics, multi-radiation, multi-scheme tasks demands and ultimately makes Griffin a highly extendable code system. A software quality assurance (SQA) procedure is enforced during Griffin development.

DeHart, MarkD.↗

DOE OSTI2025

Directed self-assembly of block copolymers for high-precision patterning in the era of extreme ultraviolet lithography

Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography enables unprecedented resolution in semiconductor patterning but faces critical challenges in developing resist materials that achieve high-precision at economically viable throughput. Directed self-assembly (DSA) of block copolymers (BCPs) offers a promising solution for pattern rectification by leveraging thermodynamically determined domain structures to decouple BCP pattern quality from the imperfect original lithographic pattern. This prospective presents an overview of recent progress on the EUV + DSA strategy, covering advances in BCP material design, processing, metrology, and pattern transfer. We highlight recent advances in high-χ BCPs with perpendicular orientation and domain spacings compatible with EUV dimensions, leveraging A-b-(B-r-C) architectures. We also discuss progress in chemical pre-pattern fabrication using both positive- and negative tone resists, along with processing strategies to minimize defects and roughness based on BCP thermodynamics and assembly kinetics. We further examine metrology platforms for characterizing the thermodynamics of BCP materials and quantifying the size and shape of BCP domains. Lastly, we review pattern transfer strategies for generating functional inorganic masks suitable for semiconductor manufacturing. Together, these advances highlight the potential of DSA to complement EUV lithography, offering a pathway to address critical challenges in achieving high-precision patterning for the semiconductor industry.

Lee, Kyunghyeon [Univ. of Chicago, IL (United Stat↗

DOE OSTI2023

Development of an ERL for Coherent Electron Cooling at the Electron-Ion Collider

The Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) is currently under development of to be built at Brookhaven National Lab and requires cooling during collisions in order to preserve the quality of the hadron beam despite degradation due to intra-beam scattering and beam-beam effect. An Energy Recovery Linac (ERL) is being designed to deliver the necessary electron beam for the Coherent electron Cooling (CeC) of the hadron beam, with an electron bunch charge of 1 nC and an average current of 100 mA; two modes of operation are being developed for 150 and 55 MeV electrons, corresponding to 275 and 100 GeV protons. The injector of this SHC-ERL is shared with the Precooler ERL, which cools lower energy proton beams via bunched-beam cooling, as used in Low Energy RHIC electron Cooling (LEReC). This paper reviews the current state of the design.

Accelerator Physics↗

DOE OSTI2020

Verification and Validation of MFiX-PIC

This work is aimed at verification and validation (V&V) of particle-in-cell (PIC) approach in the National Energy Technology Laboratory’s (NETL) Multiphase Flow with Interphase eXchanges (MFiX-PIC) which was officially released in April 2019. Under verification, the results from MFiX-PIC are compared with exact or analytical solutions, while experimental results are used for benchmarking under validation. The test suite consists of the following cases: Terminal velocity. Particle advection in time-varying flow field. Particle settling in a dense medium. Evaporation. Rayleigh-Taylor instability. Minimum fluidization. Mini-circulating fluidized bed. The cases reported in a format consistent with the existing Verification and Validation Manual (Musser et al., 2018) explore a wide range of flow velocities and concentration regimes. Only one case considered in this work verifies the implementation of heat and mass transfer routines in MFiX-PIC, while a few other studies are currently underway to further expand the validation space in reacting flows. This study highlights the need for a rigorous analysis to objectively quantify the effect of model parameters. In addition, there is a scarcity of high-quality experimental data in the literature suitable for validating PIC methodology. Future efforts would include performing experiments which provide results for a valuable database. While designing such experiments, particle count should be significant to have sufficient particles per parcel while maintaining an optimal parcel to cell volume ratio. Also, datasets should have objectively assessed experimental uncertainty whereby confidence interval in those measurements become more explicit.

42 ENGINEERING↗

DOE OSTI2021

Embedding Sensors in 3D Printed Metal Structures

The Transformational Challenge Reactor (TCR) program is leveraging recent advances in modeling and simulation, materials, and additive manufacturing (AM) technologies to design a modern nuclear reactor. Some of the main TCR technologies include in situ monitoring and the integration of sensors during the manufacturing of quality-significant nuclear reactor components. This report describes the general procedure and process optimization for embedding sensors within generic stainless steel 316 (SS316) components using laser powder bed fusion (LPBF). A more detailed, quality-significant test plan and supporting procedures are available upon request (ORNL/TM-2021/2127). LPBF involves the use of a scanning laser to selectively melt regions of a powder bed, additively building a part layer by layer. This report describes the LPBF processing technique and discusses the effects of LPBF processing parameters on the success of the sensor embedding process. Experiments used machined cavities in the form of channels in an SS316 base for the sensors to lay in while material is additively built over the top, thereby embedding them in an SS316 matrix. A preliminary investigation involved using empty SS316 sheaths as surrogates to explore the effects of various LPBF processing parameters and the dimensional requirements of the machined channels. Microstructural investigations showed that a smaller channel width/depth combination closer to the sensor’s diameter was best for the embedding process. After the desired parameters were selected, Type-K thermocouples were embedded and evaluated post-embedding using nondestructive thermal testing, as well as destructive sectioning and microscopy. Post-build characterization showed that the thermocouples were well-bonded to the SS316 matrix and were fully functional after embedding. During thermal testing to temperatures up to 500 °C, the embedded thermocouples read consistently with one another and deviated only slightly from the readings of a nonembedded thermocouple located within the furnace. This slight discrepancy was most likely due to differences in the thermal time constants for a nonembedded thermocouple vs. a thermocouple embedded in a solid SS316 block. The results presented in this report will serve as the foundation for future work that will focus on embedding sensors in relevant TCR reactor components and eventually testing those components under neutron irradiation.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2022

Applying 3D Geologic Modeling Workflows to the Argillite Reference Case (Rev. 1)

The objective of this short report is to document the application of our 3D geologic modeling workflow to an argillite (shale) host rock. Over the past four years, our team at Los Alamos National Laboratory has developed a geologic modeling workflow that can be applied to generic alluvial basins such as those found in the western United States. In “frontier” or “exploratory” basins where data are sparse, the first steps are to collect, evaluate and integrate available subsurface data into conceptual geologic models. Those models form the basis for constructing the geologic framework model, a 3D geocellular model ideally constrained by seismic and borehole data. To date we have constructed our models using “synthetic” well data derived from conceptual models, without the prospect of validating our workflow using “real” subsurface data. We were tasked to investigate whether our workflow designed for alluvial basin sediments could be applied to other potential repository host rocks. This task also provided the opportunity to work with high-quality subsurface data collected specifically for siting and evaluating a nuclear waste repository. Nagra, the Swiss governmental agency responsible for the disposal of the nation’s radioactive waste, generously provided us with data from two deep boreholes drilled through their argillaceous target formation. The aim of our proof-of-concept demonstration is to evaluate whether geostatistical methods offer a viable approach to property modeling in argillaceous rocks. Nagra provided us with the well data on the condition that we maintain confidentiality with all transferred information and results. Fortunately, Nagra posts numerous technical reports on its public website that describe the subsurface geology in great detail. All of the information and illustrations in this report related to the Swiss repository enterprise are taken from the Nagra public website.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2025

Qualification of Digitized Legacy Fast Reactor Data

The Integral Fast Reactor (IFR) fuel compatibility test program (1984-1994) included a variety of fuel pin examinations conducted at the Hot Fuel Examination Facility (HFEF) and the Alpha-Gamma Hot Cell Facility (AGHCF). Hard copy data records of these examinations have been recovered, scanned, and preserved in PDF format. Many hard copy records are now qualified in accordance with an NRC-approved Quality Assurance Program Plan (QAPP), and there is an ongoing effort to qualify additional legacy records. This legacy fuel performance data is vital to support design and licensing of fast reactors with validation of state-of-the-art codes and advanced methods for design and analysis. Stakeholders can most easily utilize this data when the PDF scans have been converted into digital data tables. However, qualification of the scanned hard copy data does not qualify the digital data file resulting from the digitization of the data contained in the record; the subject matter expert (SME) must make a review of the digitized data table as well before it can be designated as qualified. This report outlines a peer review process to qualify the digital data file(s), typically in CSV format, corresponding to hard copy records in accordance with the existing QAPP.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗

DOE OSTI2023

A New Reflected Target Optical Assessment System: Stage 1 Development Results

NREL has completed stage 1 development of an indoor optical measurement tool for fully assembled heliostats and single facets. This tool began as an indoor version of NREL’s outdoor Non-Intrusive Optical (NIO) measurement technique [1]. It uses similar techniques to other available tools (deflectometry, photogrammetry, etc.), but is designed to require very little infrastructure, labor, and time to set up and collect surface slope and canting measurements, making it a valuable tool for quality assurance and laboratory measurement of heliostat optics. It accomplishes this by using computer vision, photogrammetry, and multiple images stitched together to minimize the printed target size and required setup precision. This adaptable setup is useful for taking measurements at a variety of heliostat pointing angles, and for measuring fully assembled heliostats on the assembly line. In this paper, we describe the methodology behind the measurement system, present an initial analysis of its uncertainty and sensitivity, and compare it with established optical measurement systems.

Kesseli, Devon (ORCID:0000000193113036)↗

DOE OSTI2020

AGC-4 Experiment Irradiation Monitoring Data Qualification Final Report

The Graphite Technology Development Program ran a series of six experiments to quantify the effects of irradiation on nuclear grade graphite. This report focuses on the fourth experiment, Advanced Graphite Creep 4 (AGC 4). The Advanced Reactor Development (ARD) Technology Development Office (TDO) Program for research and development activities require documentation of qualified monitoring data to design and license the first high-temperature reactor nuclear plant. Qualified data meets the requirements for use as described in the experiment planning and quality assurance documents. Failed data do not meet the requirements and provide no useable information. Trend data may not meet all requirements but still provide some useable information. Use of Trend data requires assessment of how any deficiencies affect a particular use of the data. AGC-4 began with Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) Cycle 157D on May 30, 2015. After irradiating the graphite for two cycles, the capsule was removed from the reactor after ATR Cycle 158A, which ended on January 2, 2016, due to interference with another experiment. Irradiation was resumed with Cycle 162A on October 7, 2017 after the interfering experiment was removed from the reactor. AGC-4 irradiation completed by the end of Cycle 166B on January 10, 2020. Between Cycles 162A and 166B, AGC-4 capsule was removed from the reactor core during two Powered Axial Locator Mechanism (PALM) Cycles 163A and 165A to avoid overheating. All thermocouples (TCs) have functioned throughout the AGC-4 experiment. A total of 9,256,184 out of all 11,167,213 temperature records (or 82.9%) are Qualified for use by the ARD Program and 1,911,029 missing values are Failed. Argon, helium, and total gas flow data were within expected ranges, except only eight out-of-range values occurred during outages. A total of 21,240,627 out of all 22,288,5103 gas flow rates (or 92.8%) are Qualified for use by the ARD Program and 1,644,476 are Failed records mostly due to missing values. Discharge gas line moisture values were consistently low during full ATR power, except for 162B, when moisture content was increasing to more than 200 ppmv by the end of this cycle. During outages, moisture content reached as high as 700 ppmv. 1,089,941 out of a total of 1,107,331 moisture values (or 98.4%) are within the measurement range of the instrument and are Qualified for use by the ARD Program and 17,390 missing moisture values are Failed. Graphite creep specimens were subjected to one of three loads: 393, 491, or 589 lbf. For a brief period during Cycle 157D between 12:19 on June 2, 2015, and 08:23 on June 11, 2015, the load cells were wired incorrectly, resulting in missing stack load data. Missing stack loads were estimated from measured ram pressures using regression equations developed from the existing data from Cycle 157D. Estimated stack loads during this period are considered to be an accurate representation of actual load applied to the stacks. These loads deviate slightly from the planned loads. This deviation does not prevent the data from being Qualified for use but must be taken into account when analyzing the effect of load on creep. 6,095,728 out of a total of 6,403,985 moisture values (or 95.2%) are within the measurement range of the instrument and are Qualified for use by the ARD Program and 308,257 missing load values are Failed. Stack displacement increased consistently throughout the eight cycles, with total displacement reached highest value of 2.4 in by the end of irradiation. During ATR outages, a set of pneumatic rams raised the stacks of graphite creep specimens to ensure the specimens were not stuck within the test train. This stack raising was performed seven times throughout irradiation. All stacks were raised successfully each time. 4,744,974 out of a total of 6,094,513 displacement values (or 77.9%) are within the measurement range of the instrument and are Qualified for use by the ARD Program and 1,349,539 displacement values are Failed mostly due to missing values. Analyses were conducted on correlations between TCs to look for trends and step changes that might indicate instrument degradation or failure. Correlation analysis was used to identify instances when TCs form short circuits, referred to as virtual junctions, which result in TCs reporting temperatures from some location in the capsule other than the location where they were intended to read. No evidence of virtual junctions was found. Analyses were also conducted on control charts of temperature differences of between two TCs, which are expected to behave consistently throughout the entire irradiation period. Upward or downward trend over time indicates at least one TC in the pair was drifted. Examining control charts for all 66 possible pairs out of twelve TCs installed in the AGC-4 capsules reveal no clear drift failures occurred, except unstable behavior of two TCs in Zone 3, TC-7 and TC-8, over irradiation time. In conclus

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

DOE OSTI2021

The Concept and Applications of a Dual Energy Storage Ring

A dual energy electron storage ring configuration is initially proposed as an electron cooler to cool the ion beam in a collider. It consists of two energy loops, the electron beam in the high energy loop undergoes the synchrotron radiation damping to obtain the desired beam property and the beam in the low energy loop is for cooling of the ion beam. The two different energy loops are connected by an energy recovery linac. A lattice design of such a dual energy storage ring has been completed and beam stability conditions are established. We performed numerical simulations to demonstrate the beam qualities and evaluated the cooling performance. In this paper, we present the study results and discuss possible applications of such a concept in many physics research and medical fields.

Dhital, B.↗

DOE OSTI2024

From Chills to Thrills: Revolutionizing Energy Efficiency and Load Flexibility in Supermarket Refrigeration

Open-vertical medium-temperature refrigerated display cases comprise nearly 50% of total case lineups in a typical supermarket, with more than 80% of their cooling load attributed to infiltration of warm and moist air from the surrounding space. The infiltration takes place across the air curtain system of the display case. While the air curtain acts as a thermal shield and as a cooling mechanism to maintain product temperature, it also entrains large amounts of heat and moisture from the adjacent space. Additionally, from food safety and quality standpoints, these fixtures are vulnerable to electric outages and traditionally cannot participate in load flexibility events. This paper describes key features of an innovative design of a self-contained, water-cooled, medium-temperature, open-vertical display case. The novel concept will eliminate the inefficient air curtain system and incorporate a hybrid radiant and low-airflow convective cooling design with a thermal-energy-storage-coupled heat exchanger integrated into the refrigeration circuit. The focus of this paper is on evaluating the thermal performance of the novel hybrid design in maintaining target product temperature. It presents thermal performance findings from thermo-fluid system modeling and robust state-of-the-art laboratory experiments used to validate those models. Load flexibility attributes from thermal energy storage are not discussed. A controlled-environment chamber at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory was leveraged to validate the thermal performance of the novel technology. Final results from bench-scale experiments indicate the proposed design maintained mean product temperatures within food safety guidelines.

commercial refrigeration↗

DOE OSTI2024

From Chills to Thrills: Revolutionizing Energy Efficiency and Load Flexibility in Supermarket Refrigeration: Preprint

commercial refrigeration↗