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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 721 records · Page 40
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2019

Spatially dependent embedded self-shielding method for nonuniform temperature distribution

The embedded self-shielding method (ESSM) is simple and robust, and applicable to any geometrical configuration to account for resonance self-shielding by performing fixed source transport calculations. ESSM is very similar to the subgroup method, which has been successful in the MPACT neutronics code developed by CASL. The subgroup method introduces errors in a least-squares fitting process that is used to generate subgroup quadrature sets and cannot be applied to thermal energy groups, as ESSM introduces error for spatially dependent self-shielded cross sections inside the fuel. This study focused on integrating the conventional ESSM with an improved Stoker-Weiss method to obtain spatially dependent resonance self-shielded cross sections for a nonuniform fuel temperature distribution. Here, the proposed method would serve as a substitute for the subgroup method in high fidelity simulations using CASL’s VERA. Benchmark results show that this new, spatially dependent ESSM (SDESSM) is an appropriate candidate to replace the subgroup method.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Experimental determination of gamma-ray discrimination in pillar-structured thermal neutron detectors under high gamma-ray flux

Silicon pillar structures filled with a neutron converter material ( 10 B) are designed to have high thermal neutron detection efficiency with specific dimensions of 50 μm pillar height, 2 μm pillar diameter and 2 μm spacing between adjacent pillars. In this paper, we have demonstrated such a detector has a high neutron-to-gamma discrimination of 10 6 with a high thermal neutron detection efficiency of 39% when exposed to a high gamma-ray field of 10 9 photons/cm 2 s.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2017

High-beta analytic equilibria in circular, elliptical, and D-shaped large aspect ratio axisymmetric configurations with poloidal and toroidal flows

The Grad-Shafranov-Bernoulli system of equations is a single fluid magnetohydrodynamical description of axisymmetric equilibria with mass flows. Using a variational perturbative approach [E. Hameiri, Phys. Plasmas 20, 024504 (2013)], analytic approximations for high-beta equilibria in circular, elliptical, and D-shaped cross sections in the high aspect ratio approximation are found, which include finite toroidal and poloidal flows. Assuming a polynomial dependence of the free functions on the poloidal flux, the equilibrium problem is reduced to an inhomogeneous Helmholtz partial differential equation (PDE) subject to homogeneous Dirichlet conditions. An application of the Green's function method leads to a closed form for the circular solution and to a series solution in terms of Mathieu functions for the elliptical case, which is valid for arbitrary elongations. In order to extend the elliptical solution to a D-shaped domain, a boundary perturbation in terms of the triangularity is used. A comparison with the code FLOW [L. Guazzotto et al., Phys. Plasmas 11(2), 604-614 (2004)] is presented for relevant scenarios.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Equilibrium reconstruction of DIII-D plasmas using predictive modeling of the pressure profile

New workflows have been developed for predictive modeling of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equilibrium in tokamak plasmas. The goal of this work is to predict the MHD equilibrium in tokamak discharges without having measurements of the kinetic profiles. The workflows include a cold start tool, which constructs all the profiles and power flows needed by transport codes; a Grad–Shafranov equilibrium solver; and various codes for the sources and sinks. For validation purposes, a database of DIII-D tokamak discharges has been constructed that is comprised of scans in the plasma current, toroidal magnetic field, and triangularity. Initial efforts focused on developing a workflow utilizing an empirically derived pressure model tuned to DIII-D discharges with monotonic safety factor profiles. This workflow shows good agreement with experimental kinetic equilibrium calculations, but is limited in that it is a single fluid (equal ion and electron temperatures) model and lacks H-mode pedestal predictions. The best agreement with the H-mode database is obtained using a theory-based workflow utilizing pressure profile predictions from a coupled TGLF turbulent transport and EPED pedestal models together with external magnetics and Motional Stark Effect (MSE) data to construct the equilibrium. Here, we obtain an average root mean square error of 5.1% in the safety factor profile when comparing the predicted and experimental kinetic equilibrium. We also find good agreement with the plasma stored energy, internal inductance, and pressure profiles. Including MSE data in the theory-based workflow results in noticeably improved agreement with the q-profiles in high triangularity discharges in comparison with the results obtained with magnetic data only. The predictive equilibrium workflow is expected to have wide applications in experimental planning, between-shot analysis, and reactor studies.

Kinsey, J. E. (ORCID:0000000193347473)↗
DOE OSTI2022

Achievements of actively controlled divertor detachment compatible with sustained high confinement core in DIII-D and EAST

The compatibility of efficient divertor detachment with high-performance core plasma is vital to the development of magnetically controlled fusion energy. The joint research on the EAST and DIII-D tokamaks demonstrates successful integration of divertor detachment with excellent core plasma confinement quality, a milestone towards solving the critical plasma–wall-interaction (PWI) issue and core-edge integration for ITER and future reactors. In EAST, actively controlled partial detachment with T et,div ~ 5 eV around the strike point and H 98 > 1 in different H-mode scenarios including the high β P H-mode scenario have been achieved with ITER-like tungsten divertor, by optimizing the detachment access condition and performing detailed experiments for core-edge integration. For active long-pulse detachment feedback control, a 30 s H-mode operation with detachment-control duration being 25 s has been successfully achieved in EAST. DIII-D has achieved actively controlled fully detached divertor with low plasma electron temperature (T et,div ≤ 5 eV across the entire divertor target) and low particle flux (degree of detachment, DoD > 3), simultaneously with very high core performance (β N ~3, β P > 2 and H 98 ~ 1.5) in the high βP scenario being developed for ITER and future reactors. The high-β P high confinement scenario is characterized by an internal transport barrier (ITB) at large radius and a weak edge transport barrier (ETB, or pedestal), which are synergistically self-organized. Both the high-β P scenario and impurity seeding facilitate divertor detachment. The detachment access leads to the reduction of ETB, which facilitates the development of an even stronger ITB at large radius in the high β P scenario. Thus, this strong large radius ITB enables the core confinement improvement during detachment. In conclusion, these significant joint DIII-D and EAST advances on the compatibility of high confinement core and detached divertor show a great potential for achieving a high-performance core plasma suitable for long-pulse operation of fusion reactors with controllable steady-state PWIs.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2016

Muon trackers for imaging a nuclear reactor

A detector system for assessing damage to the cores of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors by using cosmic-ray muon tomography was developed. Furthermore, the system consists of a pair of drift-tube tracking detectors of 7.2× 7.2-m 2 area. In each muon tracker there consists 6 x-layer and 6 y-layer drift-tube detectors. Each tracker is capable of measuring muon tracks with 12 mrad angular resolutions, and is capable of operating under 50-μ Sv/h radiation environment by removing gamma induced background with a novel time-coincidence logic. An estimated resolution to observe nuclear fuel debris at Fukushima Daiichi is 0.3 m when the core is imaged from outside the reactor building.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2022

Statistical uncertainty of fission matrix eigenvalues using perturbation theory

Eigenvalue search of high dominance ratio systems may be slow to converge. The fission matrix element is defined by its element (FM){sub ij}, which are the probability for a neutron born in cell i to create a fission in cell j for a spatial mesh of n{sub i}*n{sub j} elements. Fission matrices are used in Monte Carlo criticality simulations to enhance computing speed, but also to find higher order eigenvalues. However, few studies have been made on the link between statistical uncertainties of fission matrix elements and eigenvalues uncertainties. Thus, dominance ratio statistical uncertainties remain unknown. This paper uses a new generalized perturbation theory (GPT) method to estimate sensitivities of eigenvalues to fission matrix elements and then to calculate dominance ratio uncertainties.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2011

BPLU Completion and Verification Report

The Border Profile LU (BPLU) linear equation solver is the default solver for newer versions of RELAP5-3D. It can significantly reduce execution time compared to the previous default solver, MA18. Particularly for 3D cases, it can reduce run time by one to two orders of magnitude over MA18. However, because of some user reported failures, the MA18 solver currently must be used for coupled analyses. Over one dozen User Problems (UP) have been reported between 1999 and 2011 that involve the BPLU solver in RELAP5-3D. These issues can be combined into two categories of problems with the solver: (1) It fails when running multidimensional components with the nearly-implicit hydrodynamics advancement scheme. (2) It fails with some input models where the MA18 sparse solver does not fail. The sources of these UP have been found and corrected. The modified coding has been thoroughly tested with over 3000 test cases and on two different compute platforms. The updates are incorporated in RELAP5-3D, version 3.0.2.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2012

Lab-Based Measurement of Remediation Techniques for Radiation Portal Monitors (Initial Report)

Radiation Portal Monitors (RPM) deployed by the Second Line of Defense (SLD) are known to be sensitive to the natural environmental radioactive background. There are several techniques used to mitigate the effects of background on the monitors, but since the installation environments can vary significantly from one another the need for a standardized, systematic, study of remediation techniques was proposed and carried out. This study is not meant to serve as the absolute last word on the subject. The data collected are, however, intelligible and useful. Some compromises were made, each of which will be described in detail. The hope of this initial report is to familiarize the SLD science teams with ORNL's effort to model the effect of various remediation techniques on simple, static backgrounds. This study provides a good start toward benchmarking the model, and each additional increment of data will serve to make the model more robust. The scope of this initial study is limited to a few basic cases. Its purpose is to prove the utility of lab-based study of remediation techniques and serve as a standard data set for future use. This importance of this first step of standardization will become obvious when science teams are working in parallel on issues of remediation; having a common starting point will do away with one category of difference, thereby making easier the task of determining the sources of disagreement. Further measurements will augment this data set, allowing for further constraint of the universe of possible situations. As will be discussed in the 'Going Forward' section, more data will be included in the final report of this work. Of particular interest will be the data taken with the official TSA lead collimators, which will provide more direct results for comparison with installation data.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2013

RELAP5-3D Developer Guidelines and Programming Practices

Our ultimate goal is to create and maintain RELAP5-3D as the best software tool available to analyze nuclear power plants. This begins with writing excellent programming and requires thorough testing. This document covers development of RELAP5-3D software.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2013

RELAP5-3D Developer Guidelines and Programming Practices

Our ultimate goal is to create and maintain RELAP5-3D as the best software tool available to analyze nuclear power plants. This begins with writing excellent programming and requires thorough testing. This document covers development of RELAP5-3D software, the behavior of the RELAP5-3D program that must be maintained, and code testing.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2013

RELAP5-3D Restart and Backup Verification Testing

Existing testing methodology for RELAP5-3D employs a set of test cases collected over two decades to test a variety of code features and run on a Linux or Windows platform. However, this set has numerous deficiencies in terms of code coverage, detail of comparison, running time, and testing fidelity of RELAP5-3D restart and backup capabilities. The test suite covers less than three quarters of the lines of code in the relap directory and just over half those in the environmental library. Even in terms of code features, many are not covered. Moreover, the test set runs many problems long past the point necessary to test the relevant features. It requires standard problems to run to completion. This is unnecessary for features can be tested in a short-running problem. For example, many trips and controls can be tested in the first few time steps, as can a number of fluid flow options. The testing system is also inaccurate. For the past decade, the diffem script has been the primary tool for checking that printouts from two different RELAP5-3D executables agree. This tool compares two output files to verify that all characters are the same except for those relating to date, time and a few other excluded items. The variable values printed on the output file are accurate to no more than eight decimal places. Therefore, calculations with errors in decimal places beyond those printed remain undetected. Finally, fidelity of restart is not tested except in the PVM sub-suite and backup is not specifically tested at all. When a restart is made from any midway point of the base-case transient, the restart must produce the same values. When a backup condition occurs, the code repeats advancements with the same time step. A perfect backup can be tested by forcing RELAP5 to perform a backup by falsely setting a backup condition flag at a user-specified-time. Comparison of the calculations of that run and those produced by the same input w/o the spurious condition should be identical. Backup testing is more difficult the other kinds of testing described above because it requires additional coding to implement. The testing system constructed and described in this document resolves all of these issues. A matrix of test features and short-running cases that exercise them is presented. A small information file that contains sufficient data to verify calculations to the last decimal place and bit is produced. This testing system is used to test base cases (called null testing) as well as restart and backup cases. The programming that implements these new capabilities is presented.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗