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At least 757 records · Page 42

All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Characterization of the Upgraded NASA GRC Single Stage Axial Compressor and Fan Facility

In order to meet the emissions and efficiency goals established by the aviation community, next generation aircraft engines will require low pressure ratio, distortion tolerant fans. Maturation of the necessary technologies will require facilities capable of accurately testing the fan performance are needed. To achieve this, the Single Stage Axial Compressor and Fan facility at NASA Glenn Research Center was upgraded. Details of the goals and upgrades undertaken were documented in the 2022 Turbo Expo paper, “Upgrades to the Single Stage Axial Compressor and Fan Facility for Low Pressure Ratio Boundary Layer Ingesting Fan Research.” The performance of the upgraded facility will be documented in this paper. This paper will review the challenges associated with testing low pressure ratio and distortion tolerant fans and briefly review the upgrades undertaken and their goals. Then the performance of the facility upgrades and the extent to which they were able to achieve the stated goals. This includes mass flow measurements, test section temperature, pressure, flow angle at two axial locations, and turbulence levels at the inlet and test section. The paper also documents the performance of distortion generating swirl vanes and total pressure screens to achieve desired distorted conditions at the Aerodynamic Interface Plane.

BLI↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

BEAST: Expanding Sustainable Data Infrastructure for High-Enthalpy Facilities

Reproducible, data-driven thermal protection system (TPS) research requires that experimental records from high-enthalpy testing be consistently structured, traceable, and accessible across campaigns and institutions. In practice, however, arcjet and plasma facilities data remain largely fragmented: raw diagnostics are stored in ad hoc formats, material sample histories are disconnected from test conditions, and metadata standards are absent, precluding systematic cross-campaign analysis and long-term reuse. BEAST (Backend for Experiment Analysis, Storage, and Traceability) is an open-source, web-based platform that addresses these limitations by providing a unified, queryable infrastructure for high-enthalpy ground-test data [1]. First presented at the 15th Ablation Workshop [2], BEAST has since undergone significant development. The platform ingests and structures multi-channel time-series diagnostics, facility configurations, and material property records within a common provenance model, ensuring end-to-end traceability from raw sensor acquisition to reduced experimental quantities. A versioned material library links specimen identity and processing history to the specific runs in which each sample was tested. An integrated modeling workbench enables training and evaluation of regression models directly on archived experimental data, supporting condition interpolation and the construction of empirical material response databases. Beyond its original deployment at NASA Ames Research Center, BEAST has been designed to be facility-agnostic, with ongoing efforts to extend its adoption to other facilities. Its modular architecture accommodates heterogeneous diagnostic setups and facility types, and its future open-source distribution allows institutions to build on a common data standard rather than maintaining isolated, bespoke solutions. BEAST is further integrated within a broader ecosystem of companion tools: arcjetCV [3] extracts recession rates and shock standoff distances from high-speed video using computer vision, and miniSTARscan [4] provides sub-minute, portable photogrammetric surface reconstruction of test articles before and after exposure. All tools share a common data schema, enabling seamless ingestion of surface geometry, imagery, and time-series data into a single, coherent experimental record.

Database↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

BEAST: Expanding Sustainable Data Infrastructure for High-Enthalpy Facilities

Database↗

DOE OSTI2015

The Fifth Omega Laser Facility Users Group Workshop

A capacity gathering of over 100 researchers from 25 universities and laboratories met at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE) for the Fifth Omega Laser Facility Users Group (OLUG) workshop. The purpose of the 2.5-day workshop was to facilitate communications and exchanges among individual Omega users and between users and the LLE management; to present ongoing and proposed research; to encourage research opportunities and collaborations that could be undertaken at the Omega Laser Facility and in a complementary fashion at other facilities [such as the National Ignition Facility (NIF) or the Laboratoire pour l’Utilisation des Lasers Intenses (LULI)]; to provide an opportunity for students, postdoctoral fellows, and young researchers to present their research in an informal setting; and to provide feedback to LLE management from the users about ways to improve the facility and future experimental campaigns.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

DOE OSTI2015

Neutron Source Facility Training Simulator Based on EPICS

A plant operator training simulator is developed for training the plant operators as well as for design verification of plant control system (PCS) and plant protection system (PPS) for the Kharkov Institute of Physics and Technology Neutron Source Facility. The simulator provides the operator interface for the whole plant including the sub-critical assembly coolant loop, target coolant loop, secondary coolant loop, and other facility systems. The operator interface is implemented based on Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System (EPICS), which is a comprehensive software development platform for distributed control systems. Since its development at Argonne National Laboratory, it has been widely adopted in the experimental physics community, e.g. for control of accelerator facilities. This work is the first implementation for a nuclear facility. The main parts of the operator interface are the plant control panel and plant protection panel. The development involved implementation of process variable database, sequence logic, and graphical user interface (GUI) for the PCS and PPS utilizing EPICS and related software tools, e.g. sequencer for sequence logic, and control system studio (CSS-BOY) for graphical use interface. For functional verification of the PCS and PPS, a plant model is interfaced, which is a physics-based model of the facility coolant loops implemented as a numerical computer code. The training simulator is tested and demonstrated its effectiveness in various plant operation sequences, e.g. start-up, shut-down, maintenance, and refueling. It was also tested for verification of the plant protection system under various trip conditions.

Park, Young Soo↗

DOE OSTI2015

Target Design Optimization of KIPT Neutron Source Facility

Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) of the United States developed and designed a neutron source facility for Kharkov Institute of Physics and Technology (KIPT) of Ukraine. The facility was constructed at Kharkov, Ukraine and its commissioning process has been started. The facility has an electron accelerator driving a subcritical assembly. The electron beam power is 100 kW using 100 MeV electrons. The subcritical assembly has WWR-M2 fuel assemblies with U-235 enrichment of 19.7 wt%. The facility will be utilized to perform basic and applied nuclear research, to produce medical isotopes, and to train young nuclear specialists. Solid target design with stacked disks is selected and each target disk is cooled by water from both side. Tungsten or natural uranium is the target material. This paper presents the target design optimization to maximize the neutron yield and the neutron flux level of the facility while satisfying the thermal-hydraulic design criteria. Monte Carlo computer code MCNPX is utilized for the neutron yield analyses with ENDF/B-VII.0 nuclear data libraries, as a function of target thickness using a simplified target model without cladding or coolant channels. It’s found that the neutron yield saturates at target thickness 60 ~ 70 mm for both tungsten and uranium materials. For the final target design with cladding and coolant channels, the total uranium thickness is 56.5 mm, and the total tungsten thickness is only 33.0 mm. The tungsten material has a large absorption cross section for thermal neutrons. If the tungsten thickness is increased, the neutron yield gain is offset by the neutron absorption reaction. The paper presents the design optimization analyses for both target materials.

electron accelerator↗

DOE OSTI2018

Reliability Indexing of Intra-Facility Dispatch Decisions

The Powertrain Reliability Index (PRI) quantifies the trade-offs made in system reliability for efficiency, water use, and environmental purposes for relevant stakeholders. Using historical data from five North American hydroelectric facilities on a shared river system, this metric characterizes the annual probabilistic reliability of intra-facility dispatch decisions. The metric characterizes the operational risk of actual dispatch based on the lowest risk-exposed dispatch and the highest risk-exposed dispatch. By normalizing facility reliability by the number of components described within the facility, constraining operation by the historic dispatch total of unit starts and generating hours, and bounding by required grid flexibility, each facility’s dispatch can be scored for reliability.

Signore, Stephen R.↗

DOE OSTI2020

Safeguards Modeling for Advanced Nuclear Facility Design.

Future nuclear fuel cycle facilities will see a significant benefit from considering materials accountancy requirements early in the design process. The Material Protection, Accounting, and Control Technologies (MPACT) working group is demonstrating Safeguards and Security by Design (SSBD) for a notional electrochemical reprocessing facility as part of a 2020 Milestone. The idea behind SSBD is to consider regulatory requirements early in the design process to provide more optimized systems and avoid costly retrofits later in the design process. Safeguards modeling, using single analyst tools, allows the designer to efficiently consider materials accountancy approaches that meet regulatory requirements. However, safeguards modeling also allows the facility designer to go beyond current regulations and work toward accountancy designs with rapid response and lower thresholds for detection of anomalies. This type of modeling enables new safeguards approaches and may inform future regulatory changes. The Separation and Safeguards Performance Model (SSPM) has been used for materials accountancy system design and analysis. This paper steps through the process of designing a Material Control and Accountancy (MC&A) system, presents the baseline system design for an electrochemical reprocessing facility, and provides performance metrics from the modeling analysis. The most critical measurements in the electrochemical facility are the spent fuel input, electrorefiner salt, and U/TRU product output measurements. Finally, material loss scenario analysis found that measurement uncertainties (relative standard deviations) for Pu would need to be at 1% (random and systematic error components) or better in order to meet domestic detection goals or as high as 3% in order to meet international detection goals, based on a 100 metric ton per year plant size.

98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL P↗

DOE OSTI2022

Radiation hardened beam instrumentations for multi-Mega-Watt beam facilities

The radiation hardened beam instrumentations workshop was held on February 3rd and 4th, 2022 to identify the technological challenges on the beam instrumentation for multi-Mega-Watt (MW) beam facilities. We invited a speaker from a high energy neutrino beam facility (CERN, Fermilab and J-PARC), a collider detector group (CERN and Fermilab), a neutron spallation source facility (ESS, J-PARC and SNS), and a rare-isotope beam facility (FRIB). Although, the operational beam parameter for each institution is unique due to their different physics goals, we realize that there is a common issue on the beam instrumentation. Therefore, it will be tackled by a collaborative R&D effort among facilities. We summarize an output from the workshop in the paper, and propose a possible R&D for the future radiation hardened beam instrumentations with a global effort.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

DOE OSTI2022

CSP Optical Facilities at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory

The concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Optical Facilities at NREL comprise unique optical tools and facilities for testing and characterizing concentrating solar optical components. These facilities are maintained to aid researchers and industry efforts to reduce market barriers, improve the performance, reduce the cost, and improve the lifetime and reliability of CSP materials, components, subsystems, and integrated concepts, where accurate and timely characterization methods are needed. To reach this goal, NREL is committed to collaborating in ongoing and projected research needs for industry, academia, and government entities, in the development and characterization of low-cost, high-performance reflector and absorber materials in addition to their components-a key element in the conversion of concentrated sunlight into energy. To accomplish this mission, the core laboratory includes the Advanced Optical Materials Laboratory, indoor and outdoor accelerated weather testing tools, "Distant Observer" for parabolic troughs, the High Flux Solar Furnace, and the ultra-accelerated weather testing tools. This equipment enables to rapidly respond to new challenges with novel solutions that align with the goals of the Solar Energy Technology Office (SETO) at the U.S. Department of Energy. The goal of this paper is to present the state-of art-optical facilities available at NREL that can help support the research needs of the CSP community. Therefore, we review here the different components of the CSP Optical Facilities at NREL and highlight their characteristics and importance for the CSP community.

accelerated weather testing↗

DOE OSTI2023

Plan for a Data Base Approach to Evaluating LWR Plant Integration with Hydrogen and Industrial Facilities

The purpose of this report is to provide an outline and scope of a database tool that could be used to identify the most beneficial locations to site a hydrogen, chemical facility or other industrial facility that would be powered by nuclear energy. This energy may be in the form of electricity produced by the plant, heat in the form of steam or both. In addition, this siting tool should consider factors such as economics, geography, industries, residences, geological hydrogen storage, and key infrastructure. The infrastructure to be considered could include pipelines or other storage and transportation facilities to carry the created products from the production facility to the end user. Also considered should be infrastructure that could deliver needed chemicals or gasses to allow the production of desired products such as ammonia or biofuels. This data base tool should allow a screening study of all U.S. nuclear plants to identify opportunities and barriers to creating hydrogen hubs around nuclear power plants. For this effort, it has been decided that the Siting Tool for Advanced Nuclear Development (STAND) would be used to conduct this screening study which is a follow-on research project to this present effort. Currently, plans are being developed to modify the STAND tool to provide the capability necessary to perform screening of each US commercial nuclear plant to identify the best locations to site hydrogen or chemical production facilities. Many features of the current STAND tool will be employed to meet this objective, but additional infrastructure data (such as the location of pipelines) may need to be added to allow these locations to be fully vetted. In addition, new analysis capabilities may need to be added so economic considerations can be understood

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

DOE OSTI2016

{sup 99}Mo Production at KIPT Neutron Source Facility

Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) and Kharkov Institute of Physics and Technology (KIPT) have cooperated on the construction of the Neutron Source Facility (NSF) at KIPT, Kharkov (Ukraine). The NSF facility consists of an electron accelerator driven system (ADS) generating 300 kW of thermal power for multiple applications, including medical isotope production. ANL performed extensive analyses including medical isotopes production, reactivity monitoring, operations and control, refueling, cold neutron source design, target design,and radiation shielding. The present study focuses on the use of the KIPT NSF for medical isotope production. Medical isotopes are radioactive isotopes with short half-lives used in diagnostic and therapeutic medical procedures. For example, brain cancer is difficult to treat by ordinary surgery and only brachytherapy with {sup 131}Cs, which has 9.7 days half-life, has shown effective results on the patients. {sup 99m}Tc is the most common medical isotope used in medical diagnoses because the wavelength of its gamma radiation (8.8 pm) is about the same as the conventional X-ray diagnostic devices. {sup 99m}Tc has 6 hours half-life, therefore it cannot be stored because it decays into {sup 99}Tc. The parent of {sup 99m}Tc is {sup 99}Mo, which has 66 hours half-life. Consequently, the delivery of {sup 99m}Tc occurs through shipping {sup 99}Mo samples to the medical facilities. The Neutron Source Facility of KIPT is the first ADS in the world operating at non-zero power and allows producing several isotopes for medical applications. The total power of the facility is about 300 kW, including ∼200 kW from fission reactions. The construction of the NSF has been already completed and operations will start during year 2016. After 20 irradiation days, {sup 82}Br, {sup 64}Cu, {sup 165}Dy, {sup 166}Ho, {sup 192}Ir, {sup 194}Ir, {sup 186}Re, {sup 188}Re and {sup 153}Sm have specific activities, larger than 100 MBq/mg without taking into account the self-shielding effect and therefore they are good candidates for production. The self-shielding effect plays an important role for all nuclide parents that have a large microscopic capture cross section. This effect reduces the reaction rate and therefore the specific activity. For instance, the analyses of molybdenum trioxide (MoO{sub 3}) irradiation samples have shown that the self-shielding effect may reduce the specific activity by a factor 1.4. The metallic form of natural molybdenum produces a higher specific activity, relative to the trioxide form. Analyses on the 6-day Ci {sup 99}Mo activity have shown that is possible to perform between 40 to 310 {sup 99m}Tc medical procedures per MoO{sub 3} irradiation week. The number of medical procedures depends on the diagnosed organ and the weight of the patient. (authors)

07 ISOTOPE AND RADIATION SOURCES↗

DOE OSTI2016

Experimental Data and Analysis for a New Irradiation Facility

A new experimental facility is being developed for materials irradiation and testing at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR). Details of this facility have been presented before. A prototype of this facility, the Thermosyphon Test Loop (TSTL), has been built, and experimental data have been obtained and analyzed. The purpose of the tests was to establish a safe operating envelope for actual fueled experiments in a HFIR experimental facility. Both steady-state and transient experiments were conducted. The data will also be used to validate computer simulations of the thermosyphon so that those codes can be used for future safety-basis calculations. This paper presents a summary of the TSTL experimental data and analysis. A report with all the data and analyses will be published in the near future. Experimental data from 51 tests in the TSTL have been obtained. This extensive set of high quality data can be used to benchmark codes with boiling and condensing phenomena. This new proposed irradiation facility allows materials to be irradiated without concern for HFIR coolant contamination (from specimen failures) as it uses a separate coolant, that is isolated (except thermally) from the HFIR primary coolant. (authors)

42 ENGINEERING↗

DOE OSTI2016

Comparison of Calculated and Experimental Flows and Pressures in the Orifice Flow Test Facility

A new experimental facility for materials irradiation and testing at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) is being developed. Details of this facility have been presented in previous work. A prototype of this facility, the Thermosyphon Test Loop (TSTL), has been built and experimental data have been obtained and analyzed. Comparison of TSTL experimental data and calculations has been presented previously. The TSTL did not measure any flows (water or vapor) inside the test section because flowmeters could not be installed inside. Instead, two pressure sensors (P1 and P2) were installed at the bottom of the test section to measure the pressure differential ({Delta}P = P1-P2) across the orifices between the bottom of the downcomer and the bottom of the boiler. This {Delta}P is proportional to the water flow, but actual flows were not measured. Thus, another facility, the Orifice Flow Test Facility (OFTF), was built to measure water flow vs {Delta}P. The OFTF duplicates the bottom of the test section of the TSTL. The OFTF models the downcomer and the boiler including three dummy heaters (without power) inside the boiler. This paper presents the experimental data obtained and comparison to computer calculations. (authors)

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗

DOE OSTI2017

Preliminary Analysis of Facility Design for Pyro-processing Safeguardability

The deployment of advanced nuclear energy systems can assure sustainable energy use worldwide. For some of these systems, nuclear fuel will be fabricated in remotely-handled facilities in which batch-type processing will occur in heavily-shielded hot cells. Because special nuclear material is in both different physical and chemical form than that of the contemporary fuel cycle, new challenges have arisen in terms of safeguards, safety, and security, integrated with facility design; i.e., safeguardability. There is a need to develop models that can quantitatively assess safeguardability from a design-driven perspective. Previously, the first build of a material throughput model was established using discrete event simulation (DES) for the fuel fabrication process. Results showed that the DES model potentially can detect diversion attempts. This paper continues the study by further developing the the model. We test the use of the probability of the false alarm; i.e., the Type I error, as a metric for safeguardability assessment. Initiating events leading to a false alarm arise from aspects of safeguards, safety, and security. Different conceptual facility designs could exhibit different frequencies for the Type I error, and this could provide a measure of the safeguardability of each design. A quantitative assessment for safeguardable facility designs has not been developed in this manner. Much of the research into safeguardability has been qualitative. Engineering design approaches for a safeguardable facility are now needed. As there are not accepted metrics for safeguardability assessment, our motivation is to develop this design facet of safeguardability further.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

DOE OSTI2024

Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF): World-Class Systems Integration Capabilities and Research

The Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF), located at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) South Table Mountain campus, is a world-renowned user facility for research and development of modern, advanced, and clean energy technologies. ESIF is distinguished by its continuously evolving, highly integrated systems that span throughout the building, connecting research capabilities across multiple laboratories and test areas. The primary ESIF research systems include: [1] data, cyber, and control networks, [2] research electrical distribution buses (REDB), [3] thermal integration infrastructure, and [4] hydrogen systems. The data, cyber, and control networks provide monitoring, control, communication, automation, visualization, and time series data storage and tagging capabilities for research projects and ESIF systems, including facility safety functions. The REDB system consists of four dedicated AC and DC electrical power networks that can connect devices located across the facility through versatile, automatic circuit configuration to support complex power electronics experiments up to the megawatt-scale. The thermal integration infrastructure consists of three temperature-conditioned water loops that provide heating and cooling interfaces and capabilities for thermal energy research. The hydrogen systems provide megawatt-scale hydrogen production, drying, compression, high-pressure storage, and delivery to laboratory end uses, including hydrogen fuel cell vehicle fueling. The ESIF research systems interconnect and extend throughout the various lab areas of the facility to create elaborate networks composed of diverse technologies for cutting-edge research. The ESIF capabilities are operated and stewarded by the ESIF Research Operations group, who also actively upgrade and advance the systems to ensure they remain ahead of anticipated research - enabling the success of many pioneering energy integration projects. The poster, created by members of the ESIF Research Operations team, highlights and summarizes the four core integrated systems at ESIF. The poster was first presented at the internal NREL Energize Forum on May 13th, 2024, and received the "Best Poster" award.

capabilities↗

DOE OSTI2017

2017 Year End Nuclear Science User Facilities (NSUF) Post-Irradiation Examination Summary Report

The Nuclear Science User Facilities (NSUF) are part of a growing number of Department of Energy (DOE) user facilities in the U.S., and is the only national designated nuclear energy user facility. Through a peer-reviewed proposal process, NSUF provides external research teams cost-free access to reactor, post-irradiation examination (PIE) and beamline capabilities at INL and a diverse mix of affiliated partner institutions at universities, national laboratories and industry facilities located across the country. In Fiscal Year 2017 (FY17), the NSUF sponsored planning, management and execution of PIE activities at Idaho National Laboratory (INL), the Center for Advanced Energy Studies (CAES), and other NSUF partner facilities. The individual projects associated with these PIE activities are a result from DOE awards under the following mechanisms: Consolidated Innovative Nuclear Research (CINR) awards that include full sample irradiation and PIE, PIE only (using samples from the NSUF Fuel and Materials Library) awards, or Rapid Turn-Around Experiments (RTE). An accounting of FY17 activities for each project is provided in this report.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2020

Impact of Permanganate Oxidation of Glycolate on Corrosion of the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) Recycle Collection Tank (RCT), Transfer-line and Waste Tank Materials of Construction (MoC)

Savannah River Remediation (SRR) is evaluating the use of glycolic acid to replace formic acid as an alternate reductant for the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) at Savannah River Site (SRS). The replacement is aimed at reducing facility hazards, improving pH stability and rheological control, and lowering off gas production. Glycolate, which is the product that may remain, can also be carried downstream to High-Level Waste and Low-Level Waste facilities. Complete oxidation of glycolate and other organic species from the Sludge Receipt and Adjustment Tank (SRAT) may be necessary to minimize thermolytic hydrogen generation that can cause flammability issues. The glycolate oxidation may be performed in the Recycle Collection Tank (RCT). The RCT heel would be adjusted with sodium hydroxide to maintain the solution caustic and sodium nitrite as corrosion inhibitor prior to the addition of condensate that can be from the contents of the Slurry Mix Evaporator Condensate Tank (SMECT) or Offgas Condensate Tank (OGCT). The RCT tank collects the waste to be transferred via the Low Point Pump Pit – Recycle Pump Tank (LPPP-RPT) through a jacketed transfer-line to the Tank Farm facility. Scoping studies were performed to evaluate an oxidizing agent and sodium permanganate was selected as the best option for glycolate destruction. Testing was recommended to determine the impact on the Materials of Construction (MoC) due to the addition of sodium permanganate. The targeted concentration of sodium permanganate used equated to a 7:1 molar permanganate to glycolate ratio (nominally 0.002 M permanganate). However, to conservatively maximize the permanganate corrosivity, in some cases no glycolate was added.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗