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At least 757 records · Page 42

Earth Occultation Monitoring with the Fermi Gamma Ray Burst Monitor

Using the Gamma Ray Burst Monitor (GBM) on-board Fermi, we are monitoring the hard X-ray/soft gamma ray sky using the Earth occultation technique (EOT). Each time a source in our catalog is occulted by (or exits occultation by) the Earth, we measure its flux using the change in count rates due to the occultation. Currently we are using CTIME data with 8 energy channels spanning 8 keV to 1 MeV for the GBM NaI detectors for daily monitoring. Light curves, updated daily, are available on our website http://heastro.phys.lsu.edu/gbm. Our software is also capable of performing the Earth occultation monitoring using up to 128 energy bands, or any combination of those bands, using our 128-channel, 4-s CSPEC data. The GBM BGO detectors, sensitive from about 200 keV to 40 keV, can also be used with this technique. In our standard application of the EOT, we use a catalog of sources to drive the measurements. To ensure that our catalog is complete, our team has developed an Earth occultation imaging method. In this talk, I will describe both techniques and the current data products available. I will highlight recent and important results from the GBM EOT, including the current status of our observations of hard X-ray variations in the Crab Nebula.

Wilson-Hodge, Colleen A.↗

Using the EXIST Active Shields for Earth Occultation Observations of X-Ray Sources

The EXIST active shields, now being planned for the main detectors of the coded aperture telescope, will have approximately 15 times the area of the BATSE detectors; and they will have a good geometry on the spacecraft for viewing both the leading and training Earth's limb for occultation observations. These occultation observations will complement the imaging observations of EXIST and can extend them to higher energies. Earth occultatio observations of the hard X-ray sky with BATSE on the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory developed and demonstrated the capabilities of large, flat, uncollimated detectors for this method. With BATSE, a catalog of 179 X-ray sources was monitored twice every spacecraft orbit for 9 years at energies above about 25 keV, resulting in 83 definite detections and 36 possible detections with 5-sigma detection sensitivities of 3.5-20 mcrab (20-430 keV) depending on the sky location. This catalog included four transients discovered with this technique and many variable objects (galactic and extragalactic). This poster will describe the Earth occultation technique, summarize the BATSE occultation observations, and compare the basic observational parameters of the occultation detector elements of BATSE and EXIST.

Wilson, Colleen A.↗

Canadian Led X-ray Polarimeter Mission CXP

We propose a Canadian-led X-ray Polarimetry Mission (CXP), to include a scattering X-ray Polarimeter and sensitive All-Sky X-ray Monitor (ASXM). Polarimetry would provide a new observational window on black holes, neutron stars, accretion disks and jets, and the ASXM would offer sensitive monitoring of the volatile X-ray sky. The envisioned polarimeter consists of a hollow scattering beryllium cone surrounded by an annular proportional counter, in a simple and elegant design that is reliable and low-risk. It would be sensitive in the 6-30 keV band to approx. 3% polarization in approx. 30 Galactic sources and 2 AGN in a baseline 1-yr mission, and have sensitivity greater than 10 times that of the previous X-ray polarimeter flown (NASA's OSO-8, 1975-78) for most sources. This X-ray polarimeter would tackle questions like, Do black holes spin?, How do pulsars pulse?, What is the geometry of the magnetic field in accreting neutron stars? Where and how are jets produced in microquasars and AGN?, What are the geometries of many of the most famous accretion-disk systems in the sky? This will be done using a novel and until-now unexploited technique that will greatly broaden the available observational phase space of compact objects by adding to timing and spectroscopy observations of polarization fraction and position angle as a function of energy. The All-Sky X-ray Monitor would scan for transients, both as potential targets for the polarimeter but also as a service to the worldwide astronomical community. The entire CXP mission could be flown for $40- 60M CDN, according to estimates by ComDev International, and could be built entirely in Canada. It would fall well within the CSA's SmallSat envelope and would empower the growing and dynamic Canadian High-Energy Astrophysics community with world leadership in a potentially high impact niche area.

Kaspi, V.↗

Module-OT: A Hardware Security Module for Operational Technology

Increased penetration levels of renewable energy and other types of distributed energy resources (DERs) on the modern electric grid-combined with technological advancements for electric system monitoring and control-introduce new cyberattack vectors and increase the cyberattack surface of energy systems. According to the IEEE Std. 1547-2018, DERs must use Modbus, Distributed Network Protocol 3 (DNP3), or Smart Energy Profile 2.0 (SEP2) as their communication protocol. Previous research identified several vulnerabilities and security breaches in each one of these communication protocols; despite this, existing standards for DERs do not recommend cybersecurity measures. In order to reduce vulnerabilities in power distribution systems, this paper presents a novel open-source hardware security module that improves both information and operational security to better protect data and communications on the distribution grid. The security hardware is called “module for operational technology,” or simply Module-OT, and it has been validated and tested in an emulated distribution system application. Module-OT is integrated within a communication system in the transport layer of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model. It improves system security through encryption, authentication, authorization, certificate management, and user access control. The main advancement of Module-OT is the addition of hardware cryptographic acceleration that improves the overall communication performance in terms of end-to-end latency.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Central Hanford Vernal Pool Monitoring Report for Calendar Year 2025

This report summarizes vernal pool monitoring data collected in calendar year (CY) 2025 and provides management recommendations. Monitoring efforts occurred on the portion of the Hanford Site managed by the U.S. Department of Energy, Hanford Field Office (HFO), referred to herein as Central Hanford. The goal of monitoring is to collect data to evaluate the conservation status of this imperiled habitat. Monitoring in CY 2025 built on previous efforts, as reported in HNF-62115, Ecological Monitoring Report Vernal Pools on the Hanford Site.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Spatio-Temporal Anomaly Detection with Graph Networks for Data Quality Monitoring of the Hadron Calorimeter

The Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment is a general-purpose detector for high-energy collision at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. It employs an online data quality monitoring (DQM) system to promptly spot and diagnose particle data acquisition problems to avoid data quality loss. In this study, we present a semi-supervised spatio-temporal anomaly detection (AD) monitoring system for the physics particle reading channels of the Hadron Calorimeter (HCAL) of the CMS using three-dimensional digi-occupancy map data of the DQM. We propose the GraphSTAD system, which employs convolutional and graph neural networks to learn local spatial characteristics induced by particles traversing the detector and the global behavior owing to shared backend circuit connections and housing boxes of the channels, respectively. Recurrent neural networks capture the temporal evolution of the extracted spatial features. We validate the accuracy of the proposed AD system in capturing diverse channel fault types using the LHC collision data sets. The GraphSTAD system achieves production-level accuracy and is being integrated into the CMS core production system for real-time monitoring of the HCAL. We provide a quantitative performance comparison with alternative benchmark models to demonstrate the promising leverage of the presented system.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Low-Cost Identification and Monitoring of Diverse MELs in Residential and Commercial Buildings with PowerBlade (Final Technical Report)

This report describes our progress in developing a scalable wireless metering system that integrates plug-load energy meters that measure real, reactive, and apparent power along with load monitoring based on extracting high-fidelity electrical waveform features collected at every load to capture power profiles and automatically identify and categorize MELs, and make this technology available to the research, commercial, and government sectors.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

Simulations Supporting the Development of Northstar's Indirect Beam Parameters Monitoring System

NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes, LLC is planning to produce the important medical radioisotope molybdenum-99 (Mo-99), the parent of technetium-99m (Tc-99m), through photonuclear reactions in molybdenum-100 (Mo-100). In this approach, a target comprising multiple thin disks of enriched molybdenum metal is bombarded with a 40-MeV electron beam. Electrons impinged on the molybdenum target produce bremsstrahlung X-rays that cause the nuclear reaction. Because enriched Mo-100 is expensive, there is a desire to utilize as much beam power as possible to achieve maximum production yield and minimize the size of the target. This requirement leads to very high beam power density (and heat deposition in the target), which creates challenging requirements for the cooling of the target. The critical part of the target is the target window. It separates the high-pressure helium cooled target from the vacuum beamline and the subject of structural and thermal stress. The temperature of the target window is proportional to the energy density deposited by the beam, so it is critical to maintain the desired beam profile on the target window. The feasibility of indirectly monitoring the maximum energy density of the beam on the beam window through beam losses at the main collimator (Collimator) before the production target was verified. A model of the NorthStar beam transport line was constructed for this purpose using MAD-X and Tao/Bmad codes. Beam optics were computed for the standard operational scenario, followed by an investigation involving approximately 400 cases with parameter variations in the last tuning quadrupoles. This was done to assess the correlation between losses in the collimator and the peak energy density on the target. We developed a model to explore the potential application of Optical transition radiation (OTR) for controlling beam parameters in the NorthStar beam delivery system. This model was based on a generic formula derived from the fundamental solution of the inhomogeneous wave equation of the vector potential, and allowed us to consider various surfaces, even those with irregular or random features, using numerical integration. We applied the model to OTR generated by relativistic electrons impacting an Inconel® 718 beam window. We examined cases with different levels of the window’s surface roughness, ranging from 0.5 to 3.0 microns of root square mean (RMS) deviation. The results of the OTR simulations provided distributions of OTR photons that can be used to study the limitations of optical systems for controlling beam parameters.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Modifying Network Guided Vehicle for Repeatable EcoCAR ACC Energy Testing

The newest iteration of the Department of Energy (DOE) Advanced Vehicle Technology Competitions is the EcoCAR Mobility Challenge. In this paper, ANL and HORIBA MIRA collaborate to propose and pilot a test method that enables controlled, repeatable track-based energy consumption testing of semi-autonomous features. The testing was performed at MIRA’s proving ground facility in Nuneaton, UK, using their Network Guided Vehicle (NGV) connectivity and automation test platform. The NGV served as a repeatable lead vehicle following prescribed drive traces around two different track circuits while the host vehicle under test, a Honda Civic with full speed range Adaptive Cruise Control, followed behind. Over the course of a two day test, multiple iterations of certification and custom EPA drive traces were performed on track, demonstrating the viability of a two vehicle energy test. Results were analyzed to assess NGV lead vehicle performance in following the prescribed cycle using SAE J2951 standard calculations in an effort to quantify how repeatably and accurately the lead vehicle followed the trace. Host vehicle energy consumption was assessed using both vehicle CAN bus monitoring and an on-board fuel flow meter.

ACC↗

Unlocking Failure Mechanisms and Improvement of Practical Li-S Pouch Cells Through in Operando Pressure Study

For Lithium-sulfur (Li-S) battery commercialization, the study at a pouch cell level is essential, as some problems ignored or deemed minimal at the smaller level could have a greater effect on the performance of the larger pouch cell. Herein, the failure mechanisms of Li-S pouch cells are deeply investigated via in operando pressure analysis. It is found that highly porous structures of cathodes/separators and slow electrolyte diffusion through cathodes/separators can both lead to poor initial wetting. Additionally, Li-metal anode dominates the thickness variation of the whole pouch cell, which is verified by in situ measured pressure variation. Consequently, a real-time approach that combined normalized pressure with dP/dV analysis is proposed and validated to diagnose the morphology evolution of Li-metal anode. Moreover, applied pressure and porosity/tortuosity ratio of the cathode are both identified as independent factors that influence anode performance. In addition to stabilizing anodes, high pressure is proven to improve the cathode connectivity and avoid cathode cracking over cycling, which improves the possibility of developing cathodes with high sulfur mass loading. This work provides insights into Li-S pouch cell design (e.g., cathode and separator) and highlights pathways to improve cell capacity and cycling performance with applied and monitored pressure

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

A machine learning based approach to online electron reconstruction at CLAS12

Online reconstruction is key for monitoring purposes and real time analysis in High Energy and Nuclear Physics experiments. A necessary component of reconstruction algorithms is particle identification that combines information left by a particle passing through several detector components to identify the particle’s type. Of particular interest to electro-production Nuclear Physics experiments such as CLAS12 is electron identification which is used to trigger data recording. A machine learning approach was developed for CLAS12 to reconstruct and identify electrons by combining raw signals at the data acquisition level from several detector components. Here, this approach achieves an electron identification purity above 75% whilst retaining an efficiency close to 100%. The machine learning tools are capable of running at high rates exceeding the data acquisition rates and will allow electron reconstruction in real-time. This work enhances online analyses and monitoring and can contribute to improved triggering at CLAS12. This machine learning driven approach will also be crucial for experiments aiming to transition to streaming readout operations where online reconstruction will be a key component of the data taking paradigm.

Artificial intelligence↗

NFE-24-10417: Durability and Life-time Energy Performance Enhancement of Vapor Compression Systems

This project investigated the use of a Centrifugal Particle Separation (CPS) system to improve the durability and operational reliability of outdoor heat exchangers in vapor-compression based heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration (HVACR) systems. The developed method introduced a novel dust and fouling mitigation approach by integrating an ambient air pre-cleaner that employs centrifugal forces to remove particulate matter from incoming air before it reaches the heat exchanger. By reducing the accumulation of dust and debris on coil surfaces, the CPS system aims to lower maintenance requirements and extend equipment lifespan. The project specifically involves coupling a centrifugal air pre-cleaner with a single-zone ductless mini-split system and evaluating its effectiveness in maintaining cleaner coil surfaces. Additionally, the study examined the impact of CPS integration on system energy performance. Through controlled experimental testing and performance monitoring, this work seeks to validate CPS-based air pre-cleaning as a practical, efficient solution for mitigating outdoor coil dust accumulation and fouling in both residential and commercial HVACR applications.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Low-Flow Marine Hydrokinetic Turbine for Small Autonomous Unmanned Mobile Recharge Stations

A prototype low-flow marine current turbine for deployment from a small unmanned mobile floating platform has been developed for autonomously seeking and harnessing tidal/coastal currents. The support platform is an unmanned surface vehicle (USV), in the form of a catamaran with two electric outboard motors and with capabilities for autonomous navigation. The USV utilized is a WAM-V 16 vehicle that has been developed separately with support from the Office of Naval Research (ONR) [1]. The marine current turbine is based on a freestream waterwheel (FSWW), also known as an undershot waterwheel (FSWW), mounted on the stern of the USV. The concept of operation involves the USV autonomously navigating to a designated marine current resource. Upon arrival, the USV anchors itself, aligns with the current, and deploys the FSWW turbine using a custom cable-lift mechanism. The turbine harnesses the local current, and an onboard power-take-off (PTO) device converts the mechanical energy into electricity, which is stored in an onboard battery bank. When energy harvesting is completed, the turbine and the anchor are retrieved and the USV navigates to a selected location. These unmanned at-sea platforms can provide power to other unmanned maritime systems. Specifically, in this project, the power generated onboard can be used to charge aerial drones via a custom flight deck that has been developed for the USV. The recharging capabilities offered by a fleet of such strategically placed recharging stations can significantly benefit aerial drones operating in the maritime domain by eliminating the need to travel back and forth to land or ship based charging stations. The project has resulted in the development of subcomponents, including the FSWW turbine, a novel PTO, an automated anchoring system for the USV, an automated turbine deployment system, and a flight deck with capabilities onboard the USV for landing, direct-contact charging and takeoff of aerial drones. The design and development of these subsystems have culminated in the overall prototype marine hydrokinetic platform (MHK Platform, Fig. 1). Comprehensive lab and field testing have been conducted to validate the functionality and performance of the platform and its components. The project demonstrates the potential for autonomous, unmanned systems to harness renewable energy from marine currents, and provide sustainable power solutions for maritime applications such as coastal surveillance and environmental monitoring; shoreline mapping; search and rescue; oceanographic research; inspection and maintenance of offshore energy installations like wind turbines and oil rigs; oil spill response; maritime disaster response; and aerial surveys, as well as facilitation of data transfer drones and shore stations.

16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER↗

High Pressure Water Stripping Using Multi-Orifice Nozzles

The use of multi-orifice rotary nozzles greatly increases the speed and stripping effectiveness of high pressure water blasting systems, but also greatly increases the complexity of selecting and optimizing the operating parameters. The rotational speed of the nozzle must be coupled with its transverse velocity as it passes across the surface of the substrate being stripped. The radial and angular positions of each orifice must be included in the analysis of the nozzle configuration. Orifices at the outer edge of the nozzle head move at a faster rate than the orifices located near the center. The energy transmitted to the surface from the impact force of the water stream from an outer orifice is therefore spread over a larger area than energy from an inner orifice. Utilizing a larger diameter orifice in the outer radial positions increases the total energy transmitted from the outer orifice to compensate for the wider distribution of energy. The total flow rate from the combination of all orifices must be monitored and should be kept below the pump capacity while choosing orifice to insert in each position. The energy distribution from the orifice pattern is further complicated since the rotary path of all the orifices in the nozzle head pass through the center section. All orifices contribute to the stripping in the center of the path while only the outer most orifice contributes to the stripping at the edge of the nozzle. Additional orifices contribute to the stripping from the outer edge toward the center section. With all these parameters to configure and each parameter change affecting the others, a computer model was developed to track and coordinate these parameters. The computer simulation graphically indicates the cumulative affect from each parameter selected. The result from the proper choices in parameters is a well designed, highly efficient stripping system. A poorly chosen set of parameters will cause the nozzle to strip aggressively in some areas while leaving the coating untouched in adjacent sections. The high pressure water stripping system can be set to extremely aggressive conditions allowing stripping of hard to remove adhesives, paint systems, and even cladding and chromate conversion coatings. The energy force can also be reduced to strip coatings from thin aluminum substrates without causing any damage or deterioration to the substrate's surface. High pressure water stripping of aerospace components has thus proven to be an efficient and cost effective method for cleaning and removing coatings.

Hoppe, David↗

Economic assessment of seismic monitoring for underground hydrogen storage

Underground hydrogen storage (UHS) plays a key role in the energy landscape. However, like other subsurface engineering technologies, UHS may cause leakage into the groundwater or atmosphere and possibly induce local seismicity. To reduce these risks, seismic monitoring could be a viable technique to track the UHS plume, detect leakages, and locate induced seismicity events. Seismic monitoring has been proposed to safely monitor UHS, but research in this area is still new and requires field studies. Lab and theoretical studies have demonstrated the validity of seismic monitoring for UHS. Therefore, it is imperative to analyze the economic feasibility of seismic monitoring for UHS. Hence, we develop a cost model and open-source Python code for seismic monitoring that considers types of seismometers, comprehensive operational scenarios, detection thresholds, and long-term leakage monitoring. A case study is further provided to validate the cost model on reservoir simulations of UHS. We find that the levelized cost for a 10-year operating UHS site will range on the order of ∼0.003 $\$$/kg. The methods developed in this study could also be applied to the monitoring of groundwater, gas, and/or wastewater injection.

08 HYDROGEN↗

Basic Energy Sciences Roundtable: Foundational Science to Accelerate Nuclear Energy Innovation

Energy security, availability, and reliability are among the greatest challenges facing the nation and the planet. An abundant potential source of energy resides in the fundamental atomic building blocks of the universe in the form of nuclear fission and fusion reactions. In fact, energy from nuclear fission currently provides the majority of the world’s zero-carbon electricity, and future fusion energy systems offer great promise; carbon-free nuclear energy technologies can be key to the world’s decarbonized energy future. Although contemporary fission systems use well-established technologies to supply safe and efficient baseload power, they could be more fuel efficient and less costly. Moving beyond massive light-water fission reactors to a variety of advanced nuclear systems—which will vary in size and operate in extremes of temperature, corrosivity, and other parameters—will place stringent conditions on materials and chemical systems. New demands will be placed on the coolants and solvents, the materials, and the monitoring tools used in these reactors. Fusion-based nuclear energy will require superior materials to withstand extremely high temperatures, plasma exposure, radiation damage, and implanted gases. The advantages associated with these new fission and fusion technologies will be realized only through continued advancements in the fundamental science underpinning our knowledge of the physics and chemistry of nuclear systems gained via improved experimental and computational methods. In July 2022, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Basic Energy Sciences—in coordination with the Offices of Nuclear Energy, Fusion Energy Sciences, and Advanced Scientific Computing Research—held a virtual roundtable titled “Foundational Science to Accelerate Nuclear Energy Innovation” to discuss the scientific and technical barriers for advanced nuclear energy systems. Five priority research opportunities were identified to address these scientific and technical challenges and to accelerate progress toward the realization of next-generation fusion and fission energy systems. The foundational science gaps inhibiting the advancement of nuclear energy technologies are identified and tackled in five priority research opportunities. These opportunities pave the way to accelerate the development and ultimately the adoption of new nuclear energy systems. They include the fundamental aspects of ion-electron interactions; novel properties of next-generation coolants and solvents; interfacial dynamics, not only in solids, but in other aspects of nuclear reactors; novel operando and in situ monitoring and sensing; and artificial intelligence to accelerate condensed phases discovery. Building on the foundation established by previous Basic Energy Sciences workshops, these opportunities encompass recent advances in fundamental knowledge and focus on the experimental and computational methods needed to resolve major technical challenges for nuclear energy technologies. Through developing fundamental scientific insight as well as pushing the frontiers of modeling complex systems and probing the operation of materials and chemical systems in extreme environments, research motivated by the priorities identified here will further develop the promise, potential, and utilization of nuclear energy for a clean energy future.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

mCDR and carbon sequestration in various macroalgae products (FY22 Seedling Report)

Marine approaches to CDR (mCDR) are gaining recognition and substantial funding in the United States. Macroalgae farming has been identified by several highly recognized organizations as a potential carbon capture strategy, and significant research investments have been made in this area. However, much of the existing literature on the potential of macroalgae cultivation and product development as an mCDR strategy has not adequately considered the permanence of carbon captured, due to the status of the industry. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) has been interested in exploring the potential connections between macroalgae farming, mCDR, and marine energy. In October 2021, PNNL conducted a literature review of life cycle analyses (LCAs) from macroalgae products to assess the carbon capture potential and permanence. This project leverages the previous work done based on LCA for carbon sequestration and permanence in macroalgae and expands it to include additional approaches to monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV), and opportunities for marine energy. This report provides a collection of the findings throughout this FY22 Seedling for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Water Power Technology Office, structured by the following tasks as defined by the initial proposal: Task 1: Update rankings of macroalgae products based on expanded literature review of carbon sequestration and value of temporary storage. Task 2: Assess potential changes to net climate impacts measured in LCAs of kelp products if marine energy was integrated in processing / harvesting. Task 3: Develop recommendations for standardized assessment of carbon capture potential of biological products and define data collection requirements.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Power Profile Monitoring and Tracking Evolution of System-Wide HPC Workloads

The power & energy demands of HPC machines have grown significantly. Modern exascale HPC systems require tens of megawatts of combined power for computing resources and cooling facilities at full capacity. The current energy trend is not sustainable for future HPC systems, and there is a need to work toward the energy efficiency aspect of HPC performance. Energy awareness of the HPC applications at the job level is essential for running an efficient HPC system. This work aims to develop a pipeline to provide a production-level system-wide overview of the HPC workloads' power profile while handling evolving workloads exhibiting new power trends. We developed an open-set classification model for HPC jobs based on the properties of power profiles to continuously provide a system-wide holistic view of recently completed jobs. The pipeline helps continuously monitor the job-level power usage pattern of HPC and enables us to capture the new trends in applications' power behavior. We employed a comprehensive set of techniques to generate job-level data, custom-designed feature extraction methods to extract critical features from jobs' power profiles, clustering techniques powered by generative modeling, and open-set classification for identifying job profiles into known classes or an unknown set. With extensive evaluations, we demonstrate the effectiveness of each component in our pipeline. We provide an analysis of the resulting clusters that characterize the power profile landscape of the Summit supercomputer from more than 60K jobs executed in a year. The open-set classification classifies the known data sets into known classes with high accuracy and identifies unknown data noints with over 85% accuracy.

Karimi, Ahmad Maroof↗