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At least 811 records · Page 45
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2023

DFTT report for Signal Analysis (2023)

The Detection Framework Testbed and Toolkit (DFTT) is a database and associated java programs intended to facilitate the development and testing of algorithms for operating suites of correlation and subspace detectors. This framework is a generalization of the system described in Harris and Dodge (2011) and Dodge and Harris (2016). DFTT allows retrospective processing of sequences of data using various system configurations. Results are saved in a database, so it is easy to compare the results obtained using different configurations of the system. The principal software components of DFTT are the ConfigCreator, the framework_runner and the Builder program. ConfigCreator assembles the files necessary to define a particular configuration used for processing. The framework_runner operates suites of detectors and saves the results in an Oracle™ database. Builder allows visual examination of templates and detected signals and allows editing and creation of detectors. In addition, there are tools for importing continuous data into the database. DFTT is licensed under the MIT license and has LLNL release number LLNL-CODE-801881. In the current fiscal year DFTT has been used in two different projects. The first (NTL-funded) project investigates the feasibility of screening nuisance detections using correlation detectors. The second (GNEM-funded) project seeks to extend the results of Harris and Dodge (2021) to 3- D sources and multiple stations. Each of these efforts required that additional functionality be added to DFTT. In this report I will summarize the enhancements to DFTT in the context of the relevant research effort.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Experimental Test Site 300 (S300): S300 Roadway Improvements - 817 Complex Soil Sampling and Analysis Plan, Addendum 1 (June 2023)

The purpose of this addendum is to amend and update the S300 Roadway Improvements – 817 Complex [project] Soil Sampling and Analysis Plan (SAP) dated May 2023. Field activities to implement the SAP were completed in May 2023 except for SB-17. SB-17 is therefore included in this addendum. In addition, this addendum amends the SAP by covering an expanded scope of work and project limits. The project limits have been expanded to include areas around Building 818. Sampling at the expanded project area is addressed in this addendum by two additional borings for geotechnical and environmental analyses. The project area consists of the access gate and existing access roads for the Process Area complex. Excavation depths are anticipated to be no deeper than 5 feet from current grade. None of the proposed disturbance areas are within known areas of contamination or mapped controlled excavation area (LLNL 2008). Therefore, this addendum proposes a sampling spacing in the vicinity of Building 818 of about 172 feet (Tier 2) in accordance with the Soil Screening and Management Plan (LLNL 2022). The information contained in this addendum supersedes the May 2023 SAP. However, this addendum only addresses elements of the May 2023 SAP that were modified. Elements of the May 2023 SAP that have not been modified are relevant and will remain in effect.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Fission In R-process Elements (FIRE) (NA-22 Quarterly Report, Q4FY22)

The goal of the FIRE topical collaboration in nuclear theory was to determine the astrophysical conditions of the rapid neutron capture process (r-process), which is responsible for the formation of heavy elements. This was be achieved by including in r-process simulations the most advanced models of fission (spontaneous, neutron-induced, β-delayed) that have been developed at LLNL and LANL. The collaboration was composed of LLNL (lead) and LANL for fission work, BNL for nuclear data management, and the university of Notre Dame and North Carolina State University for r-process simulations. Under DOE/NNSA agreement, both universities received funds from DOE Office of Science, while national laboratories receive funds directly from NA221.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Measurement of Plutonium Ratios for CRM 137A Recertification

This report documents the analytical methodologies used by the Chemical and Isotopics Mass Spectrometry (CIMS) Group at the US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) for plutonium isotopic ratio characterizations on purified ~1 mg units prepared by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) from a mother solution created from an existing 250 mg unit of certified reference material (CRM) 137. The analytical processes described are designed to maintain traceability of the final certified attributes and to eliminate sources of systematic bias for the measurements described. The measurands for certification are the plutonium isotope ratios: 238 Pu/ 239 Pu, 240 Pu/ 239 Pu, 241 Pu/ 239 Pu, and 242 Pu/ 239 Pu. The preparation and analytical process included the following activities: Preparation of reference materials to be used as calibrants to establish traceability to the SI unit of mass for the isotopic analyses and quality controls. For the plutonium isotopic analyses, CRM 128 (a CRM comprising equal atoms of 239 Pu and 242 Pu) was used as the primary calibrant; Each CRM 137A unit was reconstituted using dilute high-purity HNO3. From each, seven replicates were distributed for the isotopic characterizations by thermal ionization mass spectrometry (TIMS) using the total evaporation (TE) method for isotope ratio measurements and MC-ICP-MS using a dynamic peak hooping method for secondary isotope ratio measurements; Due to time delay in the analyses from the last purification of the original CRM 137 mother solution by LLNL, an aliquot of the three provided plutonium units was purified using Eichrom TEVA separation methods to remove americium in-growth and uranium impurities; Minimally corrected data were reported from each analysis using reporting templates provided by the New Brunswick Laboratory Program Office (NBL PO) for the specific methods used for isotopic measurements. In addition, a copy of the instrument exports, Excel templates for isotopic data corrections, and the uncertainty budgets completed with the GUM Workbench software package were submitted to NBL PO.

07 ISOTOPE AND RADIATION SOURCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Deciphering Fingerprints of Stellar Nucleosynthesis Through Nuclear Reaction Rate Measurements and Isotopic Analyses of Stardust

Microscopic stardust grains, found in trace amounts in primitive meteorites, afford a unique opportunity to study stellar nucleosynthesis in the laboratory by measuring their heavy element isotopic compositions. Applying LLNL’s state-of-the art material characterization capabilities to these micrometer-sized grains yields large new datasets with unprecedented precision. However, the astrophysical models necessary to interpret the isotopic record require improved nuclear physics data to constrain stellar nucleosynthesis conditions. For example, the branch point in the s-process path at 95 Zr controls the relative amounts of heavier nuclides but is poorly understood. We conducted a coordinated effort across disciplines to combine a new determination of the neutron capture cross section of 95 Zr with the laboratory analysis of hundreds of stardust grains to yield a view into stellar interiors. We developed new methods to quantify multiple isotopic systems simultaneously (e.g., Zr, Ba, and W) in stardust grains and improved the determination of the neutron capture cross section of unstable 95 Zr via the surrogate reaction method. This interdisciplinary approach is allowing us to fill gaps in our understanding of the environments in which elements are produced while enhancing LLNL’s experimental and theoretical capabilities relevant to nuclear threat reduction missions.

38 RADIATION CHEMISTRY, RADIOCHEMISTRY, AND NUCLEA↗
DOE OSTI2023

Deciphering Fingerprints of Stellar Nucleosynthesis Through Nuclear Reaction Rate Measurements and Isotopic Analyses of Stardust

Microscopic stardust grains, found in trace amounts in primitive meteorites, afford a unique opportunity to study stellar nucleosynthesis in the laboratory by measuring their heavy element isotopic compositions. Applying LLNL’s state-of-the art material characterization capabilities to these micrometer-sized grains yields large new datasets with unprecedented precision. However, the astrophysical models necessary to interpret the isotopic record require improved nuclear physics data to constrain stellar nucleosynthesis conditions. For example, the branch point in the s-process path at 95 Zr controls the relative amounts of heavier nuclides but is poorly understood. We conducted a coordinated effort across disciplines to combine a new determination of the neutron capture cross section of 95 Zr with the laboratory analysis of hundreds of stardust grains to yield a view into stellar interiors. We developed new methods to quantify multiple isotopic systems simultaneously (e.g., Zr, Ba, and W) in stardust grains and improved the determination of the neutron capture cross section of unstable 95 Zr via the surrogate reaction method. This interdisciplinary approach is allowing us to fill gaps in our understanding of the environments in which elements are produced while enhancing LLNL’s experimental and theoretical capabilities relevant to nuclear threat reduction missions.

38 RADIATION CHEMISTRY, RADIOCHEMISTRY, AND NUCLEA↗
DOE OSTI2023

Final Design for Thermal/Epithermal eXperiments (TEX) with Chloride Absorbers to Provide Validation Benchmarks for Y-12 Electrorefining Facility

Uranium electrorefining operations at Y-12 require validation for chlorine absorption and reflection. Plutonium chloride solution operations at Los Alamos National Laboratory require chlorine absorption validation. The growing need for chlorine validation is evident to the wider criticality safety community, with multiple attendees at the recent TEX 2.0 meeting at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (May 2023) requesting validation for chlorine (Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Institute de radioprotection et de surete nucleaire (IRSN), Savannah River Nuclear Site (SRNS), LANL, and Y-12). Los Alamos National Laboratory has recently performed, and benchmarked, an experiment titled Chlorine Worth Study (CWS) for the internal operations at the lab, but due to the difficulties in precisely characterizing the material compositions of the chlorine absorbers it is advantageous to perform a complimentary study with a different chlorine-based absorber material. Furthermore, having a uranium-based vs plutonium-based experiment provides a separate and important validation basis for criticality safety and nuclear data evaluation. The original final design report for the study of chlorine absorption using the TEX-HEU experimental base was presented in 2022, but used the same chlorine-bearing materials that were found to be difficult to characterize in the LANL benchmark. A complete redesign of the experiment has been performed looking at alternative absorber materials in various forms to produce an experiment that is fully characterizable. This report presents five novel chlorine experiments using the TEX-HEU test bed which provides direct comparison to the Y-12 and INL/Terrapower application needs, utilizing sodium chloride (NaCl) absorber plates. The absorber plates will consist of granulated NaCl (≥99.5% pure), which will be fully encapsulated in aluminum tins, providing a simple but effective chlorine-based absorber material that can be completely characterized. Of the five configurations presented in this report, it is expected that two or three configurations will be down selected for the actual experiment, with the other configurations being alternates. Three of the configurations are in the standard configuration, where the absorber is placed directly on the HEU fuel plates, and two in the sandwich configuration, where the absorber is surrounded by polyethylene moderators to force additional neutron thermalization prior to reaching the absorber. There are two thicknesses of NaCl absorber plates: 3/16” and 1/4” active thicknesses (i.e. not including the encapsulation). Both variations of the absorbers have an active absorber radius of 6” and a total radius of 7.5” to match the diameter of the HEU plates, with the outer 1.5” being aluminum encapsulation. The high-density polyethylene (HDPE) moderators are of the thicknesses: 27/16”, 7/4”, 1/8”, 11/16”, and 3/4”. The final configurations have six (one sandwich and one standard configuration), eight (one sandwich and one standard configuration), and 18 total fuel layers (standard configuration). The standard and sandwich configurations were designed such that the differences in moderator thicknesses are 1” HDPE, which were already procured for the original CED-2. The proposed configurations were precisely tuned to closely match the sensitivity profiles and neutron spectra of the Y-12 upset cases and were also compared to the INL/Terrapower upset cases. The assessment of experimental uncertainties of the non-absorber components was predicted to be 0.00114 Δk eff . The assessment of uncertainties resulting from the absorbers was predicted to be 0.00029 Δk eff . This results in a total uncertainty of 0.00118 Δk eff . Many of the largest uncertainties, namely the moderator densities, may be reduced with precision dimensional inspection of the components. The 1” HDPE moderators as well as the HDPE reflectors from the original CED-2 were incorporated in the final designs presented here. Additional HDPE moderator plates must be fabricated to complete the configurations. NaCl absorber plates will by fabricated at LLNL. The total additional cost is expected to be $\$$54,250 for the remaining components. Precise inspection, including dimensional, mass, density, and impurity, is recommended for all components. LLNL estimates that these costs are around $\$$12,000. It is expected, based on previous TEX-HEU experiments, that three weeks of experimental facility time is needed to complete the experiments.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Modeling of the Jupiter Lase Facility Using Virtual Beamline ++ (Vbl++) Code

The Jupiter Laser Facility (JLF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is a mid-scale laser facility, with three different laser platforms: Janus (Target Area 1), Titan, and COMET. To help the facility and its users better understand the laser performance, a model of Janus and Titan has been developed using the Virtual Beamline ++ code (VBL++), which was initially developed by LLNL to model the National Ignition Facility beamlines and predict their performance.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Shooter Alarm System Final Report FY23

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is developing a multiphysics sensor package for automatic live arms fire detection for use in schools, houses of worship, hospi tals, etc. The goal is to have a package the size of a common smoke or CO2 detector with a price point of $50 or less which may be deployed throughout the aforementioned facilities. The commercial device will detect live gun fire with low probability of false alarm and auto matically alert first responders. A prototype board with four accelerometers, two infrared (IR) and two microphones has been developed and deployed at two experiments at LLNL’s Small Firearms Training Facility (SFTF). The device successfully and consistently measured signals on the accelerometer and acoustic channels. IR responses were measured depending upon the environment and sound source.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2023

TCF Project - Printable low-cost catalyst for Industrial decarbonization (LLNL/MilliporeSigma)

This proposal centers in catalysts for the generation of hydrogen as a renewable energy source and other value- added carbon utilization. The goal of this project is to commercialize an LLNL-developed, low-cost 3D printable graphene oxide/MoS 2 ink tailored for DIW fabrication of a 3D catalyst electrode for hydrogen evolution. LLNL and MS will scale up and field test the catalyst inks for hydrogen evolution, benchmark them against non-3D printed electrodes, and adjust the compositions based on feedback to improve the technology's market potential and customer/user demands.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Annual report for DOE VTO

Carbon fiber (CF)/polymer composites are a transformative class of high-performance, lightweight material, where high aspect-ratio CFs reinforce a polymer matrix and exceed the strength of steel alloys at a fraction of the density. Despite the advantages of such a class of material, the broader implementation of CF composites in a range of automotive, aerospace, and energy applications is hindered by limitations of current manufacturing methods. These current techniques (e.g., hand lay-up, wet filament winding) are costly and impose severe limitations on fiber placement, orientation, and angle, and thus a composite’s ultimate properties. Today’s CF composites are expensive to manufacture, limited in form factor, and utilize costly and sub-optimal continuous filament CF. Advanced additive manufacturing (AM) processes, combined with computational design optimization and new approaches to resin development, offer alternative design and manufacturing paradigms that have the realistic potential to lift these constraints. Such integrated AM approaches could thus help to realize the full potential of CF composite materials. One relevant application of CF composite materials where manufacturing constraints limit the cost-benefit ratio is in the manufacture of high-performance composite pressure vessels for onboard compressed natural gas (CNG) storage. Current CNG storage vessels (Types 3–5) are made from load-bearing filament-wound carbon-fiber composite and are ~3.5 times as expensive as an all-metallic Type-1 vessel. This cost is invariably tied to the complex and labor-intensive nature of conventional filament winding processes and the large volumes of expensive high tensile-strength CF tow feedstock required in manufacture. Our proposed approach to CNG storage vessel manufacture is based on a combination of AM technologies for CF composite printing and design optimization tools that were pioneered at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), with advances in resin/composite formulation enabled by chemical and nano-material modification. Through the successful development of this technology, LLNL seeks to demonstrate the capability for advanced CNG storage vessel manufacture at reduced cost with no reduction in performance versus the most advanced, extant Type-5 designs.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (2022 Annual Site Environment Report (ASER))

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is a premier research laboratory that is part of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) within the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). As a national security laboratory, LLNL is responsible for ensuring that the nation’s nuclear weapons remain safe, secure, and reliable. The Laboratory also meets other pressing national security needs including countering the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, strengthening homeland security, and conducting major research in atmospheric, earth, and energy sciences, bioscience and biotechnology, and engineering, basic science, and advanced technology. The Laboratory is managed and operated by Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC (LLNS) and serves as a scientific resource to the U.S. government and a partner to industry and academia.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Energy Resilience for Mission Assurance, Agile Co-simulation for Cyber Energy System Security (ACCESS) Model Advancements for Resilience Analysis (Version 3, July 2023)

Agile Co-simulation for Cyber Energy System Security (ACCESS) is a co-simulation platform developed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). The primary high-level use-case for ACCESS is to study existing or new cyber-physical critical infrastructure systems, with a heavy emphasis on 1) systems that utilize communication networks, and 2) studies that seek to understand cyber-related system impacts. ACCESS is currently used for several energy system resilience projects at LLNL. In the Energy Resilience for Mission Assurance (ERMA) project, ACCESS is used in the Mod eling for Metric Calculation task (specifically, subtask 4.3, Communications and Cyber Modeling) to model and simulate the cyber and communication system aspects of Defense Critical Electric Infrastructure (DCEI) systems, with a focus on computing specific communication system metrics that can impact system resilience and mission performance. Simulated communication system per formance will be fed back to other ERMA system components so that mission performance can be evaluated holistically. This report describes several enhancements to the ACCESS platform that were implemented during the execution of the ERMA project in support of reslience analysis. This includes the addition of new models and subsystems, enhancements to existing models, and integration with external systems. The remainder of this report is structured as follows. In Section 2, a brief background description of the ACCESS platform is provided, including an outline of ACCESS components, example use cases, and a set of communication network resilience metrics that can be computed with ACCESS. Section 3 describes the ACCESS model enhancements for ERMA in detail. Finally, Section 4 briefly outlines future integration opportunities between ACCESS and project participant capabilities identified during the progression of the project.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2024

2011.5 Revision of the Evaluated Nuclear Data Library: ENDL2011.5 (legacy and GNDS), and ENDL2011.5-direct

LLNL’s Nuclear Data and Theory Group has created the 2011.5 revised release of the Evaluated Nuclear Data Library (ENDL2011.5). ENDL2011.5 is designed to support LLNL’s current and future nuclear data needs and will be employed in nuclear reactor, nuclear security and stockpile stewardship simulations with ASC codes. This database is currently the most complete nuclear database for Monte Carlo and deterministic transport of neutrons and charged particles. This library was assembled with strong support from the ASC PEM and Attribution programs, leveraged with support from Campaign 4 and the DOE/Office of Science’s US Nuclear Data Program. This document lists the revisions made in ENDL2011.5 compared with the data existing in the original ENDL2011.2 and ENDL2011.3 releases. These changes are made in parallel with some similar revisions for ENDL2009.5. We also describe ENDL2011.5-direct that directly uses ENDF sources wherever possible.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Evaluated Nuclear Data Library, with ENDL2009.5-direct (2009.5 Rev.)

LLNL’s Nuclear Data and Theory Group have created a 2009.5 revised release of the Evaluated Nuclear Data Library (ENDL2009.5). This library is designed to support LLNL’s current and future nuclear data needs and will be employed in nuclear reactor, nuclear security and stockpile stewardship simulations with ASC codes. The ENDL2009 database was the most complete nuclear database for Monte Carlo and deterministic transport of neutrons and charged particles. It was assembled with strong support from the ASC PEM and Attribution programs, leveraged with support from Campaign 4 and the DOE/Office of Science’s US Nuclear Data Program. This document lists the revisions and fixes made in a new release called ENDL2009.5, by comparing with the existing data in the previous releases ENDL2009.3 and ENDL2009.4. In addition to the legacy library ENDL2009.5 from ENDL-format files generated by Fete, an ENDL2009.5-direct library is also released, in which ENDF6-formatted sources are used wherever possible to avoid possible translation errors from Fete.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Site 300 Roadway Improvements - 834 Complex Soil Sampling and Analysis Plan

This Soil Sampling and Analysis Plan (SAP) was prepared by the Environmental Functional Area (EFA)/Technical Services Department (TSD) of the Environment, Safety & Health (ES&H) Directorate for the Project Management Office (PMO) for the proposed Roadway Improvements Project at the 834 Complex (project) (Figure 1). The purpose of the SAP is to describe the procedures for collection and analysis of environmental samples and evaluation of analytical data (chemical and radiological) to determine management options of excavated soil during project construction. This SAP follows criteria established in Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s (LLNL) Soils Screening and Management Plan (SSMP) (LLNL 2022), which was formalized in accordance with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) guidance for developing Data Quality Objectives for environmental data (EPA 2006) and the Multi-Agency Radiation Survey and Site Investigation Manual (MARSSIM) guidance (U.S. NRC, U.S. EPA, U.S. DOE, and U.S. DOD 2000). The scope of this SAP is based on preliminary design information provided by PMO.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Building 871 and 874 Retaining Wall Project Soil Sampling and Analysis Plan

This Soil Sampling and Analysis Plan (SAP) was prepared by the Environmental Functional Area (EFA)/Technical Services Department (TSD) of the Environment, Safety & Health (ES&H) Directorate for the Project Management Office (PMO) for the proposed retaining wall near Buildings 871 and 874 (project) (Figure 1). The purpose of the SAP is to describe the procedures for collection and analysis of environmental samples and evaluation of analytical data (chemical and radiological) to determine management options of excavated soil during project construction. This SAP follows criteria established in Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s (LLNL) Soils Screening and Management Plan (SSMP) (LLNL 2022), which was formalized in accordance with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) guidance for developing Data Quality Objectives for environmental data (EPA 2006) and the Multi-Agency Radiation Survey and Site Investigation Manual (MARSSIM) guidance (U.S. NRC, U.S. EPA, U.S. DOE, and U.S. DOD 2000). The scope of this SAP is based on preliminary design information provided by PMO.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Evaluating the 238 U PFNS Including Chi-Nu Experimental Data

This report documents an evaluation of 238 U prompt fission neutron spectra (PFNS) which is a deliverable for a FY2024 Q4 NCSP (Nuclear Criticality Safety Program) milestone. This evaluation is new; its prior input is based on extended Los Alamos and exciton models implemented in the code CoH. Experimental covariances were estimated for five experimental data sets. One of these data sets that was measured by the Chi-Nu team of LANL and LLNL. It covers the 238 U PFNS for continuous incident-neutron energies of 1–20 MeV and outgoing-neutron energies from 10 keV– 10 MeV with high precision. Contrary to Chi-Nu data, previous data sets were measured in a limited energy range. The resulting evaluated data correspond well to the experimental PFNS taken into account for the evaluation. The evaluated PFNS also produce average mean energies in agreement with associated Chi-Nu data. If one uses the new evaluated data to predict the neutron multiplication factor, k eff , of the Flattop, Flattop-Pu and BigTen ICSBEP critical assemblies (which all have thick reflectors with high percentages of 238 U), the differences of simulated values compared to those using ENDF/B-VIII.1β3 is modest (less than 25 pcm). In addition to that, the new PFNS predict on average 238 U LLNL pulsed-sphere neutron-leakage spectra slightly better than ENDF/BVIIII.0 and ENDF/B-VIII.1β3 PFNS. The differences are, however, well within the experimental uncertainties.

238U↗