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At least 865 records · Page 48

Vegetation Representation Influences Projected Streamflow Changes in the Colorado River Basin

Vegetation parameters for the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) hydrologic model were recently updated using observations from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). Previous work showed that these MODIS-based parameters improved VIC evapotranspiration simulations when compared to eddy covariance observations. Due to the importance of evapotranspiration within the Colorado River basin, this study provided a basin-by-basin calibration of VIC soil parameters with updated MODIS-based vegetation parameters to improve streamflow simulations. Interestingly, while both configurations had similar historic streamflow performance, end-of-century hydrologic projections, driven by 29 downscaled global climate models under the RCP8.5 emissions scenario, differed between the two configurations. The calibrated MODIS-based configuration had an ensemble mean that simulated little change in end-of-century annual streamflow volume (+0.4%) at Lees Ferry, Arizona, relative to the historical period (1960–2005). In contrast, the previous VIC configuration, which is used to inform decisions about future water resources in the Colorado River basin, projected an 11.7% decrease in annual streamflow. Both VIC configurations simulated similar amounts of evapotranspiration in the historical period. However, the MODIS-based VIC configuration did not show as much of an increase in evapotranspiration by the end of the century, primarily within the upper basin’s forested areas. Differences in evapotranspiration projections were the result of the MODIS-based vegetation parameters having lower leaf area index values and less forested area compared to previous vegetation estimates used in recent Colorado River basin hydrologic projections. These results highlight the need to accurately characterize vegetation and better constrain climate sensitivities in hydrologic models.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Towards provision of regularly updated climate data from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project

The Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) is a flagship of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP). CMIP has become a recognised ‘brand’ in climate circles evolving over the last thirty years from a targeted research activity by a small number of climate modelling centres intercomparing their Earth System Model (ESM) simulations to a broad international coordinated research effort (Durack et al, 2025). CMIP is organized as a research activity leveraging funded and in-kind contributions from experts within modelling centres and the broader scientific community supported more recently by a fully-funded International Project Office. Within CMIP, Model Intercomparison Projects (MIPs) are community-designed to understand past, present and future climate. CMIP data provides a valuable resource for climate research and is routinely used to assess model representation of climate processes and test scientific hypotheses in the context of model uncertainty and (forced and internal) variability as evident from its prolific use in scientific publications1 . The impact relies on enabling infrastructure (most prominently via the Earth System Grid Federation (ESGF)), which allows sharing of simulation output, provision of the boundary conditions used in each simulation, and definition of the data standards that are essential to facilitating wide use of the data. The impact is supplemented by the wide-ranging scrutiny to which model simulations are subjected. Beyond its use in research, CMIP data is a key resource for communities producing derived climate information from downscaling and impact studies, such as the Coordinated Regional Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX; Gutowski et al., 2016) and the Intersectoral Impacts MIP (ISIMIP; Frieler et al., 2024). Government, academic and commercial entities also increasingly rely on CMIP and its downstream data for climate risk assessments and climate services (for example, Copernicus Climate Change Service and World Bank portal). This means that, although CMIP is a research activity, it increasingly serves a secondary and very relevant role as a provider of climate data – a long-recognised dichotomy (Stevens, 2024). Research and applications have distinct needs, with the former requiring flexibility and generality and the latter consistency. Here we explain how the design of the research activity has been adapted to reduce the burdens imposed by applications and how the research infrastructure might evolve to further enable scientific inquiry. We propose one possible approach to consistently providing model information and projections for applications in the future.

Environmental sciences↗

SECARB Project Overview Book

In 2003, the United States Department of Energy (DOE) issued awards initiating seven Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships (RCSP) spanning the United States and portions of Canada. Managed by DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), the RCSPs currently represent more than 400 state agencies, universities, and private companies, spanning 43 states, three Native American Organizations, and four Canadian provinces. The Southern States Energy Board (SSEB) received an award on October 1, 2003, which established the Board’s overall management and administration of the Southeast Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership, or SECARB. The geographical region currently includes 13 states and a network of more than 100 stakeholders. The Nation’s leading scientists, university researchers, national laboratories, industrial representatives, environmental organizations, and many others have taken a proactive approach at identifying and characterizing the most promising options for technology deployment and carbon dioxide (CO2) utilization and storage (CCUS) for the Southeast. The results obtained during these injections will be important to the future commercialization of CCUS technologies and the continued use of fossil fuels as a significant energy source in a manner that is environmentally responsible. Each of the six SECARB project locations has been locally coordinated by its own field team. The field teams assume responsibility for the technical scope of work, local education and outreach, permitting, monitoring, verification, and accounting (MVA), and maintaining the validation test’s schedule and budget. Each team contributes new information to the continued characterization of the region. In addition, a task is dedicated to integrating field data and filling gaps in regional characterization data sets. Data and tools developed in the Continued Characterization task are incorporated into a relational database and geographic information system (GIS). All field tests, the continued characterization project, and the cross-cutting functions are designed to support the DOE roadmap by validating technologies and identifying locations throughout the region that could support full-scale CCUS deployment opportunities. Detailed fact sheets for the SECARB projects are available on the SECARB website at www.secarbon.org (see “Projects” tab).

RCSP↗

PRIMO - The P&A Project Optimizer

In support of the Methane Emissions Reduction Program (MERP) and under the National Methane Emissions Reduction Initiative (NEMRI), the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) and NETL site support contractors are developing and releasing an open-source decision-support tool (“PRIMO”) to help organizations determine which marginal conventional wells (MCWs) or other low-producing wells make the best candidates for plugging utilizing MERP funds, while also optimizing subsequent plugging and abandonment (P&A) campaigns for both program impact and efficiency. The framework—which is fully customizable—provides three main capabilities: 1. Ranking candidate wells (based on user preferences) 2. Identifying high-impact, high-efficiency P&A project candidates (with transparently computed scores for relevant metrics) 3. Comparing competing P&A projects quantitatively (through transparently computed project impact and efficiency scores) As such, PRIMO is a versatile, fully customizable tool that is meant to support organizations in making data-based, transparent, and defensible well selection and P&A project design decisions. For questions, comments or feedback, please contact primo@netl.doe.gov.

MERP↗

In-Kind Contributions: The PIP-II Project at Fermilab

The Proton Improvement Plan II (PIP-II) Project is the first U.S. accelerator project that has significant contributions from international partners. A project management framework was created to fully integrate and make consistent across all partners the design, development, and delivery of In-Kind Contributions (IKC) into PIP-II. This framework consists of planning documentation, procedures, and communication and assessment processes to control schedule, risk, quality, and technical integration over the lifetime of the project. The purpose of this paper is to present the PIP-II IKC model put in place to properly integrate the IKC deliverables into the PIP-II Linac and share experience and lessons learned from its early implementation.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Progress on the Proton Power Upgrade Project at the Spallation Neutron Source

The Proton Power Upgrade Project at the Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory will increase the proton beam power capability from 1.4 to 2.8 MW. Upon completion of the project, 2 MW of beam power will be available for neutron production at the existing first target station with the remaining beam power available for the future second target station. The project will install seven superconducting RF cryomodules and supporting RF power systems and ancillaries to increase the beam energy to 1.3 GeV . The injection and extraction region of the accumulator ring will be upgraded, and a new 2 MW mercury target has been developed along with supporting equipment for high-flow gas injection to mitigate cavitation and fatigue stress. Equipment is being received from vendors and partner laboratories, and installation is underway with three major installation outages planned in 2022-2024. The project is planned to be completed in 2025.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Pansophy enhancements for SRF through collecting and analyzing inputs/outputs to further project efficiency in reporting and performance

SRF cavity and Cryomodule testing and production requires a consistent means of collecting and analyzing data against quality and production parameters. JLab's engineering data management system, Pansophy, is utilized to assist project leaders and subject matter experts (SMEs) with such tasks, by providing a means to data mine key parameter indicators (KPI) and production planning and status data. Recent enhancements to reporting and trending have been utilized for the LCLS-II and CEBAF 12GeV upgrade projects. Further enhancements are being planned for future projects, like SNS-PPU, such as KPI trending, KPI quality, vendor quality, production timelines and user defined queries. Being able to understand past trends will assist with enhancements to future projects.

Bookwalter, Valerie D.↗

Final Scientific/Technical Report for project “Geomechanical Monitoring for CO 2 Hub Storage: Production and Injection at Kevin Dome

After learning that the TDS value in the target injection formation at the Kevin Dome site is too low to qualify for an EPA Class VI CO2 injection permit, the BSCSP project was re-scoped such that injection of CO2 is no longer planned. With no injection planned, the Geomechanics project was closed. In this final report, we describe the objective and approach of the project as proposed, and the limited results obtained before stopping work. The objective of the proposed research was the development & validation of an integrated monitoring approach for quantifying the interactions between large-scale geological carbon storage (GCS) and subsurface geomechanical state, particularly perturbations relevant to reservoir integrity such as fault reactivation and induced fracturing. In the short period of work before knowing the fate of the Kevin Dome project, we (1) researched designs for both the proposed InSAR corner reflectors as well as the near-surface 3C seismic stations; (2) developed preliminary elastic geomechanical models; (3) developed a second generation deformation prediction for the BSCSP Kevin Dome injection site; and (4) completed a preliminary map of InSAR monuments and shallow MEQ wells in the vicinity of the BSCSP injection pad.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

Final Project Report for DOE/EERE High-Capacity and Low-Cost Hydrogen-Storage Sorbents for Automotive Applications

This report provides a review of the objectives, progress, and milestones of the research conducted during this project on the topic of developing innovative metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and porous organic polymers (POPs) for high-capacity and low-cost hydrogen-storage sorbents in automotive applications.1 The objectives of the proposed research were to develop new materials as next-generation hydrogen storage sorbents that meet or exceed DOE’s 2017 performance targets of gravimetric capacity of 0.055 kg H 2 /kg system and volumetric capacity of 0.040 kg H 2 /L system at a cost of $400/kg H 2 stored . Texas A&M University (TAMU) and Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) collaborated in developing low-cost and high-capacity hydrogen-storage sorbents with appropriate stability, sorption kinetics, and thermal conductivity. The research scope and methods developed to achieve the project’s goals include the following: Advanced ligand design and synthesis to construct MOF sorbents with optimal hydrogen storage capacities, low cost and high stability; Substantially improve the hydrogen uptake capacity and chemical stability of MOF-based sorbents by incorporating high valent metal ions during synthesis or through the post-synthetic metal metathesis oxidation approach; Enhance sorbent storage capacity through material engineering and characterization; Generate a better understanding of the H 2 -sorbent interaction through advanced characterization and simulation. Over the course of the project 5 different MOFs were developed and studied: PCN-250, PCN-12, PCN-12’, PCN-608 and PCN-609.2-3 Two different samples were submitted to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in order to validate their hydrogen adsorption capacity, PCN-250 and PCN-12. Neither of these samples reached the project’s Go/No-Go requirements but the data obtained did further prove the hypothesis that the presence of open metal sites oriented towards MOF pores help to surpass the predicted hydrogen uptakes described by Chahine’s rule.4 These observations are believed to have a major impact on the hydrogen storage community, and may potentially lead to the development of a material that could meet the DOE goals for hydrogen storage systems for automotive applications.

08 HYDROGEN↗

Merging symmetry projection methods with coupled cluster theory: Lessons from the Lipkin model Hamiltonian

Coupled cluster and symmetry projected Hartree-Fock are two central paradigms in electronic structure theory. However, they are very different. Single reference coupled cluster is highly successful for treating weakly correlated systems, but fails under strong correlation unless one sacrifices good quantum numbers and works with broken-symmetry wave functions, which is unphysical for finite systems. Symmetry projection is effective for the treatment of strong correlation at the mean-field level through multireference non-orthogonal configuration interaction wavefunctions, but unlike coupled cluster, it is neither size extensive nor ideal for treating dynamic correlation. We here examine different scenarios for merging these two dissimilar theories. We carry out this exercise over the integrable Lipkin model Hamiltonian, which despite its simplicity, encompasses non-trivial physics for degenerate systems and can be solved via diagonalization for a very large number of particles. We show how symmetry projection and coupled cluster doubles individually fail in different correlation limits, whereas models that merge these two theories are highly successful over the entire phase diagram. Despite the simplicity of the Lipkin Hamiltonian, the lessons learned in this work will be useful for building an ab initio symmetry projected coupled cluster theory that we expect to be accurate in the weakly and strongly correlated limits, as well as the recoupling regime.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Management of the Cs/Sr Capsule Project at the Hanford Site. Technology Readiness Assessment Report

The Federal Project Director (FPD) for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Richland Operations Office (RL) Waste Management and D&D Division (WMD) requested a Technology Readiness Assessment (TRA) for the Management of the Cesium/Strontium Capsule Storage Project (MCSCP) at the Waste Encapsulation and Storage Facility (WESF) on the Hanford Site in Washington State. The MCSCP CD-1 TRA was performed by a team selected in collaboration between the Office of Environmental Management (EM) Chief Engineer (EM-3.3) and RL, WMD FPD. The TRA Team included subject matter and technical experts having experience in cask storage, process engineering, and system design who were independent of the MCSCP, and the team was led by the Director of Operations and Processes from the EM Chief Engineer's Office (EM-3.32). Movement of the Cs/Sr capsules to dry storage, based on information from the conceptual design, involves (1) capsule packaging, (2) capsule transfer, and (3) capsule storage. The project has developed a conceptual process, described in 30059-R-02, "NAC Conceptual Design Report for the Management of the Cesium and Strontium Capsules Project", which identifies the five major activities in the process to complete the transfer from storage pool to pad-mounted cask storage. The process, shown schematically in Figure 1, is comprised of the following process steps: (1) loading capsules into the UCS; (2) UCS processing; (3) UCS insertion into the TSC Basket; (4) cask transport from WESF to CSA and (5) extended storage at the CSA.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

Project Final Report: The Institute for Sustained Performance, Energy, and Resilience (SUPER)

This project concentrated on various aspects of creating and applying tool infrastructure to make it easier to effectively use large-scale parallel computers. This project was collaborative with Argonne National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.C. San Diego, University of Maryland, University of North Carolina, University of Oregon, University Southern California, University of Tennessee, and University of Utah. The research conducted during this project at the University of Maryland is summarized in this report. The complete details of the work are available in the publications listed at the end of the report. Many of the concepts created during this project have been incorporated into tools and made available as freely downloadable software (www.dyninst.org/harmony). It also supported the studies of six graduate students, one undergraduate student, and two post-docs. The funding also provided summer support for the PI and part of the salary of a research staff member.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Final Technical Report- Virginia Solar Pathways Project

This Report provides a technical review of the final results of a funding award to Virginia Electric and Power Company (Dominion Energy Virginia (DEV) or the Company) for a project under the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Energy Technologies Office. The three-year project was formally known as the Virginia Solar Pathways Project (VSPP or the Project). The purpose of the VSPP was to develop a collaborative utility-administered solar strategy (Solar Strategy) for DEV’s service territory in the Commonwealth that could serve as a replicable model for other states with similar policy environments.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Impact of Research and Development, Analysis, and Standardization on PV Project Financing Costs

The technical report discusses how R and D efforts focused on removing perceived risk from cash flows to investors have the potential to lower the cost of capital and increase the amount of leverage in a solar project. It also discusses how creating business efficiencies that allow financing transactions to occur more quickly with less effort can reduce the upfront costs associated with arranging financing for a solar project or group of projects. The paper then assesses the impact that these R and D activities might have on the volatility of PV asset cash flows and asset value, as well as the upfront costs of arranging a financial transaction. Finally, we insert these assumptions into financial models to analyze their impacts on the cost of capital for equity and debt investors, project leverage, and upfront financial transaction costs.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

Project Plan: Salt in Situ Heater Test.

This project plan gives a high-level description of the US Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy (DOE-NE) Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition (SFWD) campaign in situ borehole heater test project being planned for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) site This plan provides an overview of the schedule and responsibilities of the parties involved. This project is a collaborative effort by Sandia, Los Alamos, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories to execute a series of small-diameter borehole heater tests in salt for the DOE-NE SFWD campaign. Design of a heater test in salt at WIPP has evolved over several years. The current design was completed in fiscal year 2017 (FY17), an equipment shakedown experiment is underway in April FY18, and the test implementation will begin in summer of FY18. The project comprises a suite of modular tests, which consist of a group of nearby boreholes in the wall of drifts at WIPP. Each test is centered around a packer-isolated heated borehole (5" diameter) containing equipment for water-vapor collection and brine sampling, surrounded by smaller-diameter (2" diameter) satellite observation boreholes. Observation boreholes will contain temperature sensors, tracer release points, electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) sensors, fiber optic sensing, and acoustic emission (AE) measurements, and sonic velocity sources and sensors. These satellite boreholes will also be used for plugging/sealing tests. The first two tests to be implemented will have the packer-isolated borehole heated to 120°C, with one observation borehole used to monitor changes. Follow-on tests will be designed using information gathered from the first two tests, will be conducted at other temperatures, will use multiple observation boreholes, and may include other measurement types and test designs.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

Configuration Management History Report for the RH LLW Disposal Facility Project

This document outlines and summarized the configuration management process that was used for the RHLLW Disposal Facility design and turnover to operations in support of process readiness reviews. The project was originally solicited as a design-build-operate contract, but awarded as a design-build project only to Areva Federal Services in 2014. The RHLLW requirements were captured in two documents: 1) SPC-1437, Design-Build-Operate Performance Specification for the Remote-Handled Low-Level Waste Disposal Project; and 2) TFR-483, Technical and Functional Requirements for the Remote-Handled Low-Level Waste Disposal Project. TFR-483 and SPC-1437 outlined the requirements for the facility and SPC-1437 documented additional requirements regarding quality, design, and construction. A Code of Record (COR) was generated during conceptual design and updated during final design to document the design-basis codes and standards (INL/EXT-10-20044).

42 ENGINEERING↗

Summary paragraphs for recently-awarded DOE-SC projects at Sandia in Quantum Information Science

Sandia National Laboratories was recently awarded 3 new projects in Quantum Information Science (QIS) by the Department of Energy's Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) program and 2 new projects in quantum technologies both DOE's Basic Energy Sciences. Two of the ASCR projects are for work in quantum testbeds, while the third is in the area of quantum algorithms. A fourth QIS project was awarded in FY17, also in the area of quantum algorithms.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗