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

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At least 91 records · Page 5
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2026

Integral Experiment Execution of Thermal or Epithermal eXperiments using Plutonium with Polyethylene and Iron, IER 519, TEX-Hanford (-Iron), CED-3b

This report documents the execution of experiments and measurements for IER 519, Thermal/Epithermal eXperiments (TEX) for Hanford applications, using plutonium Zero Power Physics Reactor (ZPPR) plates moderated by interstitial polyethylene and iron (Fe) absorber plates. Initial hand stack, mass, and dimensional measurements were performed in July 2025. The experiments were completed over three weeks from December 2025 to January 2026 at the National Criticality Experiments Research Center (NCERC) at the Nevada National Security Sites (NNSS). All photos and critical data were provided by NCERC and experimenters in LANL’s NEN-2.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS1974

MSFC integrated experiments preliminary report

Skylab experiments are described and their preliminary results are reported. The types of experiments described include medical, earth resources, space physics, space manufacturing, and spacecraft design.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1987

Results of the joint utilization of laser integrated experiments flown on payload GAS-449 aboard Columbia mission 61-C

The high peak power neodymium YAG laser and the HeNe laser aboard GAS-449 have demonstrated the survivability of the devices in the micro-gravity, cosmic radiation, thermal, and shock environment of space. Some pharmaceuticals and other materials flown in both the active and passive status have demonstrated reduction in volume and unusual spectroscopic changes. X-ray detectors have shown cosmic particle hits with accompanying destruction at their interaction points. Some scattering in the plates is in evidence. Some results of both active and passive experiments on board the GAS-449 payload are evaluated.

Muckerheide, M. C.↗
DOE OSTI2024

Chlorine Validation through Critical Integral Experiments

An increased interest in the validation of chlorine nuclear data, specifically 35Cl, in recent years has led to the prioritization of conducting chlorine critical experiments for nuclear data validation and criticality safety evaluations. A previous experiment was conducted with PVC and CPVC (chlorinated polyvinyl chloride) to reduce the margin of subcriticality for PF-4 operations with aqueous plutonium chloride solutions. Challenges in determining the composition of specific polymers, namely the CPVC, made it difficult to characterize, and therefore benchmark. Additional materials that were utilizable for chlorine validation were not immediately clear, as form, strength, purity, and composition are all important. A series of possible absorber materials were identified and studied, but ultimately granular sodium chloride was chosen. In addition to the needs of LANL’s PF-4 other industry collaborators have brought attention to the need for chlorine validation. Specifically, the need for HEU electrorefining with LiCl salts at Y-12 was taken into consideration for this experiment, with the experimental configurations being finely tuned to best meet their needs. Needs for validation were also presented by Idaho National Lab (INL) and TerraPower for validation of their Molten Chloride Reactor Experiment (MCRE) and Molten Chloride Fast Reactor (MCFR) and have also been considered.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Estimating List-Mode Data Sensitivities to Nuclear Data with MCNP6

Nuclear data are a vital component of predictive simulations used in applications like experiment design, stockpile stewardship, nuclear nonproliferation/safeguards, health physics, and criticality safety. A singular simulation requires the coalescence of different areas of nuclear data such as cross sections, angular distributions, and energy distributions of emitted neutrons for different materials and energy ranges. Improving nuclear data and thus reducing the uncertainty in simulated parameters could enable smaller, better-informed safety factors and ultimately reduce operational and procedural costs. There is a constant effort to garner a better understanding of the physical quantities represented by nuclear data through experiments. Integral experiment benchmarks use simulated and measured results to validate current nuclear data values. In the past, benchmarks primarily focused on the effective multiplication factor (k eff ); however, this limited scope has caused compensating errors and areas of nuclear data that lack validation. Compensating errors are inaccuracies in nuclear data that are obfuscated by cancellation when observing integrated values such as k eff . Diverse integral benchmark experiments that look for quantities of interest other than k eff and include multiple responses minimize the possibility of compensating errors and provides validation to areas of nuclear data previously lacking experimental validation. Benchmark experiments can be optimized during the design process to be highly dependent on specific areas of nuclear data. The dependence of a response in an experiment to a specific area/type of nuclear data is defined as sensitivity. A larger sensitivity means that nuclear data uncertainties will play a larger role in the response(s) resulting in larger bias. Currently, the sensitivity capabilities of the Monte Carlo N-Particle (MCNP ®1 ) transport code are limited to responses of k eff and tallied values (e.g., flux, surface current). As a part of the EUCLID project, this work explores estimating list-mode nuclear data sensitivities that can be used to design experiments aimed to constrain and reduce compensating errors in nuclear data by focusing on responses other than k eff . Tallied values are ideal quantities that are estimated with detectors during experiments. List-mode data (a list of neutron collection times) are the direct output of detector systems in subcritical neutron noise experiments. Expanding MCNP sensitivity capabilities to include the sensitivity of responses estimated from list-mode data, such as the prompt neutron decay constant (α) and multiplicity estimates (S and D), enables more direct comparison of simulated and measured experimental quantities. Additionally, deterministic tools such as SENSMG are capable of obtaining sensitivities to a wide variety of responses; however, these tools cannot handle complex geometries due to the assumptions made in discretizing the phase-space variables of the Boltzman transport equation.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

A Review of International Field Experience with Well Integrity at Carbon Utilization and Storage Sites

This report details findings from a survey of well integrity experiences elicited from operators of geologic carbon storage (GCS) and carbon dioxide enhanced oil recovery (CO2-EOR) sites around the world. The survey consisted of 41 questions organized in four sections and its goal was to obtain information about site characteristics and operator experiences with well integrity, monitoring methods, and risk assessment of legacy wells. Current literature relevant to the survey questions was also reviewed and summarized to provide context for survey responses and identify areas where field experiences with well integrity do and do not align with the current state of research.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Neutron Leakage Spectra of the EUCLID Experiment [Abstract]

Integral experiments with sub-critical and critical configurations of special nuclear material are performed in support of nuclear data validation and adjustment. Different nuclear data evaluations may have different values for individual cross sections due to uncertainties in (or lack of) differential experiments, but compensating errors in these data sets can lead to the same k eff results for one application while vastly different for another application. One example of this is 239 Pu, where both ENDF/B-VIII.0 and JEFF-3.3 correctly compute k eff of the Jezebel critical assembly, but the individual contributions from each reaction are vastly different. To help resolve this specific case, the Experiments Underpinned by Computational Learning for Improvements in Nuclear Data (EUCLID) project used machine learning to design a set of experiments to help resolve the compensating errors in 239 Pu. A total of six responses were measured during the experimental campaign, which constrain the data in ways that k eff alone cannot and will be used for adjustment of the nuclear data. One of these responses is the neutron leakage spectrum, which recent work has shown to be useful for constraining the prompt fission neutron spectrum and inelastic scattering. The neutron leakage spectra were measured utilizing a 3 in. right cylinder EJ-301D detector. The measured signal in the detector was deconvoluted using spectrum unfolding techniques, which are presented and compared to simulations.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2022

The NCSP at Sandia in FY21 [Slides]

This presentation discusses activities related to the Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP) at Sandia National Laboratory in fiscal year 2021. This includes NCSP funding, integral experiment requests, integral experiment spending, highlights, and COVID-19 impacts.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS1997

Characterization of the Resource Potential of Martian Soil using the Integrated Dust/Soil Experiment Package (IDEP)

The Integrated Dust/Soil Experiment Package (IDEP) is a suite of instruments that can detect and quantify the abundances of useful raw materials on Mars. We focus here on its capability for resource characterization in the martian soil; however, it is also capable of detecting and quantifying gases in the atmosphere. This paper describes the scientific rationale and the engineering design behind the IDEP.

Cooper, Bonnie L.↗