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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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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2019

Pit Realization Process Manufacturing Readiness Assessments

This document defines a manufacturing readiness assessment process within a Product Realization Process (PRP) for pit manufacturing at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) having the following objectives. Meet National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Defense Programs Business Process System (DPBPS) PRP requirements. Use language established within LANL’s pit manufacturing program. Enable a disciplined approach to evaluate pit manufacturing readiness. Provide effective tools and metrics to assess manufacturing system maturity.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2020

Building Tune-Up Accelerator Program (Final Technical Report)

In 2016, the City of Seattle passed a mandatory Building Tune-Up requirement for all commercial buildings 50,000 square feet (SF) and larger as part of its Climate Action strategy. The requirement is phased in by size with large buildings (greater than 200,000 SF) required first. This allowed Seattle’s Office of Sustainability & Environment (OSE) to offer the Building Tune-Up Accelerator (TUA) Program to the “mid-size” building market (less than 100,000 SF) to meet the requirements early. With funding from the US DOE, a package of technical and financial support was developed for building owners and energy service providers to encourage this hard-to-reach market to participate in the tune-up—and even go beyond requirements for greater energy savings. Seattle City Light, the municipal electric utility, offered participants a simple per square foot financial incentive. Partners at the University of Washington Integrated Design Lab, Smart Buildings Center and Pacific Northwest National Lab (PNNL) offered service provider trainings, analytical tools and technical support. This final technical report summarizes the program, projected energy and emissions savings and lessons learned from program development to implementation to final evaluation for the 102 buildings that participated.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2018

2017 Water Power Project Peer Review Summary Report - Volume 2

The Water Power Technologies Office Peer Review Report summarizes the findings from a 2017 peer review held in Arlington, Virginia, with nearly 300 representatives from our national laboratories, industry, academic institutions, and other stakeholder organizations. Volume II includes sections 6 and 7—the complete program-level and project-level evaluation results—as well as the report appendices.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

M4SF-22LL010301052-SUPCRTNE Thermodynamic Database Integration

This progress report (Level 4 Milestone Number M4SF-22LL010301052) summarizes research conducted at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) within the Argillite Activity Number SF-22LL01030105. SUPCRTNE (starting with v. 1.0) is being developed as the primary engine for future thermodynamic database development. It replaces SUPCRT92 (Johnson et al., 1992), which was earlier used on the Yucca Mountain Project (Wolery and Jove-Colon, 2007). Various changes to SUPCRT92 were and are presently being made. A major change is replacing the original water properties module H2O92D. For this, we have developed a modularized form of the program H2OI95. H2OI95 (Wolery, 2018, 2020) evaluates a newer equation of state for water (IAPWS-95, (Wagner and Pruß, 2002)) that is the present international standard. Thermochemical properties including Gibbs energy, enthalpy, and entropy are now tied to the CODATA standard (Cox et al., 1989).

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2025

Assessment of Physical Security Modeling and Simulation in the Vulnerability Assessment Process

This report provides a comprehensive assessment of physical security modeling and simulation tools available for use in the vulnerability assessment (VA) process for nuclear facilities. It outlines the historical evolution of VA methodologies, emphasizing the transition from traditional layer-based approaches to a more holistic framework that integrates detection probabilities directly into combat simulations. The document details the critical components of the VA process, including the characterization of targets, threats, and protective measures, as well as the development of adversary scenarios that reflect both insider and outsider threats. It highlights the importance of performance assurance programs, emphasizing the need for continuous evaluation and testing of security systems to ensure their effectiveness against evolving threats. Additionally, the report discusses the significance of utilizing accredited modeling and simulation tools in accredited areas to accurately represent adversary actions and the corresponding responses of protective forces. By establishing a systematic approach to VA, this document aims to enhance the overall security posture of nuclear facilities, ensuring compliance with regulatory standards while effectively mitigating risks associated with potential adversarial actions.

45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEF↗
DOE OSTI2022

Star–Galaxy Image Separation with Computationally Efficient Gaussian Process Classification

Abstract We introduce a novel method for discerning optical telescope images of stars from those of galaxies using Gaussian processes (GPs). Although applications of GPs often struggle in high-dimensional data modalities such as optical image classification, we show that a low-dimensional embedding of images into a metric space defined by the principal components of the data suffices to produce high-quality predictions from real large-scale survey data. We develop a novel method of GP classification hyperparameter training that scales approximately linearly in the number of image observations, which allows for application of GP models to large-size Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program data. In our experiments, we evaluate the performance of a principal component analysis embedded GP predictive model against other machine-learning algorithms, including a convolutional neural network and an image photometric morphology discriminator. Our analysis shows that our methods compare favorably with current methods in optical image classification while producing posterior distributions from the GP regression that can be used to quantify object classification uncertainty. We further describe how classification uncertainty can be used to efficiently parse large-scale survey imaging data to produce high-confidence object catalogs.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2012

Assessing the Performance and Scalability of a Novel Multilevel K-Nomial Allgather on CORE-Direct Systems

In this paper, we propose a novel allgather algorithm, Reindexed Recursive K-ing (RRK), which leverages flexibility in the algorithm's tree topology and ability to make asynchronous progress coupled with Core-Direct communication offload capability to optimize the MPI-Allgather for Core-Direct enabled systems. In particular, the RRK introduces a reindexing scheme which ensures contiguous data transfers while adding only a single additional send and receive operation for any radix, k, or communicator size, N. This allows us to improve algorithm scalability by avoiding the use of a scatter/gather elements (SGE) list on InfiniBand networks. The implementations of the RRK algorithm and its evaluation shows that it performs and scales well on Core-Direct systems for a wide range of message sizes and various communicator configurations.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2012

NUCLEAR ENERGY SYSTEM COST MODELING

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Fuel Cycle Technologies (FCT) Program is preparing to perform an evaluation of the full range of possible Nuclear Energy Systems (NES) in 2013. These include all practical combinations of fuels and transmuters (reactors and sub-critical systems) in single and multi-tier combinations of burners and breeders with no, partial, and full recycle. As part of this evaluation, Levelized Cost of Electricity at Equilibrium (LCAE) ranges for each representative system will be calculated. To facilitate the cost analyses, the 2009 Advanced Fuel Cycle Cost Basis Report is being amended to provide up-to-date cost data for each step in the fuel cycle, and a new analysis tool, NE-COST, has been developed. This paper explains the innovative “Island” approach used by NE-COST to streamline and simplify the economic analysis effort and provides examples of LCAE costs generated. The Island approach treats each transmuter (or target burner) and the associated fuel cycle facilities as a separate analysis module, allowing reuse of modules that appear frequently in the NES options list. For example, a number of options to be screened will include a once-through uranium oxide (UOX) fueled light water reactor (LWR). The UOX LWR may be standalone, or may be the first stage in a multi-stage system. Using the Island approach, the UOX LWR only needs to be modeled once and the module can then be reused on subsequent fuel cycles. NE-COST models the unit operations and life cycle costs associated with each step of the fuel cycle on each island. This includes three front-end options for supplying feedstock to fuel fabrication (mining/enrichment, reprocessing of used fuel from another island, and/or reprocessing of this island’s used fuel), along with the transmuter and back-end storage/disposal. Results of each island are combined based on the fractional energy generated by each islands in an equilibrium system. The cost analyses use the probability distributions of key parameters and employs Monte Carlo sampling to arrive at an island’s cost probability density function (PDF). When comparing two NES to determine delta cost, strongly correlated parameters can be cancelled out so that only the differences in the systems contribute to the relative cost PDFs. For example, one comparative analysis presented in the paper is a single stage LWR-UOX system versus a two-stage LWR-UOX to LWR-MOX system. In this case, the first stage of both systems is the same (but with different fractional energy generation), while the second stage of the UOX to MOX system uses the same type transmuter but the fuel type and feedstock sources are different. In this case, the cost difference between systems is driven by only the fuel cycle differences of the MOX stage.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2013

Twenty Years On!: Updating the IEA BESTEST Building Thermal Fabric Test Cases for ASHRAE Standard 140: Preprint

ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 140, Standard Method of Test for the Evaluation of Building Energy Analysis Computer Programs applies the IEA BESTEST building thermal fabric test cases and example simulation results originally published in 1995. These software accuracy test cases and their example simulation results, which comprise the first test suite adapted for the initial 2001 version of Standard 140, are approaching their 20th anniversary. In response to the evolution of the state of the art in building thermal fabric modeling since the test cases and example simulation results were developed, work is commencing to update the normative test specification and the informative example results.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2019

Turboexpander: Alternative Fueling Concept for Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle Fast Fill

At the DOE Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Program Annual Merit Review and Peer Evaluation Meeting, NREL presented progress and accomplishments for the 'Turboexpander: Alternative Fueling Concept for Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle Fast Fill' project. This project was awarded through DOE's H2@Scale CRADA Call to investigate the performance of a turboexpander device. A turboexpander is capable of cooling pressurized hydrogen gas as it drops in pressure from the station supply. NREL has designed and is building a proof of concept device using a drag turbine. Test results will be published and will be used in future projects.

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION↗
DOE OSTI2013

ASSESSING MATERIAL DEGRADATION EFFECTS ON LONG TERM STORAGE STRUCTURAL ANALYSES

PNNL staff are currently working to conduct analyses, integrate experimental data, and develop the technical basis for extended long term storage and subsequent transportation of used nuclear fuel. Analyses will serve to augment the experimental work by addressing degradation phenomena not readily obtainable through experimentation, such as low temperature creep over very long periods of time. Analyses can also address issues such as concrete degradation that may not require a comprehensive R&D program to resolve, as well as evaluation of engineering design solutions that can be implemented to mitigate the amount and extent of experimental data needed. Most importantly, analyses are necessary to determine how much degradation any structure, system, or component can experience and still maintain its ability to meet its safety functions. This paper focuses on various structural modeling issues that are affected by material degradation in extended long term storage scenarios. Typical storage cask and transportation package designs have a safety basis that includes a number of structural static or dynamic finite element analysis (FEA) models. Some of the features of these standard models need to be reconsidered when the fuel is in an extended long term storage state. In this paper, a number of standard safety basis FEA models are discussed and evaluated for their applicability to long term storage scenarios. A vertical handling drop analysis is used to illustrate a case where additional modeling is needed to define the loads and loading history needed to properly evaluate material degradation in long term storage scenarios.

Klymyshyn, Nicholas A.↗
DOE OSTI2012

TENDL-2011: TALYS-based Evaluated Nuclear Data Library

The 4. release of the TENDL library, TENDL-2011 (TALYS-based Evaluated Nuclear Data Library) is described. This library consists of a complete set of nuclear reaction data for incident neutrons, photons, protons, deuterons, tritons, helions and alpha particles, from 10-5 eV up to 200 MeV, for all isotopes from {sup 6}Li to {sup 281}Ds that are either stable of have a half-life longer than 1 second. All data are completely and consistently evaluated using a software system consisting of the TALYS-1.2 nuclear reaction code, and other programs to handle resonance data, experimental data, data from existing evaluations, and to provide the final ENDF-6 formatting. The result is a nuclear data library with mutually consistent reaction information for all isotopes and a quality that increases with yearly updates. To produce this library, TALYS input parameters are adjusted for many nuclides so that calculated cross sections agree with experimental data, while for important nuclides experimental data are directly included. All information is available on www.talys.eu and www.talys.eu/TENDL-2011. (authors)

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2012

Analysis of Phenix natural convection test with the TRACE code

Experimental data from the Natural Convection (NC) test performed in the Phenix reactor prior to its final shutdown have been used to further validate the single-phase sodium flow modeling in TRACE. The experimental data for the benchmark have been shared by the CEA in the frame of a Coordinated Research Project (CRP), initiated by the IAEA Technical Working Group on Fast Reactors (TWG-FR). This paper presents a complete TRACE model of the Phenix primary circuit developed for the analysis. Steady-state calculations at nominal (350 MWth) and reduced (120 MWth) power are compared to the experimental data for the validation of the model. We presents results from the 'blind' comparison, i.e. the comparison of the test results with those computed prior to the communication of the experimental data, so-called 'pre-test' results. 'Post-test' results, calculated from a model improved on the basis of the discrepancies identified from the blind comparison, are also presented. The analysis highlights the need to accurately simulate the reactor structures, since these define the thermal inertia of the system during the first phase of the transient. Furthermore, it shows the limitations of computed 1D-results when applied to the simulation of highly-stratified temperature fields. Nevertheless, the simulated reactor behavior and temperatures are found to match very well with the experimental data after the first two hours and, in general, the TRACE blind predictions may be considered as having been quite satisfactory. (authors)

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2015

An approach to evaluating and monitoring ecological resources for sustainability on DOE remediation sites: Hanford as a case study - 15524

Protecting ecological and environmental resources is a worthy aspect of the Department of Energy's site missions, for each of its sites, during and after remediation. Ecological resources are important to a range of stakeholders, including regulatory agencies, resource agencies, natural resource trustees, Tribal governments, and the public, and may be an essential component of Native American cultural resources. Because the nature and value of ecological resources can change over time as a result of remediation, succession, and global climate change, it is imperative for DOE to have instituted an acceptable method of evaluating resources before initiation of active remediation, over the ensuing century when institutional and engineering controls are considered to be in effect. Having such a methodology in place also would be key to resource sustainability. Department of Energy sites generally have environmental programs, so instituting specific unified practices for evaluating resources should not be difficult to implement. Instituting these practices would assure the public that ecological resources, as well as human and cultural resources, are being protected now, and can be protected into the future. Key ecological species and/or unique habitats have been preserved at Department of Energy sites since the mid-20. century because of federal government stewardship. Such preservation is particularly true for the sites with larger land areas, including the Hanford Reservation, the Idaho National Laboratory and the Savannah River Site. Individual sites typically have extensive studies of site biodiversity, but site resources are not routinely examined within a regional or national context (Eco-region). The evaluation of the on-site resources with those resources in the appropriate Eco-region provides a context for 'valuing' on- site resources. On-site resources should also be evaluated in terms of federal and state legislation where species may have legal protection and require legal consideration during remediation if present or adjacent to the remediation site. A method is needed in this study for evaluating ecological resources prior to remediation and during remediation, and a paradigm is proposed that will ensure sustainability. Finally, in a period of climate change and instability, developing methods of evaluating ecological resources is essential to successful protection, enhancement, and sustainability. The ecological methodology is part of a Hanford site-wide Risk Review Project, conducted by the Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder Participation (CRESP). Our method adapts an existing methodology that includes using established levels for evaluating ecological resources by expanding the existing methodology to include field work for validating previous resource level designations, to assess the occurrence of invasive/exotic species, and to identify landscape scale features (patch size, connectivity). Evaluations should be conducted in the remediation unit itself, and in a buffer zone surrounding the remediation site. The methodology described has been applied to several remediation areas at Hanford, and issues that emerged during its application are discussed. The methodology can be applied at the major sites. Application of the Eco-region analysis will provide regulators and the public with an understanding of the value of the ecological resources in relation to the region, as well as an appreciation for the stewardship role the Department of Energy has played in protecting these resources since the beginning of the Cold War Era and can continue to do so sustainably. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2017

The Potential NCS issue process - A method to screen emerging issues

The Potential NCS Issue (PNI) Process is a newly developed methodology that allows for the screening of new information potentially adverse to nuclear criticality safety. The PNI Process allows for transparency of possible emerging issues with both contractor management and on-site regulators. Sources of PNI include the -1) discovery of potential errors, inaccuracy, or omission in an effective criticality safety evaluation, -2) field conditions not accounted for in an effective evaluation, and -3) a potential inadequacy in a supporting calculation. (authors)

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Advanced Capability of Monte Carlo Transport and Depletion Calculation Program SuperMC for Fusion and Fission Applications

Since the advantages of high simulation accuracy and flexible geometry representation, the Monte Carlo methods have been broadly adopted in nuclear design and analysis of nuclear energy systems. However, great challenges exist for the current Monte Carlo methods including the calculation modeling of complex geometries, slow convergence of complex calculation, etc. Super Monte Carlo Simulation Program for Nuclear and Radiation Process (SuperMC), developed by FDS team, is a general purpose, intelligent and multi-functional program for the design and safety evaluation of nuclear systems, which is designed to perform the comprehensive neutronics calculation. The latest version of SuperMC can accomplish the transport calculation of n,{gamma} for criticality and shielding problems, depletion calculation of isotopes, and has been integrated with the functions of automatic modeling, visualization and cloud computing. The latest progress will be introduced in this paper. (authors)

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Current TRISO Fuel Performance Capabilities and Considerations for Expanded Operational Envelopes

Current TRISO Fuel Performance Capabilities and Considerations for Expanded Operational Envelopes. US-DOE TRISO Fuel Development, AGR Fuel Design and Performance Requirements, AGR Program Fuel Irradiations, UCO Fuel Performance Evaluation Results, Performance Limiting Phenomena, Coated-Particle-Fueled Reactor Concepts and Fuel Designs, Expanded Fuel Performance Envelope, and Accelerated Fuel Qualification.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Evaluating 240 Pu Prompt Fission Neutron Spectra Including Chi-Nu Experimental Data

This report documents an evaluation of 240 Pu prompt fission neutron spectra (PFNS) including Chi-Nu experimental data. This work is a FY2025 Q4 NCSP (Nuclear Criticality Safety Program) milestone and named a “strategic priority”. This evaluation is new; it differs substantially from the most recent evaluation included in the ENDF/B library, which was for ENDF/B-VII.1 and then carried over unchanged to ENDF/B-VIII.1. The key difference between ENDF/B-VIII.1 and the new evaluation is that we have, for the first time, realistic experimental 240 Pu PFNS covering a broad incident and outgoing neutron energy range.

240Pu↗