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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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DOE OSTI2012

Solar Energy Grid Integration Systems: Final Report of the Princeton Power Systems, Inc. Development of the 100kW Demand Response Inverter (DRI)

Initiated in 2008, the Solar Energy Grid Integration (SEGIS) program is a partnership involving the U.S. Department of Energy, Sandia National Laboratories, electric utilities, academic institutions and the private sector. Recognizing the need to diversify the nation's energy portfolio, the SEGIS effort focuses on specific technologies needed to facilitate the integration of large-scale solar power generation into the nation's power grid Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) awarded a contract to Princeton Power Systems, Inc., (PPS) to develop a 100kW Advanced AC-link SEGIS inverter prototype under the Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Program for near-term commercial applications. This SEGIS initiative emphasizes the development of advanced inverters, controllers, communications and other balance-of-system components for photovoltaic (PV) distributed power applications. The SEGIS Stage 3 Contract was awarded to PPS on July 28, 2010. PPS developed and implemented a Demand Response Inverter (DRI) during this three-stage program. PPS prepared a 'Site Demonstration Conference' that was held on September 28, 2011, to showcase the cumulative advancements. This demo of the commercial product will be followed by Underwriters Laboratories, Inc., certification by the fourth quarter of 2011, and simultaneously the customer launch and commercial production sometime in late 2011 or early 2012. This final report provides an overview of all three stages and a full-length reporting of activities and accomplishments in Stage 3.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2012

Summary of Monitoring Station Component Evaluation Project 2009-2011

Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) is regarded as a center for unbiased expertise in testing and evaluation of geophysical sensors and instrumentation for ground-based nuclear explosion monitoring (GNEM) systems. This project will sustain and enhance our component evaluation capabilities. In addition, new sensor technologies that could greatly improve national monitoring system performance will be sought and characterized. This work directly impacts the Ground-based Nuclear Explosion Monitoring mission by verifying that the performance of monitoring station sensors and instrumentation is characterized and suitable to the mission. It enables the operational monitoring agency to deploy instruments of known capability and to have confidence in operational success. This effort will ensure that our evaluation capabilities are maintained for future use.

98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL P↗
DOE OSTI2012

Advanced Energy Industries, Inc. SEGIS developments

The Solar Energy Grid Integration Systems (SEGIS) initiative is a three-year, three-stage project that includes conceptual design and market analysis (Stage 1), prototype development/testing (Stage 2), and commercialization (Stage 3). Projects focus on system development of solar technologies, expansion of intelligent renewable energy applications, and connecting large-scale photovoltaic (PV) installations into the electric grid. As documented in this report, Advanced Energy Industries, Inc. (AE), its partners, and Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) successfully collaborated to complete the final stage of the SEGIS initiative, which has guided new technology development and development of methodologies for unification of PV and smart-grid technologies. The combined team met all deliverables throughout the three-year program and commercialized a broad set of the developed technologies.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2012

Neutron and Gamma Irradiation Damage to Organic Materials

This document discusses open literature reports which investigate the damage effects of neutron and gamma irradiation on polymers and/or epoxies—damage refers to reduced physical chemical, and electrical properties. Based on the literature, correlations are made for an SNL developed epoxy (Epon 828-1031/DDS) with an expected total fast-neutron fluence of ~10 12 n/cm 2 and a γ dosage of ~500 Gy received over ~30 years at < 200 °C. In short, there are no gamma and neutron irradiation concerns for Epon 828-1031/DDS. To enhance the fidelity of our hypotheses, in regards to radiation damage, we propose future work consisting of simultaneous thermal/irradiation (neutron and gamma) experiments that will help elucidate any damage concerns at these specified environmental conditions.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2012

Sodium Fast Reactor Safety and Licensing Research Plan – Volume II

Expert panels comprised of subject matter experts identified at the U.S. National Laboratories (SNL, ANL, INL, ORNL, LBL, and BNL), universities (University of Wisconsin and Ohio State University), international agencies (IRSN, CEA, JAEA, KAERI, and JRC-IE) and private consultation companies (Radiation Effects Consulting) were assembled to perform a gap analysis for sodium fast reactor licensing. Expert-opinion elicitation was performed to qualitatively assess the current state of sodium fast reactor technologies. Five independent gap analyses were performed resulting in the following topical reports: (1) Accident Initiators and Sequences (i.e., Initiators/Sequences Technology Gap Analysis), (2) Sodium Technology Phenomena (i.e., Advanced Burner Reactor Sodium Technology Gap Analysis), (3) Fuels and Materials (i.e., Sodium Fast Reactor Fuels and Materials: Research Needs), (4) Source Term Characterization (i.e., Advanced Sodium Fast Reactor Accident Source Terms: Research Needs), and (5) Computer Codes and Models (i.e., Sodium Fast Reactor Gaps Analysis of Computer Codes and Models for Accident Analysis and Reactor Safety). Volume II of the Sodium Research Plan consolidates the five gap analysis reports produced by each expert panel, wherein the importance of the identified phenomena and necessities of further experimental research and code development were addressed. The findings from these five reports comprised the basis for the analysis in Sodium Fast Reactor Research Plan Volume I.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2012

Cielo Computational Environment Usage Model: With Mappings to ACE Requirements for the General Availability User Environment Capabilities (Release V.1.1)

Cielo is a massively parallel supercomputer funded by the DOE/NNSA Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASC) program, and operated by the Alliance for Computing at Extreme Scale (ACES), a partnership between Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and Sandia National Laboratories (SNL). The primary Cielo compute platform is physically located at Los Alamos National Laboratory. This Cielo Computational Environment Usage Model documents the capabilities and the environment to be provided for the Q1 FY12 Level 2 Cielo Capability Computing (CCC) Platform Production Readiness Milestone. This document describes specific capabilities, tools, and procedures to support both local and remote users. The model is focused on the needs of the ASC user working in the secure computing environments at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Los Alamos National Laboratory, or Sandia National Laboratories, but also addresses the needs of users working in the unclassified environment. The Cielo Computational Environment Usage Model maps the provided capabilities to the tri-Lab ASC Computing Environment (ACE) Version 8.0 requirements. The ACE requirements reflect the high performance computing requirements for the Production Readiness Milestone user environment capabilities of the ASC community. A description of ACE requirements met, and those requirements that are not met, are included in each section of this document. The Cielo Computing Environment, along with the ACE mappings, has been issued and reviewed throughout the tri-Lab community.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2012

Mesoscale Benchmark Demonstration, Problem 1: Mesoscale Simulations of Intra-granular Fission Gas Bubbles in UO 2 under Post-irradiation Thermal Annealing

A study was conducted to evaluate the capabilities of different numerical methods used to represent microstructure behavior at the mesoscale for irradiated material using an idealized benchmark problem. The purpose of the mesoscale benchmark problem was to provide a common basis to assess several mesoscale methods with the objective of identifying the strengths and areas of improvement in the predictive modeling of microstructure evolution. In this work, mesoscale models (phase-field, Potts, and kinetic Monte Carlo) developed by PNNL, INL, SNL, and ORNL were used to calculate the evolution kinetics of intra-granular fission gas bubbles in UO 2 fuel under post-irradiation thermal annealing conditions. The benchmark problem was constructed to include important microstructural evolution mechanisms on the kinetics of intra-granular fission gas bubble behavior such as the atomic diffusion of Xe atoms, U vacancies, and O vacancies, the effect of vacancy capture and emission from defects, and the elastic interaction of non-equilibrium gas bubbles. An idealized set of assumptions was imposed on the benchmark problem to simplify the mechanisms considered. The capability and numerical efficiency of different models are compared against selected experimental and simulation results. These comparisons find that the phase-field methods, by the nature of the free energy formulation, are able to represent a larger subset of the mechanisms influencing the intra-granular bubble growth and coarsening mechanisms in the idealized benchmark problem as compared to the Potts and kinetic Monte Carlo methods. It is recognized that the mesoscale benchmark problem as formulated does not specifically highlight the strengths of the discrete particle modeling used in the Potts and kinetic Monte Carlo methods. Future efforts are recommended to construct increasingly more complex mesoscale benchmark problems to further verify and validate the predictive capabilities of the mesoscale modeling methods used in this study.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2012

Spreader Bar Radiation Detection Project Data Collection Report

A feasibility assessment of spreader-bar radiation detection (SBRD) systems was commissioned by NA-22 in the summer of 2009. To validate modeling results and allow performance to be based on actual measurements, a full-scale mockup of a SBRD system was built. The full-scale mockup consists of an actual spreader instrumented with 32 sodium iodide gamma detectors. Two sets of data collections were performed using the SBRD mockup. The first set measured the uniformity of radiation detection throughout the Inter-Modal Cargo Container (IMCC). The second set of data collections measured the response of the system to shielded sources. Plywood was used as the simulated cargo (shielding) material and sources were placed at varying depths within it. Both sets of data collections were performed using a forty-foot and a twenty-foot IMCC. In all, over 8700 spectra were collected during the October 2011 through December 2011 time period. This effort is a partnership between Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). Sandia was responsible for design and construction of the SBRD mockup and collection of the data. PNNL was responsible for design of the data collection plan and analysis of the collected data.

Kallenbach, Gene Anthony↗
DOE OSTI2012

High-Temperature Split-Flow Recompression Brayton Cycle Initial Test Results

Supercritical CO 2 (S-CO 2 ) power plants offer the potential for better economics because of their small size, use of standard materials, and improved electrical power conversion efficiency at modest temperature (400–750°C). Sandia National Laboratories (SNL or Sandia) and the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy (DOE-NE) are operating a supercritical CO 2 Brayton cycle power system—the Generation IV (Gen IV) split-flow S-CO 2 compressor test loop—currently located in Arvada Colorado, at Barber Nichols, Inc., under contract to Sandia. A photograph of the upgraded loop is shown in Figure E-1. This system is one of the first S-CO 2 power-producing Brayton cycles operating in the world. This report provides a summary of the newly installed hardware and briefly describes some of the test results that were performed in the upgraded split-flow Brayton loop during June and July of 2011. The Gen IV S-CO 2 split-flow Brayton loop was reconfigured to operate as a simple heated recuperated Brayton loop for the testing in this report period. The test loop had just concluded a phase of construction that substantially increased the capability of the loop by adding heaters, a high-temperature (HT) recuperator, more waste heat removal capability, high-power load banks, larger diameter piping with more bends to reduce thermal stress, and more capable scavenging pumps to reduce windage and friction within the turbomachinery and provide greater cooling capabilities. With these additions, the loop greatly increased its capacity for electrical power generation (30–80 kWe per generator, depending on the loop configuration) and its ability to reach high temperatures (up to 810 K [1000°F]). In recent weeks of testing, the test facility began to realize this potential by achieving new records in turbine inlet temperature (615 K [650°F]), shaft speed (52,000 rpm), pressure ratio (1.65), flow rate (2.7 kg/s), and electrical power generated (20 kWe). These operating conditions still remain short of design conditions for each turbine—an inlet temperature of 810 K (1000°F), a pressure ratio of 1.8, a shaft speed of 75,000 rpm, a flow rate of 3.5 kg/s, and a maximum generator power of 125 kWe—but they are beginning to be approached. Not all planned upgrades were implemented due to the limited funding profile of FY2010. Only 520 kW of heater power were installed—not the total 780 kW. Furthermore, because one of the heater controllers was not functioning, only 390 kW of heater power were available. Similarly, the 3-in. piping was installed only in the high-pressure leg of the loop, not in the low-pressure leg, as was originally planned. We also had to rely on the new load bank capability for rapid shutdown situations, and were not able to install a dedicated shutdown resistor. Nevertheless, in spite of these limitations, we operated the loop at record operating conditions and were largely limited only by the facility and support equipment—not the turbomachinery.

Wright, Steven Alan↗
DOE OSTI2012

MC-15: Next Generation Neutron Multiplicity Detector FY12 Annual Report

The MC-15 project finished its second year of a three year project. The objective of this $5.5 million dollar project is to develop (jointly with LANL, LLNL and SNL) the next generation neutron multiplicity detector to improve neutron diagnostics capabilities for early emergency response activities. Major activities completed this year include the agreement of a final detector design by all three labs. Also completed was the mechanical design with fabrication of parts starting this year. Significant improvements were made to the onboard memory storage and USB memory transfer system. The “stop work” imposed upon this project has delayed finalizing the analog electronics. This delay will affect the original project schedule, but we still hope to have two prototype detectors built by the end of FY13. Field testing will be pushed back to FY14.

Instrumentation Related to Nuclear Science & Techn↗
DOE OSTI2012

Research reactor QA standard selection, survey and benchmarking

In June of 2012, the Nuclear Quality and Requirements Department at SNL TA-V conducted a survey of research facilities in the U.S. and internationally to determine 1) how they chose to implement QA and SQA and 2) to serve as a starting point for further questions. The results, collected in July 2012, were a broad spectrum of locations, standard selection, and regulating bodies in the U.S. and internationally. The results showed that standard selection, regulating agency, and resources allocated to implement QA (beyond a certain minimum) did not appear to have an impact on self-reported QA program effectiveness. The single greatest indicator of self reported QA program quality effectiveness appeared to be the number of different techniques used to verify QA program effectiveness. The responses to the survey are detailed in the following report, along with a list of suggested follow-on questions for specific facilities.

Pratt, Richard J.↗
DOE OSTI2012

Sustainability Innovation Foundry: Leveraging Research and Development for a Sustainable Sandia

Sustainability is a critical national security issue for the U.S. and other nations. SNL is already a global leader sustainability science and technology, but we can do more. This report documents the basis for the Sustainability Innovation Foundry and the outcomes from a workshop held on September 10, 2012. The workshop's goal was to initiate trans-disciplinary discussions and collaboration toward realization of a Sustainability Innovation Foundry (SIF). The efforts of the SIF will support Sandia's national and international security missions related to sustainability and resilience revolving around energy use, water use, and materials, both on site at Sandia and externally. The SIF will leverage existing Sandia research and development (R&D) in sustainability science and technology (SS&T) to support new solutions to complex problems. The SIF will also build on existing Sandia initiatives to transform Sandia into a fully sustainable entity in terms of materials, energy, and water use. The SIF will demonstrate the efficacy of sustainability technology developed at Sandia through prototyping and test bed approaches and will provide a common platform for support of solutions to the complex problems surrounding sustainability. Leadership-level funding will be required, but initial prototype projects are already underway with funding from Facilities.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2012

Protocol for Uniformly Measuring and Expressing the Performance of Energy Storage Systems

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Storage Systems (ESS) Program, through the support of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), facilitated the development of the protocol provided in this report. The focus of the protocol is to provide a uniform way of measuring, quantifying, and reporting the performance of EESs in various applications; something that does not exist today and, as such, is hampering the consideration and use of this technology in the market. The availability of an application-specific protocol for use in measuring and expressing performance-related metrics of ESSs will allow technology developers, power-grid operators and other end-users to evaluate the performance of energy storage technologies on a uniform and comparable basis. This will help differentiate technologies and products for specific application(s) and provide transparency in how performance is measured. It also will assist utilities and other consumers of ESSs make more informed decisions as they consider the potential application and use of ESSs, as well as form the basis for documentation that might be required to justify utility investment in such technologies.

Bray, Kathryn L.↗
DOE OSTI2012

Proactive Defense for Evolving Cyber Threats

There is great interest to develop proactive methods of cyber defense, in which future attack strategies are anticipated and these insights are incorporated into defense designs; however, little has been done to place this ambitious objective on a sound scientific foundation. Indeed, even fundamental issues associated with how the “arms race” between attackers and defenders actually leads to predictability in attacker activity, or how to effectively and scalably detect this predictability in the relational/temporal data streams generated by attacker/defender adaptation, haven’t been resolved. This LDRD project addressed many of these challenges and the results are briefly summarized here. We have characterized the predictability of attacker/defender coevolution and have leveraged our findings to create a framework for designing proactive defenses for large (organizational) networks. More specifically, this project applied rigorous predictability-based analytics to two central and complementary aspects of the network defense problem – attack strategies of the adversaries and vulnerabilities of the defenders’ systems – and used the results to develop a scientifically-grounded, practically-implementable methodology for designing proactive cyber defense systems. Briefly, predictive analysis of attack strategies involved first conducting predictability assessments to characterize attacker adaptation patterns in given domains, and then used these patterns to “train” adaptive defense systems capable of providing robust performance against both current and (near) future threats. The problem of identifying and prioritizing defender system vulnerabilities was addressed using statistical and machine learning to analyze a broad range of data (e.g., cyber, social media) on recently detected system vulnerabilities to “learn” classifiers that predict how likely it is that, and how soon, new vulnerabilities will be exploited. A variety of cyber threat case studies were developed and investigated throughout the project, one selected from the cyber security research community and one that is more comprehensive and of higher priority to SNL and to external national security partners. A sample of research results and application of this methodology are included in this report (as a series of peer-reviewed publications). For ease of reference the title and SAND number are included below.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2013

Report on Sustainability Program Peer Reviews at NNSA Laboratories

In FY 2012 peer reviews were conducted at three of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Laboratories on the implementation of sustainability programs to achieve the DOE Strategic Sustainability Performance Plan goals. The three Laboratories selected include Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), and Sandia National Laboratory (SNL). These reviews were initiated by the LANS/LLNS Board of Governors Business & Operations Committee and were joined by Sandia National Laboratories to get a broad understanding of the challenges and successes experienced at the three Labs. Each review used a common approach and process for inquiry. The peer review process provided a beneficial benchmarking opportunity for each of the Laboratories. The purpose of this report summary is to bring together the mutual challenges faced across the three NNSA national labs to deepen the conversations between the sites and NNSA as the customer to work constructively toward achieving progress on the sustainability goals. The team identified many noteworthy practices and common challenges faced at each of the three sites. At each site the review team also saw a strong connection between the Environmental Management System (EMS) and the implementation of the site’s sustainability program. One common challenge was that in spite of the linkage to the EMS program the implementation efforts to achieve the sustainability goals were perceived as being the sole responsibility of the facilities and infrastructure management organizations vice an expectation for strong employee engagement. Another common challenge was perceived within the procurement organizations and demonstrated effort toward meeting the sustainable acquisition requirements throughout the organization and the various contract instruments used at each site.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2013

Review of Metrics Calculations Proposed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

A multilaboratory effort to create metrics to describe the state of Surveillance programs was started several years ago. Two versions of metrics have been developed to date-one supported by Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) and the other developed and supported at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). This paper reviews the LLNL metric calculation methodology and compares it with the LANLlSNL methodology.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2013

Nanoparticles Stabilize Thin Polymer Films: A Fundamental Study to Understand the Phenomenon

In this project we have successfully married an experimental theoretical collaboration between the University of Delaware research group and Sandia National Laboratories. To do this Prof. Mackay supervised graduate students, Ms. Erica Tzu-Chia Tseng and Mr. Wenluan Zhang, who performed experiments, and a postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Venkat Padmanabhan, who performed theoretical modeling in his laboratory and interacted with Dr. Amalie Frischknecht, a theoretician at SNL. Drs. Padmanabhan and Frischknecht had weekly teleconferences on Tuesday mornings to discuss progress and had 2-3 face-to-face meetings per year. Dr. Frischknecht was funded on her part through CINT to allow this partnership. This unique collaborative effort of placing a theoretician within a group of experimentalists has tremendously aided experimental progress since the collaborators are intimately familiar with both the experimental and theoretical efforts. Furthermore development of new theoretical tools to interpret experimental results has resulted in rational verification and enhanced investigation of parameter space.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗