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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
NASA NTRS2010

N+3 Small Commercial Efficient and Quiet Transportation for Year 2030-2035

This study develops a future scenario that enables convenient point-to-point commercial air travel via a large network of community airports and a new class of small airliners. A network demand and capacity study identifies current and future air travel demands and the capacity of this new network to satisfy these demands. A current technology small commercial airliner is defined to meet the needs of the new network, as a baseline for evaluating the improvement brought about by advanced technologies. Impact of this new mode of travel on the infrastructure and surrounding communities of the small airports in this new N+3 network are also evaluated. Year 2030-2035 small commercial airliner technologies are identified and a trade study conducted to evaluate and select those with the greatest potential for enhancing future air travel and the study metrics. The selected advanced air vehicle concept is assessed against the baseline aircraft, and an advanced, but conventional aircraft, and the study metrics. The key technologies of the selected advanced air vehicle are identified, their impact quantified, and risk assessments and roadmaps defined.

DAngelo, Martin M.↗
DOE OSTI2022

A System Approach to Deep Heating Savings Through Measurement, Management, and Motivation

Across multi-tenant commercial office and multifamily buildings, centrally metered fuel use represents a substantial fraction of whole-building energy use. Energy audit practitioners understand that improving heating distribution efficiency is typically more of an opportunity than combustion efficiency and that differing thermal comfort preferences between tenants are the bane of operators across these building typologies. There is an unmet market need for retrofit technologies that allow for the delivery of the right amount of heat to the right spaces, at the right time. The Energy Management and Information System (EMIS) package fills this gap through enhanced controls and metering, incorporating low-cost sensors and wireless communication infrastructure to provide a platform for ongoing commissioning and tenant feedback, including heat cost allocation. With support from the US DOE Building Technologies Office, Steven Winter Associates, Inc. (SWA) partnered with Sentient Buildings, E Source, building owners, and utility and policy stakeholders, to demonstrate a market viable EMIS that achieves a reduction in space heating energy use by reducing heating load, improving control, and positively impacting behavior while providing an acceptable financial return. In this study, EMIS packages were implemented in two New York City multifamily rental buildings. Both buildings conducted basic mechanical work (e.g., repairing steam traps) to ensure the heating system was operating well before any tenant feedback was layered in. Heating Energy Use Reports (HEUR) were created to provide tenants with social comparisons and energy savings tips to influence their behavior; these were provided monthly to all tenants in both buildings. Additionally, one building allocated heating costs to a portion of the tenants. Heat cost allocation (HCA) has a long history in the European Union (EU), although it is not common in the US or in steam-heated buildings. SWA leveraged existing EU best practices and stakeholder feedback to develop a Heat Cost Allocation algorithm that was considered equitable and intuitive. Energy use and tenant behavior impacts were tracked throughout the study. The basic mechanical repair work saved between 11-20% of heating energy. Those savings rose to 17-24% with the addition of tenant feedback. While it may not be possible to precisely determine the impact of COVID-19 on research studies like this, there may have been additional savings realized had the study taken place in a period of normal occupancy patterns. These types of central heating systems have been a blind spot for utilities, who have traditionally had little visibility into detailed behind-the-meter gas usage. Heating energy savings stayed consistent during the coldest months, indicating the potential for utilities to utilize EMIS packages for peak gas demand reductions or demand response programs. Tenant comfort was also improved. Post installation, room temperatures more closely matched thermostat set points. Perhaps due to this greater level of control, the vast majority of tenants being billed for heating were accepting of the allocation costs. And tenants receiving heat cost allocations were more likely to reduce their thermostat setpoints than tenants receiving behavioral feedback without financial impacts were. Variation in building specifics makes it difficult to provide precise energy and financial savings estimates. But within the range of expected conditions, the study identified a few key variables that can have the greatest impact on financial returns: the cost of fuel, the ability and willingness to allocate heating costs to tenants, and a well-functioning heating system as a starting point. This study focused on two multifamily buildings, but additional use cases, such as commercial buildings and affordable housing, should be explored to better understand the full market potential. While this type of upgrade has the potential for deep energy reductions and cost savings, future projects should take into account the balance of costs and benefits between owners and tenants, especially in the affordable, regulated, or other low-to-moderate income (LMI) segments of the market. Rent credits, utility allowances, or a shared savings program are possible options to accelerate adoption of this strategy in these market segments.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2025

Technology & Design Innovations to Maximize the Reduction Effect on DCFC Unit Cost Economics (Max‐REDUCE)

With the high cost and reliability issues of DCFC infrastructure the project specifically addressed the needs of innovating on the AC to DC power conversion. We proved the integration of a new power module into existing charger units, and that theoretical educational work on single stage energy conversion is commercially viable, and a reduced cost compared to existing methods. Our A sample shown 3 PH 480VAC 60hz to 350VDC 8.5kW power transfer, and our software and simulation proved efficiency greater than 97% from 20kW to > 60kW, over the DC output voltage range 200 – 1200V. The project was stopped before we could implement B sample and execute full power testing, validation and integration into a demonstration charger (budget period 3).

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2025

Packages of Distributed Energy Technologies Demonstrating Demand Flexibility at Community Scale

The combination of increased electric load growth across all sectors, deferred electrical infrastructure investment, and other factors resulting in variable electric power supply, has created technical challenges to maintaining a resilient and reliable grid. Many federal, regional, and local efforts are in play to modernize the electric grid, including advancing building technologies and distributed energy resources (DERs) that are utilizing smarter controls to become responsive to both occupant and grid needs. This report reviews ten pilot projects demonstrating how groups of buildings combined with behind-the-meter (BTM) DERs such as electric vehicle (EV) charging, battery storage, flexible HVAC and domestic hot water systems, and photovoltaic systems can reliably and cost effectively provide grid services. Each of the ten pilot projects aim to deliver both energy efficiency and demand flexibility (DF) while supporting load growth. The ten demonstration teams are piloting flexible DER packages across diverse communities of residential and commercial buildings to address a variety of regional grid needs. The outcomes of these pilot projects will be used to inform future scaling through utility program development. This paper characterizes the ten teams, showcasing the decision-making process used by each group to develop their packages (Section 2), the grid services they plan to deliver (Section 3), the types of DER packages selected for deployment within building sectors (Section 4) and trends between building sector, DER types, and grid services In order to achieve community scale benefits, the pilot projects must utilize aggregated control mechanisms for coordinating buildings and DERs together. Several types of coordinated control architectures have evolved amongst the teams, influenced by use type, existing market conditions, and integration type. Three coordinated controls architectures have been characterized, highlighting their use cases, benefits, challenges, and tradeoffs in their design. These insights can aid utilities, control vendors, and developers in scaling community-level energy systems (Paul, 2024). Ultimately, the technology packages selected by the ten teams will be coordinated to provide power system services, also known as grid services. Insights from these demonstrations will be useful for grid operators, regulators, aggregators and other stakeholders as they look to deploy demand flexible resources as grid services in the future. The grid services that each team is targeting for demonstration are described in Section 3 and Section 4. Methods for evaluating the grid services have been described in the paper Metrics for Evaluating Grid Service Provision from Communities of Grid-interactive and Efficient Buildings and other DER (MacDonald, 2023). To identify technology packages for demonstration, Section 2 shows that project teams used a range of analysis approaches, including building energy modeling, AMI data analysis, cost-benefit frameworks, and utility pilot data. Some teams emphasized technical modeling to quantify grid impacts and demand reduction potential, while others prioritized economic evaluations, stakeholder input, or exploratory pilots to inform deployment decisions. This diversity reflects the need to tailor selection methods to project goals, available data, and organizational context. Section 5 discusses trends between the DER technologies deployed and the grid service provisions from each team. Residential buildings (multifamily and single family) lean towards technologies that enhance energy efficiency (e.g. weatherization upgrades, smart thermostats) and onsite power generation integration (e.g. solar PV). Commercial building demonstrations prioritize technologies that ensure operational reliability (e.g. battery storage) and centralized energy management systems and optimization solutions. Teams that are deploying controllable storage-based technologies are more likely to provide grid services that require a near real-time response. Teams incorporating load shifting technologies like smart thermostats with HEMs are likely to include energy markets participation and customer bill management offerings. Campus demonstrations are adopting diverse sets of DERs to emphasize renewable generation, paired with centralized control. This section also describes technologies that were considered during project planning but ultimately excluded from final deployment. These demonstrations reveal that effective DER package design should be tailored to building type, customer segment, and construction vintage. Multifamily buildings benefit from centralized HVAC upgrades and supervisory controls, while single-family homes are well-suited for individualized technologies like solar, storage, and smart home energy monitors. Commercial and campus settings prioritize EMIS integration and load optimization. New construction enables cost-effective integration of DER-ready infrastructure, whereas retrofits require deployments aligned with owner and tenant value streams. For utility program planners, early coordination with developers and building owners, paired with segmented and modular program offerings, can improve adoption, scalability, and grid impact.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2023

Incremental Threshold Scheme Enabled IoT Group Key Management

Cyber landscape evolves rapidly. Internet of Things (IoT) and Edge Computing (EC) have rapidly become an integral part of the modern computing infrastructure. It is expected that there will be more than 50 billion active and connected IoT devices by 2025 [1]. Pervasive IoT/EC creates unprecedented opportunities bridging the gap between previously segregated cyber and physical spaces. However, this progress also brings along new security challenges. IoT devices typically have limited computation, communication, and storage resources. This leads to security architecture designs such as using symmetric keys for group communication. While secure and efficient in stable network settings, symmetric key solutions are ill-adapted for IoT's highly dynamic device mobility behavior and frequent group membership turnover. Whenever IoT members leave a group, the known symmetric keys cannot be made forgotten, posing a serious vulnerability. This leads to frequent re-groupings that require expensive re-authentication, key regeneration, and key redistribution in order to maintain IoT/EC security. We present a novel symmetric key management framework that integrate an Incremental Threshold Scheme (ITS) cryptographical function into communication protocol's key rotation mechanism to allow for secure and efficient symmetric key communication group member node revocation. This ITS-enabled key management framework alleviates the need of frequent and expensive re-grouping and re-keying needed by today's large and dynamic IoT/EC operations. We further applied this ITS-enabled key management framework to a distributed IoT/EC-integrated publish and subscribe framework for applicability validation.

Li, Mingyan↗
NASA NTRS2011

Redefining Tactical Operations for MER Using Cloud Computing

The Mars Exploration Rover Mission (MER) includes the twin rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, which have been performing geological research and surface exploration since early 2004. The rovers' durability well beyond their original prime mission (90 sols or Martian days) has allowed them to be a valuable platform for scientific research for well over 2000 sols, but as a by-product it has produced new challenges in providing efficient and cost-effective tactical operational planning. An early stage process adaptation was the move to distributed operations as mission scientists returned to their places of work in the summer of 2004, but they would still came together via teleconference and connected software to plan rover activities a few times a week. This distributed model has worked well since, but it requires the purchase, operation, and maintenance of a dedicated infrastructure at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. This server infrastructure is costly to operate and the periodic nature of its usage (typically heavy usage for 8 hours every 2 days) has made moving to a cloud based tactical infrastructure an extremely tempting proposition. In this paper we will review both past and current implementations of the tactical planning application focusing on remote plan saving and discuss the unique challenges present with long-latency, distributed operations. We then detail the motivations behind our move to cloud based computing services and as well as our system design and implementation. We will discuss security and reliability concerns and how they were addressed

Mars↗
DOE OSTI2024

Reducing the cost of home energy upgrades in the US: An industry survey

Decarbonizing the US residential building stock requires a substantial acceleration in home energy upgrades. Numerous barriers exist to accelerating adoption of efficient and electric building technologies, but foremost among these is high upfront costs. This study uses an industry survey delivered to a sample of home energy professionals to examine promising cost reduction strategies across a range of project types, including HVAC, water heating, and envelope/insulation projects. The survey included quantitative and qualitative questions to collect evidence on the estimated cost reduction potential of these strategies and their likelihood of use in the construction industry. The 167 survey respondents included contractors, energy consultants, architects, manufacturers, and others with experience in delivering energy upgrades in single-family and multifamily buildings in the US. Results show that significant cost reductions are achievable by minimizing additional infrastructure costs (such as replacing electric panels), streamlining project planning/management, and deploying innovations that simplify installation. We find that for a typical deep retrofit project, including heat pumps for space and water heating in addition to envelope upgrades, the strategies could result in a total installed cost reduction of nearly 50%, dramatically improving the customer economics of such a project. This research makes a novel contribution to the literature on strategies to reduce the costs of residential retrofits. We discuss how our study's insights on the highest-value cost reduction strategies for home energy upgrades can further accelerate their uptake in the US housing stock.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2020

Impacts of Distributed Speed Harmonization and Optimal Maneuver Planning on Multi-Lane Roads

A commonly proposed method for improving traffic flow on freeways is speed harmonization. The effectiveness of current speed harmonization approaches, such as variable speed limits, is extremely reliant on human driver compliance. Connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) are expected to come to market within this decade, offering the opportunity to eliminate or reduce the reliance on human compliance. However, extending current roadside infrastructure-based approaches of assigning centrally computed harmonization speeds to individual vehicles is, costly. An alternative approach is to have individual vehicles estimate the traffic state on-board and make distributed decisions to achieve the harmonization goal autonomously. In this work, we present a distributed algorithm for estimating the current average speed of traffic. We couple this with a distributed 2D maneuver planning approach. Then, we study the impact on traffic efficiency in terms of energy consumption and travel time at varying CAV penetration rates.

Goulet, Nathan↗
DOE OSTI2020

reV (The Renewable Energy Potential Model - Open Source) [SWR-21-59, SWR-20-20 and SWR-17-34]

The Renewable Energy Potential (reV) model is a platform for the detailed assessment of renewable energy resources and their geospatial intersection with grid infrastructure and land use characteristics. The reV model currently supports photovoltaic (PV), concentrating solar power (CSP), and land-based wind turbine technologies. Modules in the reV framework function at different spatial and temporal resolutions, allowing for the assessment of resource potential, technical potential, and supply curves at varying levels of detail. The platform runs on the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s (NREL’s) high-performance computing system, providing scalable and efficient performance from a single location up to a continent, for a single year or decades of time-series resource data. Coupled with NREL’s System Advisor Model (SAM), reV supports resource assessments from 5-minute to hourly temporal resolutions and supports the analysis of long-term (i.e., year-on-year) variability of renewable generation (e.g., interannual variability and exceedance probabilities).

Maclaurin, Galen↗
DOE OSTI2024

ACCELERATING MICROREACTOR DEVELOPMENT AND DEPLOYMENT THROUGH JOINT PUBLIC TEST BEDS AND PRIVATE ADVANCED REACTOR DEVELOPMENT

The United States Department of Energy (DOE) has funded the National Reactor Innovation Center (NRIC) to accelerate the development and commercialization of small modular reactors and other advanced reactor technologies. As part of this effort NIRC is building two strategic assets at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) to facilitate public-private partnerships for the development and testing of advanced nuclear microreactors and Small Modular Reactors (SMR). One will provide a safe, secure, and affordable location for High-Assay Low Enriched Uranium (HALEU) fueled reactors and a second for Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) fueled reactors. Together these testbeds fill a nuclear testing infrastructure gap. The availability of such comprehensive testing facilities at the national labs eliminates the significant financial and operational burdens associated with each developer building and licensing their own test facilities. Consequently, this approach will not only accelerate technological innovation and reduce time-to-market for advanced nuclear solutions but it also underscores the DOE's commitment to fostering an ecosystem where nuclear energy will thrive as a clean, reliable, and efficient source of power. The Demonstration of Microreactor Experiments (DOME) and Laboratory for Operations and Testing in the United States (LOTUS) have planned availability in 2026, and 2027 respectively.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Lessons Learned for Responsible Use of Cloud in the Cirrus Project, Following the CrowdStrike Outage Event

A disruption in CrowdStrike’s Falcon cybersecurity platform on July 19th, 2024, caused worldwide chaos. This event highlights the imperative need for cloud security measures for networks that are critically reliant on cloud technology. This incident negatively impacted air travel, government networks, and critical infrastructure sectors such as hospitals and financial institutions. While no electric utilities had a physical impact, and few had an IT impact, there were issues created by loss of cloud services, and other interrelated industries. For utilities and energy distribution organizations, understanding and mitigating these risks is essential. The Cirrus tool offers a strategic solution engineered to weave cloud integration seamlessly into the fabric of operational management, thereby enhancing resilience and streamlining efficiency in the face of digital challenges.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Consequence Based Framework for Deployment of Cloud Solutions in the Digital Energy Transition

This study proposes a framework for evaluating cloud computing deployment in the electric sector, focusing on the digital transition of energy systems. It assesses the implications of cloud technology adoption, particularly in terms of security, operational resilience, and efficiency. The paper introduces a framework for consequence-driven applied risk analysis, enabling utilities to prioritize and mitigate potential threats effectively, and responsibly deploy cloud applications. It also discusses the shared responsibility model in cloud computing, highlighting the need for collaborative security efforts. The research aims to provide utilities with a strategic assessment tool for cloud adoption, emphasizing the importance of security culture in enhancing cloud computing's role in critical infrastructure.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2026

Case Study of Integrating High-Temperature Heat Pump with LiBr-H2O Absorption Chiller for Data Center Liquid Cooling

Data centers (DCs) are physical infrastructures that support artificial intelligence workloads. The rapid growth of artificial intelligence is putting substantial pressure on the US power grid. Most of electricity consumed by IT equipment, accounting for 50%-60% of total DC power, ultimately becomes waste heat. This heat is dissipated by DC’s cooling facilities, accounting for an additional 30%-40% of total DC power. Recovering and repurposing this waste heat offers a significant opportunity to enhance energy efficiency and reduce operating costs of DCs. One potential pathway is converting heat to cold using thermal-driven absorption chillers, therefore, reducing the power consumption in DC cooling facilities. Existing studies mainly demonstrate the technical and economic feasibility of repurposing DC’s waste heat for cooling applications but provide limited technical details on how to integrate the thermal-driven absorption chillers with DC cooling systems. In addition, the low-grade waste heat available from DCs must be upgraded to higher temperatures suitable for absorption chillers. This paper presents a case study on integrating high-temperature heat pumps with a LiBr-H2O absorption chiller to use DC waste heat for cooling. A thermodynamic model of single-effect, LiBr-H2O absorption chiller and an empirical model of high-temperature heat pumps were built. The case study considers ASHRAE W17 liquid-cooled DC, with facility service water supplied at 17.0℃ and returned at 25.3℃. The thermal behaviors of absorption chiller components were predicted for the generation temperature ranging from 75.0℃ to 115.0℃. Based on the available waste heat in the integrated system, two waste heat recovery strategies were evaluated: a facility service water-based strategy and cooling water-based strategy. Results indicated that the cooling water-based strategy achieves higher Coefficient of Performance (COPs) than the facility service water-based strategy. The relatively low cooling COPs of single-effect LiBr-H2O absorption chillers could be offset by high heating COP of high temperature heat pumps. The maximum cooling COP of absorption chiller and the overall COP of integrated systems occur at lower generation temperatures, but these conditions also yield lower cooling capacities. In practice, system operation should balance the trade-off between the COP and cooling capacity

Wang, Pengtao [ORNL] (ORCID:0000000214713429)↗
DOE OSTI2025

Image-Driven Hybrid Structural Analysis Based on Continuum Point Cloud Method with Boundary Capturing Technique

Conventional approaches for the structural health monitoring of infrastructures often rely on physical sensors or targets attached to structural members, which require considerable preparation, maintenance, and operational effort, including continuous on-site adjustments. This paper presents an image-driven hybrid structural analysis technique that combines digital image processing (DIP) and regression analysis with a continuum point cloud method (CPCM) built on a particle-based strong formulation. Polynomial regressions capture the boundary shape change due to the structural loading and precisely identify the edge and corner coordinates of the deformed structure. The captured edge profiles are transformed into essential boundary conditions. This allows the construction of a strongly formulated boundary value problem (BVP), classified as the Dirichlet problem. Capturing boundary conditions from the digital image is novel, although a similar approach was applied to the point cloud data. It was shown that the CPCM is more efficient in this hybrid simulation framework than the weak-form-based numerical schemes. Unlike the finite element method (FEM), it can avoid aligning boundary nodes with regression points. A three-point bending test of a rubber beam was simulated to validate the developed technique. The simulation results were benchmarked against numerical results by ANSYS and various relevant numerical schemes. The technique can effectively solve the Dirichlet-type BVP, yielding accurate deformation, stress, and strain values across the entire problem domain when employing a linear strain model and increasing the number of CPCM nodes. In addition, comparative analysis with conventional displacement tracking techniques verifies the developed technique’s robustness. The proposed technique effectively circumvents the inherent limitations of traditional monitoring methods resulting from the reliance on physical gauges or target markers so that a robust and non-contact solution for remote structural health monitoring in real-scale infrastructures can be provided, even in unfavorable experimental environments.

Chemistry↗
DOE OSTI2020

Toward Quantifying Vulnerabilities in Critical Infrastructure Systems

Modern society is increasingly dependent on the stability of a complex system of interdependent infrastructure sectors. Vulnerability in critical infrastructures (CIs) is defined as a measure of system susceptibility to threat scenarios. Quantifying vulnerability in CIs has not been adequately addressed in the literature. This paper presents ongoing research on how the authors model CIs as network-based models and propose a set of metrics to quantify vulnerability in CI systems. The size and complexity of the CIs make this a challenging task. These metrics could be used for planning and efficient decision-making during extreme events.

Devineni, Pravallika↗
NASA NTRS1993

Integration of mobile satellite and cellular systems

By integrating the ground based infrastructure component of a mobile satellite system with the infrastructure systems of terrestrial 800 MHz cellular service providers, a seamless network of universal coverage can be established. Users equipped for both cellular and satellite service can take advantage of a number of features made possible by such integration, including seamless handoff and universal roaming. To provide maximum benefit at lowest posible cost, the means by which these systems are integrated must be carefully considered. Mobile satellite hub stations must be configured to efficiently interface with cellular Mobile Telephone Switching Offices (MTSO's), and cost effective mobile units that provide both cellular and satellite capability must be developed.

Drucker, Elliott H.↗
NASA NTRS2018

Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC)

NASA’s future deep space science and exploration missions will require enhanced communications and navigation services. Laser communications offers expanded bandwidth and the potential for satisfying this need, with comparable mass and power as state of the art telecommunication systems. Consequently, NASA is planning a Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) technology demonstration, to retire the risk for future enhanced optical communication services. NASA’s upcoming Psyche Mission scheduled to launch in August of 2022 plans to host a DSOC flight laser transceiver (FLT) for demonstrating optical links from deep-space to earth. Existing ground assets retrofitted with laser transmitters and photon-counting receivers will be used for the technology demonstration. Advancing optical technology from near-Earth ranges to deep space (> 0.01 astronomical units or AU) involves orders of magnitude increased link difficulty (defined as data-rate squared distance). The plan to bridge the difficulty gap implements new technologies developed over the past two decades. These technologies emphasize high photon efficiency (HPE) with the use of high-peak-to-average power laser transmitters in space, and single photon counting sensitivity detectors, that together support signaling schemes for achieving approximately 23 information bits per detected photon. Implementing HPE schemes relies on accurate and stable pointing of narrow laser beams from space platforms using active control. Key developments needed for future technology infusion, following a successful DSOC technology demonstration, include, cost-effective ground infrastructure, long term reliability of space lasers and detection systems, and solutions for high precision laser ranging. The current status of the DSOC Project and plans for future development will be discussed in this paper.

Biswas, Abhijit↗
DOE OSTI2024

Integrated Approach to Post-Irradiation Examination of Nuclear Materials at Idaho National Laboratory

Idaho national Laboratory (INL) is the U.S. lead national laboratory for the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy (DOE-NE), providing much of the nuclear research, development and demonstration capability needed to move nuclear innovation forward to deployment. INL’s Materials and Fuels Complex hosts a unique combination of personnel, facilities and infrastructure and offers the ability to perform post-irradiation examinations (PIE) of nuclear materials spanning multiple length scales. The ability to combine engineering-scale analysis and sub-microscopic characterization provides valuable insights into fuel and structural material behavior and degradation mechanisms. The holistic approach is used to accelerate these materials demonstration and deployment. Selected studies will be presented, highlighting the impact of these techniques on improving fuel reliability, safety, and efficiency, thereby advancing the development of sustainable and advanced nuclear energy technologies.

11 - NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗