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DOE OSTI2011

Science and Technology Review: January/February 2012

This month's issue has the following articles: (1) Dawn of a New Era of Scientific Discovery - Commentary by Edward I. Moses; (2) At the Frontiers of Fundamental Science Research - Collaborators from national laboratories, universities, and international organizations are using the National Ignition Facility to probe key fundamental science questions; (3) Livermore Responds to Crisis in Post-Earthquake Japan - More than 70 Laboratory scientists provided round-the-clock expertise in radionuclide analysis and atmospheric dispersion modeling as part of the nation's support to Japan following the March 2011 earthquake and nuclear accident; (4) A Comprehensive Resource for Modeling, Simulation, and Experiments - A new Web-based resource called MIDAS is a central repository for material properties, experimental data, and computer models; and (5) Finding Data Needles in Gigabit Haystacks - Livermore computer scientists have developed a novel computer architecture based on 'persistent' memory to ease data-intensive computations.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2012

Stuff- The Materials that Shape our World - Experimental Learning Opportunities

Making Stuff is a four-part series that explores how materials changed history and are shaping the future. To further enhance public engagement in and understanding of materials science, the project convened an extensive network of community coalitions across the country that hosted Making Stuff outreach activities and events, science cafes, and educator workshops in their local areas. Department Of Energy funding enabled us to increase the number of communities formally involved in the project, from 10 to 20 community hubs. Department of Energy funding also made it possible to develop a collection of materials science resources, activities and hands-on demonstrations for use in a variety of formal and informal settings, and Making Stuff activities were presented at science conferences and festivals around the country. The design, printing and national dissemination of the Making Stuff afterschool activity guide were also developed with DOE funding, as well as professional webinar trainings for scientists and educators to help facilitate many of the community activities and other online and print materials. Thanks to additional funding from the Department of Energy, we were able to expand the reach and scope of the project's outreach plan, specifically in the areas of: 1) content development, 2) training/professional development, 3) educational activities and 4) community partnerships. This report documents how the following DOE project goals were met: (1) Train scientists and provide teachers and informal educators with resources to engage youth with age appropriate information about materials science; (2) Provide activities and resources to five selected communities with ties to DOE researchers; (3) Increase interest in STEM.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2011

RIKEN/RBRC Workshop: Future Directions in High Energy QCD

The RIKEN BNL Research Center (RBRC) was established in April 1997 at Brookhaven National Laboratory. It is funded by the "Rikagaku Kenkyusho" (RIKEN, The Institute of Physical and Chemical Research of Japan. The Memorandum of Understanding between RIKEN and BNL, initiated in 1997, has been renewed in 2002 and again in 2007. The Center is dedicated to the study of strong interactions, including spin physics, lattice QCD, and RHIC physics through the nurturing of new generations of young physicists. The RBRC has both a theory and experimental component. The RBRC Theory Group and the RBRC Experimental Group consists of a total of 25-30 researchers. Positions include the following: full time RBRC Fellow, half-time RHIC Physics Fellow, and full-time, post-doctoral Research Associate. The RHIC Physics Fellows hold joint appointments with RBRC and other institutions and have tenure track positions at their respective universities or BNL. To date, RBRC has ~100 graduates of which 27 theorists and 14 experimenters have attained tenure positions at major institutions world wide. Beginning in 2001 a new RIKEN Spin Program (RSP) category was implemented at RBRC. These appointments are joint positions of RBRC and RIKEN and include the following positions in theory and experiment: RSP Researchers, RSP Research Associates, and Young Researchers, who are mentored by senior RRC Scientists. A number of RIKEN Jr. Research Associates and Visiting Scientists also contribute to the physics program at the Center. RBRC has an active workshop program on strong interaction physics with each workshop focused on a specific physics problem. In most cases all the talks are made available on the RBRC website. In addition, highlights to each speaker's presentation are collected to form proceedings which can therefore be made available within a short time after the workshop. To date there are one hundred and two proceedings volumes available. A 10 teraflops RBRC QCDOC computer funded by RIKEN, Japan, was unveiled at a dedication ceremony at BNL on May 26, 2005. This supercomputer was designed and built by individuals from Columbia University, IBM, BNL, RBRC, and the University of Edinburgh, with the U.S.D.O.E. Office of Science providing infrastructure support at BNL. Physics results were reported at the RBRC QCDOC Symposium following the dedication. QCDSP, a 0.6 teraflops parallel processor, dedicated to lattice QCD, was begun at the Center on February 19, 1998, was completed on August 28, 1998, and was decommissioned in 2006. It was awarded the Gordon Bell Prize for price performance in 1998. The next generation computer in this sequence, QCDCQ (400 Teraflops), will become operational in the summer of 2012.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2012

Scientific Data Management Integrated Software Infrastructure Center (SDM/ISIC): Scientific Process Automation (SPA) (Final Report)

The KEPLER project has made a significant impact and established a sustained leadership in the field of scientific workflows. The open source KEPLER project started in 2003 when members of the SciDAC-SDM Center/SPA Team, sponsored by this DOE-funded project (DE-FC02-01ER25486) and members of the SEEK project (NSF/ITR awards DBI-0225674 and DBI-0533368) decided to collaborate and jointly develop a scientific workflow system based on the open source PTOLEMY II system (Ludäscher was a co-PI on both projects). In the first project phase, between 2001 and 2003, the SDSC team (Altintas, Ludäscher) worked closely with a domain scientist (Matt Coleman, LLNL) and created early versions of a Promoter Identification Workflow (PIW). Towards the end of that period, the open source PTOLEMY II system was adopted by SciDAC-SDM and SEEK as the basis for a general scientific workflow system and problem-solving environment to design and execute scientific workflows, giving rise to Kepler. Once started through SciDAC-SDM and SEEK, the KEPLER leadership team was able to attract further support from funding agencies including from DOE (as part of SciDAC-2), NSF, NIH, and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. Important advances to KEPLER were made by the SciDAC/SDM-SPA team during the report period (2001–2007), in particular by the SDSC team (and after Ludäscher's move) the UC Davis team, including (i) research and development of the workflow infrastructure, (ii) library (actor) development, and (iii) development of concrete scientific workflows, in collaboration with scientists. Years later, the KEPLER system was listed as one of the prominent “Big Data” research outcomes of DOE in the White House Big Data Factsheet, announced as part of the White House Big Data press release.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2012

Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies 2011 Annual Report

We are pleased to share with you this 2011 edition of the Annual Report from the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies (CINT) and the growing excitement we feel around cementing our brand as a leader in integration nanoscience. This can be seen most readily in the momentum we have achieved in our signature Integration Focus Activities (IFAs). These efforts unite our scientists across our four scientific Thrust areas with our users to concentrate research on larger-scale nanoscience integration challenges for specific classes of nanomaterials, systems, and phenomena. All three of our current IFAs (p. 10) now have a full head of steam, and nearly 30% of our current user projects map in some meaningful way to one of these IFAs. As part of our redoubled effort to increase our industrial user base, we are also looking to leverage these IFAs to build a stronger link to and spur recruitment within our industrial user community. We believe that the IFAs are a natural community-building tool with an intrinsic value proposition for industry; an R&D pipeline that can lead to more mature, more commercially well-positioned technologies. Finally, as nanoscience and nanotechnology are maturing, we as a research community are beginning to see our efforts extend in many exciting new directions. Our focus on nanoscience integration positions us very well to capitalize on new opportunities including the emerging Mesoscale Initiative within the DOE Office of Science. Many aspects of mesoscale science are embodied in the integration of nanoscale building blocks. We are equally proud of our continuing strong performance in support of our user program. We have fully transitioned to our new user proposal database providing enhanced convenience and flexibility for proposal submission and review. In our two regular proposal calls this year we received a total of 225 proposals, an increase of 10% over our 2010 performance. Our official count on number of users for the period remains at {approx}350 and continues to reflect full engagement of our scientific staff. We are also seeing a steady increase in our industrial user base, with the number of industrial proposals (including Rapid Access proposals) doubling in 2011. We attribute this in part of our outreach efforts including our focused industrial session in each of our past two annual User Conferences. The Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies (CINT) is a Department of Energy/Office of Science Nanoscale Science Research Center (NSRC) operating as a national user facility devoted to establishing the scientific principles that govern the design, performance, and integration of nanoscale materials. Jointly operated by Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories, CINT explores the continuum from scientific discovery to use-inspired research, with a focus on the integration of nanoscale materials and structures to achieve new properties and performance and their incorporation into the micro- and macro worlds. Through its Core Facility at Sandia National Laboratories and its Gateway Facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory, CINT provides open access to tools and expertise needed to explore the continuum from scientific discovery to the integration of nanostructures into the micro- and macro worlds. In its overall operations, CINT strives to achieve the following goals common to all Nanoscale Science Research Centers: (1) Conduct forefront research in nanoscale science; (2) Operate as a user facility for scientific research; (3) Provide user access to the relevant BES-supported expertise and capabilities at the host national laboratory; and (4) Leverage other relevant national laboratory capabilities to enhance scientific opportunities for the nanoscience user community. These additional goals are specific to the unique CINT mission: (5) Establish and lead a scientific community dedicated to solving nanoscale science integration challenges; and (6) Create a single user facility program that combines expertise and facilities at both Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories. The CINT user program provides the international scientific community with open access to world-class scientific staff and state-of-the-art facilities for theory and simulation, nanomaterials synthesis and characterization, and unique capabilities for nanoscale materials integration, from the level of nanoscale synthesis to the fabrication of micro- and macroscale structures and devices. The staff of CINT includes laboratory scientists, postdocs and technical support staff who are leaders in the nanoscience research programs in CINT scientific thrust areas: (1) Nanoscale Electronics and Mechanics, (2) Nanophotonics and Optical Nanomaterials, (3) Soft, Biological and Composite Nanomaterials, and (4) Theory and Simulation of Nanoscale Phenomena.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2012

Bringing Advanced Computational Techniques to Energy Research (BACTER)

This report briefly summarizes the achievements of the BACTER training program in computational biology, sponsored by the US Department of Energy’s SciDAC and Genomics:GTL programs. We thank them for their support and generosity over the course of this interdisciplinary training initiative. We began in 2004 with a small group of dedicated graduate students and postdocs. Our goal was to enhance training of quantitative scientists in biological areas of relevance to the DOE mission, as well as to integrate biological scientists and cross-train them in areas of quantitative research. Our early students have now matriculated and gone on to postdoctoral positions at Yale, UC Berkeley, UC Irvine, and Imperial College, while others have taken positions in local biotech firms here in Madison based on their positive experiences with the research climate here. Two former postdocs went into faculty jobs (University of California Merced and Northern Illinois University) while others went on for additional postdoctoral training (Purdue, Duke) and still others went on into industry. Over the course of time, we have experimented with new training activities, including embedded science writers and scientific programmers. Our final training experiment was to train two computational and experimental students/postdocs to work in unison on new projects, to see whether this would accelerate transfer of knowledge and scientific discovery. As evidenced by the high-quality publications and career trajectories of our trainees, and the rapid progress of cross-training projects initiated during our final year, our efforts were very successful in understanding how to better advance the role of quantitative science in bioenergy research and to train the next generation of researchers to help make biofuels a viable energy source for to help meet the needs of the US population.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2012

Experimental Physical Sciences Vistas: Los Alamos NPAC Research

The nuclear physics, particle physics, astrophysics, and cosmology (NPAC) capability at Los Alamos National Labora tory has a rich tradition of attracting and supporting some of the best scientists in the world to conduct fundamental research and to direct those talents to support the Lab’s national security science mission. Early luminaries such as Enrico Fermi and Hans Bethe were world renowned be fore they came to Los Alamos to work on the Manhattan Project; Fermi for his skills in experimental and theoretical nuclear physics and Bethe for his theoretical skills in nuclear physics and astrophysics—skills that were critical in the development of nuclear weapons. Later, as an outgrowth of their weapons physics research, scientists Frederick Reines and Clyde Cowan made the first confirmed measurement of the elusive neutrino, a discovery that led to Reines receiv ing the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1995. (Cowan died in 1974 before he was recognized for his contributions.)

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2012

NREL Produces Ethylene via Photosynthesis (Fact Sheet)

Scientists at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have demonstrated a new way to use photosynthesis to produce ethylene. NREL scientists introduced a gene for ethylene forming enzyme (EFE) into a cyanobacterium and demonstrated that the organism remained stable through at least four generations, producing ethylene gas that could be easily captured.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2012

Efficient Feature-Driven Visualization of Large-Scale Scientific Data

Very large, complex scientific data acquired in many research areas creates critical challenges for scientists to understand, analyze, and organize their data. The objective of this project is to expand the feature extraction and analysis capabilities to develop powerful and accurate visualization tools that can assist domain scientists with their requirements in multiple phases of scientific discovery. We have recently developed several feature-driven visualization methods for extracting different data characteristics of volumetric datasets. Our results verify the hypothesis in the proposal and will be used to develop additional prototype systems.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2012

From Computational Biophysics to Systems Biology - CBSB12 (Final Report)

This report summarizes the outcome of the international workshop From Computational Biophysics to Systems Biology (CBSB12) which was held June 3-5, 2012, at the University of Tennessee Conference Center in Knoxville, TN, and supported by DOE through the Conference Support Grant 120174. The purpose of CBSB12 was to provide a forum for the interaction between a data-mining interested systems biology community and a simulation and first-principle oriented computational biophysics/biochemistry community. CBSB12 was the sixth in a series of workshops of the same name organized in recent years, and the second that has been held in the USA. As in previous years, it gave researchers from physics, biology, and computer science an opportunity to acquaint each other with current trends in computational biophysics and systems biology, to explore venues of cooperation, and to establish together a detailed understanding of cells at a molecular level. The conference grant of $\$$10,000 was used to cover registration fees and provide travel fellowships to selected students and postdoctoral scientists. By educating graduate students and providing a forum for young scientists to perform research into the working of cells at a molecular level, the workshop adds to DOE's mission of paving the way to exploit the abilities of living systems to capture, store and utilize energy.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2013

Particles and Nuclei International Conference (PANIC11) at MIT in July 2011 (Final Scientific/Technical Report)

The first Particles and Nuclei International Conference (PANIC11) in the LHC era brought 539 participants to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 24-29 July 2011. PANIC11 is the latest conference in a triennial series, which showcases recent progress worldwide in particle and nuclear physics. PANIC11 was held in the year celebrating the 150th anniversary of the founding of MIT as well as the centennial of Rutherford’s May 1911 seminal paper, which explained the discovery of the atomic nucleus. Further, 2011 was the 65th anniversary of MIT’s Laboratory for Nuclear Science, which hosted PANIC11. With strong support by the US Department of Energy, many national laboratories from around the world, industrial sponsors, and by MIT, the conference supported the extensive participation of young scientists, students and postdocs, who were the majority of participants, making for a very lively conference. Broad international participation was enhanced by IUPAP support for scientists from developing countries. The NSF supported video recording and broadcasting via an MIT public website of the plenary sessions, the public lectures, and the pre-conference pedagogical lectures, as well as outreach and participation of students from local high schools.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2012

Proceedings of RIKEN BNL Research Center Workshop, Volume 113: Thermal Radiation Workshop

The RIKEN BNL Research Center (RBRC) was established in April 1997 at Brookhaven National Laboratory. It is funded by the "Rikagaku Kenkyusho" (RIKEN, The Institute of Physical and Chemical Research) of Japan. The Memorandum of Understanding between RIKEN and BNL, initiated in 1997, has been renewed in 2002, 2007 and again in 2012. The Center is dedicated to the study of strong interactions, including spin physics, lattice QCD, and RHIC physics through the nurturing of a new generation of young physicists. The RBRC has both a theory and experimental component. The RBRC Theory Group and the RBRC Experimental Group consists of a total of 25-30 researchers. Positions include the following: full time RBRC Fellow, half-time RHIC Physics Fellow, and full-time post doctoral Research Associate. The RHIC Physics Fellows hold joint appointments with RBRC and other institutions and have tenure track positions at their respective universities or BNL. To date, RBRC has over 95 graduates (Fellows and Post- docs) of which approximately 40 theorists and 20 experimenters have already attained tenure positions at major institutions worldwide. Beginning in 2001 a new RIKEN Spin Program (RSP) category was implemented at RBRC. These appointments are joint positions of RBRC and RIKEN and include the following positions in theory and experiment: RSP Researchers, RSP Research Associates, and Young Researchers, who are mentored by senior RBRC Scientists. A number of RIKEN Jr. Research Associates and Visiting Scientists also contribute to the physics program at the Center. RBRC has an active workshop program on strong interaction physics with each workshop focused on a specific physics problem. In most cases all the talks are made available on the RBRC website. In addition, highlights to each speaker’s presentation are collected to form proceedings which can therefore be made available within a short time after the workshop. To date there are over one hundred proceeding volumes available. A 10 teraflops RBRC QCDOC computer funded by RIKEN, Japan, was unveiled at a dedication ceremony at BNL on May 26, 2005. This supercomputer was designed and built by individuals from Columbia University, IBM, BNL, RBRC, and the University of Edinburgh, with the U.S. D.O.E. Office of Science providing infrastructure support at BNL. Physics results were reported at the RBRC QCDOC Symposium following the dedication. QCDSP, a 0.6 teraflops parallel processor, dedicated to lattice QCD, was begun at the Center on February 19, 1998, was completed on August 28, 1998, and was decommissioned in 2006. It was awarded the Gordon Bell Prize for price performance in 1998. QCDOC was decommissioned in May 2012. The next generation computer in this sequence, QCDCQ (600 Teraflops), is currently operational and is expected to produce many more interesting discoveries in the future.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2013

Nuclear Physics from Lattice QCD

Andre Walker-Loud was the postdoctoral research associate under this grant. Dr. Walker-Loud, joined William and Mary starting June 25, 2008. He was my first choice for this position. He is very active and promising young scientist in the field of Lattice QCD calculations for Nuclear physics, as his publication record shows (12 submitted and published papers since he joined William and Mary). He has been a great collaborator and a mentor for my graduate student. Dr. Walker-Loud was hired as research scientist at LBNL after his appointment at W&M.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2013

Molecular Quantum Mechanics 2010: From Methylene to DNA and Beyond Conference Support

This grant was $12500 for partial support of an international conference, Molecular Quantum Mechanics 2010, which was held on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, from 24 to 29 May 2010. The conference involved more than 250 participants. The conference schedule ran from as early as 8:00 AM to as late as 10:30 PM at night, in order to accommodate six historical lectures, 16 plenary lectures, 42 invited talks and two very strong poster sessions containing 143 contributed posters. Since 1989, the Molecular Quantum Mechanics (MQM) series of international conferences has show- cased the frontiers of research in quantum chemistry with a strong focus on basic theory and algorithms, as well as highlights of topical applications. Both were strongly in evidence at MQM 2010. At the same time as embracing the future, the MQM conferences also honour the lifetime contributions of some of the most prominent scientists in the field of theoretical and computational quantum chemistry. MQM 2010 recognised the work of Prof. Henry F. ‘Fritz’ Schaefer of the Center for Computational Chemistry at the University of Georgia, who was previously on the faculty at Berkeley The travel of invited speakers was partially covered by sponsorships from Dell Computer, Hewlett-Packard, Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation, Virginia Tech College of Science, Molecular Physics, Q-Chem Inc and the American Institute of Physics. By contrast, the conference grant from the Department of Energy was used to provide fellowships and scholarships to enable graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to attend the meeting, and thereby broaden the participation of young scientists at a meeting where in the past most of the attendees have been more senior faculty researchers. We believe that we were very successful in this regard: 118 students and postdocs attended out of the total of 256 participants. In detail, the DOE sponsorship money was partially used for dormitory scholarships that covered the cost of shared accommodation for students and postdocs at Berkeley dormitories. This covered the $200-$305 cost of a shared room for the 5-day duration of the conference. The only condition of these scholarships was that the awardee must present a poster at the meeting. Approximately $7565 was spent for these dormitory scholarships. The remaining expenditures of $4800 was used for 12 merit scholarships which were awarded to students whose poster presentations were judged the best at the conference. This amount covered a significant part of their travel and registration fees.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2013

The Life and Work of L. V. Altshuler

During the Second World War and afterwards, the existence of the Soviet Nuclear Weapons Program provided a small nucleus of scientists free from party interference with their activities, and these scientists, recipients of numerous awards, both national and international, up to and including several Nobel Prizes, are well known in the Western scientific and political literature. This situation is well described by Holloway, among other historians. Lev Altshuler, (9/11/1913-23/12/2003) who was as scientifically accomplished as any of the others, has not been as broadly recognized. This is for a number of reasons. He was not widely traveled, did not speak English, and was rather shy and retiring outside his Russian scientific circles. He was a man of the highest scientific integrity and this led to conflicts with party bureaucrats, and he had no compunctions about aggressively defending his beliefs. In the course of his programmatic activities, he also became the father, as it were, of an entire area of physics; the use of high dynamic pressure to study the properties of materials under extreme conditions. Lev Vladimirovich Al’tshuler was bom in Moscow on 9 November 1913, the son of Anna Esfir’ Kershner-Al’tshuler (1881-1968) and Vladimir Altshuler (1882-1965), a lawyer who was one of the active leaders of the Russian revolution. The senior Al’tshuler held a number of high posts under Stalin, but fortunately avoided being a victim of the many purges taking place during that period. Mrs. Altshuler was a homemaker, raising three children and being a center of a “spiritual gravitational anomaly” as described by her children, with intellectual pursuits for an entire extended family. Altshuler had a brother, Sergei (1909-1979), who was a science historian and a sister Olga (1912-1992), a chemist. In the early years, Vladimir Al’tshuler did a number of tasks in support of the revolution. At one point in time, he was given the assignment of delivering a certain sum of money to V. I. Lenin, at that time residing in Zurich. Upon arriving in Zurich, the elder Al’tshuler deposited the funds at a storage facility at the Zurich railway station, and set out to find Lenin. Upon finding him, Al’tshuler suggested that he might join him for a cup of tea. Lenin immediately demanded that Al’tshuler return to the station and recover the money and bring it to him. “Then, we can talk about a cup of tea”.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2013

Restoring a Disappearing Ecosystem: the Longleaf Pine Savanna

Longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) savannas of the southeastern United States contain some of the worlds most diverse plant communities, along with a unique complement of wildlife. Their traditionally open canopy structure and rich understory of grasses and herbs were critical to their vigor. However, a long history of land-use practices such as logging, farming, and fire exclusion have reduced this once-widespread ecosystem to only 3 percent of its original range. At six longleaf pine plantations in South Carolina, Tim Harrington with the Pacific Northwest Research Station and collaborators with the Southern Research Station used various treatments (including prescribed burns, tree thinning, and herbicide applications) to alter the forest structure and tracked how successful each one was in advancing savanna restoration over a 14-year period. They found that typical planting densities for wood production in plantations create dense understory shade that excludes many native herbaceous species important to savannas and associated wildlife. The scientists found that although tree thinning alone did not result in sustained gains, a combination of controlled burning, thinning, and herbicide treatments to reduce woody plants was an effective strategy for recovering the savanna ecosystem. The scientists also found that these efforts must be repeated periodically for enduring benefits.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2013

Development of a Software Framework for System-Level Carbon Sequestration Risk Assessment

The overall purpose of this project was to identify, evaluate, select, develop, and test a suite of enhancements to the GoldSim software program, in order to make it a better tool for use in support of Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) projects. The GoldSim software is a foundational tool used by scientists at NETL and at other laboratories and research institutions to evaluate system-level risks of proposed CCS projects. The primary product of the project was a series of successively improved versions of the GoldSim software, supported by an extensive User’s Guide. All of the enhancements were tested by scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory, and several of the enhancements have already been incorporated into the CO 2 -PENS sequestration model.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2011

Screening Analysis for the Environmental Risk Evaluation System Fiscal Year 2011 Report Environmental Effects of Offshore Wind Energy

Potential environmental effects of offshore wind (OSW) energy development are not well understood, and yet regulatory agencies are required to make decisions in spite of substantial uncertainty about environmental impacts and their long-term consequences. An understanding of risks associated with interactions between OSW installations and avian and aquatic receptors, including animals, habitats, and ecosystems, can help define key uncertainties and focus regulatory actions and scientific studies on interactions of most concern. During FY 2011, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) scientists adapted and applied the Environmental Risk Evaluation System (ERES), first developed to examine the effects of marine and hydrokinetic energy devices on aquatic environments, to offshore wind development. PNNL scientists conducted a risk screening analysis on two initial OSW cases: a wind project in Lake Erie and a wind project off the Atlantic coast of the United States near Atlantic City, New Jersey. The screening analysis revealed that top-tier stressors in the two OSW cases were the dynamic effects of the device (e.g., strike), accidents/disasters, and effects of the static physical presence of the device, such as alterations in bottom habitats. Receptor interactions with these stressors at the highest tiers of risk were dominated by threatened and endangered animals. Risk to the physical environment from changes in flow regime also ranked high. Peer review of this process and results will be conducted during FY 2012. The ERES screening analysis provides an assessment of the vulnerability of environmental receptors to stressors associated with OSW installations; a probability analysis is needed to determine specific risk levels to receptors. As more data become available that document effects of offshore wind farms on specific receptors in U.S. coastal and Great Lakes waters, probability analyses will be performed.

Environmental Effects↗