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DOE OSTI2021

Incentivizing Adoption of Software Quality Practices

Although many software teams across the laboratories comply with yearly software quality engineering (SQE) assessments, the practice of introducing quality into each phase of the software lifecycle, or the team processes, may vary substantially. Even with the support of a quality engineer, many teams struggle to adapt and right-size software engineering best practices in quality to fit their context, and these activities aren’t framed in a way that motivates teams to take action. In short, software quality is often a “check the box for compliance” activity instead of a cultural practice that both values software quality and knows how to achieve it. In this report, we present the results of our 6600 VISTA Innovation Tournament project, "Incentivizing and Motivating High Confidence and Research Software Teams to Adopt the Practice of Quality." We present our findings and roadmap for future work based on 1) a rapid review of relevant literature, 2) lessons learned from an internal design thinking workshop, and 3) an external Collegeville 2021 workshop. These activities provided an opportunity for team ideation and community engagement/feedback. Based on our findings, we believe a coordinated effort (e.g. strategic communication campaign) aimed at diffusing the innovation of the practice of quality across Sandia National Laboratories could over time effect meaningful organizational change. As such, our roadmap addresses strategies for motivating and incentivizing individuals ranging from early career to seasoned software developers/scientists.

96 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND PRESERVATION↗

DOE OSTI2022

Economic Impact of Permitting Timelines on Geothermal Power in California, Nevada, and Utah

The United States has great geothermal power potential; however, only a small fraction of this resource has been utilized for power generation. Various barriers, including technical, financial, and regulatory permit delays, are attributed to the lower penetration of geothermal energy into the national grid. Unpredictable environmental reviews and permitting timelines are some of the non-technical barriers that can cause delays in geothermal exploration and utilization plans. This document provides an assessment of the potential economic impact of permitting costs and timelines on geothermal power in California, Nevada, and Utah. Development of geothermal resources requires multi-layered regulatory permitting by local, state, and federal agencies. In this study, we collected and reviewed permit timelines and associated cost data for several existing geothermal power plants as well as for geothermal projects currently undergoing permitting processes for exploration and development activities in California, Nevada, and Utah. We interviewed several geothermal developers and staff from multiple permitting agencies to obtain insight from both sides (i.e., people applying for permits and people processing those applications for California Environmental Quality Act [CEQA] and National Environmental Policy Act [NEPA] reviews and other regulatory compliance). The intent of this project was also to identify informative pathways for the geothermal stakeholder community by which the permitting process could be streamlined.

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2022

Cost Impacts of Risk-Based Methods for Defining AoR and PISC Duration of a CO 2 Storage Project Using NRAP Tools and FE/NETL CO 2 Saline Storage Cost Model

The purpose of this analysis is to assess the fiscal impact of using risk-based methods to define the area of review (AoR) and post-injection site care (PISC) duration for a geologic carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) storage project. The Office of Fossil Energy (FE)/National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) CO 2 Saline Storage Cost Model (“cost model”) was utilized to evaluate CO 2 storage economics in this study. The cost model is a widely used tool for evaluating CO 2 storage costs in geologic settings. It estimates costs for storage operations conducted under compliance to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Underground Injection Control (UIC) Class VI regulations. This analysis evaluates and compares the costs of storage (on a first-year break-even dollar per tonne [2018$] basis) at the proposed FutureGen 2.0 site as a case study storage location by implementing different approaches to determine AoR and PISC given the prevailing geologic conditions and injection volume and duration considerations. The approaches include the use of 1) risk-based methods to define AoR and PISC duration, 2) an EPA-approved AoR and PISC documented in the FutureGen 2.0 UIC Class VI permit applications, and 3) cost model default settings that utilize uncertainty multipliers to estimate CO 2 plume and pressure front extent as part of AoR determination, as well as a 50-year PISC default. From all three sources, the AoR and PISC specified in the Class VI permit applications for FutureGen 2.0 were the largest and longest relative to the other two sources.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2022

Guide to the Distributed Energy Resource Risk Management Framework

The emergence of distributed energy resources (DERs) has transformed the electric power sector and will likely have even more profound impacts on the future evolution of the United States energy sector as it modernizes and becomes more reliant upon complex informatics programming and systems to ensure that our power grid remains safe from malicious interference. To mitigate risks associated with the increased and diversified use of DERs, the Distributed Energy Resource Cybersecurity Framework (DER-CF) was developed in 2019. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory extended the scope of the DER-CF to include the RMF. To address the challenges faced by federal energy managers and energy system stakeholders in applying the RMF to DER systems, the Distributed Energy Resource Risk Manager (DER-RM) is a six-step process to proactively manage cybersecurity risk in a methodical manner. The DER-RM is independent of the DER-CF's existing assessment, allowing users to focus specifically on the RMF steps. The tools are targeted to different processes - DER-CF enables organizations to perform self-assessments to improve their cybersecurity posture, while DER-RM assists organizations in achieving compliance with specific requirements. This document provides an overview of the DER-RM. The RMF process outlined in this report serves as a guide to diagnose information and operational system threats, gather required materials to comply with industry standards, and document plans for achieving Authority to Operate. Using the DER-RM, federal agencies and other organizations can easily and intuitively follow the RMF process, manage the risks to their grid-edge infrastructure through the integration of their on-site DERs, and comply with appropriate requirements.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

DOE OSTI2022

Core Design of the Holos-Quad Microreactor

The Holos-Quad micro-reactor concept, developed by HolosGen LLC, is equipped with a 22 MWt (Mega-Watt thermal) core and an integral power conversion system converting the core thermal energy into approximately 10 MWe (Mega-Watt electric). This design can be configured to support a wide range of applications. It is a very innovative high-temperature gas-cooled reactor concept using TRI-structural ISOtropic particle fuel (TRISO) distributed in graphite hexagonal blocks, cooled with helium in a direct Brayton cycle independently executed by four Subcritical Power Modules (SPMs) fitted into a hardened 40-foot container whose dimensions are in compliance with ISO shipping containers requirements. In FY2019 HolosGen LLC was awarded by the Department of Energy Advanced Research Project Agency-Energy (DOE ARPA-E) under the MEITNER funding program. As part of the MEITNER award, the Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) contributed expertise through two specialized teams: The “Design Team” and the “Resource Team”. The Design Team was dedicated to validate feasibility of the Holos-Quad core and to optimize its core design through neutronics analyses. The Resource Team was dedicated to feasibility verification via high-fidelity codes of Holos-Quad thermal-hydraulic, heat transfer, shielding, and structural aspects. This report summarizes the activities conducted by ANL Design Team. A rigorous design approach based on multi-criteria optimization and code-to-code comparison involving stochastic and high-fidelity deterministic solutions was developed and employed at several evolutionary stages of the Holos-Quad design. Several generations of the Holos-Quad core were designed within this project before converging to the current full-scale Gen 2+ design that is detailed in this report. Figure EA-1 illustrates a cross-sectional view of Gen 2+ Holos-Quad core configuration, and Figure EA-2 provides a simplified perspective view of 1-of-4 SPMs. The Holos-Quad uses four thermal-hydraulically independent SPMs locked into stationary positions during power operation, surrounded by BeO reflector and structural component fully comprised within the dimensional constraints represented by traditional ISO containers. One of the benefits of this approach is to enable transportation of each SPM promptly after irradiation in shielded containers. The core is designed to operate for approximately 8 full-power years while the reactivity controls and power conversion system enable load-following operations. The reactivity controls are represented by independent, diversified, and redundant reactivity control systems based on control drums and redundant sets of shutdown rods. The high-fidelity simulation tools were used to assess detailed power and flux distributions of the three-dimensional full-core or quarter-core of the Gen 2+ configuration. Single-physics and multi-physics simulations of the neutronics code PROTEUS and the thermal-hydraulic code System Analysis Module (SAM) were performed to analyze the Holos design configurations with detailed high-fidelity solutions. The design work performed confirmed feasibility of the Holos-Quad concept, provided realistic design description for detailed design of the operational system, and identified several core design improvements to be further considered for future reactor development activities.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

DOE OSTI2022

Los Alamos National Laboratory Wetland Assessment for the Replacement Water Lines from Technical Area 48 to Technical Area 55 Project

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), a semi-autonomous agency within the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), is proposing to take action at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) near a wetland at Technical Area (TA) 48 and under a wetland at TA-55. The project proposes to install two 12-inch water lines along an alignment from TA-48 to Pecos Road on the east side of TA-55 (Figure 1). The proposed water lines will replace aging cast iron pipes that provide water for fire suppression to buildings within TA-55, and potable water to other areas in the Pajarito Corridor. NNSA has prepared this wetland assessment in accordance with 10 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 1022 Compliance with Wetland and Wetland Environmental Review Requirements (10 CFR Part 1022) (CFR 2003) which was promulgated to implement DOE requirements under Executive Order 11988 Wetland Management (EO 1977). A wetland is defined in 10 CFR 1022 as “the lowlands adjoining inland and coastal waters and relatively flat areas and flood prone areas of offshore islands,” and a base wetland as “the 100-year wetland, that is, a wetland with a 1.0 percent chance of flooding in any given year (CFR 2003).” This wetland assessment evaluates potential impacts to wetland values and functions from implementation of the proposed action, identifies alternatives to the Proposed Action, and allows for meaningful public comment.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2022

Naval Reactors Facility Environmental Monitoring Report (CY2020)

This report presents the results of the radiological and non-radiological environmental monitoring programs for 2020 at the Naval Reactors Facility (NRF). Current operations at NRF are in compliance with applicable regulations governing use, emission, and disposal of solid, liquid, and gaseous materials. The results obtained from the environmental monitoring programs verify that releases to the environment from operations at NRF did not have any adverse effect on human health or the environment. Evaluation of the environmental data confirms that the operation of NRF continues to have no adverse effect on the environment or the health and safety of the general public. Furthermore, a conservative assessment of radiation exposure to the general public as a result of NRF operations demonstrated that the maximum potential dose received by any member of the public was well below the most restrictive dose limits prescribed by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the US Department of Energy (DOE), and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2022

Naval Reactors Facility Environmental Monitoring Report (CY2019)

This report presents the results of the radiological and non-radiological environmental monitoring programs for 2019 at the Naval Reactors Facility (NRF). Current operations at NRF are in compliance with applicable regulations governing use, emission, and disposal of solid, liquid, and gaseous materials. The results obtained from the environmental monitoring programs verify that releases to the environment from operations at NRF did not have any adverse effect on human health or the environment. Evaluation of the environmental data confirms that the operation of NRF continues to have no adverse effect on the environment or the health and safety of the general public. Furthermore, a conservative assessment of radiation exposure to the general public as a result of NRF operations demonstrated that the maximum potential dose received by any member of the public was well below the most restrictive dose limits prescribed by the US Department of Energy (DOE) and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2022

Post-Closure Report for Closed Resource Conservation and Recovery Act Corrective Action Units, Nevada National Security Site, Nevada (CY2021)

This report serves as the combined annual report for post-closure activities in compliance with the requirements listed in Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Permit Number NEV HW0101 associated with the following closed corrective action units (CAUs): CAU 90, Area 2 Bitcutter Containment, CAU 91, Area 3 U-3fi Injection Well, CAU 92, Area 6 Decon Pond Facility, CAU 110, Area 3 WMD U-3ax/bl Crater, CAU 111, Area 5 WMD Retired Mixed Waste Pits, and CAU 112, Area 23 Hazardous Waste Trenches. This report covers calendar year 2021. The post-closure requirements for these sites are described in RCRA Permit NEV HW0101 and are summarized in each CAU-specific section of this report. The results of the inspections, a summary of maintenance activities, and an evaluation of monitoring data are presented in this report. This report will address all monitoring requirements noted in the RCRA Permit NEV HW0101, except groundwater monitoring. Groundwater monitoring is documented in the Nevada National Security Site Data Report: Groundwater Monitoring Program Area 5 Radioactive Waste Management Site. All required inspections, maintenance, and monitoring were conducted in accordance with the post-closure requirements of the permit. Revision 6 of RCRA Permit NEV HW0101 was issued effective December 10, 2015, and remained in effect until December 10, 2020. At the time of this report submittal, the new RCRA permit application was in review.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2022

Characterization Results for the March 2022 Tank Farm 3H Evaporator Overhead Sample

On an annual basis, Savannah River Mission Completion (SRMC) provides 2H and 3H evaporator overhead samples to Savannah River National Lab (SRNL) to be analyzed per Section 5.2 of the Effluent Treatment Project (ETP) Waste Compliance Plan (WCP) and the Waste Acceptance Criteria (WAC). This report presents characterization results for the March 2022 3H evaporator overhead sample. The sample was clear and colorless with no visible solids. The results provide measurements for cesium-137 ( 137 Cs), strontium-90 ( 90 Sr), and iodine-129 ( 129 I) with the radionuclide concentration limits specified by the WAC. These analyses were performed on a single sample replicate. A summary of the analytical results for the 3H evaporator overhead sample includes the following. The measured cesium-137 activity in the 3H evaporator overhead sample is 4.59E+02 dpm/mL which is above the ETP WAC limit of 3.28E+02 dpm/mL. The strontium-90 activity in the 3H evaporator overhead sample is <2.95E+01 dpm/mL. This is below the ETP WAC limit of 1.76E+02 dpm/mL. The iodine-129 activity in the 3H evaporator overhead sample is <1.92E-02 dpm/mL. This is below the ETP WAC limit of 1.00E+00 dpm/mL.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

DOE OSTI2022

Security Enhancements for Distributed Energy Resource Systems Interconnected with Distribution Networks: Final Technical Report

The revised IEEE 1547 Standard defines new complex communication-adjustable voltage and frequency regulation and ride-through characteristics, while maintaining the general antiislanding requirement for unintentional islanding situations. Unintentional islanding is prohibited while intentional islanding is specifically allowed, thus effectively enabling microgrid operation mode. Further, IEEE 1547-2018 Standard introduces new requirements in terms of interoperability so that the DER plant/circuit segments may be seamlessly integrated with the utility networks but at the same time become vulnerable to a cyber-attack. Traditional cybersecurity measures including encryption, authentication and role-based access control may not be fully implementable to all communication protocols specified in the IEEE 1547 Standard. Therefore, in this project we have identified, researched, implemented and tested several cyberphysical approaches that rely mostly on the behavior of the DER circuit and may help with validating the incoming command and control action potentially coming through an insecure communications channel. Additionally, we have built semantic models and communications profiles for DER facilities and have implemented lightweight IEC 61850 based publisher-subscriber GOOSE messaging mechanism, with security extensions in terms of authentication and encryption. The project proposed information models for integration into UCA OpenFMB 2.0 profiles focusing on grid code compliance.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

DOE OSTI2022

ALDWP NET- TA-55 Waste Management Item #53780 [Slides]

Waste is a Product. It must be manufactured in complete compliance with the customers’ (WIPP, various LLW sites) specification. Programmatic, facility, and maintenance personnel originate the waste. NPI-6 is the waste generator (key legal term). Our customers are the waste originators.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

DOE OSTI2022

Characterization Results for the April 2022 Tank Farm 2H Evaporator Overhead Sample

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

DOE OSTI2023

2021 Radionuclide Air Emissions Report for Los Alamos National Laboratory, Revised October 2022

Provided is a revision to the Calendar Year 2021 Radionuclide Air Emissions Report for the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). This report is a regulatory compliance deliverable for LANL under the Radionuclide NESHAP, 40 CFR 61 Subpart H. The revised report is needed to correct an error identified regarding generation of wind data files. These wind data files are used for plume modeling as part of calculating off-sites doses from monitored radionuclide air emissions sources. The error resulted from a software update by LANL’s meteorology team after new towers were added to the tower network. As a result of this error, incorrect wind frequencies were assigned to the different stability classes. This slightly affected the plume model calculations and subsequent off-site dose determinations for analyses using these wind files.

2021 Radionuclide, Air Emissions↗

DOE OSTI2022

Adapting to a Changing World: Managing the Promise and Peril of Emerging Technologies and the Nuclear Nexus

This paper is focused on emerging technologies in three areas: outer space, cyberspace, and artificial intelligence. Technologies in each of these areas share a number of characteristics that make them a challenge for legally-binding approaches to arms control. For example, they each have significant definitional challenges. They are also dual use and within the reach of non-state actors. Verifying compliance with any legally-binding agreements in these areas poses significant challenges, at least at this time. Moreover, the rapid pace of technological change also contributes to the difficulty of crafting legally-binding arms control measures. The United States has generally championed a more normative approach to the governance of emerging technologies—the idea being that international agreement on norms serves as the basis for collective action to respond to activities that deviate from those norms.

45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEF↗

DOE OSTI2021

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Radiation Hazard Scale (Expanded Data Product Feedback Report)

During radiation emergencies, it is important to communicate clearly as radiation risks are often unfamiliar to many members of the general public and emergency responders, including public health workers. To partially address this issue, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) developed the Radiation Hazard Scale to communicate radiation risk to the general public, community leaders, and decision makers. The simple numeric scale does not require a background in radiation physics or health effects and can be used to assist people in understanding their risk and motivate protective action compliance. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has assisted the US Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration and the CDC in the development of Radiation Hazard Scale data products. This report documents the feedback received from Federal response officials on an expanded data product set. This expanded set accounts for the effects of building protection on radiation exposure and allows for the comparison between different response actions, including sheltering in place, based on the LLNL developed Regional Shelter Analysis methodology.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2022

Improving Non-Destructive Detection Technology Through SAVY Feature Detection

Surveillance of special nuclear material (SNM) storage containers is required by the DOE to assess their integrity across the Complex. This work aims to improve the task of container inspections by leveraging automation through machine learning (ML) tools to reduce the human-intensive effort and expert-level knowledge needed to assess container status. A field-deployable, non-destructive technology was designed using off-the-shelf components to collect multiple images from different perspectives of containers in storage to detect both spatial features of interest and anomalies of concern. Nine ML models were generated using unique training datasets and parameters. Learned features include SAVY surface regions including the body side wall, collar, lid, filter, and printed/etched information. Average Precision (AP) is used to calculate detection performance when both viewing previously seen environments and previously unseen environments. The application of image transformations and resolution scaling while training greatly improved the detection performance in unseen environments, and significantly increasing the number of computation iterations improved detection performance on previously seen environments. Additional capabilities were developed including the novel detection of procedural non-compliance and the ability to localize anomalies relative to SAVY surface features.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

DOE OSTI2021

Argonne National Laboratory Site Environmental Report for Calendar Year 2021

This report discusses the status and the accomplishments of the environmental protection program at Argonne National Laboratory for calendar year 2021. The status of Argonne environmental protection activities with respect to compliance with the various laws and regulations is discussed, along with environmental management, sustainability efforts, environmental corrective actions, and habitat restoration. To evaluate the effects of Argonne operations on the environment, samples of environmental media collected on the site, at the site boundary, and off the Argonne site were analyzed and compared with applicable guidelines and standards. A variety of radionuclides were measured in air, surface water, groundwater, and bottom sediment samples. In addition, chemical constituents in surface water, groundwater, and wastewater were analyzed. External penetrating radiation doses were measured, and the potential for radiation exposure to off site population groups was estimated. Results are interpreted with respect to the origin of the radioactive and chemical substances (i.e., natural, Argonne, and other) and are compared with applicable standards intended to protect human health and the environment. A U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) dose calculation methodology, based on International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) recommendations and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) CAP 88 Version 4.1 computer code, was used in preparing this report.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗