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At least 1,027 records · Page 57

Second Target Station Project: STS/PSD/ESTD Workshop on Batteries and Energy Storage

Oak Ridge National Laboratory's (ORNL) upcoming Second Target Station (STS) at the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) provides a substantial leap forward in neutron scattering capabilities, offering high-brightness cold neutron sources that have the potential to revolutionize the study of energy materials. This report highlights the outcomes of a cross-directorate workshop on Batteries and Energy Storage held in September 2023, which brought together stakeholders from the STS Project, the Physical Sciences Directorate (PSD), the Energy Science and Technology Directorate (ESTD), and the Neutron Sciences Directorate (NScD).

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

MPACT Verification and Validation Manual Version 4.4

As the VERA SQA plan requires, it is the responsibility of the University of Michigan (UM) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), as co-owners of MPACT, to ensure that verification and validation activities are performed and documented in a V&V manual with supporting publications and CASL technical reports which can be provided for reference and distribution within VERA. This document provides the current revision of the MPACT verification and validation (V&V) manual and describes the current state of MPACT V&V and updates the plans for future MPACT V&V activities. The following sections provide an overview of the V&V process used in MPACT, as well as a summary of the status of each component of V&V in the code.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Two MCNP Models for Computational Performance Benchmarking

The purpose of this report is to describe two non-trivial MCNP models and execution configurations that are suitable to characterizing computational performance. To that end, this report uses a constructive solid geometry (CSG) representation of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Pool Critical Assembly (PCA) [1–3] to perform a k-eigenvalue calculation and an unstructured mesh (UM) representation of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) publication 145 (ICRP145) male human phantom [4, 5] to perform a fixed-source calculation assuming that a 1 MeV photon source is distributed throughout the phantom’s liver.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Ensemble Manufacturing Techniques for Steam Turbine Components Across Length Scales

Faster design to manufacturing requirements were sought for steam turbine components to meet the changing demands of today’s power grid of improved efficiency through operating temperature increases and enhanced operational flexibility from baseload to cyclic operations. Advances in multiple advanced manufacturing (AM) process enabled redesign of turbine components for extreme environments with the potential to reduce cost. AM is of particular interest to improve component functionality, higher temperature capability, and superior durability in large scale steam turbine applications. AM methods have an immense potential to open-up the design space by working directly with the 3D model to produce near-net shapes, enable fast design-manufacturing iterations, thereby significantly reducing product cost and lead-time up to 25 % from current baseline. However, these benefits cannot be fully realized due to the potential for unknown AM processing defects and their resultant effect upon component performance in service. Siemens is partnering with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), and Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology (CCAT) to advance the knowledge of complex process-material interactions for desired microstructures and properties that are closely interlinked to component geometries across different length scales. The proposed program utilized an ensemble of multidisciplinary technologies to accelerate the development of materials, high-throughput experiments for their qualification, and design flexibility/topology optimization for repair/redesign of components to address critical failure mechanisms for improved performance and increased reliability of existing power plant components. The proposed activities, if successfully demonstrated for identified components, will enable paradigm shift in customized manufacturing and accelerated qualification/certification towards increased steam turbine component durability, increased turbine efficiency, and reduced CO 2 emissions in load-following environments compared to today’s technology. Technology maturation is built into the project as successful research will include customized process-component down-selection enabling AM methodologies to be incorporated directly into the existing supply chain. The specific activities of the proposed effort are: 1. Topology optimization of down-selected steam turbine parts that are amenable to additive and hybrid manufacturing for cost/performance improvement. 2. Process-structure-property relationships for five AM processes for steam turbine materials of interest to compare with conventional materials. 3. Perform part/assembly build process using advanced additive/hybrid machine tools followed by quality inspection of the built components for insight into qualification for production scale-up. Steam turbine rig testing of printed components under targeted, well monitored and characterized environmental conditions of for performance comparison of baseline and redesigned components.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

INTERSECT Architecture Specification: System-of-Systems Architecture (V.0.9)

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)’s Self-driven Experiments for Science / Interconnected Science Ecosystem (INTERSECT) architecture project, titled “An Open Federated Architecture for the Laboratory of the Future”, creates an open federated hardware/software architecture for the laboratory of the future using a novel system of systems (SoS) and microservice architecture approach, connecting scientific instruments, robot-controlled laboratories and edge/center computing/data resources to enable autonomous experiments, “self-driving” laboratories, smart manufacturing, and artificial intelligence (AI)-driven design, discovery and evaluation.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

INTERSECT Architecture Specification: Microservice Architecture (V.0.9)

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)’s Self-driven Experiments for Science / Interconnected Science Ecosystem (INTERSECT) architecture project, titled “An Open Federated Architecture for the Laboratory of the Future”, creates an open federated hardware/software architecture for the laboratory of the future using a novel system of systems (SoS) and microservice architecture approach, connecting scientific instruments, robot-controlled laboratories and edge/center computing/data resources to enable autonomous experiments, “self-driving” laboratories, smart manufacturing, and artificial intelligence (AI)-driven design, discovery and evaluation. The project describes science use cases as design patterns that identify and abstract the involved hardware/software components and their interactions in terms of control, work and data flow. It creates a SoS architecture of the federated hardware/software ecosystem that clarifies terms, architectural elements, the interactions between them and compliance. It further designs a federated microservice architecture, mapping science use case design patterns to the SoS architecture with loosely coupled microservices, standardized interfaces and multi programming language support. The primary deliverable of this project is an INTERSECT Open Architecture Specification, containing the science use case design pattern catalog, the federated SoS architecture specification and the microservice architecture specification. This document represents the microservice architecture specification of the INTERSECT Open Architecture Specification.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Late-Stage Research Development and Demonstration Sub-activities Updates

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), in collaboration with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), and the Hummingbird Firm (a specialized consulting firm focused on promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion considerations), has initiated a national initiative known as the Heat Pump (HP) and Heat Pump Water Heater (HPWH) Field Validation Partnership. This effort involves active participation from numerous critical entities involved in research and market transformation within the field.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

Container Factories in the Oak Ridge Research Cloud

This technical report describes an implementation of a devops container factory utilizing ORNL ResearchCloud (ORC) birthright resources. Any researcher or project can implement the strategy described here fortheir CI/CD needs. This is a technology demonstration of using rootless podman as a direct replacementfor docker in a GitLab CI/CD context to enhance security. It is also a stepping stone towardsimplementation of the containerized software factory described in the DoD Enterprise DevSecOpsReference Design.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

High Performance Computing Facility Operational Assessment 2022: Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility

The Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF) was established to accelerate scientific discovery by providing world-leading computational performance and advanced data infrastructure. As a US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science user facility, the OLCF has managed the successful deployment and operation of a succession of leadership-class resources dedicated to open science. In addition to these resources, the OLCF staff continually strive to develop innovative processes and technologies, improve security, and empower users through allocation management and comprehensive user support and training. These efforts support the advancement of science by the OLCF users and benefit high-performance computing (HPC) facilities around the world. In calendar year (CY) 2022, the OLCF supported 1,681 users and 570 projects and exceeded all targets for user satisfaction. The facility received an average satisfaction score of 4.6 out of 5 on the annual user survey, and 96% of respondents reported a high satisfaction rate with the OLCF overall. Of the 3,212 user tickets submitted in CY 2022, OLCF staff resolved 97% within 3 business days. The facility also introduced several new services for users this year, including weekly virtual office hours with subject matter experts from ORNL and vendor partners; new views in MyOLCF that allow users to analyze allocation and compute usage for a project; the ability to build and run containers on Summit; and improved data visualization support and training resources.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Analysis of Second Target Station Target Segment Removal Dose Rates

This report documents the analysis of the dose rate fields in two configurations of the target system of the Second Target Station (STS) at the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in support of the remote handling target segment removal operation. The two configurations detailed in this report are both assuming 8 hours since beam was incident on the target. The first configuration assumes all shielding is in place just as it was during operation and allows for confirmation of hands-on maintenance capability of the target drive components. The second configuration assumes that a hatch in the target drive room ceiling has been opened to the high bay, the target segment removable core vessel shield block has been removed, and there is a direct line-of-sight to the target segment some 5 m below the target drive room elevation. Dose rate fields in both configurations are documented in this report along with details of the methods of computation. The dose rate fields included in this report are intended to support the engineering of remote handling special equipment and the planning of remote handing operations. The models and analysis detailed in this report are in support of the preliminary design of the STS and future analysis is needed to support the final design of the STS.

61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY↗

Additive Manufacturing of Dissolvable Mandrels

ORNL collaborated with Mitsubishi Chemical America to investigate different grades of vinyl alcohol co-polymers as a potential feedstock material for large-scale material extrusion additive manufacturing (AM). Dissolvable polymers and can find potential applications in AM tooling for complex, hollow, and trapped composite structures without the need for specialized molds and tools. This CRADA Phase I work involved analysis of three different developmental grades of vinyl alcohol co-polymers for thermal and rheological properties, followed by print trials on the Big Area Additive Manufacturing (BAAM) system using these materials. Finally, printed part properties, including mechanical and thermal performance, as well as dissolvability were evaluated. The properties and performance evaluated in this phase of the project have provided guidelines to further develop these vinyl alcohol co-polymers to enable large-scale printing at high deposition rates and obtain parts that satisfy high temperature molds and dies requirements.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Exploration of Binder Jet Additive Manufacturing for Automotive Heat Sink Component Fabrication

ORNL (Contractor) and Magna Services of America Inc. (Participant) collaborated to determine the feasibility of binder jet additive manufacturing (BJAM) for the fabrication of copper components for automotive heat sink applications. This Phase 1 collaboration focused on printing copper heat sinks that rely on capillary effect to move fluids rather than mechanical pumps in electric vehicles to extend the battery range and life. Partial sintering of copper powders deposited via BJAM was hypothesized to aid capillary effect to improve the heat transfer. Further, BJAM offers the potential for scalability at a production level.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Water Atomized H13 Tool Steel Powders for Binder Jet Additive Manufacturing

ORNL (Contractor) and Ametek, Inc. (Participant) collaborated to determine the feasibility of adopting water atomized H13 tool steel powder for binder jet additive manufacturing (BJAM) for tooling applications. The capability to utilize water atomized powders can substantially reduce powder expenses for BJAM, enabling process competitiveness with casting whilst enabling new applications of high-temperature, net-shaped components.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Sister Rod Destructive Examinations (FY23) Appendix F: Cyclic Integrated Reversible-Bending Fatigue Tests

Spent nuclear fuel (SNF) assemblies must be shipped to other sites for processing and disposal. During shipment, the fuel is typically oriented horizontally, and the fuel rods are subject to periodic alternating loads related to the movement of the vehicle that results in alternating bending of the SNF fuel rods. The number of bending cycles is related to the length of the shipping route, with longer routes producing more cycles. Because it is well-known that cyclic loads can produce failures, even when the stress and strain imposed are below the material’s yield point, investigation of the SNF’s fatigue behavior is prudent. This report discusses the results of fatigue testing conducted at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) using the Cyclic Integrated Reversible-Bending Fatigue Tester (CIRFT) created by the US Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy for the High Burnup Spent Fuel Data Project and its sister rods. The results of the tests are compared with results obtained over the last decade using the same CIRFT for the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Sister Rod Destructive Examinations (FY23) Appendix F3: Uncertainty and Conservative Bias in the Cyclic Integrated Reversible-Bending Fatigue Test

The development and application of the Cyclic Integrated Reversible-Bending Fatigue Tester (CIRFT) has been documented over the past 10 years. The CIRFT system was developed in collaboration with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to address the concern that high-burnup fuel rod fatigue performance was degraded compared to cladding-only behavior. Fatigue data measured by CIRFT on high-burnup fuel rods were then used by the NRC to develop a fatigue response curve for pressurized water reactor fuel rods with Zircaloy-4 cladding in NUREG-2224. Subsequently, CIRFT has been used in the sister rod project to test whether reoriented hydrides associated with vacuum drying influenced the fatigue lifetime, to extend the fatigue testing database to include fuel rods with ZIRLO cladding, and to add to the experience on both Zircaloy-4 and M5 cladding. These data will be used as a reference for subsequent characterization of fuel rods removed from the high-burnup demonstration cask to better understand the effects of long-term dry storage, which can be thought of as a multiyear elevated temperature anneal. The objective of fatigue testing is to provide data that can be used to develop a best-estimate fatigue curve and a conservative fatigue design curve that accounts for uncertainty and can be compared with actual transportation conditions. The process for defining a design fatigue curve for commercial used fuel rods was developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in FY22. One issue noted in the fatigue evaluation was that the calculated combined uncertainty in the strain amplitude values determined from the measured data was large. It was proposed then to directly measure the uncertainty in the strain amplitude to either validate the calculated combined uncertainty or update the uncertainty based on the measurement data. Thus, the purpose of this appendix is to document the measured uncertainty in the strain amplitude data. In the process, it was determined that there has been a conservative bias in the calculated strain amplitude that is small enough to be within the measurement uncertainty. This observation is discussed herein, and a case is made to continue to include the conservative bias in the data.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Supply Chain Management in Cyber Grid Guard Framework

Grid modernization has impeded innovative power grid applications and energy resources that are increasingly distributed. Blockchain/distributed ledger technology (DLT) has the potential to enhance the resilience of the electric infrastructure, particularly in a decentralized and distributed environment. The benefits of blockchain are to ensure asset information and lifecycle events are secure and traceable and identify potential malicious modification of data. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has developed a framework, Cyber Grid Guard (CGG), incorporating blockchain. The system implements a low-energy, fast, and robust enhancement to system trustworthiness within and across electric grid systems, including substations, control centers, and metering infrastructures. Currently, one of the major concerns is supply chain attacks. There have been several recent attacks that have significantly impacted critical infrastructures and organizations around the world. This document focuses on how CGG can be used to address the supply chain issue.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Contributions for ENDF/B-VIII.1 Paper

It was discussed at WANDA2020 that some issues were found by the community and users in ENDF/B-VIII.0 covariances after their release. It was mentioned that one issue in testing ENDF/B-VIII.0 covariances was that they were provided by evaluators too late in the β-release phases that insufficient time for thorough testing was available. Therefore, the executive committee requested that first nuclear data covariances should already be delivered for ENDF/B-VIII.1β 1 in February 2023—about half a year earlier than was the case for ENDF/B-VIII.0. This additional time allowed for more stringent testing with LANL’s ENDFtk and CovVal codes, and ORNL’s AMPX code during the release phases. The LLNL covariance testing employed a combination of NJOY, empy tools from EMPIRE, and x4i.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

SCALE Activities in FY23 [Slides]

This presentation shows that the SCALE 6.3 is available from RSICC. The lecture touches on new features including the new ENDF/B-VIII.0 data including covariances. It shows that the updated parallel infrastructure enables parallel capability on Windows. Production release with maintenance until 2026 at minimum addressing Code or data bugs, Performance, Ease of installation. There is a New Government Use Agreement (GUA) for SCALE 7.0 beta access. With site licenses available for non-commercial testing and feedback, handled through ORNL technology transfer.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗