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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2023

Solving National Security Challenges [Slides]

In 1943, Los Alamos National Laboratory was founded with a single, urgent purpose: to build an atomic bomb. Today, LANL focuses on maintaining a strategic nuclear deterrent, developing technology, and using science and engineering to protect the nation's security. Our workers, facilities, and instruments detect nuclear weapons, facilities, and instruments; promote cooperation and diplomacy; and limit nuclear arms and the spread of nuclear materials, technology, and expertise.

45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEF↗
DOE OSTI2024

Quantum Computing and Simulations for Energy Applications

While quantum computing (QC) is considered as a paradigm shift in our basic understanding of physical computation, effective implementation of QC in energy applications also depends on progress and development in the dimensions of both QC hardware and algorithms. To fully address the status and future challenges of QC applied within the energy sector, in this presentation, we firstly summarize recent advancements on the applications of QC to energy infrastructure and materials, complex energy system processes, advanced manufacturing, and energy system security. Then, we will demonstrate the results of QC performed both on a simulator and a quantum device targeting on energy-related applications.

Paudel, Hari P.↗
NASA NTRS1996

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President: Fiscal Year 1996 Activities

Topics considered include: (1) Space launch activities: space shuttle missions; expendable launch vehicles. (2) Space science: astronomy and space physics; solar system exploration. (3) Space flight and technology: life and microgravity sciences; space shuttle technology; reuseable launch vehicles; international space station; energy; safety and mission assurance; commercial development and regulation of space; surveillance. (4) Space communications: communications satellites; space network; ground networks; mission control and data systems. (5) Aeronautical activities: technology developments; air traffic control and navigation; weather-related aeronautical activities; flight safety and security; aviation medicine and human factors. (6) Studies of the planet earth: terrestrial studies and applications: atmospheric studies: oceanographic studies; international aeronautical and space activities; and appendices.

Source record↗
DOE OSTI2022

Autonomous Wireless Technology Detection in Seamless IoT Applications

The ever-increasing use of Internet of Things (IoT) devices results in the implementation of multiple wireless technologies that would not only cater their data rate requirements but also support various applications. To optimize the energy efficiency and security of the wireless transmission, it is imperative to identify the wireless technologies in various IoT implementations. Many of the existing approaches are based on measuring only the receiving signal strength indicator (RSSI). However, such approaches may not work well because of transmit power control and complex channel variations among different wireless technologies. In this article, we propose an autonomous wireless detection scheme that considers multiple distinguishable physical (PHY)-layer settings for real-time identification of wireless technologies for real-time applications. Specifically, the proposed scheme relies on the PHY-layer measurements of the targeted spectrum. Transmission settings, such as bandwidth, carrier frequency, and RSSI are estimated from the raw in-phase and quadrature-phase (I/Q) measurements. In addition, a symbol-level extraction scheme is implemented to extract unique features of modulation settings. These aforementioned features are applied to a machine learning process to identify the received wireless technologies. Compared with raw I/Q measurements, the extracted features are much simplified and, thus, the machine learning classifier can be designed with a simple structure for fast processing on IoT nodes. Finally, the proposed schemes are primarily evaluated theoretically, followed by implementing them on a USRP software-defined radio (SDR)-based hardware testbed. The evaluation results demonstrate high accuracy in the real-time detection of different wireless technologies for seamless IoT applications.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2020

Rethinking U.S. Biosecurity Strategy for the Decade Ahead (Workshop Summary)

The Center for Global Security Research (CGSR) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) hosted a workshop titled, “Rethinking U.S. Biosecurity Strategy for the Decade Ahead” on October 27-29, 2020. The workshop included participants from the policy, military, and technical communities in the United States as well as from U.S. allies. The workshop, convened virtually due to the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic, was a close collaboration between CGSR and the Physical Life Sciences (PLS) Directorate at LLNL. While the scope of conference extended beyond current circumstances to include precedents and predictions for both public health and bioweapons, contemporary events weighed heavily on the discussion participants.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Status and prospects for the development of a Neutron Target Facility

Neutron-induced reactions are a topic of general interest, with scientific and technical impact ranging from nuclear energy and national security to the fundamental sciences. Details of the fission process are critically important for energy production and reactivity for applications, while transmutation reactions such as (n,γ) can contribute to application-specific diagnostic information as well as our understanding of stellar nucleosynthesis. As a result, there is a long history of global investment in the necessary facilities and scientific programs to study this important class of physics.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Comprehensive Evaluation of Agrivoltaics Research: Breadth, Depth, and Insights for Future Research

Agrivoltaics integrates agricultural production with solar energy generation to address challenges related to land use, food security, and renewable energy development. This study provides the most comprehensive evaluation to date of global agrivoltaic research, aiming to classify the literature, identify strengths and gaps, and guide future work. We systematically screened over 3000 English-language publications through 2023 for relevant agrivoltaic publications. A total of 670 studies were categorized in the InSPIRE Data Portal across five agrivoltaic activities and multiple hierarchical themes, including physical, biological, technological, social, and crosscutting domains. We found that research was concentrated on crop production, microclimate dynamics, and PV performance, with gaps in areas like human health, wildlife, policy, and standardized methodologies. Although the U.S. emphasizes animal grazing and habitat-based systems in practice, most U.S.-based studies focused disproportionately on crop production. The analysis revealed uneven geographic and topical representation and highlighted a lack of integrated, interdisciplinary approaches. This study concludes that while agrivoltaic research has grown rapidly, more coordinated efforts could support standardized data collection, address overlooked ecological and social impacts, and align research focus with real-world system implementation, ultimately improving the scalability and successful deployment of agrivoltaic systems.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

CyOTE ASSET OWNER ENGAGEMENT – SIDE CHANNEL POWER ANALYSIS PROTOTYPE

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER), through the Cybersecurity for the Operational Technology Environment (CyOTE) Program, worked with energy sector asset owners and operators (AOOs), partners, and Idaho National Laboratory (INL) to develop capabilities for AOOs to independently identify adversarial tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) within their operational technology (OT) environments. The CyOTE methodology seeks to identify adversarial techniques within an AOO OT environment that could result in physical disruptions to energy flow or damage to equipment. CyOTE provides a general roadmap for AOOs, starting from a triggering event, or the point in time and space they perceive an anomalous event or condition meriting investigation, and culminating when the AOO has sufficient confidence to make a business risk decision on the appropriate resolution. This paper outlines the results of one such engagement with the New York Power Authority (NYPA), where the CyOTE program partnered with an AOO to develop a design specification for a power side channel detector to identify anomalous changes to device load. It describes the goal of developing this capability, the development process, the challenges the technical teams faced and the future steps an AOO will need to take to install and use this detector in its OT environment.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Power Grid Reliability Estimation via Adaptive Importance Sampling

Electricity production currently generates approximately 25% of greenhouse gas emissions in the USA. Thus, increasing the amount of renewable energy is a key step to carbon neutrality. However, integrating a large amount of fluctuating renewable generation is a significant challenge for power grid operating and planning. Grid reliability, i.e., an ability to meet operational constraints under power fluctuations, is probably the most important of them. In this letter, we propose computationally efficient and accurate methods to estimate the probability of line overflow, i.e., reliability constraints violation, under a known distribution of renewable energy generation. To this end, we investigate an importance sampling approach, a flexible extension of Monte-Carlo methods, which adaptively changes the sampling distribution to generate more samples near the reliability boundary. The approach allows to estimate overload probability in real-time based only on a few dozens of random samples, compared to thousands required by the plain Monte-Carlo. Our study focuses on high voltage direct current power transmission grids with linear reliability constraints on power injections and line currents. Herein, we propose a novel theoretically justified physics-informed adaptive importance sampling algorithm and compare its performance to state-of-the-art methods on multiple IEEE power grid test cases.

power system faults↗
DOE OSTI2022

VAC: A Software Approach to Resilient SCADA Automation

To better secure critical infrastructure, especially power systems, this paper introduces a virtual SCADA automation controller. The automation controller is a gateway into a power subsystem, making it a valuable target for cyber-attacks that could cut it off from the control center and cause a loss of view and control. To prevent this, the Virtual Automation Controller (VAC) is a backup device that mirrors the capabilities of the physical controller. It can communicate via Modbus and DNP3 and is containerized so it can be deployed on a variety of platforms. Furthermore, it utilizes software-defined networking to quickly disconnect a failed automation controller and preserve its state for forensics. The VAC gives system operators time to replace the failed controller and prevents dangerous and costly damage to power systems. The VAC is compared against the SEL 3505-3 RTAC and shown to have the necessary features to act as a failover controller.

Johnson, Jordan↗
DOE OSTI2022

Regulatory Considerations for Nuclear Energy Applications of Digital Twin Technologies

Digital twins (DTs) in complex industrial and engineering applications have potential benefits that include increased operational efficiencies, enhanced safety and reliability, improved security engineering, reduced errors, faster information sharing, and better predictions. The interest in DT technologies continues to grow, and many of these advanced technologies are expected to experience rapid and wide industry adoption in the near future. Some of the potential application areas for DTs in the nuclear industry are design, licensing, plant construction, training simulators, predictive operations and maintenance, autonomous operation and control, failure and degradation prediction, physical protection modeling and simulation, and safety and reliability analyses. The Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has initiated a future-focused research project to assess the regulatory viability of DTs for nuclear power plants and other NRC-regulated activities, such as fuel cycle facilities and operations. This report explores the potential impact of DT technologies in nuclear applications on NRC-regulated activities of interest. This report describes a nuclear DT system and its capabilities for nuclear power plant applications, followed by identification and discussion of some regulated activities that merit special consideration and present opportunities in implementing DT-enabling technologies and capabilities.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Photovoltaic Analysis and Response Support (PARS) Platform for Solar Situational Awareness and Resiliency Services

The project's primary objective is to develop a digital-twin based Photovoltaic (PV) Analysis and Response Support (PARS) platform, which aims to provide real-time situational awareness and optimal response plans. This platform is designed to enhance the performance of hybrid PV systems, making them competitive with or even superior to conventional generation resources. The PARS platform enabled the project team to develop and evaluate an extensive suite of grid support functionalities for the hybrid PV systems to enhance grid performance, across key areas including visibility, dispatchability, security, resilience, and reliability. Given the global push toward achieving 100% clean energy by 2035, there is a significant increase in the integration of inverter-based resources (IBRs) throughout the energy grid. Effectively managing the inherent variability and uncertainty associated with IBRs is crucial for ensuring cost-effectiveness, reliability, and security in both the main grid and islanded microgrids. Constrained to a limited array of IEEE test systems or standard feeder models, traditional IBR modeling struggles to assimilate new field data, accurately reflect system dynamics, and adapt to the evolving energy landscape. In our project, we embraced a Digital Twin (DT) strategy for crafting the PARS platform. A digital twin acts as a precise virtual counterpart of a physical system, built on historical data and continuously honed with real-time insights. This enables the high-fidelity DT to accurately mirror current system operations and forecast future scenarios. Consequently, the PARS platform becomes an ideal environment for testing and refining monitoring, control, power, and energy management algorithms designed to boost hybrid PV system performance. The defining feature of the PARS platform, distinguishing it from other advanced simulation tools, is its exceptional adaptability. This is achieved by employing actual network topologies and utilizing real-time field data for fine-tuning and calibration, ensuring a close emulation of real-world conditions. The project deliverables include: 1) High-fidelity IBR models and tools for real-time parameterization, utilizing real-time field measurements to refine IBR models for enhanced accuracy and performance; 2) Grid-forming and Grid-following capabilities to deliver resilience services, including blackstart, voltage and frequency support, cold-load pick-up, power reserves, and three-phase load balancing across grid-connected and microgrid settings; 3) Machine learning-based forecasting tools and methods for generating synthetic data and topologies, creating diverse and realistic simulation environments for evaluating varied operational scenarios; 4) Advanced microgrid power and energy management algorithms for optimizing the integration and operation of PV, storage, and demand response resources within both feeder and community scales. The power grid data sets are provided by four utility companies in North Carolina and the New York Power Administration. Acting as industry advisors, our industry partners communicated stakeholder needs and regulatory standards to the research teams, aiding technology transfer by incorporating the developed methodologies into their daily operations. This collaboration ensures that the PARS platform, functioning as a power system digital twin, enhances our understanding of IBR dynamic behaviors and enables the development and evaluation of IBR control functions that match or exceed the capabilities of conventional synchronous generators.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
NASA NTRS2000

NPSS on NASA's IPG: Using CORBA and Globus to Coordinate Multidisciplinary Aeroscience Applications

Within NASA's High Performance Computing and Communication (HPCC) program, the NASA Glenn Research Center is developing an environment for the analysis/design of aircraft engines called the Numerical Propulsion System Simulation (NPSS). The vision for NPSS is to create a "numerical test cell" enabling full engine simulations overnight on cost-effective computing platforms. To this end, NPSS integrates multiple disciplines such as aerodynamics, structures, and heat transfer and supports "numerical zooming" between O-dimensional to 1-, 2-, and 3-dimensional component engine codes. In order to facilitate the timely and cost-effective capture of complex physical processes, NPSS uses object-oriented technologies such as C++ objects to encapsulate individual engine components and CORBA ORBs for object communication and deployment across heterogeneous computing platforms. Recently, the HPCC program has initiated a concept called the Information Power Grid (IPG), a virtual computing environment that integrates computers and other resources at different sites. IPG implements a range of Grid services such as resource discovery, scheduling, security, instrumentation, and data access, many of which are provided by the Globus toolkit. IPG facilities have the potential to benefit NPSS considerably. For example, NPSS should in principle be able to use Grid services to discover dynamically and then co-schedule the resources required for a particular engine simulation, rather than relying on manual placement of ORBs as at present. Grid services can also be used to initiate simulation components on parallel computers (MPPs) and to address inter-site security issues that currently hinder the coupling of components across multiple sites. These considerations led NASA Glenn and Globus project personnel to formulate a collaborative project designed to evaluate whether and how benefits such as those just listed can be achieved in practice. This project involves firstly development of the basic techniques required to achieve co-existence of commodity object technologies and Grid technologies; and secondly the evaluation of these techniques in the context of NPSS-oriented challenge problems. The work on basic techniques seeks to understand how "commodity" technologies (CORBA, DCOM, Excel, etc.) can be used in concert with specialized "Grid" technologies (for security, MPP scheduling, etc.). In principle, this coordinated use should be straightforward because of the Globus and IPG philosophy of providing low-level Grid mechanisms that can be used to implement a wide variety of application-level programming models. (Globus technologies have previously been used to implement Grid-enabled message-passing libraries, collaborative environments, and parameter study tools, among others.) Results obtained to date are encouraging: we have successfully demonstrated a CORBA to Globus resource manager gateway that allows the use of CORBA RPCs to control submission and execution of programs on workstations and MPPs; a gateway from the CORBA Trader service to the Grid information service; and a preliminary integration of CORBA and Grid security mechanisms. The two challenge problems that we consider are the following: 1) Desktop-controlled parameter study. Here, an Excel spreadsheet is used to define and control a CFD parameter study, via a CORBA interface to a high throughput broker that runs individual cases on different IPG resources. 2) Aviation safety. Here, about 100 near real time jobs running NPSS need to be submitted, run and data returned in near real time. Evaluation will address such issues as time to port, execution time, potential scalability of simulation, and reliability of resources. The full paper will present the following information: 1. A detailed analysis of the requirements that NPSS applications place on IPG. 2. A description of the techniques used to meet these requirements via the coordinated use of CORBA and Globus. 3. A description of results obtained to date in the first two challenge problems.

Lopez, Isaac↗
DOE OSTI2024

Multi-parametric analysis for mixed integer linear programming: An application to transmission upgrade and congestion management

Upgrading the capacity of existing transmission lines is essential for meeting the growing energy demands, facilitating the integration of renewable energy, and ensuring the security of the transmission system. This study focuses on the selection of lines whose capacities and by how much should be expanded from the perspective of the Independent System Operators (ISOs) to minimize the total system cost. We employ advanced multi-parametric programming and an enhanced branch-and-bound algorithm to address complex mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) problems, considering multi-period time constraints and physical limitations of generators and transmission lines. To characterize the various decisions in transmission expansion, we model the increased capacity of existing lines as parameters within a specified range. This study first relaxes the binary variables to continuous variables and applies the Lagrange method and Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) conditions to obtain optimal solutions and identify critical regions associated with active and inactive constraints. Moreover, we extend the traditional branch-and-bound (B&B) method by determining the problem’s upper and lower bounds at each node of the B&B decision tree, helping to manage computational challenges in large-scale MILP problems. Here, we compare the difference between the upper and lower bounds to obtain an approximate optimal solution within the decision-makers’ tolerable error range. In addition, the first derivative of the objective function on the parameters of each line is used to inform the selection of lines for easing congestion and maximizing social welfare. Finally, the capacity upgrades are selected by weighing the reductions in system costs against the expense of upgrading line capacities. The findings are supported by numerical simulations and provide transmission-line planners with decision-making guidance.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2025

XRISM high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy of Cygnus X-1: Highly ionized iron absorption structures

We present the first high-resolution X-ray spectral analysis of Cygnus X-1 using XRISM. The observation wa3s carried out from 2024 April 7 to 10, covering the orbital phase range 0.65–0.17 during its low/hard state. Taking advantage of the exceptional energy resolution of the Resolve instrument, we examined highly ionized iron absorption lines and characterized the ionization states, column densities, and line-of-sight velocities of the absorbing plasma. Spectral analysis revealed an ionization parameter of $\xi \sim 3$, column densities of a few $\times 10^{21}$ cm$^{-2}$, and a blueshifted velocity of $\sim$100 km s$^{-1}$. The observation was divided into two phases: before and after orbital phase $\phi _{\rm {orb}} = 0.9$, corresponding to non-dipping and dipping intervals. While only weak absorption features were present before $\phi _{\rm {orb}} = 0.9$, strong absorption by He-like and H-like Fe appeared during the dipping phase. We measured equivalent widths of 2.3, 0.4, and 1.2 eV for He-like Fe K$\alpha$ and H-like Ly$\alpha _1$ and Ly$\alpha _2$, respectively—demonstrating the capability of XRISM Resolve to securely detect narrow absorption features of only a few eV. These measurements trace the motion of the absorbing material and offer insight into the kinematics and spatial distribution of the wind in the vicinity of the black hole. These findings enhance our understanding of wind-fed accretion in Cygnus X-1 and highlight the importance of continued high-resolution X-ray observations to further constrain the physical properties of winds and accretion flows in high-mass X-ray binaries.

Astronomy and AstroPhysics↗
DOE OSTI2024

REDLY

SAND2025-11838O REDLY provides a framework for designing, training, and validating physics-informed neural networks for power system applications. It trains surrogates for Alternating Current Power Flow prediction and general economic dispatch problems, such as Alternating Current Optimal Power Flow and Direct Current Power Flow. Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA0003525.

Blakely, Logan↗