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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2015

Transformative Reduction of Transportation Greenhouse Gas Emissions. Opportunities for Change in Technologies and Systems

The transportation sector is changing, influenced by concurrent, ongoing, dynamic trends that could dramatically affect the future energy landscape, including effects on the potential for greenhouse gas emissions reductions. Battery cost reductions and improved performance coupled with a growing number of electric vehicle model offerings are enabling greater battery electric vehicle market penetration, and advances in fuel cell technology and decreases in hydrogen production costs are leading to initial fuel cell vehicle offerings. Radically more efficient vehicles based on both conventional and new drivetrain technologies reduce greenhouse gas emissions per vehicle-mile. Net impacts also depend on the energy sources used for propulsion, and these are changing with increased use of renewable energy and unconventional fossil fuel resources. Connected and automated vehicles are emerging for personal and freight transportation systems and could increase use of low- or non-emitting technologies and systems; however, the net effects of automation on greenhouse gas emissions are uncertain. The longstanding trend of an annual increase in transportation demand has reversed for personal vehicle miles traveled in recent years, demonstrating the possibility of lower-travel future scenarios. Finally, advanced biofuel pathways have continued to develop, highlighting low-carbon and in some cases carbon-negative fuel pathways. We discuss the potential for transformative reductions in petroleum use and greenhouse gas emissions through these emerging transportation-sector technologies and trends and present a Clean Transportation Sector Initiative scenario for such reductions, which are summarized in Table ES-1.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2015

2015 Final Reports from the Los Alamos National Laboratory Computational Physics Student Summer Workshop

The two primary purposes of LANL’s Computational Physics Student Summer Workshop are (1) To educate graduate and exceptional undergraduate students in the challenges and applications of computational physics of interest to LANL, and (2) Entice their interest toward those challenges. Computational physics is emerging as a discipline in its own right, combining expertise in mathematics, physics, and computer science. The mathematical aspects focus on numerical methods for solving equations on the computer as well as developing test problems with analytical solutions. The physics aspects are very broad, ranging from low-temperature material modeling to extremely high temperature plasma physics, radiation transport and neutron transport. The computer science issues are concerned with matching numerical algorithms to emerging architectures and maintaining the quality of extremely large codes built to perform multi-physics calculations. Although graduate programs associated with computational physics are emerging, it is apparent that the pool of U.S. citizens in this multi-disciplinary field is relatively small and is typically not focused on the aspects that are of primary interest to LANL. Furthermore, more structured foundations for LANL interaction with universities in computational physics is needed; historically interactions rely heavily on individuals’ personalities and personal contacts. Thus a tertiary purpose of the Summer Workshop is to build an educational network of LANL researchers, university professors, and emerging students to advance the field and LANL’s involvement in it. This report includes both the background for the program and the reports from the students.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2014

Continuation and Enhancement of the MPOWIR Program

MPOWIR is a community-based program that provides mentoring to physical oceanographers from late graduate school through early careers. The overall goal of MPOWIR is to make mentoring opportunities for junior physical oceanographers universally available and of higher quality by expanding the reach of mentoring opportunities beyond individual home institutions. The aim is to reduce the barriers to career development for all junior scientists in the field, with a particular focus on improving the retention of junior women. Over the past five years MPOWIR has expanded significantly. This funding cycle saw the development and enhancement of MPOWIR’s programs and outreach opportunities. MPOWIR’s main programmatic offerings are: mentor groups, a biannual conference, a website and blog, and town hall meetings at national events. Since 2009, MPOWIR has hosted 15 mentor groups, three Pattullo conferences, and created a website that has attracted over 50,000 visitors. MPOWIR’s mentoring groups and Pattullo conferences have reached more than 130 unique participants. Mentor Groups Mentor groups were established in the fall of 2008, and continue to gain momentum after 5 years. Since 2009, 11 groups have formed, with participants mainly, but not exclusively, drawn from Pattullo attendees. To gauge the impact of mentor groups, participants are surveyed approximately annually. Based on an extensive 2011 survey, 100% of mentoring group participants reported that they made progress on their stated scientific, professional, and personal goals. As part of these surveys, participants are asked what they value about their mentoring group, what the benefit of the mentoring group is to their current position, and they are asked questions about the logistics and setup of the groups. Based on the survey conducted in 2012, all participants rated participation in these groups a valuable experience, with particular value placed on feedback on professional development (100% Excellent to Good) and feedback on personal matters (92% Excellent to Good). Pattullo Conferences The centerpiece of the MPOWIR program is the Pattullo Conference, named for June Pattullo, the first woman to receive a Ph.D. in physical oceanography. At each event, the agenda includes research talks, professional development sessions, small group activities, and a question-and-answer session about early-career and retention issues posed by junior scientists to senior researchers. Pattullo Conference participants are surveyed after each conference about their experience. This survey asks participants to rate their opinion on specific topics and invites comments. Combining results from three conferences, 99% of junior participants would recommend the conference to another junior scientist. Of the junior participants, 92% rated the conference as “extremely valuable” overall, with a particular value placed on networking and professional development opportunities. Overall Impact To gain a better perspective on the success of MPOWIR to date, early participants were surveyed in 2013 about their current position, and the impact of MPOWIR on their career path. Individuals were asked to rank the extent to which MPOWIR had impacted various aspects of their professional growth. These aspects included efforts to obtain their current position; exposure to professional development skills; broadening of their professional network; mentoring on work and family balance; performance in current position; and raising awareness of mentoring in career development. Participants overwhelming indicated that MPOWIR had positively impacted all of these aspects. In particular, 95% of respondents expressed that MPOWIR exposed them to useful professional development skills “to a great extent” and 89% consider MPOWIR to have positively impacted their professional network “to a great extent”. Of those surveyed, the majority of participants were 2 years from their Ph.D. at the time of initial involvement. Their current job positions are well distributed over all post-Ph.D. categories: the greatest percentages of positions held are at research institutions (non-academic) or government agencies (29.3%), followed closely by non-faculty research positions at universities (27.6%) and faculty at research universities (22.4%). The remaining positions held (4-year college faculty, profit or not-for-profit company, policy, and graduate students) collectively total 19%. These initial indications point toward mentoring, as offered by MPOWIR, as an effective means for improving retention of women in physical oceanography.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2016

Fall Protection Introduction, #33462

The proper use of fall prevention and fall protection controls can reduce the risk of deaths and injuries caused by falls. This course, Fall Protection Introduction (#33462), is designed as an introduction to various types of recognized fall prevention and fall protection systems at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), including guardrail systems, safety net systems, fall restraint systems, and fall arrest systems. Special emphasis is given to the components, inspection, care, and storage of personal fall arrest systems (PFASs). This course also presents controls for falling object hazards and emergency planning considerations for persons who have fallen.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Assessing the Macroeconomic Importance of Gasoline and Vehicle Spending

Vector error correction (VEC) was used to test the importance of a theoretical causal chain from transportation fuel cost to vehicle sales to macroeconomic activity. Real transportation fuel cost was broken into two cost components: real gasoline price (rpgas) and real personal consumption of gasoline and other goods (gas). Real personal consumption expenditure on vehicles (RMVE) represented vehicle sales. Real gross domestic product (rGDP) was used as the measure of macroeconomic activity. The VEC estimates used quarterly data from the third quarter of 1952 to the first quarter of 2014. Controlling for the financial causes of the recent Great Recession, real homeowners’ equity (equity) and real credit market instruments liability (real consumer debt, rcmdebt) were included. Results supported the primary hypothesis of the research, but also introduced evidence that another financial path through equity is important, and that use of the existing fleet of vehicles (not just sales of vehicles) is an important transport-related contributor to macroeconomic activity. Consumer debt reduction is estimated to be a powerful short-run force reducing vehicle sales. Findings are interpreted in the context of the recent Greene, Lee, and Hopson (2012) (hereafter GLH) estimation of the magnitude of three distinct macroeconomic damage effects that result from dependence on imported oil, the price of which is manipulated by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). The three negative macroeconomic impacts are due to (1) dislocation (positive oil price shock), (2) high oil price levels, and (3) a high value of the quantity of oil imports times an oil price delta (cartel price less competitive price). The third of these is the wealth effect. The VEC model addresses the first two, but the software output from the model (impulse response plots) does not isolate them. Nearly all prior statistical tests in the literature have used vector autoregression (VAR) and autoregressive distributed lag models that considered effects of oil price changes, but did not account for effects of oil price levels. Gasoline prices were rarely examined. The tests conducted in this report evaluate gasoline instead of oil.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2016

2016 Final Reports from the Los Alamos National Laboratory Computational Physics Student Summer Workshop

The two primary purposes of LANL’s Computational Physics Student Summer Workshop are (1) To educate graduate and exceptional undergraduate students in the challenges and applications of computational physics of interest to LANL, and (2) Entice their interest toward those challenges. Computational physics is emerging as a discipline in its own right, combining expertise in mathematics, physics, and computer science. The mathematical aspects focus on numerical methods for solving equations on the computer as well as developing test problems with analytical solutions. The physics aspects are very broad, ranging from low-temperature material modeling to extremely high temperature plasma physics, radiation transport and neutron transport. The computer science issues are concerned with matching numerical algorithms to emerging architectures and maintaining the quality of extremely large codes built to perform multi-physics calculations. Although graduate programs associated with computational physics are emerging, it is apparent that the pool of U.S. citizens in this multi-disciplinary field is relatively small and is typically not focused on the aspects that are of primary interest to LANL. Furthermore, more structured foundations for LANL interaction with universities in computational physics is needed; historically interactions rely heavily on individuals’ personalities and personal contacts. Thus a tertiary purpose of the Summer Workshop is to build an educational network of LANL researchers, university professors, and emerging students to advance the field and LANL’s involvement in it.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2017

System Engineering Analysis For Improved Scout Business Information Systems

The project uses system engineering principles to address the need of Boy Scout leaders for an integrated system to facilitate advancement and awards records, leader training and planning for meetings and activities. Existing products to address needs of Scout leaders and relevant stakeholders function to support record keeping and some communication functions but opportunity exists for a better system to fully integrate these functions with training delivery and recording, activity planning along with feedback and information gathering from stakeholders. Key stakeholders for the sytem include Scouts and their families, leaders, training providers, sellers of supplies and awards, content generators and facilities that serve Scout activities. Key performance parameters for the system are protection of personal information, availability of current information, information accuracy and information content that has depth. Implementation concepts considered for the system include (1) owned and operated by Boy Scouts of America, (2) Contracted out to a vendor (3) distributed system that functions with BSA managed interfaces. The selected concept is to contract out to a vendor to maximize the likelihood of successful integration and take advantage of the best technology. Development of requirements considers three key use cases (1) System facilitates planning a hike with training needed satisfied in advance and advancement recording real time (2) Scheduling and documenting in-person training, (3) Family interested in Scouting receives information and can request follow-up. Non-functional requirements are analyzed with the Quality Function Deployment tool. Requirement addressing frequency of backup, compatibility with legacy and new technology, language support, software update are developed to address system reliability and intuitive interface. System functions analyzed include update of activity database, maintenance of advancement status, archive of documents, and monitoring of content that is accessible. The study examines risks associated with information security, technological change and continued popularity of Scouting. Mitigation is based on system functions that are defined. The approach to developing an improved system for facilitating Boy Scout leader functions was iterative with insights into capabilities coming in the course of working through the used cases and sequence diagrams.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2017

PNNL Measurement Results for the 2016 Criticality Accident Dosimetry Exercise at the Nevada National Security Stite (IER-148)

The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) participated in a criticality accident dosimetry intercomparison exercise held at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) May 24-27, 2016. The exercise was administered by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and consisted of three exposures performed using the Godiva-IV critical assembly housed in the Device Assembly Facility (DAF) located on the NNSS site. The exercise allowed participants to test the ability of their nuclear accident dosimeters to meet the performance criteria in ANSI/HPS N13.3-2013, Dosimetry for Criticality Accidents and to obtain new measurement data for use in revising dose calculation methods and quick sort screening methods where appropriate. PNNL participated with new prototype Personal Nuclear Accident Dosimeter (PNAD) and Fixed Nuclear Accident Dosimeter (FNAD) designs as well as the existing historical PNAD design. The new prototype designs incorporate optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dosimeters in place of thermoluminescence dosimeters (TLDs), among other design changes, while retaining the same set of activation foils historically used. The default dose calculation methodology established decades ago for use with activation foils in PNNL PNADs and FNADs was used to calculate neutron dose results for both the existing and prototype dosimeters tested in the exercise. The results indicate that the effective cross sections and/or dose conversion factors used historically need to be updated to accurately measure the operational quantities recommended for nuclear accident dosimetry in ANSI/HPS N13.3-2013 and to ensure PNAD and FNAD performance meets the ANSI/HPS N13.3-2013 performance criteria. The operational quantities recommended for nuclear accident dosimetry are personal absorbed dose, Dp(10), and ambient absorbed dose, D*(10).

61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY↗
DOE OSTI2017

Organization of the 17th Advanced Accelerator Concepts (AAC16) Workshop by the IEEE. Final Scientific/Technical Report On AWARD NO. DE-SC0015635

The 2016 Workshop on Advanced Accelerator Concepts (AAC) was held at the Gaylord Hotel and Conference Center, National Harbor, Maryland, from July 31 through August 5, 2016. This workshop was the seventeenth in a biennial series that began at Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1982 with a workshop on laser acceleration of particles (see AIP Conf. Proc. 91). AAC16 was organized under the sponsorship of the IEEE Council on Superconductivity with financial support from the U. S. Department of Energy Office of High Energy Physics and the National Science Foundation. The scope of the AAC Workshop has grown since 1982 to encompass a broad range of topics related to advancing accelerator science and technology beyond its current scientific and technical limits and is now an internationally acknowledged forum for interdisciplinary discussions on advanced accelerator and beam physics/technology concepts covering the widest possible range of applications. The Workshop continued the trend of growing worldwide participation, attracting world wide participation. The Workshop had a total of 256 attendees comprising (including the U.S.) representatives from 11 countries representing 65 different institutions. Each day’s schedule began with plenary sessions covering broad, cross disciplinary interests or general tutorial topics as selected by the Program Committee, followed by a break out into more narrowly focused working groups. The Workshop was organized into eight Working Groups each with a published statement of topical focus, scope of discussion and goals. A summary of the Working Group activities and conclusions is included in the American Institute of Physics’ (AIP) Conference Proceedings now available as an on line open source document. It has been a long tradition of the AAC workshops to encourage strong student participation. This is accomplished in part by subsidizing student attendance, done for this work shop by using funds from the DOE and National Science Foundation to significantly reduce student registration fees. As a result the registered student participation was 75 persons, or 29% of the total attendance of 256 persons, the highest percentage student enrollment the Workshop has ever had. This is the final report for the DOE Office of Science/Office of High Energy Physics grant NO. DE-SC0015635, entitled “Organization of the17th Advanced Accelerator Concepts Workshop by the IEEE.”

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Maxdose-SR and popdose-SR routine release atmospheric dose models used at SRS

MAXDOSE-SR and POPDOSE-SR are used to calculate dose to the offsite Reference Person and to the surrounding Savannah River Site (SRS) population respectively following routine releases of atmospheric radioactivity. These models are currently accessed through the Dose Model Version 2014 graphical user interface (GUI). MAXDOSE-SR and POPDOSE-SR are personal computer (PC) versions of MAXIGASP and POPGASP, which both resided on the SRS IBM Mainframe. These two codes follow U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (USNRC) Regulatory Guides 1.109 and 1.111 (1977a, 1977b). The basis for MAXDOSE-SR and POPDOSE-SR are USNRC developed codes XOQDOQ (Sagendorf et. al 1982) and GASPAR (Eckerman et. al 1980). Both of these codes have previously been verified for use at SRS (Simpkins 1999 and 2000). The revisions incorporated into MAXDOSE-SR and POPDOSE-SR Version 2014 (hereafter referred to as MAXDOSE-SR and POPDOSE-SR unless otherwise noted) were made per Computer Program Modification Tracker (CPMT) number Q-CMT-A-00016 (Appendix D). Version 2014 was verified for use at SRS in Dixon (2014).

61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY↗
DOE OSTI2017

Compendium of Tour-Based Freight Modeling Literature

Transportation officials, metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), and companies of varying size can all benefit from freight movement data. Obtaining freight movement data and route choice information is crucial to planning, improving current and future transportation infrastructure, locating businesses, improving efforts to streamline goods movement, especially urban goods movement, and reducing energy usage within freight transportation. Obtaining data on freight movements can also help in better planning transportation infrastructure to improve safety. Also, with increasing demands and changing consumption habits, mobility being offered as a service, and with new technologies such as 3-D printing, the landscape of freight planning is changing, as businesses compete to meet the needs of a growing customer base, while transportation planners aim at meeting these needs by maintaining and updating the transportation infrastructure.For decades, transportation research has focused on passenger travel behavior. Much of this research has examined route decision choice and, more recently, trip chaining of personal vehicles, both individually and collectively. Discrete choice modeling has commonly been used to better understand passenger movement and predict route decisions based on geographic and demographic data from Census data and personal surveys, and micro-simulation has been used to model estimated movements through the transportation network. However, there is a growing interest in examining freight movements, and although previous research has been done to look at freight route choice regarding individual trips, there is increasing interest in freight tours. This paper is an overview of the current tour-based freight modeling methodology found in the literature. Background information on tour-based freight modeling is provided, as well as common modeling methods, data sources, and findings. Consideration is given to new technologies and safety considerations excluded from the current literature. Suggestions are provided for future tour-based freight modeling studies.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2019

Optimization of a Lithium Ion Battery Bioleaching Process Utilizing Organic Acids Produced by Gluconobacter oxydans

Growing our global economic and environmental focus relies, in part, on our development of a sustainable system to recycle valuable metals. This endeavor to recycle these elements falls within the scope of Idaho National Laboratories (INL) mission to pursue new sustainable energy systems that are competitive. To succeed in this endeavor in not only a low-cost but environmentally safe practice, Gluconobacter oxydans was utilized for its ability to produce a bio-lixiviant known for its critical material leaching abilities. G. oxydans is a rod-shaped, gram negative, acidophilic, and obligately aerobic organism. Unlike many other aerobic organisms, it does not completely oxidize its carbon sources to water and carbon dioxide. Instead it incompletely oxidizes its substrates to aldehydes, ketones and organic acids. Because of this metabolic pathway, it was utilized in a batch reactor setting to produce sufficient amounts of a low-pH bio-lixiviant so that leaching processes could be performed on lithium ion battery cathode powders. Some of these processes included adding different molar ratios of a redox agent to the produced bio-lixiviant, alternating concentrations of lithium ion battery cathode powders, varying leaching time, and changing the temperature each leach was performed at. From this, a biohydrometallurgy process was successfully created for the leaching of cobalt from lithium ion cathode powders This project provided a multitude of laboratory and research experiences that resulted in ample opportunity for professional and personal growth. In addition to this, the INL experience fostered the development of many personal skills and business skills to assist in future career opportunities.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2019

Dose Calculation Methodology and Data for Solid Waste Performance Assessment and Composite Analysis at the Savannah River Site

This report provides a detailed description of the methodology developed to perform dose calculations for E-Area Low Level Waste Facility Performance Assessments and Savannah River Site Composite Analyses. Chapters 2 – 8 give a complete set of equations to be used to calculate dose for individual exposure pathways. The first set of dose scenarios assume that a member of the public establishes residence near the waste site and uses contaminated groundwater or contaminated surface water for personal consumption and to irrigate a garden and pasture where produce and farm animals are raised. Products from the garden and farm animals are used for personal consumption. This scenario applies to both E-Area Performance Assessments and Savannah River Site Composite Analyses. General dose exposure pathways for the resident farmer scenario are: 1. Ingestion pathways described in Chapter 2, 2. Inhalation pathways described in Chapter 3, 3. External exposure pathways described in Chapter 4, and 4. Recreational pathways described in Chapter 5 (Composite Analysis only). Doses from all of the above pathways are directly related to the contaminant concentration in the water. Additional dose scenarios considered for E-Area Performance Assessment assume that an inadvertent intruder encroaches on the waste disposal site after loss of institutional control. General dose exposure pathways considered for the inadvertent intruder are: 1. Ingestion pathways described in Chapter 6, 2. Inhalation pathways described in Chapter 7, and 3. External exposure pathways described in Chapter 8. Doses from all of the intruder pathways are directly related to the contaminant concentration in the buried waste. Special dose considerations related to human consumption of meat and dairy, and treatment of tritium in dose calculations are discussed in Chapter 9. Chapter 10 describes an Excel database named “Radionuclide, Element and Dose Parameter Data Package” that has been created to provide a system for maintaining the data required to perform radionuclide transport and dose calculations. This data includes: Isotope physical parameters and radioactive decay data needed for both transport and dose calculations, Isotope-specific dose coefficients and soil shielding factors associated with exposure pathways, Radionuclide drinking water concentration limits either published by the Environmental Protection Agency or derived from internal dose coefficients to meet the groundwater protection requirements in Department of Energy Order 435.1, Element-specific bio-transfer factors used in dose calculations, Dose equations and values of physical parameters and human factors used in dose calculations, and Key physical constants used in dose calculations. Revision 1 incorporates updated information developed since this report was issued for use in the next revision of the E-Area Low-Level Waste Facility Performance Assessment.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2019

Great Plains Network - Kansas State University Agronomy Application Deep Dive

In May 2019, staff members from the Engagement and Performance Operations Center (EPOC) and members of the Great Plains Network (GPN) attending their Annual Meeting meeting met with researchers at Kansas State University (KSU) for the purpose of an Application Deep Dive training session. The goal of this training session was to help characterize the requirements for an agronomy application, to enable cyberinfrastructure support staff to better understand the needs of the researchers they support, and to offer training to GPN members to be able to conduct these on their own. Material for this event includes both the written documentation from the agronomy application at KSU, details about the infrastructure setup at KSU, and also a writeup of the discussion that took place in person on May 20, 2019. EPOC, GPN, and KSU recorded a set of action items for this use case, continuing the ongoing support and collaboration. These are a reflection of the case study report, and in person discussion.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Report of the Basic Research Needs Workshop on Next Generation Electrical Energy Storage, March 27 – 29, 2017

The last decade has opened rich new horizons in electrical energy storage, with compelling impacts on society. Personal electronics have transformed from a novelty to a necessity. New options for transportation are burgeoning. In energy storage science, emerging new approaches are illuminating the inner workings of energy storage at the atomic and molecular scales with extensions to the meso and macro levels. The stage is set — with ripe new directions for basic energy storage science and promising new opportunities for energy storage for the electricity grid, transportation, the internet of things, and national defense. Next generation electrical energy storage could be as transformational for energy applications as lithium-ion batteries were for personal electronics. This report examines the opportunities in basic energy storage science that will bring this vision for the future to fruition. Sea changes are in the offing, moving from intuitive speculation to confirmed scientific knowledge, from trial-and-error serendipity to science-based design, and from qualitative models to quantitative predictions. To navigate towards these changes, Priority Research Directions (PRDs) were formulated by 175 leading scientists and engineers during a Basic Research Needs Workshop on Next Generation Electrical Energy Storage held in Gaithersburg, Maryland, on March 27-29, 2017. This diverse community included experts in theory, simulation, characterization, electrochemistry, and synthesis of electrochemically active materials and chemistries. They uncovered a rich horizon of compelling directions that promise to link diverse electrochemical phenomena (such as solvation, mobility, reactivity, and degradation) in a single interactive framework.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2020

Notes from the GEM Chair

We certainly live in unusual and quite challenging times, and we hope everyone is healthy and doing well. For the first time in almost 30 years, because of the current COVID-19 crisis, the GEM Steering Committee decided to cancel the in-person GEM Summer Workshop and organize a virtual meeting in its place. The Virtual GEM will occur during the same week as the originally scheduled in-person workshop, July 20-23, with Monday July 20 as the student day. We will try to maintain the original format of GEM as much as possible, with plenary sessions in the morning, Focus Group breakout sessions in the afternoon, and poster sessions in the evening. Please provide your full support to the meeting organizers to help make this first VGEM a great success! As of now, we still plan to hold the GEM 2021 summer workshop in Hawaii from July 26-30, 2021, with a GEM student day on July 25. This workshop will be back-to-back with SHINE (to occur at the same hotel the week after GEM) - please consider attending both!

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

Technology Development and Field Monitoring in nZEB - US Country report IEA HPT Annex 49 Task 3

The International Energy Agency (IEA) Heat Pumping Technologies (HPT) Annex 49, “Design and Integration of Heat Pumps for Nearly Zero Energy Buildings,” deals with the application of heat pumps (HPs) as a core component of the HVAC system for nearly or net-zero energy buildings. This report covers the Task 3 activities of the US team. Three institutions are involved on the US team and have worked on the following projects. 1) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) summarized development activities since the conclusion of IEA HPT Annex 40 for several integrated HP (IHP) systems - electric ground-source IHP and air-source IHP versions and engine-driven AS-IHP version. 2) The University of Maryland partnered with ORNL and Blue Bear Management to develop a personal cooling device called RoCo that can provide personalized conditioned air to occupants in inadequately or unconditioned environments. With RoCo, building facility management can elevate the HVAC thermostat settings without compromising occupants’ thermal comfort. Researchers have found that a 4°F increase in thermostat settings can save 12–30% energy savings. Therefore, RoCo is a promising technology that can help reduce building energy consumption and facilitate achievement of net-zero energy building performance. 3) The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is working on a field study effort on the NIST Net-Zero Energy Residential Test Facility. Two air-source split-system HPs were installed in a residential, net-zero energy home that was constructed as a laboratory on the NIST campus in Gaithersburg, Maryland. The first HP was a two-stage, 7 kW (2 ton), 15.8 seasonal energy efficiency ratio (SEER), 9.05 heating seasonal performance factor (HSPF) conventionally ducted system; the second HP was a variable-speed, 10.6 kW (3 ton), 14 SEER, 8.35 HSPF, high-velocity ducted system. These two systems operated side by side, using separate supply ducts and a common return duct, on a weekly alternating schedule to condition the home that was operated with very consistent simulated thermal loads. The team wanted to determine whether the high-velocity system could provide comparable energy-use efficiency to the conventional system. The results of this study showed that it did meet the required loads and had slightly greater efficiency; the average cooling coefficient of performance (COP) was (0.40 ± 0.11) higher, and the average heating COP was statistically equal. A new firmware was provided at the end of the heating season that greatly improved the performance of the high-velocity system; its average heating COP went from (1.8 ± 0.9) to (2.5 ± 1.1) at a 95% confidence level. The new firmware heating COP averaged (1.05 ± 0.23) higher than the old firmware over the same outdoor temperatures. The defrost performance is very different for these two systems, yet they consumed equivalent energy per HDD. The conventional system uses a timed-initiate, temperature-terminate algorithm with auxiliary electric resistive heating, whereas the high-velocity system uses calculated evaporator parameters with a hot-gas bypass before a full reverse-cycle defrost with no supplementary resistive heat.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2020

A Conceptual Design for a Mobile Application to Support Infield Inventory Activities

This paper introduces an inventory assistant being developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) that we believe will empower users to perform inventory activities at nuclear facilities more accurately, reliably, and quickly. Inventory activities at nuclear facilities are often conducted using pen and paper, which can be time-consuming, tedious, and susceptible to reading or transcription errors. The proposed inventory assistant would replace the paper-based process used by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors, nuclear facility operators, or verification monitors to complete an inventory of nuclear and non-nuclear items. In general, the inventory assistant would ingest an inventory list, distribute assigned items from the inventory list to one or more mobile devices, enable inventory teams to record their observations in the field, and then enable an inventory lead to integrate and reconcile the observations to produce a final report. The assistant consists of two software components—one for the inventory teams to record observations in the field (In-Field Observations App [IFOA]) and one for the inventory lead to reconcile the inventory list with observations (Distribution, Integration, and Reconciliation Application [DIRA]). This paper introduces the overall workflow of the inventory assistant and describes the IFOA user experience in more detail. To demonstrate the concept, the authors present a use case of IAEA inspectors conducting item counting and tag checking activities of UF6 cylinders at a gas centrifuge enrichment plant with a large number of UF6 cylinders (e.g., thousands). These activities can currently require 30–40 person-days of inspection to complete. Based on experiences during an exercised performed at the IAEA by the ORNL team in 2016, we believe an inventory assistant could allow the IAEA to complete item counting and tag checking using the global identifier or the operator’s barcode in 8–10 person-days of inspection. We would expect other users (e.g., facility operators or verification monitors) to also benefit from significant time savings.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗