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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

Computational Optimization of 133m Xe Production via Neutron Irradiation in a TRIGA Reactor

Here, the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty bans all nuclear tests worldwide. As part of treaty compliance, the concentration of radioactive nuclides in the atmosphere is monitored to detect nuclear weapons tests. Radioactive noble gas fission products, specifically radioxenon, can vent into the atmosphere after a nuclear weapons test, even if the test is well contained underground or underwater. Radioxenon thus serves as a signal for nuclear weapons tests. All atmospheric monitoring systems require samples of radioxenon isotopes for detector calibration, quality control, and certification. Here, we present a novel, improved method for creating samples of 133m Xe via neutron irradiation of 132 Xe in the Washington State University TRIGA reactor. 132 Xe neutron absorption results in either 133 Xe or 133m Xe—thermal neutron absorption results in 133m Xe 12% of the time, while fast neutron absorption (above ~1 MeV) results in 133m Xe ~50% of the time. To optimize the production of 133m Xe via neutron absorption in 132 Xe in the thermal TRIGA reactor, spectral tuning using an irradiation chamber is required to maximize the fraction of fast neutrons being absorbed and minimize the number of thermal neutrons interacting with the 132 Xe. We used MCNP to tally 132 Xe absorptions with the isotopic tally function, flux tallies and neutron attenuation to estimate the number of neutrons reaching the 132 Xe through the irradiation chamber, and the adjoint importance function to improve the source strength estimate. Additionally, we performed a heat transfer analysis for safety considerations. It was determined that the use of a 96% enriched 10 B boron carbide chamber, placed next to the fuel elements in reactor position D8, increases the 133m Xe/ 133 Xe activity ratio from a baseline value of 0.3 to 1.0, a 233% increase. Additionally, it was determined that the alpha heating produced in the boron does not become an unmanageable problem in the Washington State University reactor.

37 - INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL AND ANALYTICAL C↗
DOE OSTI2026

In-line measurements of below-the-surface food deformation during drying with an interference-based optical fiber strain sensor

Real-time measurements of food deformation are important for quality control in drying, yet they pose significant challenges. In this study, we developed an interference-based optical fiber strain sensor to enable in-line, continuous, below-the-surface strain measurements in drying of soft food samples. Compared to a strain resolution of 8 × 10 -4 at zero strain and 7.2 × 10 -3 at 0.20 strain reported in our previously published work, the present study achieves markedly improved resolutions of 1.3 × 10 -4 at zero strain and 7.8 × 10 -4 at 0.25 strain, which strains are the lower and higher boundaries of the dynamic range, respectively. This nearly order-of-magnitude improvement is attributed to the unique interference-based sensing mechanism, no need for calibration to convert optical signals to strain, and the system-design-enabled immunity to fiber-disk misalignments and light source intensity fluctuations. To demonstrate the in-line process monitoring, deformation measurements of fresh banana slices and sugar cookie doughs were carried out in a benchtop oven and an industrial-scale hot-air pilot dryer, respectively. In both dryers, strain measurements were continuously measured during the whole drying process at various depths and radii below the sample surfaces, with the strains up to 25%. Computer vision was used only in the benchtop drying to confirm the faithfulness of the fiber sensor measurements and cannot provide below-the-surface measurements. The measured spatiotemporal deformation allowed us to confirm the shell-hardening effect and to determine the speed and location of large deformation changes in the whole drying process, the latter of which is related to the sample cracking. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to report on an interferometry-based fiber sensor to measure food deformation. This sensor and the sensing mechanism have high potential for real-time process monitoring and control to prevent over-drying or cracking during drying processes.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2017

Statistical analysis of the Nb 3 Sn strand production for the ITER toroidal field coils

The ITER toroidal field (TF) strand procurement initiated the largest Nb 3 Sn superconducting strand production hitherto. The industrial-scale production started in Japan in 2008 and finished in summer 2015. Six ITER partners (so-called Domestic Agencies, or DAs) are in charge of the procurement and involved eight different strand suppliers all over the world, of which four are using the bronze route (BR) process and four the internal-tin (IT) process. In total more than 500 tons have been produced including excess material covering losses during the conductor manufacturing process, in particular the cabling. The procurement is based on a functional specification where the main strand requirements like critical current, hysteresis losses, Cu ratio and residual resistance ratio are specified but not the strand production process or layout. We introduce the analysis on the data acquired during the quality control (QC) process that was carried out to ensure the same conductor performance requirements are met by the different strand suppliers regardless of strand design. The strand QC is based on 100% billet testing and on applying statistical process control (SPC) limits. Throughout the production, samples adjacent to the strand pieces tested by the suppliers are cross-checked ('verified') by their respective DAs reference labs. The level of verification was lowered from 100% at the beginning of the procurement progressively to approximately 25% during the final phase of production. Based on the complete dataset of the TF strand production, an analysis of the SPC limits of the critical strand parameters is made and the related process capability indices are calculated. In view of the large-scale production and costs, key manufacturing parameters such as billet yield, number of breakages and piece-length distribution are also discussed. Furthermore, the results are compared among all the strand suppliers, focusing on the difference between BR and IT processes. Following the completion of the largest Nb 3 Sn strand production, our experience gained from monitoring the execution of the QC activities and from auditing the results from the measurements is summarised for future superconducting strand material procurement activities.

Vostner, A.↗
DOE OSTI2020

The ABC130 barrel module prototyping programme for the ATLAS strip tracker

For the Phase-II Upgrade of the ATLAS Detector [1], its Inner Detector, consisting of silicon pixel, silicon strip and transition radiation sub-detectors, will be replaced with an all new 100% silicon tracker, composed of a pixel tracker at inner radii and a strip tracker at outer radii. The future ATLAS strip tracker will include 11,000 silicon sensor modules in the central region (barrel) and 7,000 modules in the forward region (end-caps), which are foreseen to be constructed over a period of 3.5 years. The construction of each module consists of a series of assembly and quality control steps, which were engineered to be identical for all production sites. In order to develop the tooling and procedures for assembly and testing of these modules, two series of major prototyping programs were conducted: an early program using readout chips designed using a 250 nm fabrication process (ABCN-250) [2,2] and a subsequent program using a follow-up chip set made using 130 nm processing (ABC130 and HCC130 chips). This second generation of readout chips was used for an extensive prototyping program that produced around 100 barrel-type modules and contributed significantly to the development of the final module layout. This paper gives an overview of the components used in ABC130 barrel modules, their assembly procedure and findings resulting from their tests.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2021

The upgrade of the ALICE TPC with GEMs and continuous readout

The upgrade of the ALICE TPC will allow the experiment to cope with the high interaction rates foreseen for the forthcoming Run 3 and Run 4 at the CERN LHC. In this article, we describe the design of new readout chambers and front-end electronics, which are driven by the goals of the experiment. Gas Electron Multiplier (GEM) detectors arranged in stacks containing four GEMs each, and continuous readout electronics based on the SAMPA chip, an ALICE development, are replacing the previous elements. The construction of these new elements, together with their associated quality control procedures, is explained in detail. Finally, the readout chamber and front-end electronics cards replacement, together with the commissioning of the detector prior to installation in the experimental cavern, are presented. After a nine-year period of R&D, construction, and assembly, the upgrade of the TPC was completed in 2020.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2023

Production and testing of the powerboard for ATLAS ITk Strip barrel modules

The upgrade of the ATLAS ITk strips detector for HL-LHC will employ a custom PCB (powerboard) for on-module DC-DC conversion, HV switching, and monitoring. Production of about 14100 of such PCBs with high reliability is a big challenge. In this paper we will present the production procedure and quality control (QC) testing system for the powerboards to be installed on ITk Strip barrel modules. During production, about 150 powerboards will be produced every week. Each powerboard will need to pass QC tests before they are assembled to module. The QC tests include thermal cycling between -35 °C and 40 °C, soak test (continuous running of DC-DC converter at high load at 20 °C), and basic functionality and characterization electrical tests of the low voltage (LV), high voltage (HV), and monitoring functions of the powerboard. A custom QC test system is described, which is based on a reusable PCB (active board) with all testing circuits, a one-time powerboard carrier card, and a Z-turn SoC board which hosts and runs the testing program. The production procedure and QC test system has been tested with 400 powerboards during pre-production, and the system has been proven ready for production with the desired testing program, speed, safety, and cost. Performance and typical failures of powerboards observed during the QC test of pre-production powerboards is also presented.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2023

Construction of precision sMDT detector for the ATLAS Muon Spectrometer upgrade

Here, this paper describes the small-diameter monitored drift-tube detector construction at the University of Michigan as a contribution to the ATLAS Muon Spectrometer upgrade for the high-luminosity Large Hadron Collider at CERN. Measurements of the first 30 chambers built at Michigan show that the drift tube wire position accuracy meets the specification of 20 μm. The positions of the platforms for alignment and magnetic field sensors are all installed well within the required precision. The cosmic ray test measurements show single wire tracking resolution of 100 ± 7 μm with an average detection efficiency above 99%. The infrastructure, tooling, techniques, and procedures for chamber production are described in detail. The results from the chamber quality control tests of the first 30 constructed chambers are reported.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2023

Establishing the Quality Assurance programme for the strip sensor production of the ATLAS tracker upgrade including irradiation with neutrons, photons and protons to HL-LHC fluences

The successful pre-production delivery of strip sensors for the new Inner Tracker (ITk) for the upgraded ATLAS detector at the High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) at CERN was completed and based on their performance full production has commenced. The overall delivery period is anticipated to last 4 years to complete the approximately 22000 sensors required for the ITk. For Quality Assurance (QA), a number of test structures designed by the collaboration, along with a large area diode and miniature version of the main sensor, are produced in every wafer by the foundry Hamamatsu Photonics K.K (HPK). As well as Quality Control (QC) checks on every main sensor, samples of the QA pieces from each delivery batch are tested both before and after irradiation with results after exposure to neutrons, gammas or protons to fluences and doses corresponding to those anticipated after operation at the HL-LHC to roughly 1.5 times the ultimate integrated luminosity of 4000 fb -1 . In this paper the procedures are presented and the studies carried out to establish that the seven ITk QA Strip Sensor irradiation and test sites meet all the requirements to support this very extensive programme throughout the strip sensor production phase for the ITk project.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2023

Production and testing of the large-area photon detector ArCLight

Compact large-area dielectric photon detectors that ensure modular noble liquid detectors can sense scintillation light signals for triggering and reconstruction purposes with minimal impact to the overall target volume. ArCLight is a small-volume, sizeable sensitive-area detector that consists of a light trap covered in a thin layer of TPB that can be placed inside a time projection chamber's electric field. These sensors are used in the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment Near Detector liquid argon (DUNE ND-LAr). They are constructed and tested at the University of Bern and will be deployed in the prototype experiment ProtoDUNE-ND. The talk discusses the details of assembling ArCLights, the quality control methods, and the test studies done with LEDs to assess their performance.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2024

An extreme thermal cycling reliability test of ATLAS ITk Strips barrel modules

At the end of Run 3 of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the accelerator complex will be upgraded to the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) in order to increase the total amount of data provided to its experiments. To cope with the increased rates of data, radiation, and pileup, the ATLAS detector will undergo a substantial upgrade, including a replacement of the Inner Detector with a future Inner Tracker, called the ITk. The ITk will be composed of pixel and strip sub-detectors, where the strips portion will be composed of 17,888 silicon strip detector modules. During the HL-LHC running period, the ITk will be cooled and warmed a number of times from about -35°C to room temperature as part of the operational cycle, including warm-ups during yearly shutdowns. To ensure ITk Strips modules are functional after these expected temperature changes, and to ensure modules are mechanically robust, each module must undergo ten thermal cycles and pass a set of electrical and mechanical criteria before it is placed on a local support structure. This paper describes the thermal cycling Quality Control (QC) procedure, and results from the barrel pre-production phase (about 5% of the production volume). Additionally, in order to assess the headroom of the nominal QC procedure of 10 cycles and to ensure modules don't begin failing soon after, four representative ITk Strips barrel modules were thermally cycled 100 times — this study is also described.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2017

Climatic warming in China during 1901–2015 based on an extended dataset of instrumental temperature records

Monthly mean instrumental surface air temperature (SAT) observations back to the nineteenth century in China are synthesized from different sources via specific quality-control, interpolation, and homogenization. Compared with the first homogenized long-term SAT dataset for China which contained 18 stations mainly located in the middle and eastern part of China, the present dataset includes homogenized monthly SAT series at 32 stations, with an extended coverage especially towards western China. Missing values are interpolated by using observations at nearby stations, including those from neighboring countries. Cross validation shows that the mean bias error (MBE) is generally small and falls between 0.45 °C and –0.35 °C. Multiple homogenization methods and available metadata are applied to assess the consistency of the time series and to adjust inhomogeneity biases. The homogenized annual mean SAT series shows a range of trends between 1.1 °C and 4.0 °C/century in northeastern China, between 0.4 °C and 1.9 °C/century in southeastern China, and between 1.4 °C and 3.7 °C/century in western China to the west of 105 E (from the initial years of the stations to 2015). The unadjusted data include unusually warm records during the 1940s and hence tend to underestimate the warming trends at a number of stations. As a result, the mean SAT series for China based on the climate anomaly method shows a warming trend of 1.56 °C/century during 1901–2015, larger than those based on other currently available datasets.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Using additive manufacturing technologies in high-field accelerator magnet coils

Recent advances with additive manufacturing (AM) technologies using various materials allow them to be considered for the manufacture of precise and complicated metal parts of the magnet coils of high field accelerator magnets from aluminum bronze, titanium alloy, stainless steel, etc. The 3D printing technology is also being used to fabricate prototype models of real parts to test and optimize their geometry. This paper discusses the designs of the complex stress-management coil parts developed at Fermilab, their fabrication using AM technologies, and quality control methods and results.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2024

Uncertainty analysis of Raman spectra for measuring ortho-parahydrogen compositions

Determining ortho-parahydrogen compositions at cryogenic temperatures is an important quality control for liquid hydrogen custody exchange. High orthohydrogen compositions lead to an exothermic reaction resulting in increased boil off and increased venting losses of liquid hydrogen product by either the supplier or consumer. Traditional methods for measuring ortho-parahydrogen compositions such as hot-wire anemometry, nuclear magnetic resonance, and infrared spectroscopy are typically inconvenient at best. As the number of cryogenic hydrogen systems continue to increase, there is an increased need for flexible, standardized techniques for post processing composition measurements. A Raman spectrometer implemented in the Cryo-Catalysis Hydrogen Experimental Facility (CHEF) has demonstrated incredible flexibility for composition measurements of cryogenic hydrogen flows through a wide range of temperatures and pressures with the Raman probe in-situ at cryogenic temperatures. This article analyzes the uncertainty of Raman spectroscopy data of cryogenic hydrogen equilibrated at temperatures in IONEX catalyst. Spectra from hydrogen catalyzed to the equilibrium ortho-parahydrogen composition are processed and compared to expected statistical distributions for method verification.

08 HYDROGEN↗
DOE OSTI2022

‘Flux+Mutability’: a conditional generative approach to one-class classification and anomaly detection

Abstract Anomaly Detection is becoming increasingly popular within the experimental physics community. At experiments such as the Large Hadron Collider, anomaly detection is growing in interest for finding new physics beyond the Standard Model. This paper details the implementation of a novel Machine Learning architecture, called Flux+Mutability, which combines cutting-edge conditional generative models with clustering algorithms. In the ‘flux’ stage we learn the distribution of a reference class. The ‘mutability’ stage at inference addresses if data significantly deviates from the reference class. We demonstrate the validity of our approach and its connection to multiple problems spanning from one-class classification to anomaly detection. In particular, we apply our method to the isolation of neutral showers in an electromagnetic calorimeter and show its performance in detecting anomalous dijets events from standard QCD background. This approach limits assumptions on the reference sample and remains agnostic to the complementary class of objects of a given problem. We describe the possibility of dynamically generating a reference population and defining selection criteria via quantile cuts. Remarkably this flexible architecture can be deployed for a wide range of problems, and applications like multi-class classification or data quality control are left for further exploration.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Coordinate action of distinct sequence elements localizes checkpoint kinase Hsl1 to the septin collar at the bud neck in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Passage through the eukaryotic cell cycle requires processes that are tightly regulated both spatially and temporally. Surveillance mechanisms (checkpoints) exert quality control and impose order on the timing and organization of downstream events by impeding cell cycle progression until the necessary components are available and undamaged and have acted in the proper sequence. In budding yeast, a checkpoint exists that does not allow timely execution of the G2/M transition unless and until a collar of septin filaments has properly assembled at the bud neck, which is the site where subsequent cytokinesis will occur. An essential component of this checkpoint is the large (1518-residue) protein kinase Hsl1, which localizes to the bud neck only if the septin collar has been correctly formed. Hsl1 reportedly interacts with particular septins; however, the precise molecular determinants in Hsl1 responsible for its recruitment to this cellular location during G2 have not been elucidated. We performed a comprehensive mutational dissection and accompanying image analysis to identify the sequence elements within Hsl1 responsible for its localization to the septins at the bud neck. Unexpectedly, we found that this targeting is multipartite. A segment of the central region of Hsl1 (residues 611–950), composed of two tandem, semiredundant but distinct septin-associating elements, is necessary and sufficient for binding to septin filaments both in vitro and in vivo. However, in addition to 611–950, efficient localization of Hsl1 to the septin collar in the cell obligatorily requires generalized targeting to the cytosolic face of the plasma membrane, a function normally provided by the C-terminal phosphatidylserine-binding KA1 domain (residues 1379–1518) in Hsl1 but that can be replaced by other, heterologous phosphatidylserine-binding sequences.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Reactome and the Gene Ontology: digital convergence of data resources

Abstract Motivation Gene Ontology Causal Activity Models (GO-CAMs) assemble individual associations of gene products with cellular components, molecular functions and biological processes into causally linked activity flow models. Pathway databases such as the Reactome Knowledgebase create detailed molecular process descriptions of reactions and assemble them, based on sharing of entities between individual reactions into pathway descriptions. Results To convert the rich content of Reactome into GO-CAMs, we have developed a software tool, Pathways2GO, to convert the entire set of normal human Reactome pathways into GO-CAMs. This conversion yields standard GO annotations from Reactome content and supports enhanced quality control for both Reactome and GO, yielding a nearly seamless conversion between these two resources for the bioinformatics community. Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2017

MWASTools: an R/bioconductor package for metabolome-wide association studies

Abstract Summary MWASTools is an R package designed to provide an integrated pipeline to analyse metabonomic data in large-scale epidemiological studies. Key functionalities of our package include: quality control analysis; metabolome-wide association analysis using various models (partial correlations, generalized linear models); visualization of statistical outcomes; metabolite assignment using statistical total correlation spectroscopy (STOCSY); and biological interpretation of metabolome-wide association studies results. Availability and implementation The MWASTools R package is implemented in R (version > =3.4) and is available from Bioconductor: https://bioconductor.org/packages/MWASTools/. Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Rodriguez-Martinez, Andrea↗
DOE OSTI2023

First detection of the BAO signal from early DESI data

We present the first detection of the baryon acoustic oscillations (BAOs) signal obtained using unblinded data collected during the initial 2 months of operations of the Stage-IV ground-based Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI). From a selected sample of 261 291 luminous red galaxies spanning the redshift interval 0.4 < z < 1.1 and covering 1651 square degrees with a 57.9 per cent completeness level, we report a ∼5σ level BAO detection and the measurement of the BAO location at a precision of 1.7 per cent. Using a bright galaxy sample of 109 523 galaxies in the redshift range 0.1 < z < 0.5, over 3677 square degrees with a 50.0 per cent completeness, we also detect the BAO feature at ∼3σ significance with a 2.6 per cent precision. These first BAO measurements represent an important milestone, acting as a quality control on the optimal performance of the complex robotically actuated, fibre-fed DESI spectrograph, as well as an early validation of the DESI spectroscopic pipeline and data management system. Based on these first promising results, we forecast that DESI is on target to achieve a high-significance BAO detection at sub-per cent precision with the completed 5-yr survey data, meeting the top-level science requirements on BAO measurements. This exquisite level of precision will set new standards in cosmology and confirm DESI as the most competitive BAO experiment for the remainder of this decade.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗