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At least 1,063 records · Page 59
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2013

Alternatives to the Maroni Process for Tritium Recovery in Fusion Reactors: Avoiding Volatile Hydrogen Fluoride and High-Temperature High-Speed Rotating Machinery

Fusion reactors now on the drawing table, including LLNL’s LIFE reactor, require liquid lithium blankets for cooling and breeding tritium fuel. The tritium fuel must be continuously removed from the blanket so that it can be returned to the reactor for burning, via target manufacturing in the case of LIFE. The baseline process for accomplishing this in the LIFE reactor is the well-known Maroni process which uses high-temperature molten mixed alkali-metal halide salts (LiCl:LiF:LiBr at 530°C) as an extraction solvent. With the generation of hydrogen isotopes, liquid and gaseous acids such as HCl, HF and HBr (and the deuterium and tritium analogs) form in the salt phase, making these solvents very corrosive, with other problems due to volatility. Following extraction of lithium tritide from the molten lithium, the tritide anion must undergo electrochemical oxidation in a high-temperature electrochemical cell to form tritium gas, which can then be separated by stripping in a stream of inert gas such as xenon or helium. The volatility of hydrogen chloride or the tritium analog (HCl or TCl), hydrogen fluoride or the tritium analog (HF or TF) and hydrogen bromide or the tritium analog (HBr or TBr) complicate this separation. An alternative electrolytic process for the conversion of lithium tritide to tritium gas and metallic lithium is based upon the use of a benign lithium hydroxide (LiOH) or lithium carbonate (Li 2 CO 3 ), which is an extremely attractive alternative to the very volatile and corrosive lithium halide electrolyte. The separation of the molten lithium and molten chloride salt phases requires numerous high-temperature (530°C) high-speed centrifugal separators, with bearings and seals exposed to the highly corrosive fluids. Currently, centrifugal contactors are proposed to contact the liquid lithium in which the tritium is bred with a molten salt extraction solvent. These high-speed centrifugal contactors must operate at high temperature for prolonged periods of time without failure. Such rotating machinery, with a highly corrosive molten salt electrolyte, and a liquid lithium phase threatening liquid metal embrittlement is a source of substantial concern. The invention disclosed here is a non-centrifugal contactor capable of operating without any moving parts.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2013

Sensitivity Study of LIFE Chamber Dynamics (Final Report)

The objective of this research is to investigate the turbulent flow state in a prototype of the LIFE fusion chamber, over many fusion cycles, using high-fidelity three-dimensional computational modeling. A fusion cycle duration is defined here as the time between laser shots (that induce fusion of the fuel stored in the capsule). The main problem of interest discussed in this report is the study of the sensitivity of the flow conditions in the fusion chamber to the radiation parameters used in the BUCKY code (Univ. Wisconsin Madison) that give the initial conditions for the present simulations. Of particular interest is the asymptotic “nth-state” cycle in the model fusion chamber and vacuum vessel assembly. The asymptotic (but unsteady) state was reached by advancing in time an initial value problem with estimated initial data that are thought to be representative of the fusion chamber state (in the mean). These conditions were provided to the Illinois team by LLNL. Many details of the flow solver, strategy and other auxiliary information can be found in a previous report entitled “CFD Simulation in Support of the Dynamic Chamber Systems Strategic Initiative.” Here, several quantities were investigated in detail. First, the global balance of mass in the fusion chamber and vacuum vessel. Second, the state of the density field inside the chamber: turbulence and density spectra, mean and fluctuation of the density. Third, to develop an understanding of the effect of forced recirculation imposed on the chamber-vacuum vessel ensemble, to understand the behavior and distribution of the capsule debris throughout the domain and instantaneous fluxes through the numerous ports and openings of the chamber. Fourth, and finally, to elucidate transport properties near the relatively cold walls of the chamber that might affect the chemistry of the complex fluid mixture from calculated temperature condition on the walls. These four questions have been investigated with different degrees of fidelity (as detailed below) assuming as few simplifications as possible while maintaining many elements of the complex geometry of the fusion chamber. Finally, the simulations do not include the effects of radiation explicitly, which is expected to be critical during the instants immediately after a laser pulse and fusion ignition, and instead a rational “handshake” procedure was developed to derive initial conditions consistent with those produced by BUCKY under different assumptions.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2013

Bispectral Speckle Imaging Algorithm Performance on Specific Simulated Scenarios

The purpose of this report is to describe the anticipated performance of LLNL’s bispectral speckle imaging algorithm on specific imaging scenarios and further evaluate the regime over which bispectral speckle imaging can be used to compensate for atmospheric turbulence. This includes investigating a number of relevant Cn2 cases and multiple wavelengths. The anticipated performance described here will be evaluated based upon simulated imagery. As with any simulation, it must be realized that the full truth of the matter will be determined when real data is analyzed. This report assumes some basic familiarity with bispectral speckle imaging.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2013

Alternative Methods for Tritium Recovery from the Life Lithium Blanket: FY13 Final Report

One of the critical components for the Laser Inertial Fusion Energy (LIFE) power plant is the recovery of tritium from the reactor lithium cooling blanket. In the process proposed by Maroni, high temperature halide salts extract tritium from the lithium using a high-speed centrifugal contactor. Because of high-temperature fluid mixture is very corrosive, this system is not practical. The LIFE team has proposed an alternative process that utilizes a halide-free salt (e.g., LiOH) with a non-centrifuge separation process to extract tritium from the lithium cooling blanket, thus eliminating the need for high-temperature, halide corrosion-resistant materials. To facilitate the design of the contactor and separator, Colorado State University (CSU) was subcontracted by LLNL to conduct the following initial steps in the design process during FY13: • Develop preliminary designs for the separator and Plexiglas models for flow visualization and computational model development, • Select surrogate fluids and flow conditions for the separator, and • Select an appropriate flow visualization fluorescent dye for the surrogate tritium solute.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2013

Final Report to B&W Y-12 for MPO4300089700, Rev. 1

This report highlights the engineering information and findings that the Transportation and Packaging Program of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) reviewed and evaluated for B&W Y-12. The reviewer finds the DPP-2 packaging to be adequately designed. Its containment vessel (CV) closure bolts are expected to satisfy all NUREG/CR-6007 bolt stress requirements under the Normal Conditions of Transport (NCT) and the Hypothetical Accident Conditions (HAC) specified in US Regulation 10CFR71. Using the cutting-edge FEA program LS-DYNA, B&W Y-12 has demonstrated the compliance of DPP-2 with all but one of the NUREG/CR-6007 stress criteria. Recommendations are made here to select the proper stresses and locations to demonstrate the compliance of the last criteria, which is a relatively more restrictive requirement under NCT. Suggestions are also made to seek additional validation of the bolt stress analysis results.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2013

Final Report on C8 Enhanced Surveillance Campaign Milestone L2 4654: Surveillance Metrics Assessments on Selected Weapons

In December 2012, LANL Enhanced Surveillance was tasked with milestone L2 4654 to provide an assessment of the results of the Surveillance Metrics Team approaches to metrics. The goal was to provide an assessment and comparison of the two approaches. The approaches are labeled Approach 1 and Approach 2 based on their order of development. Approach 1 was developed by LLNL (initially December 2009) to be a high level, non data-intensive snapshot for the stockpile health for each system. Approach 2 was a statistically-based approach developed by SNL and LANL over a period from 2009-2012 as a means to analyze Core Surveillance data and answer the question of whether there is an adequate amount of Core Surveillance data. The two approaches are summarized below along with key differences. Both approaches were developed to respond to an August 10, 2009 Dr. Greenaugh memo which requested, “metric(s) describing the results of realized and, non-realized surveillance activities on our confidence in reporting reliability and assessing the stockpile”. Both approaches were developed to satisfy the developers’ interpretation of the memo and be useful for their work. Both approaches are being used by their respective developers and so the memo has caused positive change in surveillance. This report looks at what is reported, possible problems, and some opportunities that exist. This report expands the conventional idea of “non-realized” surveillance activities to include “opportunities” that could allow surveillance activities to improve the confidence in reporting reliabilities. These “non-realized surveillance” opportunities are important to consider along with the current surveillance activities.

45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEF↗
DOE OSTI2013

FY2014 NSR&D Special Funding Proposals Selected by LANL for Submission to the NNSA NSR&D Working Group

The Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) has partnered with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), and B & W Pantex on a Nuclear Safety Research & Development (NSR&D) project for the purpose of developing a common Quantification of Margin and Uncertainty (QMU) methodology. The resultant methodology will enhance the safety posture of nuclear explosive operations at the Pantex plant. Specific benefits of QMU based methods include: (a) reduced uncertainties in current nuclear safety analyses; (b) increased predictable accuracy in the selection of engineering or administrative controls; (c) identification of new hazards, accident scenarios and risks associated with the assembly/disassembly of weapon components; and (d) improved reliability and transparency in the reporting of weapon response information. Additionally, it is expected that this effort will extend the state of the art in QMU methodological development for a wide variety of applications in the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) complex.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2013

Noise Exposure Summary And Comparitive Analyses

This paper summarizes and compares facility Operations and Maintenance (O&M) noise Dosimetry data to industry wide construction data. Dosimetry data has been compiled from a noise exposure assessment at a DOE national research facility Maintenance, Utilities, and Service Department (MUSD). This facility is the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). The laboratory consists of ten O&M craft and trade shops responsible for a fifty year old infrastructure including over 300 buildings, and a worker population of approximately 7,000. The facility includes an extensive variety of noise generating activities throughout a one square mile site.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2013

Technical Spotlight: NEAMS Structural Mechanics with Diablo

The Diablo code being developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) uses implicit, Lagrangian finite element methods for the simulation of solid mechanics and multi-physics events over moderate to long time frames. A recent effort examined technologies needed to extend Diablo for use in seismic response incorporating soil-structure interaction (SSI). Our SSI study was intended to illustrate how advanced time-domain simulation approaches compare with and complement the standard frequency-domain approach for SSI.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2013

Coop Progress Report

My Coop at LLNL has been my first professional experience as an Electrical Engineer. I was tasked to carry out signal processing to analyze data and code in the IDL following standard software development principles. The Coop has met all of my needs to continue my professional career, and I feel more confident as I continue working as a student and professional. It is now a big open question for me as whether to pursue graduate research or industry after I graduate with my B.S. in Electrical Engineering.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2013

Building a Community Infrastructure for Scalable On-Line Performance Analysis Tools around Open|SpeedShop

In this project we created a community tool infrastructure for program development tools targeting Petascale class machines and beyond. This includes tools for performance analysis, debugging, and correctness tools, as well as tuning and optimization frameworks. The developed infrastructure provides a comprehensive and extensible set of individual tool building components. We started with the basic elements necessary across all tools in such an infrastructure followed by a set of generic core modules that allow a comprehensive performance analysis at scale. Further, we developed a methodology and workflow that allows others to add or replace modules, to integrate parts into their own tools, or to customize existing solutions. In order to form the core modules, we built on the existing Open|SpeedShop infrastructure and decomposed it into individual modules that match the necessary tool components. At the same time, we addressed the challenges found in performance tools for petascale systems in each module. When assembled, this instantiation of community tool infrastructure provides an enhanced version of Open|SpeedShop, which, while completely different in its architecture, provides scalable performance analysis for petascale applications through a familiar interface. This project also built upon and enhances capabilities and reusability of project partner components as specified in the original project proposal. The overall project team’s work over the project funding cycle was focused on several areas of research, which are described in the following sections. The reminder of this report also highlights related work as well as preliminary work that supported the project. In addition to the project partners funded by the Office of Science under this grant, the project team included several collaborators who contribute to the overall design of the envisioned tool infrastructure. In particular, the project team worked closely with the other two DOE NNSA laboratories Los Alamos and Sandia leveraging co-funding for Krell by ASC’s Common Computing Environment (CCE) program as laid out in the original proposal. The ASC CCE co-funding, coordinated through LLNL, was for 50% of the total project funding, with the ASC CCE portion of the funding going entirely to Krell, while the ASCR funding itself was split between Krell and the funded partners. This report covers the entire project from both funding sources. Additionally, the team leveraged the expertise of software engineering researchers from Carnegie Mellon University, who specialize in software framework design, in order to achieve a broadly acceptable component framework. The Component Based Tool Framework (CBTF) software has been released to the community. Information related to the project and the released software can be found on the CBTF wiki page at: http://sourceforge.net/p/cbtf/wiki/Home.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2014

Underground Test Area Fiscal Year 2013 Annual Quality Assurance Report Nevada National Security Site, Nevada, Revision 0

This report is required by the Underground Test Area (UGTA) Quality Assurance Plan (QAP) and identifies the UGTA quality assurance (QA) activities for fiscal year (FY) 2013. All UGTA organizations—U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), National Nuclear Security Administration Nevada Field Office (NNSA/NFO); Desert Research Institute (DRI); Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL); Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL); Navarro-Intera, LLC (N-I); National Security Technologies, LLC (NSTec); and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)—conducted QA activities in FY 2013. The activities included conducting assessments, identifying findings and completing corrective actions, evaluating laboratory performance, and publishing documents. In addition, integrated UGTA required reading and corrective action tracking was instituted.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2013

MEMS Refocusing Secondary Concentrator for Free Space Optics, CRADA No. TC02073.0

This was a collaborative effort between Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC as manager and operator of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and MicroAssembly Technologies, Inc. (MAT) to develop spatial light modulators (SLM) based refocusing concentrators for telecom applications.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2013

Ag BL Description for General Atomics

The Material Strength campaign at LLNL is an effort to measure the resistance of materials to deformation when placed under large stresses. These experiments are carried out at large laser facilities, where a laser-driven plasma pusher creates a pressure in excess of 5 Mbar (on the NIF) or 1 Mbar (at OMEGA) in the sample of interest. Strong materials resist deforming in response to these high pressures, and the magnitude of the strength can be inferred using an x-ray probe traversing the sample. The x-ray source used for this probe must be bright, high-energy, and spatially coherent. To achieve all of these things, silver micro-wires and micro-flags are an essential diagnostic tool.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2014

Mesoscale Modeling Framework Design: Subcontract Report

This subcontract is aimed at developing the mesoscale computational capability to help ensure success of the project “Multiscale Capability for Exploring Transport Phenomena in Battery” at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). We develop an efficient computer code that implements the smoothed boundary method for simulating charge transport and coupled microstructure evolution in battery electrode architectures.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2013

ARPA-E Program: Advanced Management Protection of Energy Storage Devices (AMPED) - Fifth Quarterly Project Report - FY14 Q1

Technology has been developed that enables monitoring of individual cells in high - capacity lithium-ion battery packs, with a distributed array of wireless Bluetooth 4.0 tags and sensors, and without proliferation of extensive wiring harnesses. Given the safety challenges facing lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicle, civilian aviation and defense applications, these wireless sensors may be particularly important to these emerging markets. These wireless sensors will enhance the performance, reliability and safety of such energy storage systems. Specific accomplishments to date include, but are not limited to: (1) the development of wireless tags using Bluetooth 4.0 standard to monitor a large array of sensors in battery pack; (2) sensor suites enabling the simultaneous monitoring of cell voltage, cell current, cell temperature, and package strain, indicative of swelling and increased internal pressure, (3) small receivers compatible with USB ports on portable computers; (4) software drivers and logging software; (5) a 7S2P battery simulator, enabling the safe development of wireless BMS hardware in the laboratory; (6) demonstrated data transmission out of metal enclosures, including battery box, with small variable aperture opening; (7) test data demonstrating the accurate and reliable operation of sensors, with transmission of terminal voltage, cell temperature and package strain at distances up to 110 feet; (8) quantification of the data transmission error as a function of distance, in both indoor and outdoor operation; (9) electromagnetic interference testing during operation with live, high -capacity battery management system at Yardney Technical Products; (10) demonstrat ed operation with live high-capacity lithium-ion battery pack during charge-discharge cycling; (11) development of special polymer-gel lithium-ion batteries with embedded temperature sensors, capable of measuring the core temperature of individual of the cells during charge-discharge cycling at various temperatures, thereby enabling earlier warning of thermal runaway than possible with external sensors. Ultimately, the team plans to extend this work to include: (12) flexible wireless controllers, also using Bluetooth 4.0 standard, essential for balancing large-scale battery packs. LLNL received $925K for this project, and has $191K remaining after accomplishing these objectives.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2013

ARPA-E Program: Advanced Management Protection of Energy Storage Devices (AMPED) - Monthly Report - November 2013

Technology has been developed that enables monitoring of individual cells in high - capacity lithium-ion battery packs, with a distributed array of wireless Bluetooth 4.0 tags and sensors, and without proliferation of extensive wiring harnesses. Given the safety challenges facing lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicle, civilian aviation and defense applications, these wireless sensors may be particularly important to these emerging markets. These wireless sensors will enhance the performance, reliability and safety of such energy storage systems. Specific accomplishments to date include, but are not limited to: (1) the development of wireless tags using Bluetooth 4.0 standard to monitor a large array of sensors in battery pack; (2) sensor suites enabling the simultaneous monitoring of cell voltage, cell current, cell temperature, and package strain, indicative of swelling and increased internal pressure, (3) small receivers compatible with USB ports on portable computers; (4) software drivers and logging software; (5) a 7S2P battery simulator, enabling the safe development of wireless BMS hardware in the laboratory; (6) demonstrated data transmission out of metal enclosures, including battery box, with small variable aperture opening; (7) test data demonstrating the accurate and reliable operation of sensors, with transmission of terminal voltage, cell temperature and package strain at distances up to 110 feet; (8) quantification of the data transmission error as a function of distance, in both indoor and outdoor operation; (9) electromagnetic interference testing during operation with live, high -capacity battery management system at Yardney Technical Products; (10) demonstrat ed operation with live high-capacity lithium-ion battery pack during charge-discharge cycling; (11) development of special polymer-gel lithium-ion batteries with embedded temperature sensors, capable of measuring the core temperature of individual of the cells during charge-discharge cycling at various temperatures, thereby enabling earlier warning of thermal runaway than possible with external sensors. Ultimately, the team plans to extend this work to include: (12) flexible wireless controllers, also using Bluetooth 4.0 standard, essential for balancing large-scale battery packs. LLNL received $925K for this project, and has $191K remaining after accomplishing these objectives.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗