SEARCH · Engineering Papers
Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.
Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.
This Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP) is applicable to operations at the Technical Area -60 (TA-60) Roads and Grounds Facility and Associated Sigma Mesa Staging Area off Eniwetok Drive, in Los Alamos County, New Mexico.
The UC/Los Alamos Entrepreneurial Postdoctoral Fellowship Pilot Program (Pilot) for existing postdoctoral researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory (Los Alamos) to gain skills in entrepreneurship and commercializing technology as part of their postdoctoral experience. This program will incorporate training and mentoring during the first 6-month period, culminating in a focused 6-month Fellowship aimed at creating a new business in Northern New Mexico.
Sandia is seeking to procure a 1 MWh energy storage system. It will be installed at the existing Energy Storage Test Pad, which is located at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico. This energy storage system will be a daily operational system, but will also be used as a tool in our Research and development work. The system will be part of a showcase of Sandia distributed energy technologies viewed by many distinguished delegates.
The use of shielding to contend with noise or harmful EMI/EMR energy is not a new concept. An inevitable trade that must be made for shielding is physical space and weight. Space was often not as much of a painful design trade in older larger systems as they are in today’s smaller systems. Today we are packing in an exponentially growing number of functionality within the same or smaller volumes. As systems become smaller and space within systems become more restricted, the implementation of shielding becomes more problematic. Often, space that was used to design a more mechanically robust component must be used for shielding. As the system gets smaller and space is at more of a premium, the trades starts to result in defects, designs with inadequate margin in other performance areas, and designs that are sensitive to manufacturing variability. With these challenges in mind, it would be ideal to maximize attenuation of harmful fields as they inevitably couple onto transmission lines without the use of traditional shielding. Dr. Tom Van Doren proposed a design concept for transmission lines to a class of engineers while visiting New Mexico. This design concept works by maximizing Electric field (E) and Magnetic Field (H) field containment between operating transmission lines to achieve what he called “Self-Shielding”. By making the geometric centroid of the outgoing current coincident with the return current, maximum field containment is achieved. The reciprocal should be true as well, resulting in greater attenuation of incident fields. Figure’s 1(a)-1(b) are examples of designs where the current centroids are coincident. Coax cables are good examples of transmission lines with co-located centroids but they demonstrate excellent field attenuation for other reasons and can’t be used to test this design concept. Figure 1(b) is a flex circuit design that demonstrate the implementation of self-shielding vs a standard conductor layout.
This Sandia National Laboratories, New Mexico Environmental Restoration Operations (ER) Consolidated Quarterly Report (ER Quarterly Report) fulfills all quarterly reporting requirements set forth in the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act Facility Operating Permit and the Compliance Order on Consent. The 12 sites in the corrective action process are listed in Table I-1.
The V27 containment vessel was procured by the US Army Recovered Chemical Material Directorate ( RCMD ) as a replacement vessel for use on the P2 Explosive Destruction Systems. It is the third EDS vessel to be fabricated under Code Case 2564 of the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code, which provides rules for the design of impulsively loaded vessels. The explosive rating for the vessel, based on the Code Case, is nine (9) pounds TNT - equivalent for up to 637 detonations . This report documents the results of explosive tests that were done on the vessel at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque New Mexico to qualify the vessel for explosive use . The primary qualification test consisted of si x 1.5 pound charges of Composition C - 4 (equivalent to 11.25 pounds TNT) distributed around the vessel in accordance with the User Design Specification. Four subsequent tests using less explosive evaluated the effects of slight variations in orientation of the charges . All vessel acceptance criteria were met.
This report provides a summary of the radionuclide releases from the United States (U.S.) Department of Energy (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration facilities at Sandia National Laboratories, New Mexico (SNL/NM) during Calendar Year (CY) 2016, including the data, calculations, and supporting documentation for demonstrating compliance with 40 Code of Federal Regulation (CFR) 61, Subpart H--NATIONAL EMISSION STANDARDS FOR EMISSIONS OF RADIONUCLIDES OTHER THAN RADON FROM DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY FACILITIES (Radiological NESHAP). A description is given of the sources and their contributions to the overall dose assessment. In addition, the maximally exposed individual (MEI) radiological dose calculation and the population dose to local and regional residents are discussed.
The Corrective Action Management Unit (CAMU) at Sandia National Laboratories, New Mexico (SNL/NM) consisted of a containment cell, two treatment systems, four associated waste staging and storage areas, and support areas; all were used for management of remediation wastes between 1997 and 2003.
This plan is designed to outline the collection and analysis of nitrate salt-bearing waste samples required by the New Mexico Environment Department- Hazardous Waste Bureau in the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) Hazardous Waste Facility Permit (Permit).
Every night in a remote clearing called Fenton Hill high in the Jemez Mountains of central New Mexico, a bank of robotically controlled telescopes tilt their lenses to the sky for another round of observation through digital imaging. Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Thinking Telescopes project is watching for celestial transients including high-power cosmic flashes called, and like all science, it can be messy work. To keep the project clicking along, Los Alamos scientists routinely install equipment upgrades, maintain the site, and refine the sophisticated machinelearning computer programs that process those images and extract useful data from them. Each week the system amasses 100,000 digital images of the heavens, some of which are compromised by clouds, wind gusts, focus problems, and so on. For a graduate student at the Lab taking a year’s break between master’s and Ph.D. studies, working with state-of-the-art autonomous telescopes that can make fundamental discoveries feels light years beyond the classroom.
This Phase I Environmental Baseline Survey (EBS) provides the findings of a survey and assessment for termination of an existing easement granted to the Department of Energy (DOE) for the installation of 5 new hydrogeologic groundwater monitoring wells located on KAFB, New Mexico. The purpose of this EBS is to: Document the nature, magnitude, and extent of any environmental contamination of the property. Identify potential environmental contamination liabilities associated with the property. Develop sufficient information to assess the health and safety risks. Ensure adequate protection for human health and the environment related to a specific property. Determine possible effects of contamination on property valuation, and serve as the basis for notice of environmental condition for applicable federal or local real property disclosure requirements.
This Nevada National Security Site Environmental Report (NNSSER) was prepared to satisfy DOE Order DOE O 231.1B, “Environment, Safety and Health Reporting.” Its purpose is to (1) report compliance status with environmental standards and requirements, (2) present results of environmental monitoring of radiological and nonradiological effluents, (3) report estimated radiological doses to the public from releases of radioactive material, (4) summarize environmental incidents of noncompliance and actions taken in response to them, (5) describe the National Nuclear Security Administration Nevada Field Office (NNSA/NFO) Environmental Management System and characterize its performance, and (6) highlight significant environmental programs and efforts. This NNSSER summarizes data and compliance status for calendar year 2016 at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) and its two Nevada-based support facilities, the North Las Vegas Facility (NLVF) and the Remote Sensing Laboratory–Nellis (RSL-Nellis). It also addresses environmental restoration (ER) projects conducted at the Tonopah Test Range (TTR) and the Nevada Test and Training Range (NTTR). NNSA/NFO directs the management and operation of the NNSS and six sites across the nation. In addition to the NNSA itself, the six sites include two in Nevada (NLVF and RSL-Nellis) and four in other states (RSL-Andrews in Maryland, Livermore Operations in California, Los Alamos Operations in New Mexico, and Special Technologies Laboratory in California). Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore, and Sandia National Laboratories are the principal organizations that sponsor and implement the nuclear weapons programs at the NNSS. National Security Technologies, LLC (NSTec), is the current Management and Operating contractor accountable for the successful execution of work and ensuring that work is performed in compliance with environmental regulations. The six sites all provide support to enhance the NNSS as a location for its multiple missions. The three major NNSS missions include National Security/Defense, Environmental Management, and Nondefense. The major programs that support these missions are Stockpile Stewardship and Management, Nonproliferation and Counterterrorism, Nuclear Emergency Response, Strategic Partnership Projects, Environmental Restoration, Waste Management, Conservation and Renewable Energy, Other Research and Development, and Infrastructure. The major facilities that support the programs include the U1a Facility, Big Explosives Experimental Facility (BEEF), Device Assembly Facility, Dense Plasma Focus Facility, Joint Actinide Shock Physics Experimental Research Facility, Radiological/Nuclear Countermeasures Test and Evaluation Complex, Nonproliferation Test and Evaluation Complex (NPTEC), Radiological/Nuclear Weapons of Mass Destruction Incident Exercise Site, the Area 5 Radioactive Waste Management Complex (RWMC), and the Area 3 Radioactive Waste Management Site (RWMS).
This document is a summary of the full 2016 Nevada National Security Site Environmental Report (NNSSER) prepared by the U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration Nevada Field Office (NNSA/ NFO). This summary provides an abbreviated and more readable version of the full NNSSER. NNSA/NFO prepares the NNSSER to provide the public an understanding of the environmental monitoring and compliance activities that are conducted on the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) to protect the public and the environment from radiation hazards and from potential nonradiological impacts. It is a comprehensive report of environmental activities performed at the NNSS and offsite facilities over the previous calendar year. The NNSS is currently the nation’s unique site for ongoing national security–related missions and high-risk operations. The NNSS is located about 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The approximately 1,360-square-mile site is one of the largest restricted access areas in the United States. It is surrounded by federal installations with strictly controlled access as well as by lands that are open to public entry. In 2016, National Security Technologies, LLC (NSTec), was the NNSS Management and Operations Contractor accountable for ensuring work was performed in compliance with environmental regulations. NNSS activities in 2016 continued to be diverse, with the primary goal to ensure that the existing U.S. stockpile of nuclear weapons remains safe and reliable. Other activities included weapons of mass destruction first responder training; the controlled release of hazardous material at the Nonproliferation Test and Evaluation Complex (NPTEC); remediation of legacy contamination sites; characterization of waste destined for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in Carlsbad, New Mexico, or the Idaho National Laboratory in Idaho Falls, Idaho; disposal of low-level and mixed low-level radioactive waste; and environmental research. Facilities and centers that support the National Security/Defense mission include the U1a Facility, Big Explosives Experimental Facility (BEEF), Device Assembly Facility (DAF), National Criticality Experiments Research Center (NCERC) located in the DAF, Joint Actinide Shock Physics Experimental Research (JASPER) Facility, Dense Plasma Focus (DPF) Facility located in the Los Alamos Technical Facility (LATF), and the Radiological/ Nuclear Countermeasures Test and Evaluation Complex (RNCTEC). Facilities that support the Environmental Management mission include the Area 5 Radioactive Waste Management Complex (RWMC) and the Area 3 Radioactive Waste Management Site (RWMS), which has been in cold standby since 2006.
As part of a settlement agreement for nuclear waste incidents in 2014, several supplemental environment projects (SEPs) were initiated at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL or the Laboratory) between the U.S. Department of Energy and the state of New Mexico. One SEP from this agreement consists of performing aquatic life surveys and will be used to assess the applicability of using generic ambient water-quality criteria (AWQC) for aquatic life. AWQC are generic criteria developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to cover a broad range of aquatic species and are not unique to a specific region or state. AWQC are established by a composition of toxicity data, called species sensitivity distributions (SSDs), and are determined by LC50 (lethal concentration of 50% of the organisms studied) acute toxicity experiments for chemicals of interest. It is of interest to determine whether aquatic species inhabiting waters on the Pajarito Plateau are adequately protected using the current generic AWQC. The focus of this study will determine which aquatic species are present in ephemeral, intermittent, and perennial waters within LANL boundaries and from reference waters adjacent to LANL. If the species identified from these waters do not generally represent species used in the SSDs, then SSDs may need to be modified and AWQC may need to be updated. This sampling and analysis plan details the sampling methodology, surveillance locations, temporal scheduling, and analytical approaches that will be used to complete aquatic life surveys. A significant portion of this sampling and analysis plan was formalized by referring to Appendix E: SEP Aquatic Life Surveys DQO (Data Quality Objectives).
In recent years the Laboratory has made information (documents, photographs, and perspectives) regarding the occupational explosives accidents that killed seven men in the late 1950s more accessible to the public. While pursuing this effort, we were reminded of similar tragedies that occurred to children of the community. The purpose of this paper is to make information that has come into our hands more available to the public regarding these accidents. Following this introduction, a brief synopsis is provided for each accident. The appendices contain source documents for the 1962 accident that are not generally available. The community of Los Alamos, New Mexico was born out of a military post created to support the secret Manhattan Project during World War II. Security was provided by military police and some training exercises were conducted using live ordnance. In two instances unexploded ordnance (UXO) from this era was found “in the field” by residents hiking in the local area and brought into town. Tragically, handling these “bazooka” rounds as “dud” munitions resulted in death for one child and injury to several others. The first accident occurred on Saturday, September 6, 1947, which resulted in injuries to two boys, ages 5 and 12. The second accident occurred on Saturday, July 14, 1962 and resulted in the death of one five-year-old boy, and injuries to four other children, ages 6 to 10 years-old. The latter accident is the primary focus of the paper.
An In-Situ Bioremediation (ISB) Pilot Test Treatability Study is planned at Sandia National Laboratories, New Mexico (SNL/NM) Technical Area-V (TA-V) Groundwater Area of Concern. The Treatability Study is designed to gravity inject an electron-donor substrate and bioaugmentation bacteria into groundwater using an injection well. The constituents of concern (COCs) are nitrate and trichloroethene (TCE). The Pilot Test Treatability Study will evaluate the effectiveness of bioremediation and COC treatment over a prescribed period of time. Results of the pilot test will provide data that will be used to evaluate the cost and effectiveness of a fullscale system.
Extensive research has been done on temperature during bird incubation periods, but little has been done during nestling development, and to our knowledge, no studies have been done on Western Bluebird (Sialia mexicana) nestling development. In this study, dataloggers were used to monitor nest temperatures during the nestling development phase of Western Bluebirds to determine if there was a relationship between fledge age and temperature. The study was conducted in an existing nestbox network at Los Alamos National Laboratory and the surrounding area in north-central New Mexico. Based on the age of the nestlings at fledging, the nestboxes (n=65) were split into three groups: early (16 and 17 days old, n=13), average (fledged at or between 18 and 20 days old, n=32), and late (21 days or older, n=20). The temperatures of the early and average (n=45) groups were not significantly different (p=0.32, W=3831000). There was a significant difference in the temperatures between the early and late groups (p=0.000, W=2965600). The early and average groups were then combined, tested against the late group, and were found to be significantly different (p=0.000, W=11315000). Analysis showed a difference within the first seven days post-hatch of 1.42°C between the early/average and late groupings. The results suggest that warmer nest temperatures during the nestling stage may influence the fledge date and may lead to faster fledging. There may be numerous explanations for this, such as a correlation with nestling development, and higher temperatures may allow for faster development. Brood size was non-significant and was not factored into the analysis. Future work should be directed in this area.
Based on two issued US patent, US7947579B2 and US8187678B2 that were invented by our team member at the University of New Mexico and Sandia National Labs, using atomic layer deposition technique (ALD) and molecular self-assembly or templating technique, An ultra-thin CO 2 membrane with CO 2 permeance up to 1580 GPU and CO 2 /N 2 up to 62 has been achieved in phase I project, promising for cost-effective CO 2 separations. As the first step of the project, a robust membrane fabrication protocol was established. To address the defects in the membrane structure, ALD treatment on AO support, multiple dip-coating processes and slow calcination steps were adopted. Consequently, defects were no longer evident in the nanoporous support, which ensures a reliable procedure for lab-scale membrane fabrications as well as the high-fidelity experimental findings. The same procedures may also be helpful for future scaling-up protocols. The layer-by-layer membrane fabrication was started by using a bridged disilane BTEE as the ALD precursor, wherein the organic groups at the bridging site were expected to be aligned layer-by-layer to form Angstrom-channels for CO 2 transport. Using 2-level factorial experimental design, we have found that ALD reaction time and ALD temperature were important factors impacting the CO 2 permeance and selectivity. Longer reaction time and higher ALD temperature were found to be advantageous for better CO 2 permeance and selectivity, which is in agreement with our model that better-aligned CO 2 -channels formed by the layer-by-layer stacking of the organic ligands can be achieved by a slower “stacking” process (longer reaction time) and stronger self-alignment tendency (higher ALD temperature). This observation will be an important guidance for our future membrane designs. The CO 2 -channel templated by –(CH 2 ) 2 - in BTEE was found to be too tight to facilitate fast CO 2 transport, but larger channel diameter is in contradiction with higher CO 2 selectivity. Therefore, the size-exclusion mechanism by itself is not sufficient for effective CO 2 separation. For this reason, the chemistry of the CO 2 -channel has to be carefully tuned. An amine bridged-disilane BTMA was therefore used as ALD precursor for larger CO 2 channel and high CO 2 -affinity chemistry. For BMTA membrane with amine chemistry measured at 100C, the CO 2 permeance was 1030 GPU for 100-cycle-ALD sample with CO 2 /N 2 selectivity of 17, and 302 GPU for 200-cycle-ALD sample with CO 2 /N 2 selectivity of 44. The increase of CO 2 permeance and the CO 2 /N 2 selectivity at elevated temperature is an evidence showing that there is a preferential chemical interaction between CO 2 and –NH functional groups in the membrane, which facilitates selective transport of CO 2 through the membrane. Therefore, using larger organic ligands as the CO 2 -channel template and the introduction of –NH chemistry to the membrane structure were proved to be an effective strategy in achieving better CO 2 permeance and selectivity. Guided by the same strategy, BTMA membrane was irradiated with UV to remove the bridging ligands for larger CO-channel, followed by Zn 2+ and Ni 2+ chemistry modification. Results showed that Zn 2+ or Ni 2+ chemistries will both enhance the selective CO 2 transport thereby the CO 2 /N 2 selectivity, and increasing separation temperature will further improve the CO2 permeance and selectivity. For BTMA membrane with Ni 2+ chemistry measured at 100C, CO 2 permeance of 1580 GPU and CO 2 /N 2 of 62 were achieved, promising for scaled-up industrial applications. Further, same membrane was tested at simulated flue gas condition (with SO 2 at 60C), the CO 2 permeance was 920 GPU and the CO 2 /N 2 selectivity was 52, suggesting the membrane still worked well under simulated flue gas conditions, primarily due to the stable ceramic framework of this membrane.