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All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

DOE OSTI2024

Upgrade of DIII-D radial interferometer–polarimeter for large bandwidth, low noise, and toroidal mode number measurements

Near ion-cyclotron frequency (f ci ) fluctuations, such as those originating from Global and Compressional Alfvén Eigenmodes (GAEs/CAEs), are expected to be present in future fusion reactors but are not well understood due to the limited availability of core measurements in present-day tokamaks. The measurement bandwidth of the Radial Interferometer–Polarimeter (RIP) diagnostic has been upgraded from 1 to 5 MHz to detect these fluctuations in DIII-D. RIP adopts the three-wave technique for simultaneous polarimetric and interferometric measurements. Solid-state microwave sources operating at 650 GHz are used as probe beams and provide 5 MHz bandwidth for both polarimetric and interferometric measurements. Bandwidths of related hardware, including mixer amplifier, signal cable, and digital phase demodulator, are increased correspondingly. Measurement noise is minimized by reducing the time delay between reference and probe signals to nanosecond level and employing correlation-based techniques. Using the upgraded diagnostic, CAE/GAE-like bursting fluctuations are observed in neutral-beam heated plasmas with toroidal magnetic field B φ ≈ 1 T. Current upgrades being undertaken would enable the evaluation of toroidal mode number for these modes. Furthermore, this work opens the possibility of better understanding near ion-cyclotron frequency fluctuations in fusion relevant plasmas.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

NASA NTRS1983

Processing techniques for software based SAR processors

Software SAR processing techniques defined to treat Shuttle Imaging Radar-B (SIR-B) data are reviewed. The algorithms are devised for the data processing procedure selection, SAR correlation function implementation, multiple array processors utilization, cornerturning, variable reference length azimuth processing, and range migration handling. The Interim Digital Processor (IDP) originally implemented for handling Seasat SAR data has been adapted for the SIR-B, and offers a resolution of 100 km using a processing procedure based on the Fast Fourier Transformation fast correlation approach. Peculiarities of the Seasat SAR data processing requirements are reviewed, along with modifications introduced for the SIR-B. An Advanced Digital SAR Processor (ADSP) is under development for use with the SIR-B in the 1986 time frame as an upgrade for the IDP, which will be in service in 1984-5.

Leung, K.↗

NASA NTRS1989

Onboard shuttle on-line software requirements system: Prototype

The prototype discussed here was developed as proof of a concept for a system which could support high volumes of requirements documents with integrated text and graphics; the solution proposed here could be extended to other projects whose goal is to place paper documents in an electronic system for viewing and printing purposes. The technical problems (such as conversion of documentation between word processors, management of a variety of graphics file formats, and difficulties involved in scanning integrated text and graphics) would be very similar for other systems of this type. Indeed, technological advances in areas such as scanning hardware and software and display terminals insure that some of the problems encountered here will be solved in the near-term (less than five years). Examples of these solvable problems include automated input of integrated text and graphics, errors in the recognition process, and the loss of image information which results from the digitization process. The solution developed for the Online Software Requirements System is modular and allows hardware and software components to be upgraded or replaced as industry solutions mature. The extensive commercial software content allows the NASA customer to apply resources to solving the problem and maintaining documents.

Kolkhorst, Barbara↗

NASA NTRS1982

Pressure Measurement

Pressure Systems, Inc.'s DPT 6400 is a system designed to increase productivity in industrial processes where there is a need for making multiple pressure measurements quickly and with high accuracy. It is applicable in controlling industrial processes in plants that are being upgraded to automated status. In order to automate such plants the pressures at the many loops must be measured, converted to digital information and transmitted to the plant's process control computer. The DPT 6400 serves that function. By employing solid-state pressure sensing transducers whose errors are automatically corrected by a microprocessor, it is capable of highly accurate pressure measurements. Basic DPT 6400 has 64 channels, but the system can be expanded to 256 channels by the addition of "slave" units.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS2000

Using Modern Design Tools for Digital Avionics Development

Using Modem Design Tools for Digital Avionics Development Shrinking development time and increased complexity of new avionics forces the designer to use modem tools and methods during hardware development. Engineers at the Marshall Space Flight Center have successfully upgraded their design flow and used it to develop a Mongoose V based radiation tolerant processor board for the International Space Station's Water Recovery System. The design flow, based on hardware description languages, simulation, synthesis, hardware models, and full functional software model libraries, allowed designers to fully simulate the processor board from reset, through initialization before any boards were built. The fidelity of a digital simulation is limited to the accuracy of the models used and how realistically the designer drives the circuit's inputs during simulation. By using the actual silicon during simulation, device modeling errors are reduced. Numerous design flaws were discovered early in the design phase when they could be easily fixed. The use of hardware models and actual MIPS software loaded into full functional memory models also provided checkout of the software development environment. This paper will describe the design flow used to develop the processor board and give examples of errors that were found using the tools. An overview of the processor board firmware will also be covered.

Hyde, David W.↗

NASA NTRS1988

Optical links in the angle-data assembly of the 70-meter antennas

In the precision-pointing mode the 70 meter antennas utilize an optical link provided by an autocollimator. In an effort to improve reliability and performance, commercial instruments were evaluated as replacement candidates, and upgraded versions of the existing instruments were designed and tested. The latter were selected for the Neptune encounter, but commercial instruments with digital output show promise of significant performance improvement for the post-encounter period.

Nelson, M. D.↗

DOE OSTI2026

Data Management for Digital Twin Implementation: Enhancing Existing SCADA Architecture for INL's CITRC Test Distribution System

The United States power grid will continue to experience stress from aging infrastructure, extreme weather, and increasing loads. In order to strengthen resiliency, researchers need to run tests and simulations that model real-life infrastructure. Idaho National Laboratory (INL) is creating a digital twin of its Critical Infrastructure Test Range Complex (CITRC). CITRC is an at-scale grid testbed which can be configured in utility-realistic distribution scenarios for a variety of tests, such as advanced grid protection and control. A digital twin of this infrastructure would support in-depth tests/simulations without risking physical consequences, before trialing devices under test at-scale. This project focuses on the data acquisition part of constructing a digital twin. It investigates the Supervisory Data Acquisition and Control (SCADA) system of CITRC and explores ways to utilize this system for the twin. Future “ideal” at-scale implementations such as upgraded equipment, modern communication protocols, and automation applications are also explored.

24 - POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

NASA NTRS2009

Digital Beamforming Scatterometer

This paper discusses scatterometer measurements collected with multi-mode Digital Beamforming Synthetic Aperture Radar (DBSAR) during the SMAP-VEX 2008 campaign. The 2008 SMAP Validation Experiment was conducted to address a number of specific questions related to the soil moisture retrieval algorithms. SMAP-VEX 2008 consisted on a series of aircraft-based.flights conducted on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Delaware in the fall of 2008. Several other instruments participated in the campaign including the Passive Active L-Band System (PALS), the Marshall Airborne Polarimetric Imaging Radiometer (MAPIR), and the Global Positioning System Reflectometer (GPSR). This campaign was the first SMAP Validation Experiment. DBSAR is a multimode radar system developed at NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center that combines state-of-the-art radar technologies, on-board processing, and advances in signal processing techniques in order to enable new remote sensing capabilities applicable to Earth science and planetary applications [l]. The instrument can be configured to operate in scatterometer, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), or altimeter mode. The system builds upon the L-band Imaging Scatterometer (LIS) developed as part of the RadSTAR program. The radar is a phased array system designed to fly on the NASA P3 aircraft. The instrument consists of a programmable waveform generator, eight transmit/receive (T/R) channels, a microstrip antenna, and a reconfigurable data acquisition and processor system. Each transmit channel incorporates a digital attenuator, and digital phase shifter that enables amplitude and phase modulation on transmit. The attenuators, phase shifters, and calibration switches are digitally controlled by the radar control card (RCC) on a pulse by pulse basis. The antenna is a corporate fed microstrip patch-array centered at 1.26 GHz with a 20 MHz bandwidth. Although only one feed is used with the present configuration, a provision was made for separate corporate feeds for vertical and horizontal polarization. System upgrades to dual polarization are currently under way. The DBSAR processor is a reconfigurable data acquisition and processor system capable of real-time, high-speed data processing. DBSAR uses an FPGA-based architecture to implement digitally down-conversion, in-phase and quadrature (I/Q) demodulation, and subsequent radar specific algorithms. The core of the processor board consists of an analog-to-digital (AID) section, three Altera Stratix field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), an ARM microcontroller, several memory devices, and an Ethernet interface. The processor also interfaces with a navigation board consisting of a GPS and a MEMS gyro. The processor has been configured to operate in scatterometer, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), and altimeter modes. All the modes are based on digital beamforming which is a digital process that generates the far-field beam patterns at various scan angles from voltages sampled in the antenna array. This technique allows steering the received beam and controlling its beam-width and side-lobe. Several beamforming techniques can be implemented each characterized by unique strengths and weaknesses, and each applicable to different measurement scenarios. In Scatterometer mode, the radar is capable to.generate a wide beam or scan a narrow beam on transmit, and to steer the received beam on processing while controlling its beamwidth and side-lobe level. Table I lists some important radar characteristics

Rincon, Rafael F.↗

DOE OSTI2023

An Integrated Framework for Risk Assessment of Safety-related Digital Instrumentation and Control Systems in Nuclear Power Plants: Methodology Refinement and Exploration

This report documents activities performed by Idaho National Laboratory (INL) during Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) Program, Risk Informed Systems Analysis (RISA) Pathway, digital instrumentation and control (DI&C) risk assessment project. In FY 2019, the RISA Pathway initiated a project to develop a risk assessment strategy for delivering a technical basis to support effective, and secure DI&C technologies for digital upgrades/designs. A risk assessment-informed framework was proposed for this strategy, which aims to (1) provide a best-estimate, risk informed capability to quantitatively estimate the safety margin obtained from plant modernization, especially for safety-related DI&C systems, (2) support and supplement existing risk informed DI&C design guides by providing quantitative risk information and evidence, (3) offer a capability of design architecture evaluation of various DI&C systems, (4) assure the long-term safety and reliability of safety-related DI&C systems, and (5) reduce uncertainty in costs and support integration of DI&C systems in the plant. To achieve these technical goals, the LWRS-developed framework provides a means to address relevant technical issues by: (1) defining a risk informed analysis process for DI&C upgrade that integrates hazard analysis, reliability analysis, and consequence analysis, (2) applying risk informed tools to address common cause failures (CCFs) and quantify corresponding failure probabilities for DI&C technologies, particularly software CCFs, (3) evaluating the impact of digital failures at the component level, system level, and plant level, and (4) providing insights and suggestions on designs to manage the risks, thus to support the development and deployment of advanced DI&C technologies in nuclear power plants (NPPs). Adding diversity within a system or components is the primary means to eliminate and mitigate CCFs, but diversity also increases system complexity and may not address all sources of systematic failures. Optimization of diversity and redundancy applications for the safety-critical DI&C systems remains a challenge. To deal with the technical issues in addressing potential software CCFs in safety-related DI&C systems of NPPs and supporting relevant design optimization, the proposed framework provides: (a) A best-estimate, risk informed capability to address new technical digital issues quantitatively, focusing on software CCFs in safety-related DI&C systems of NPPs; (b) A common and a modularized platform for DI&C designers, software developers, cybersecurity analysts, and plant engineers to predict and prevent risk in the early design stage of DI&C systems; (c) Technical bases and risk informed insights to assist users address the risk informed alternatives for evaluation of CCFs in safety-related DI&C systems of NPPs; and (d) A risk informed tool that offers a capability of design architecture evaluation of various DI&C systems to support system design decisions in diversity and redundancy applications. The research and development efforts of this project in FY 2023 are focused on refining current methods on software CCF modeling and estimation and exploring additional innovative approaches to risk assessment of DI&C systems to enable a more comprehensive and complete assessment of various safety-related DI&C design architectures. The primary audience of this report are DI&C designers, engineers, and probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) practitioners. This includes stakeholders, such as the nuclear utilities and regulators who consider the deployment and upgrade of DI&C systems, DI&C software developers and reviewers, and cybersecurity specialists. It should be noted that all the analyses are performed for the demonstration of the methodology, not for the evaluation of an actual digital control system. Results are obtained based on limited design information and testing data.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

NASA NTRS2018

Two Years of Atmospheric Measurements in Edinburgh, Scotland

Since March of 2016, NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) and Heriot Watt University (HWU) have jointly operated an atmospheric propagation terminal to measure and characterize propagation phenomena near 40 GHz at the HWU campus in Edinburgh, Scotland within the framework of the Alphasat experiment. The system was also recently upgraded in June 2018 to take simultaneous measurements near 20 GHz. The Q-band system utilizes a novel design which combines a beacon receiver and digital radiometer into the same RF front-end and observes the 39.402 GHz beacon of the European Space Agency's Alphasat Aldo Paraboni TDP#5 experiment. Atmospheric measurements can thusly be assessed to characterize link performance. The objective in orchestrating these types of measurements is to improve statistical understanding of the atmosphere at these frequencies of interest, as well as to contribute to the development and improvement of International Telecommunications Union (ITU) models for prediction of communications systems performance within the Q-band. Herein, we provide an overview of the system design, as well as an analysis of the first two years of data collected in Edinburgh, including attenuation, fade duration, and fade slope.

Zemba, Michael↗

NASA NTRS2018

Two Years of Atmospheric Measurements in Edinburgh, Scotland

Zemba, Michael J.↗

DOE OSTI2022

NPP Simulators for Coupled Thermal and Electric Power Dispatch

The Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) program within the United States Department of Energy supports extending the operation of the U.S. commercial nuclear power plant (NPP) fleet. Within the LWRS program, the Flexible Plant Operation and Generation (FPOG) Pathway works to diversify the revenue streams of light water reactors (LWRs) by opening opportunities for the co-generation of non-electric products in addition to supplying electrical power to the grid. Recent events have added greater motivation to these efforts. For example, the recent Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) passed by the U.S. federal government offers substantial tax incentives for producing clean hydrogen, the technology readiness level of dispatchable and high-efficiency hydrogen production has dramatically increased in a short time, and societal response to world climate change is driving a transition away from fossil fuels. Producing hydrogen with maximum efficiency using nuclear power requires dispatching both electrical and thermal power from the nuclear plant to the hydrogen plant, so testing concepts of operations for combined electrical and thermal power dispatch (TPD) from an NNP to a hydrogen plant is of interest. This report documents achievement of the Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) program milestone “Install and demonstrate a vendor-developed simulator on the Human Systems Simulation Laboratory (HSS) for dispatch of LWR electrical power to a close-coupled electrolysis plant” with a due date of Dec. 22, 2022. Several factors provide motivation for this effort. Coupling the power generation deck of a nuclear power plant to a hydrogen production facility introduces new possibilities for operational transients that must be addressed. In particular, the performance of the integrated system during startup and shutdown of the hydrogen production facility, as well as offnormal conditions, need to be evaluated to ensure there are no adverse effects on the operation of the existing NPP. The concept of operations involving the NPP, the hydrogen plant, and the electric power grid must be tested using NPP simulators and operating procedures that have been modified for TPD operations. These tests must also include dynamic simulations of the coupled tertiary thermal and electric loads as well as coordinated activities with NPP operators, tertiary load operators and grid power coordinators. The report summarizes progress in developing and testing full-scope NPP simulators at the HSSL, including a generic BWR simulator from GSE Systems, Inc. and generic PWR simulator from Westinghouse. In the case of the TPD-GBWR Simulator from GSE Systems, Inc., a BWR is thermally coupled to a high temperature electrolysis (HTE) plant that produces hydrogen and oxygen from de-ionized water. The hydrogen plant is not explicitly simulated but only included as a transient heat sink. A thermal power dispatch (TPD) system transfers heat between the steam systems at the BWR and the hydrogen plant. Operational results from two versions of the modified simulator are presented. The first version uses synthetic oil as a heat transfer fluid in a closed delivery heat loop (DHL) that generates steam at the hydrogen plant. The second version uses steam as the heat transfer fluid in a delivery steam line (DSL) to provide steam to the hydrogen plant. For both versions, the estimated thermal power delivery distance is approximately one kilometer. The amount of thermal power dispatched in the simulators is 15% of the total reactor thermal power such that the simulators provide a tool to study the feasibility of coupling a BWR to industrial processes that benefit from a combination electrical and thermal power dispatch. Ongoing work within a CRADA is also developing a full-scope PWR simulator provided by Westinghouse for both thermal and electric power coupling. This simulator is based on a PWR plant with two three-loop Westinghouse reactors. Westinghouse PWRs are sufficiently similar that a simulator of a three-loop reactor is an appropriate representation for two-loop and four-loop PWR reactors. The three-loop simulator will initially be modified for close-coupling to a 100 MW HTE hydrogen production plant that will require approximately 25 MW of thermal power while operating at its maximum rated capacity. The simulator testing will include full coupling to dynamic simulations of a hydrogen production plant and a representative bulk electric grid. The simulator provided by Westinghouse is similar to the GPWR simulator that INL has already obtained from GSE Systems but has a few important added benefits. First, the Westinghouse simulator is based on digital controls and has additional screens that can be called up to show parameter trends to assist operators in decision-making. The Westinghouse simulator also has upgrades to the controls and hardware representations, such as valve actuators, that make it more realistic and flexible in terms of accurately sim

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

NASA NTRS2000

LIS Validation at The KSC-ER

Each year, thousands of lightning electric field disturbances are recorded and archived by the ground-based field mill (FM) network at the NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and USAF Eastern Range (ER). The FM network has a range of several tens of kilometers, and a digital accuracy of 4 V/m. It has provided years of continuous lightning warning surveillance to KSC-ER space vehicle launch operations, and has undergone one major hardware upgrade since its inception in the early 1970s. Additional KSC lightning warning data is derived from a multistation radio time-of-arrival system called Lightning Detection and Ranging (LDAR). This system provides the location and space-time mapping of individual lightning channels (for both cloud and ground flashes). Additional lightning information for the KSC region is available from the National Lightning Detection Network (NLDN) and a 5-station local magnetic direction finder network. In this study, all of the above mentioned data are used to ground-validate data derived from the Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) onboard the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM). The FM network can be used to retrieve the charges deposited in a lightning flash, provided the flash is within a few kilometers of the FM Network. Although it is rare to obtain a TRMM overpass of thunderstorms hat occur this close to the FM network, seven such storms have been found and examined in this study. We compare the times and locations of LIS optical pulses with the spatial-temporal character of the FM, LDAR, and magnetic direction finder data. We also inter-compare LIS optical pulse amplitude data with FM-derived charge magnitudes, number of LDAR radio sources, and peak current values from magnetic direction finder data. Generally speaking, LIS lightning locations and times agree favorably with the KSC ground-based systems for most cases, but little correlation appears to exist between optical pulse amplitude and any of charge, # LDAR sources, peak current), owing possibly to the effects of source complexity and/or cloud multiple scattering.

Koshak, William J.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Autonomous In-space Construction, Maintenance, and Reconfiguration Using Programmable Meta-Material

NASA ARC's Coded Structures Laboratory (CSL) is developing autonomous construction, maintenance, and reconfiguration technologies to meet long-duration and deep space infrastructure needs, in accordance with long-term NASA goals of "in-space reliance" and "mass-less exploration." We seek to achieve these capabilities by utilizing a "programmable meta-material" approach that integrates emerging advances in materials (mechanical meta-materials), manufacturing (cooperative mobile robotics), and autonomy (multi-agent planning algorithms). Through the ARMADAS project, we have shown assembly of high-performance engineered cellular materials using multiple cooperating mobile robotic assemblers. In this paper, we describe how such a programmable meta-material architecture may shift the paradigm of how we design, build, manufacture, and operate future space infrastructure and assets. The core of a programmable meta-material architecture consists of 3 main technology sub-areas: the structure, the assembly agents, and the assembly algorithms. We co-design these systems to ensure an adaptable system that can create and reconfigure structures from a base set of building block components. From this core technology, we can branch out and expand the capability of the system through additional secondary component types and robotic agents to perform activities such as inspections, maintenance, repair, payload installation, or perform power and communications interconnect. As these technologies mature, future designers will be able to utilize the system to rapidly integrate and operate assets in space or on planetary surfaces from a set of well-tested part library, or create their own modules to integrate into the system. A core trait to the development of this system is the automation approach. Because of the modular and functional discrete (pixel-like) nature of the structural system, a diverse set of powerful algorithms for analysis, planning, and simulation can be adapted and leveraged to optimize construction, maintenance, and dynamic reorganization (as hardware with programmable form and function). With an ability to free the design space from launch vehicle constraints and fundamentally shift how a mission is designed and conducted, we discuss the influence of a programmable meta-material architecture on mission design, build, and operations. For the "design phase", we discuss project lifecycle effects, costs, time, and performance. For the "build phase", we discuss reusability, ISRU, manufacturing, material logistics, and scalability. And for "operations", we discuss autonomy, maintenance and upgrades, reliability, and reconfiguration. Autonomy and modularity are the primary enabling traits of this system. Engineering systems that utilize a modular and reconfiguration building block approach such as digital communication and computation systems, currently lead all other areas of technology in size and complexity scalability. NASA is extending the benefits and flexibility of digital systems to hardware systems, to optimize materials lifecycle management and expand our space exploration mission capabilities.

in space assembly↗

DOE OSTI2026

From Vehicles to Systems: Understanding Freight Transportation as a Connected Energy, Infrastructure, and Operations System

The U.S. freight system may need to handle 50% more cargo by 2050. Upgrading our freight system requires modernizing capital-intensive, long-lived assets including freight trains, ports, and terminal infrastructure. NLR is advancing freight system solutions spanning ALTRIOS, the first digital twin for the full freight rail system; ALTRIOS-LIFTS, which can create digital twins of freight terminals; INFORMES, the first national model of the intermodal freight system; MARINESim, used to simulate and optimize ocean-going vessel operations; and more. These modeling and simulation tools enable data-driven decision-making across freight modes and systems.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

NASA NTRS2005

3-D Packaging: A Technology Review

Traditional electronics are assembled as a planar arrangement of components on a printed circuit board (PCB) or other type of substrate. These planar assemblies may then be plugged into a motherboard or card cage creating a volume of electronics. This architecture is common in many military and space electronic systems as well as large computer and telecommunications systems and industrial electronics. The individual PCB assemblies can be replaced if defective or for system upgrade. Some applications are constrained by the volume or the shape of the system and are not compatible with the motherboard or card cage architecture. Examples include missiles, camcorders, and digital cameras. In these systems, planar rigid-flex substrates are folded to create complex 3-D shapes. The flex circuit serves the role of motherboard, providing interconnection between the rigid boards. An example of a planar rigid - flex assembly prior to folding is shown. In both architectures, the interconnection is effectively 2-D.

Strickland, Mark↗

DOE OSTI2023

D-Egg: a dual PMT optical module for IceCube

The D-Egg, an acronym for "Dual optical sensors in an Ellipsoid Glass for Gen2," is one of the optical modules designed for future extensions of the IceCube experiment at the South Pole. The D-Egg has an elongated-sphere shape to maximize the photon-sensitive effective area while maintaining a narrow diameter to reduce the cost and the time needed for drilling of the deployment holes in the glacial ice for the optical modules at depths up to 2700 m. The D-Egg design is utilized for the IceCube Upgrade, the next stage of the IceCube project also known as IceCube-Gen2 Phase 1, where nearly half of the optical sensors to be deployed are D-Eggs. With two 8-inch high-quantum efficiency photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) per module, D-Eggs offer an increased effective area while retaining the successful design of the IceCube digital optical module (DOM). The convolution of the wavelength-dependent effective area and the Cherenkov emission spectrum provides an effective photodetection sensitivity that is 2.8 times larger than that of IceCube DOMs. The signal of each of the two PMTs is digitized using ultra-low-power 14-bit analog-to-digital converters with a sampling frequency of 240 MSPS, enabling a flexible event triggering, as well as seamless and lossless event recording of single-photon signals to multi-photons exceeding 200 photoelectrons within 10 ns. Mass production of D-Eggs has been completed, with 277 out of the 310 D-Eggs produced to be used in the IceCube Upgrade. In this paper, we report the design of the D-Eggs, as well as the sensitivity and the single to multi-photon detection performance of mass-produced D-Eggs measured in a laboratory using the built-in data acquisition system in each D-Egg optical sensor module.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

DOE OSTI2022

An Integrated Framework for Risk Assessment of High Safety Significant Safety-related Digital Instrumentation and Control Systems in Nuclear Power Plants: Methodology and Demonstration

This report documents the activities performed by Idaho National Laboratory (INL) during Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) Program, Risk Informed Systems Analysis (RISA) Pathway, digital instrumentation and control (DI&C) risk assessment project. In FY 2019, the RISA Pathway initiated a project to develop a risk assessment strategy for delivering a technical basis to support effective and secure DI&C technologies for digital upgrades/designs. A framework was proposed for this strategy, which aims to (1) provide a best-estimate, risk-informed capability to quantitatively and accurately estimate the risk impact of plant modernization, considering the introduction of high safety-significant safety-related (HSSSR) DI&C systems, (2) support and supplement existing risk-informed DI&C design guides by providing quantitative risk information and evidence, (3) offer a capability of design architecture evaluation of various DI&C systems, (4) assure the long-term safety and reliability of HSSSR DI&C systems, and (5) reduce uncertainty in costs and support integration of DI&C systems in the plant. To achieve these technical goals, the framework provides a means to address relevant technical issues by: (1) defining a risk-informed analysis process for DI&C upgrade, that integrates hazard analysis, reliability analysis, and consequence analysis, (2) applying risk-informed tools to address common cause failures (CCFs) and quantify corresponding failure probabilities for DI&C technologies, particularly software CCFs, (3) evaluating the impact of digital failures at the component level, system level, and plant level, and (4) providing insights and suggestions on designs to manage the risks, thus to support the development and deployment of advanced DI&C technologies on nuclear power plant (NPPs).

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗