A Performance-Portable C++ Implementation of Atmospheric Dynamics]{A Performance-Portable C++ Implementation of Atmospheric Dynamics.
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Through literature review and questionnaire survey, the purpose of this study is to understand current status and major fields of SEA implementation in China, and then to provide advice for future improvement of SEA system, according to objective evaluation of the effectiveness of SEA implementation. Major types and fields of SEA implementation were firstly studied to conclude that the attitude of decision-makers and competent authority of SEA implementation does generate direct impacts on SEA implementation. Current status of SEA implementation were then studied, in terms of timing, techniques and methodologies, public participation, information disclosure, alternative, and review organization, to conclude that SEA implementation in China is 'impact-based SEA' and the major problems of SEA implementation are resulted from deficient and defective management of SEA system, such as laws, regulations, and means of management. In order to have objective evaluation on the effectiveness of SEA implementation, to understand good practice of SEA implementation, and to provide advice for future improvement of SEA system, it is necessary to establish reasonable and feasible evaluation criteria for the effectiveness of SEA implementation, based upon foreign experience and political, legislative, administrative and cultural characteristics of China. Various types and stages of SEA should be carefully considered to be included into the evaluation criteria for the effectiveness of SEA implementation.
The implementation process involved in translating Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) intention into action is vital to an effective SEA. Many factors influence implementation and thus the effectiveness of an SEA. Empirical studies have identified and documented some factors influencing the implementation of an SEA. This research is fragmented, however, and it is still not clear what are the most critical factors of effective SEA performance, and how these relate to different stages of the implementation process or other contextual circumstances. The paper takes its point of departure in implementation theory. Firstly, we introduce implementation theory, and then use it in practice to establish a more comprehensive model related to the stages in the implementation process. Secondly, we identify the critical factors in order to see how they are related to the different stages of SEA or are more general in character. Finally we map the different critical factors and how they influence the overall results of an SEA. Based on a literature review, we present a comprehensive picture of the critical factors and where they are found in the process. We conclude that most of the critical factors identified are of a more general character influencing the SEA process as such, while only one out of four of these factors relates to the specific stages of the SEA. Based on this mapping we can sketch a picture of the totality of critical factors. In this study 266 notions of critical factors were identified. Seen at the level of notions of critical factors, only 24% of these relate to specific stages while for 76% the critical factors are of a more general nature. These critical factors interact in complex ways and appear in different combinations in different stages of the implementation process so tracing the cause and effect is difficult. The pervasiveness of contextual and general factors also clearly suggests that there is no single way to put SEA into practice. The paper identifies some of the critical factors for effective SEA implementation, but further research is still needed to conclude which factors are more critical than others, just as the contingencies on which they depend are not easy to unravel. - Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer The research on critical factors influencing SEA implementation is fragmented. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer The critical factors are used to discuss 'hot-spots' in the implementation process. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Critical factors are just as broad as the concept of effectiveness. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Both stage and general factors are relevant in explaining the effectiveness of SEA.
Achieving speed and accuracy for math library functions like exp, sin, and log is difficult. This is because low-level implementation languages like C do not help math library developers catch mathematical errors, build implementations incrementally, or separate high-level and low-level decision making. This ultimately puts development of such functions out of reach for all but the most experienced experts. To address this, we introduce MegaLibm, a domain-specific language for implementing, testing, and tuning math library implementations. MegaLibm is safe, modular, and tunable. Implementations in MegaLibm can automatically detect mathematical mistakes like sign flips via semantic wellformedness checks, and components like range reductions can be implemented in a modular, composable way, simplifying implementations. Once the high-level algorithm is done, tuning parameters like working precisions and evaluation schemes can be adjusted through orthogonal tuning parameters to achieve the desired speed and accuracy. MegaLibm also enables math library developers to work interactively, compiling, testing, and tuning their implementations and invoking tools like Sollya and type-directed synthesis to complete components and synthesize entire implementations. MegaLibm can express 8 state-of-the-art math library implementations with comparable speed and accuracy to the original C code, and can synthesize 5 variations and 3 from-scratch implementations with minimal guidance.
China is the new leader in the global construction market, with $1,000 billion invested into new construction projects in 2010. With its already significant building stock, high construction rate of new buildings, and strong governmental commitment to improving building energy efficiency, China is positioned to have great influence on global building energy use in the years to come. Building energy efficiency was first addressed in the mid 1980s, after China developed its new political doctrine of “Socialism with Chinese Characteristics” in the late 1970s and launched its unprecedented economic reform. Since then, the development of building energy efficiency policy has gone through into five stages: (1) early research and preparation, (2) pilots and demonstrations, (3) institution development and goal setting, (4) goal implementation, and (5) development and implementation of an array of policies and projects promoting building energy efficiency (Chapter 2). Building energy standards and codes are one important policy instrument targeted by Chinese government. Over three decades of governmental efforts, China has successfully established a comprehensive system of building energy standards and codes. The system covers the life cycle process of a building project, from design, construction and acceptance, inspection, evaluation, modification, products and selection of building materials to building operation. This project, the DOS project, is focused on the implementation of four building energy codes: three of which are design standards (two for residential buildings and one for public/commercial) and one is a code of construction and acceptance (Chapter 3). The current implementation status of building energy codes in China is a tale of two extremes: while there is no implementation in rural areas, the implementation in urban areas is very encouraging. The compliance rates of building energy codes in both the design and construction stages in the inspected large- and mid-size cities were a stunning 98% and 90%, respectively, in 2009. The impressive compliance rates come from establishing an implementation system that consists of a complete loop of the monitoring and inspection subsystem: building design companies, building inspection companies, construction companies, construction inspection companies, testing companies and labs (all of them are third parties), and semi-governmental quality supervision stations to oversee the implementation process (Sections 4.1 and 4.2). Besides the unique, active engagement of third parties, China’s implementation practices are also equipped with strict penalties for violations (Section 4.3), annual inspection for building energy efficiency (Section 4.4), and comprehensive national title exams for key stakeholders (Section 4.5.1). So, what are the challenges faced by key stakeholders when they implement building energy codes? Through stakeholder meetings, focus group meetings, training seminars, onsite construction visits, and personal communications, the project team concluded that training and information dissemination is the ignored, under-invested, and weak component in China’s current implementation practices (Section 6.1).
Purpose: Volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) optimization is a computationally challenging problem due to its large data size, high degrees of freedom, and many hardware constraints. High-performance graphics processing units (GPUs) have been used to speed up the computations. However, GPU’s relatively small memory size cannot handle cases with a large dose-deposition coefficient (DDC) matrix in cases of, e.g., those with a large target size, multiple targets, multiple arcs, and/or small beamlet size. The main purpose of this paper is to report an implementation of a column-generation-based VMAT algorithm, previously developed in the authors’ group, on a multi-GPU platform to solve the memory limitation problem. While the column-generation-based VMAT algorithm has been previously developed, the GPU implementation details have not been reported. Hence, another purpose is to present detailed techniques employed for GPU implementation. The authors also would like to utilize this particular problem as an example problem to study the feasibility of using a multi-GPU platform to solve large-scale problems in medical physics. Methods: The column-generation approach generates VMAT apertures sequentially by solving a pricing problem (PP) and a master problem (MP) iteratively. In the authors’ method, the sparse DDC matrix is first stored on a CPU in coordinate list format (COO). On the GPU side, this matrix is split into four submatrices according to beam angles, which are stored on four GPUs in compressed sparse row format. Computation of beamlet price, the first step in PP, is accomplished using multi-GPUs. A fast inter-GPU data transfer scheme is accomplished using peer-to-peer access. The remaining steps of PP and MP problems are implemented on CPU or a single GPU due to their modest problem scale and computational loads. Barzilai and Borwein algorithm with a subspace step scheme is adopted here to solve the MP problem. A head and neck (H and N) cancer case is then used to validate the authors’ method. The authors also compare their multi-GPU implementation with three different single GPU implementation strategies, i.e., truncating DDC matrix (S1), repeatedly transferring DDC matrix between CPU and GPU (S2), and porting computations involving DDC matrix to CPU (S3), in terms of both plan quality and computational efficiency. Two more H and N patient cases and three prostate cases are used to demonstrate the advantages of the authors’ method. Results: The authors’ multi-GPU implementation can finish the optimization process within ∼1 min for the H and N patient case. S1 leads to an inferior plan quality although its total time was 10 s shorter than the multi-GPU implementation due to the reduced matrix size. S2 and S3 yield the same plan quality as the multi-GPU implementation but take ∼4 and ∼6 min, respectively. High computational efficiency was consistently achieved for the other five patient cases tested, with VMAT plans of clinically acceptable quality obtained within 23–46 s. Conversely, to obtain clinically comparable or acceptable plans for all six of these VMAT cases that the authors have tested in this paper, the optimization time needed in a commercial TPS system on CPU was found to be in an order of several minutes. Conclusions: The results demonstrate that the multi-GPU implementation of the authors’ column-generation-based VMAT optimization can handle the large-scale VMAT optimization problem efficiently without sacrificing plan quality. The authors’ study may serve as an example to shed some light on other large-scale medical physics problems that require multi-GPU techniques.
In 2008, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) began assisting selected non-nuclear weapon states in planning and preparing for implementation of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Additional Protocol (AP). Since then, the AP international implementation program has contributed to the substantial progress made by Vietnam, Thailand, Iraq, and Malaysia in preparing for entry-into-force of the AP. An overall engagement plan has been developed with components designed to train government AP implementing agencies, inform policy makers, conduct outreach to industry and universities, make AP reporting software available and useful, and plan a detailed approach for implementing the declaration and complementary access provisions of the AP. DOE recently began collaborating with Indonesia, which has already entered the AP into force, requiring a second method of engagement somewhat different from that taken with countries that have not entered the AP into force. The AP international implementation program, administered by the International Nuclear Safeguards and Engagement Program, is working more closely with DOE’s International Nonproliferation Export Control Program to ensure countries are aware of and prepared to implement the export/import provisions of the AP. As the AP implementation program matures and helps move countries closer to entry-into-force or improved AP implementation, it is identifying characteristics of a country’s “end-state” that indicate that DOE assistance is no longer required. The U.S. AP Implementation Act and Senate Resolution of Ratification require the Administration to report annually to Congress on measures taken to achieve the adoption of the AP in non-nuclear weapon states. DOE’s AP international implementation program is a significant part of these measures. This paper describes recent developments to increase the scope and effectiveness of the program.
The Philippines entered into force the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Additional Protocol (AP) in February 2010. The Philippine Nuclear Research Institute (PNRI) is the government agency responsible for implementing the AP. In June 2010 the IAEA invited the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to help conduct a joint national training seminar on the AP. DOE presented to PNRI its AP international technical assistance program, administered by the International Nuclear Safeguards and Engagement Program (INSEP), which helps partner countries implement the AP. In coordination with the IAEA, DOE established this program in 2008 to complement IAEA AP seminars with long-term country-specific cooperation from the perspective of a Member State. The US version of the AP is the same version as that of non-nuclear weapon states except for the addition of a national security exclusion. Due to this, DOE cooperation with other countries enables the sharing of valuable lessons learned in implementing the AP. DOE/INSEP described to PNRI the various areas of cooperation it offers to interested countries, whether they are preparing for entry into force or already implementing the AP. Even countries that have entered the AP into force are sometimes not fully prepared to implement it well, and welcome cooperation to improve their implementation process. PNRI and DOE/INSEP subsequently agreed to cooperate in several areas to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the Philippines AP implementation. These areas include providing working-level training to PNRI staff and preparing an information document that details that training for future reference, assisting with the development of an outreach program and procedures for AP reporting and complementary access, and identifying Annex II equipment and non-nuclear materials whose export must be reported under the AP. DOE laboratory representatives, funded by INSEP, met again with PNRI in February 2011 to provide training for PNRI AP staff and investigate specific ways to improve implementation. Another meeting in July 2011 focused on preparations for outreach to industry and universities. In this paper PNRI describes current implementation of the AP in the Philippines, and both DOE/INSEP and PNRI provide their perspectives on their cooperation to enhance that implementation.
This report describes the progress of the CONTAIN-LMR sodium physics and chemistry models to be implemented in to MELCOR 2.1. It also describes the progress to implement these models into CONT AIN 2 as well. In the past two years, the implementation included the addition of sodium equations of state and sodium properties from two different sources. The first source is based on the previous work done by Idaho National Laborat ory by modifying MELCOR to include liquid lithium equation of state as a working fluid to mode l the nuclear fusion safety research. The second source uses properties generated for the SIMMER code. Testing and results from this implementation of sodium pr operties are given. In addition, the CONTAIN-LMR code was derived from an early version of C ONTAIN code. Many physical models that were developed sin ce this early version of CONTAIN are not captured by this early code version. Therefore, CONTAIN 2 is being updated with the sodium models in CONTAIN-LMR in or der to facilitate verification of these models with the MELCOR code. Although CONTAIN 2, which represents the latest development of CONTAIN, now contains ma ny of the sodium specific models, this work is not complete due to challenges from the lower cell architecture in CONTAIN 2, which is different from CONTAIN- LMR. This implementation should be completed in the coming year, while sodi um models from C ONTAIN-LMR are being integrated into MELCOR. For testing, CONTAIN decks have been developed for verification and validation use. In terms of implementing the sodium m odels into MELCOR, a separate sodium model branch was created for this document . Because of massive development in the main stream MELCOR 2.1 code and the require ment to merge the latest code version into this branch, the integration of the s odium models were re-directed to implement the sodium chemistry models first. This change led to delays of the actual implementation. For aid in the future implementation of sodium models, a new sodium chemistry package was created. Thus reporting for the implementation of the sodium chemistry is discussed in this report.
An important aspect of successful Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) digital control system upgrade projects is to upgrade the Operator Training Simulator (OTS) or a related Engineering Simulator (ES), prior to installation of the Distributed Control System (DCS) on the plant allowing for early testing of the digital controls/HMI and for early training of the plant operators while maintaining OTS configuration management (i.e. OTS in sync with the plant's current design). Experience has shown that early implementation of digital upgrades on the OTS and/or an ES can reduce plant startup duration (related to digital systems commissioning) and ensure operators are proficient with the new digital systems to ensure safe and reliable plant operation. Including simulators in the design process offers many benefits including early identification of design deficiencies, testing deficiency fixes, developing and validating plant procedures and supporting human factors engineering, to name a few. Implementing digital upgrades on the OTS is also a regulatory requirement driven by the ANSI/ANS-3.5-2009 standard (Nuclear Power Plant Simulators for Use in Operator Training and Examination) if the new DCS affects actions to be taken by the plant operator in the main control room. This paper presents the benefits of implementing digital upgrades on the OTS and/or ES prior to plant implementation. The various simulator implementation strategies (stimulation, emulation, simulation or a hybrid solution) and selection factors are discussed. The paper also covers four (4) case studies demonstrating how digital upgrades can be implemented on simulators. The first case study covers the implementation of a Siemens offgas Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) system on the Enrico Fermi OTS (Michigan). The second case study covers the implementation of a GE main generator excitation system on the Cernavoda OTS (Romania). The third case study covers the implementation of a Siemens main feedwater control system on the Callaway OTS and ES (Missouri). The final case study covers the implementation of the non-safety related and safety related DCS on the Nuclear New Build (NNB) Hongyanhe Phase I dual-purpose OTS/ES (China). (authors)
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) released a new version of the standard for the Preparation of Non-reactor Nuclear Facility Documented Safety Analysis, DOE-STD-3009-2014. Although this revised standard only specifically applies to new facilities, major modifications to existing facilities, and existing facilities with mitigated offsite consequences greater than 25 rem, other existing DOE nuclear facilities are beginning to implement the new requirements in this revised standard as well. The most obvious change is the consolidation of the eleven Safety Management Program (SMP) chapters into a single chapter. However, development of a compliant safety analysis is more than an effort in shuffling these sections. Examples of the substantive changes include: a more rigorous approach to defense-in-depth; a more comprehensive process for functionally classifying safety-supporting structures, systems and components; explicit direction for evaluating chemical hazards; and additional quantitative analysis for co-located workers. For any facility, the publication of an approved Documented Safety Analysis (DSA) and associated Technical Safety Requirements (TSRs) is a significant milestone. However, implementation of the DSA/TSR is often the greater challenge. Ensuring that the implementing assumptions, analysis inputs, and operational limitations are realistic is critical to this success. This should be addressed in the safety basis strategy document. In addition, DSA implementation must occur using a logical and planned approach. The approach should address the following: - Procedure preparation, review and verification; - Operator, mechanic, technician, and support staff training; - Management assessments to evaluate SMP effectiveness; and - Independent assessments to confirm effective DSA implementation. This project approach to managing DSA/TSR development and implementation has been demonstrated as successful at multiple DOE sites. Lessons learned associated with all of these topics will be discussed in the context of the new DOE-STD-3009-2014 requirements. The discussed lessons are taken from the multiple DOE sites and facilities. The presentation describes implemented approaches for successful incorporation of these lessons. While the context for the presentation is DOE-STD-3009-2014, the need to properly manage safety basis development and implementation applies to all nuclear facilities. Thus the lessons and implementation strategies should appeal to a general audience interested in safety basis development. (authors)
Introduction We previously developed a PBPK model template that consists of a single model “superstructure” with equations and logic found in many physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) models. Using the template, one can implement PBPK models with different combinations of structures and features. Methods To identify factors that influence computational time required for PBPK model simulations, we conducted timing experiments using various implementations of PBPK models for dichloromethane and chloroform, including template and stand-alone implementations, and simulating four different exposure scenarios. For each experiment, we measured the required computational time and evaluated the impacts of including various model features (e.g., number of output variables calculated) and incorporating various design choices (e.g., different methods for estimating blood concentrations). Results We observed that model implementations that treat body weight and dependent quantities as constant (fixed) parameters can result in a 30% time savings compared with options that treat body weight and dependent quantities as time-varying. We also observed that decreasing the number of state variables by 36% in our PBPK model template led to a decrease of 20–35% in computational time. Other factors, such as the number of output variables, the method for implementing conditional statements, and the method for estimating blood concentrations, did not have large impacts on simulation time. In general, simulations with PBPK model template implementations of models required more time than simulations with stand-alone implementations, but the flexibility and (human) time savings in preparing and reviewing a model implemented using the PBPK model template may justify the increases in computational time requirements. Conclusion Our findings concerning how PBPK model design and implementation decisions impact computational speed can benefit anyone seeking to develop, improve, or apply a PBPK model, with or without the PBPK model template.
The task of multi-dimensional numerical integration is frequently encountered in physics and other scientific fields, e.g., in modeling the effects of systematic uncertainties in physical systems and in Bayesian parameter estimation. Multi-dimensional integration is often time-prohibitive on CPUs. Efficient implementation on many-core architectures is challenging as the workload across the integration space cannot be predicted a priori. We propose m-Cubes, a novel implementation of the well-known Vegas algorithm for execution on GPUs. Vegas transforms integration variables followed by calculation of a Monte Carlo integral estimate using adaptive partitioning of the resulting space. m-Cubes improves performance on GPUs by maintaining relatively uniform workload across the processors. As a result, our optimized Cuda implementation for Nvidia GPUs outperforms parallelization approaches proposed in past literature. We further demonstrate the efficiency of m-Cubes by evaluating a six-dimensional integral from a cosmology application, achieving significant speedup and greater precision than the CUBA library's CPU implementation of VEGAS. We also evaluate m-Cubes on a standard integrand test suite. m-Cubes outperforms the serial implementations of the Cuba and GSL libraries by orders of magnitude speedup while maintaining comparable accuracy. Our approach yields a speedup of at least 10 when compared against publicly available Monte Carlo based GPU implementations. In summary, m-Cubes can solve integrals that are prohibitively expensive using standard libraries and custom implementations. A modern C++ interface header-only implementation makes m-Cubes portable, allowing its utilization in complicated pipelines with easy to define stateful integrals. Compatibility with non-Nvidia GPUs is achieved with our initial implementation of m-Cubes using the Kokkos framework.
This report describes the preliminary implementation of the sodium thermophysical properties and the design documentation for the sodium models of CONTAIN-LMR to be implemented into MELCOR 2.1. In the past year, the implementation included two separate sodium properties from two different sources. The first source is based on the previous work done by Idaho National Laboratory by modifying MELCOR to include liquid lithium equation of state as a working fluid to model the nuclear fusion safety research. To minimize the impact to MELCOR, the implementation of the fusion safety database (FSD) was done by utilizing the detection of the data input file as a way to invoking the FSD. The FSD methodology has been adapted currently for this work, but it may subject modification as the project continues. The second source uses properties generated for the SIMMER code. Preliminary testing and results from this implementation of sodium properties are given. In this year, the design document for the CONTAIN-LMR sodium models, such as the two condensable option, sodium spray fire, and sodium pool fire is being developed. This design document is intended to serve as a guide for the MELCOR implementation. In addition, CONTAIN-LMR code used was based on the earlier version of CONTAIN code. Many physical models that were developed since this early version of CONTAIN may not be captured by the code. Although CONTAIN 2, which represents the latest development of CONTAIN, contains some sodium specific models, which are not complete, the utilizing CONTAIN 2 with all sodium models implemented from CONTAIN-LMR as a comparison code for MELCOR should be done. This implementation should be completed in early next year, while sodium models from CONTAIN-LMR are being integrated into MELCOR. For testing, CONTAIN decks have been developed for verification and validation use.
Model Predictive Control (MPC) is a promising technique to address growing needs for heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems to operate more efficiently and with greater flexibility. However, due to a number of factors, including the required implementation expertise, lack of high quality data, and a risk-adverse industry, MPC has yet to gain widespread adoption. While many previous studies have shown the advantages of MPC, few analyzed the implementation effort and associated practical challenges. In addition, previous work has developed an open-source, Modelica-based tool-chain that automatically generates optimal control, parameter estimation, and state estimation problems aimed at facilitating MPC implementation. Therefore, this study demonstrates usage of this tool-chain to implement MPC in a real office building, discusses practical challenges of implementing MPC, and estimates the implementation effort associated with various tasks in order to inform the development of future workflows and serve as an initial benchmark for their impact on reducing implementation effort. This study finds that the implemented MPC saves approximately 40% of HVAC energy over the existing control during a two-month trial period and that tasks related to data collection and controller deployment activities can each require as much effort as model generation.
10 CFR 850 defines a contractor as any entity, including affiliated entities, such as a parent corporation, under contract with DOE, including a subcontractor at any tier, with responsibility for performing work at a DOE site in furtherance of a DOE mission. The Chronic Beryllium Disease Prevention Program (CBDPP) applies to beryllium-related activities that are performed at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). The CBDPP or Beryllium Safety Program is integrated into the LLNL Worker Safety and Health Program and, thus, implementation documents and responsibilities are integrated in various documents and organizational structures. Program development and management of the CBDPP is delegated to the Environment, Safety and Health (ES&H) Directorate, Worker Safety and Health Functional Area. As per 10 CFR 850, Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC (LLNS) periodically submits a CBDPP to the National Nuclear Security Administration/Livermore Site Office (NNSA/LSO). The requirements of this plan are communicated to LLNS workers through ES&H Manual Document 14.4, 'Working Safely with Beryllium.' 10 CFR 850 is implemented by the LLNL CBDPP, which integrates the safety and health standards required by the regulation, components of the LLNL Integrated Safety Management System (ISMS), and incorporates other components of the LLNL ES&H Program. As described in the regulation, and to fully comply with the regulation, specific portions of existing programs and additional requirements are identified in the CBDPP. The CBDPP is implemented by documents that interface with the workers, principally through ES&H Manual Document 14.4. This document contains information on how the management practices prescribed by the LLNL ISMS are implemented, how beryllium hazards that are associated with LLNL work activities are controlled, and who is responsible for implementing the controls. Adherence to the requirements and processes described in the ES&H Manual ensures that ES&H practices across LLNL are developed in a consistent manner. Other implementing documents, such as the ES&H Manual, are integral in effectively implementing 10 CFR 850.
In this paper, we present a scalability analysis of a parallel Gaussian process training algorithm to simultaneously analyze a massive number of time series. We study three different parallel implementations: using threads, MPI, and a hybrid implementation using threads and MPI. We compare the scalability for the multi-threaded implementation on three different hardware platforms: a Mac desktop with two quad-core Intel Xeon processors (16 virtual cores), a Linux cluster node with four quad-core 2.3 GHz AMD Opteron processors, and SGI Altix ICE 8200 cluster node with two quad-core Intel Xeon processors (16 virtual cores). We also study the scalability of the MPI based and the hybrid MPI and thread based implementations on the SGI cluster with 128 nodes (2048 cores). Experimental results show that the hybrid implementation scales better than the multi-threaded and MPI based implementations. The hybrid implementation, using 1536 cores, can analyze a remote sensing data set with over 4 million time series in nearly 5 seconds while the serial algorithm takes nearly 12 hours to process the same data set.
Whiteshell Laboratories (WL) is a nuclear research site in Canada that was commissioned in 1964 by Atomic Energy of Canada Limited. It covers a total area of approximately 4,375 hectares (10,800 acres) and includes the main campus site, the Waste Management Area (WMA) and outer areas of land identified as not used for or impacted by nuclear development or operations. The WL site employed up to 1100 staff. Site activities included the successful operation of a 60 MW organic liquid-cooled research reactor from 1965 to 1985, and various research programs including reactor safety research, small reactor development, fuel development, biophysics and radiation applications, as well as work under the Canadian Nuclear Fuel Waste Management Program. In 1997, AECL made a business decision to discontinue research programs and operations at WL, and obtained government concurrence in 1998. The Nuclear Legacy Liabilities Program (NLLP) was established in 2006 by the Canadian Government to remediate nuclear legacy liabilities in a safe and cost effective manner, including the WL site. The NLLP is being implemented by AECL under the governance of a Natural Resources Canada (NRCan)/AECL Joint Oversight Committee (JOC). Significant progress has since been made, and the WL site currently holds the only Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) nuclear research site decommissioning license in Canada. The current decommissioning license is in place until the end of 2018. The present schedule planned for main campus decommissioning is 30 years (to 2037), followed by institutional control of the WMA until a National plan is implemented for the long-term management of nuclear waste. There is an impetus to advance work and complete decommissioning sooner. To accomplish this, AECL has added significant resources, reorganized and moved to a projectized environment. This presentation outlines changes made to the organization, the tools implemented to foster projectization, and the benefits and positive impacts on schedule and delivery. A revised organizational structure was implemented in two phases, starting 2011 April 1, to align WL staff with the common goal of decommissioning the site through the direction of the WL Decommissioning Project General Manager. On 2011 September 1, the second phase of the reorganization was implemented and WL Decommissioning staff was organized under five Divisions: Programs and Regulatory Compliance, General Site Services, Decommissioning Strategic Planning, Nuclear Facilities and Project Delivery. A new Mission, Vision and Objectives were developed for the project, and several productivity enhancements are being implemented. These include the use of an integrated and fully re-sourced Site Wide Schedule that is updated and reviewed at Plan-of-the-Week meetings, improved work distribution throughout the year, eliminating scheduling 'push' mentality, project scoreboards, work planning implementation, lean practices and various process improvement initiatives. A revised Strategic Plan is under development that reflects the improved project delivery capabilities. As a result of these initiatives, and a culture change towards a projectized approach, the decommissioning schedule will be advanced by approximately 10 years. (authors)