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DOE OSTI2013

IDEA Clean Energy Application Center

The DOE Clean Energy Application Centers were launched with a goal of focusing on important aspects of our nation’s energy supply including Efficiency, Reliability and Resiliency. Clean Energy solutions based on Combined Heat & Power (CHP), District Energy and Waste Heat Recovery are at the core of ensuring a reliable and efficient energy infrastructure for campuses, communities, and industry and public enterprises across the country. IDEA members which include colleges and universities, hospitals, airports, downtown utilities as well as manufacturers, suppliers and service providers have long-standing expertise in the planning, design, construction and operations of Clean Energy systems. They represent an established base of successful projects and systems at scale and serve important and critical energy loads. They also offer experience, lessons learned and best practices which are of immense value to the sustained growth of the Clean Energy sector. IDEA has been able to leverage the funds from the project award to raise the visibility, improve the understanding and increase deployment CHP, District Energy and Waste Heat Recovery solutions across the regions of our nation, in collaboration with the regional CEAC’s. On August 30, 2012, President Obama signed an Executive Order to accelerate investments in industrial energy efficiency (EE), including CHP and set a national goal of 40 GW of new CHP installation over the next decade IDEA is pleased to have been able to support this Executive Order in a variety of ways including raising awareness of the goal through educational workshops and Conferences and recognizing the installation of large scale CHP and district energy systems. A supporting key area of collaboration has involved IDEA providing technical assistance on District Energy/CHP project screenings and feasibility to the CEAC’s for multi building, multi-use projects. The award was instrumental in the development of a first-order screening/feasibility tool for these types of community energy projects. The Excel based tool incorporates hourly climate based building loads data to arrive at the composite energy demand for the district and compares the Net Present Value (NPV) of the costs of CHP/DE alternatives. This tool has been used to provide assistance to several projects in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Intermountain and Pacific Regions. The tool was disseminated to the CEACs and supplemented by a Training Webinar and a How to Guide IDEA produced a US Community Energy Development Guide to support mayors, planners, community leaders, real estate developers and economic development officials who are interested in planning more sustainable urban energy infrastructure, creating community energy master plans and implementing CHP/ District Energy systems in cities, communities and towns. IDEA has collected industry data and provided a comprehensive data set containing information on District Energy installations in the US. District energy systems are present in 49 states and theDistrict of Columbia. Of the 597 systems 55% were DE alone while the remainder was some combination of CHP, district heating, and district cooling. District energy systems that do not currently involve electric generation are strong near-term candidates for the adoption of CHP due to the magnitude of their aggregated thermal load. This data has helped inform specific and targeted initiatives including technical assistance provided by the CEAC’s for EPA’s Boiler MACT Compliance by large District Heating System boilers. These outcomes have been greatly enabled by the close coordination and collaboration with DOE CEAC leadership and with the eight regional US DOE Clean Energy Application Centers and the award’s incremental funding has allowed IDEA to leverage our resources to be an effective champion for Clean Energy.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2013

Idaho National Laboratory Integrated Safety Management System FY 2013 Effectiveness Review and Declaration Report

Idaho National Laboratory (INL) performed an Annual Effectiveness Review of the Integrated Safety Management System (ISMS), per 48 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 970.5223 1, “Integration of Environment, Safety and Health into Work Planning and Execution.” The annual review assessed Integrated Safety Management (ISM) effectiveness, provided feedback to maintain system integrity, and identified target areas for focused improvements and assessments for Fiscal Year (FY) 2014. Results of the FY 2013 annual effectiveness review demonstrate that the INL’s ISMS program is “Effective” and continually improving and shows signs of being significantly strengthened. Although there have been unacceptable serious events in the past, there has also been significant attention, dedication, and resources focused on improvement, lessons learned and future prevention. BEA’s strategy of focusing on these improvements includes extensive action and improvement plans that include PLN 4030, “INL Sustained Operational Improvement Plan, PLN 4058, “MFC Strategic Excellence Plan,” PLN 4141, “ATR Sustained Excellence Plan,” and PLN 4145, “Radiological Control Road to Excellence,” and the development of LWP 20000, “Conduct of Research.” As a result of these action plans, coupled with other assurance activities and metrics, significant improvement in operational performance, organizational competence, management oversight and a reduction in the number of operational events is being realized. In short, the realization of the fifth core function of ISMS (feedback and continuous improvement) and the associated benefits are apparent.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Crystallization In High Level Waste (HLW) Glass Melters: Operational Experience From The Savannah River Site

processing strategy for the Hanford Tank Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP). The basis of this alternative approach is an empirical model predicting the crystal accumulation in the WTP glass discharge riser and melter bottom as a function of glass composition, time, and temperature. When coupled with an associated operating limit (e.g., the maximum tolerable thickness of an accumulated layer of crystals), this model could then be integrated into the process control algorithms to formulate crystal tolerant high level waste (HLW) glasses targeting higher waste loadings while still meeting process related limits and melter lifetime expectancies. This report provides a review of the scaled melter testing that was completed in support of the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) melter. Testing with scaled melters provided the data to define the DWPF operating limits to avoid bulk (volume) crystallization in the un-agitated DWPF melter and provided the data to distinguish between spinels generated by K-3 refractory corrosion versus spinels that precipitated from the HLW glass melt pool. This report includes a review of the crystallization observed with the scaled melters and the full scale DWPF melters (DWPF Melter 1 and DWPF Melter 2). Examples of actual DWPF melter attainment with Melter 2 are given. The intent is to provide an overview of lessons learned, including some example data, that can be used to advance the development and implementation of an empirical model and operating limit for crystal accumulation for WTP. Operation of the first and second (current) DWPF melters has demonstrated that the strategy of using a liquidus temperature predictive model combined with a 100 °C offset from the normal melter operating temperature of 1150 °C (i.e., the predicted liquidus temperature (TL) of the glass must be 1050 °C or less) has been successful in preventing any detrimental accumulation of spinel in the DWPF melt pool, and spinel has not been observed in any of the pour stream glass samples. Spinel was observed at the bottom of DWPF Melter 1 as a result of K-3 refractory corrosion. Issues have occurred with accumulation of spinel in the pour spout during periods of operation at higher waste loadings. Given that both DWPF melters were or have been in operation for greater than 8 years, the service life of the melters has far exceeded design expectations. It is possible that the DWPF liquidus temperature approach is conservative, in that it may be possible to successfully operate the melter with a small degree of allowable crystallization in the glass. This could be a viable approach to increasing waste loading in the glass assuming that the crystals are suspended in the melt and swept out through the riser and pour spout. Additional study is needed, and development work for WTP might be leveraged to support a different operating limit for the DWPF. Several recommendations are made regarding considerations that need to be included as part of the WTP crystal tolerant strategy based on the DWPF development work and operational data reviewed here. These include: Identify and consider the impacts of potential heat sinks in the WTP melter and glass pouring system; Consider the contributions of refractory corrosion products, which may serve to nucleate additional crystals leading to further accumulation; Consider volatilization of components from the melt (e.g., boron, alkali, halides, etc.) and determine their impacts on glass crystallization behavior; Evaluate the impacts of glass REDuction/OXidation (REDOX) conditions and the distribution of temperature within the WTP melt pool and melter pour chamber on crystal accumulation rate; Consider the impact of precipitated crystals on glass viscosity; Consider the impact of an accumulated crystalline layer on thermal convection currents and bubbler effectiveness within the melt pool; Evaluate the impact of spinel accumulation on Joule heating of the WTP melt pool; and Include noble metals in glass melt experiments because of their potential to act as nucleation sites for spinel crystallization.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2014

Application of Crunch-Flow Routines to Constrain Present and Past Carbon Fluxes at Gas-Hydrate Bearing Sites

In November 2012, Oregon State University initiated the project entitled: Application of Crunch-Flow routines to constrain present and past carbon fluxes at gas-hydrate bearing sites. Within this project we developed Crunch-Flow based modeling modules that include important biogeochemical processes that need to be considered in gas hydrate environments. Our modules were applied to quantify carbon cycling in present and past systems, using data collected during several DOE-supported drilling expeditions, which include the Cascadia margin in US, Ulleung Basin in South Korea, and several sites drilled offshore India on the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea. Specifically, we completed modeling efforts that: 1) Reproduce the compositional and isotopic profiles observed at the eight drilled sites in the Ulleung Basin that constrain and contrast the carbon cycling pathways at chimney (high methane flux) and non-chimney sites (low methane, advective systems); 2) Simulate the Ba record in the sediments to quantify the past dynamics of methane flux in the southern Hydrate Ridge, Cascadia margin; and 3) Provide quantitative estimates of the thickness of individual mass transport deposits (MTDs), time elapsed after the MTD event, rate of sulfate reduction in the MTD, and time required to reach a new steady state at several sites drilled in the Krishna-Godavari (K-G) Basin off India. In addition we developed a hybrid model scheme by coupling a home-made MATLAB code with CrunchFlow to address the methane transport and chloride enrichment at the Ulleung Basins chimney sites, and contributed the modeling component to a study focusing on pore-scale controls on gas hydrate distribution in sediments from the Andaman Sea. These efforts resulted in two manuscripts currently under review, and contributed the modeling component of another pare, also under review. Lessons learned from these efforts are the basis of a mini-workshop to be held at Oregon State University (Feb 2014) to instruct graduate students (OSU and UW) as well as DOE staff from the NETL lab in Albany on the use of Crunch Flow for geochemical applications.

03 NATURAL GAS↗
DOE OSTI2013

Advanced Natural Gas Reciprocating Engine(s)

Energy independence and fuel savings are hallmarks of the nation’s energy strategy. The advancement of natural gas reciprocating engine power generation technology is critical to the nation’s future. A new engine platform that meets the efficiency, emissions, fuel flexibility, cost and reliability/maintainability targets will enable American manufacturers to have highly competitive products that provide substantial environmental and economic benefits in the US and in international markets. Along with Cummins and Waukesha, Caterpillar participated in a multiyear cooperative agreement with the Department of Energy to create a 50% efficiency natural gas powered reciprocating engine system with a 95% reduction in NOx emissions by the year 2013. This platform developed under this agreement will be a significant contributor to the US energy strategy and will enable gas engine technology to remain a highly competitive choice, meeting customer cost of electricity targets, and regulatory environmental standard. Engine development under the Advanced Reciprocating Engine System (ARES) program was divided into phases, with the ultimate goal being approached in a series of incremental steps. This incremental approach would promote the commercialization of ARES technologies as soon as they emerged from development and would provide a technical and commercial foundation of later-developing technologies. Demonstrations of the Phase I and Phase II technology were completed in 2004 and 2008, respectively. Program tasks in Phase III included component and system development and testing from 2009-2012. Two advanced ignition technology evaluations were investigated under the ARES program: laser ignition and distributed ignition (DIGN). In collaboration with Colorado State University (CSU), a laser ignition system was developed to provide ignition at lean burn and high boost conditions. Much work has been performed in Caterpillar’s DIGN program under the ARES program. This work has consisted of both modeling and single cylinder engine experiments to quantify DIGN performance. The air handling systems of natural gas engines dissipate a percentage of available energy as a result of both flow losses and turbomachinery inefficiencies. An analytical study was initiated to increase compressor efficiency by employing a 2-stage inter-cooled compressor. Caterpillar also studied a turbo-compound system that employs a power turbine to recover energy from the exhaust gases for improved engine efficiency. Several other component and system investigations were undertaken during the final phase of the program to reach the ultimate ARES goals. An intake valve actuation system was developed and tested to improve engine efficiency, durability and load acceptance. Analytical modeling and materials testing were performed to evaluate the performance of steel pistons and compacted graphite iron cylinder head. Effort was made to improve the detonation sensing system by studying and comparing the performance of different pressure sensors. To reduce unburned hydrocarbon emissions, different camshafts were designed and built to investigate the effect of exhaust valve opening timing and value overlap. 1-D & 3-D coupled simulation was used to study intake and exhaust manifold dynamics with the goal of reducing load in-balance between cylinders. Selective catalytic reduction with on-board reductant generation to reduce NOx emissions was also engine tested. An effective mean to successfully deploy ARES technologies into the energy markets is to deploy demonstration projects in the field. In 2010, NETL and Caterpillar agreed to include a new “opportunity fuel” deliverable and two field demonstrations in the ARES program. An Organic Rankine Cycle system was designed with production intent incorporating lessons learned from the Phase II demonstration. Unfortunately, business conditions caused Caterpillar to cancel this demonstration in 2011. Nonetheless, Caterpillar partnered with a local dealer to deploy an ARES class engine using syngas from a biomass gasifier as the DE-FC26-01CH11079 primary combustion fuel in Gleason, TN. Upon the successful start-up and commissioning of the demonstration unit, ownership of the system was transferred to the dealer. In order to further our understanding of syngas combustion, a fundamental combustion study on syngas combustion at high pressure and lean condition was conducted through the collaboration with University of Southern California. A Methane program was also developed to rate engine performance for various compositions of syngas using empirical data obtained at CSU. While much work remains in terms of extending and integrating these developments into commercial products, it is evident that engine manufacturers on our own or through private consortium efforts could not have overcome the financial hurdles to drive these improvements into reciprocating engine and system capabilities, helping maintain the natural gas reciprocating engine power generation technology as a strong option for electric power markets, both in the United States and worldwide.

20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Field Trial of a Low-Cost, Distributed Plug Load Monitoring System

Researchers have struggled to inventory and characterize the energy use profiles of the ever-growing category of so-called miscellaneous electric loads (MELs) because plug-load monitoring is cost-prohibitive to the researcher and intrusive to the homeowner. However, these data represent a crucial missing link to our understanding of how homes use energy, and we cannot control what we do not understand. Detailed energy use profiles would enable the nascent automated home energy management (AHEM) industry to develop effective control algorithms that target consumer electronics and other plug loads. If utility and other efficiency programs are to incent AHEM devices, they need large-scale datasets that provide statistically meaningful justification of their investments by quantifying the aggregate energy savings achievable. To address this need, we have investigated a variety of plug-load measuring devices available commercially and tested them in the laboratory to identify the most promising candidates for field applications. The scope of this report centers around the lessons learned from a field validation of one proof-of-concept system, called Smartenit (formerly SimpleHomeNet). The system was evaluated based on the rate of successful data queries, reliability over a period of days to weeks, and accuracy. This system offers good overall performance when deployed with up to ten end nodes in a residential environment, although deployment with more nodes and in a commercial environment is much less robust. We conclude that the current system is useful in selected field research projects, with the recommendation that system behavior is observed over time.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2014

ATAC Process Proof of Concept (Final Report)

Researchers at INL with funding from the Department of Energy’s Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability (DOE-OE) evaluated a novel approach for near real-time consumption of threat intelligence. Demonstration testing in an industry environment supported the development of this new process to assist the electric sector in securing their critical networks. This report provides the reader with an understanding of the methods used during this proof of concept project. The processes and templates were further advanced with an industry partner during an onsite assessment. This report concludes with lessons learned and a roadmap for final development of these materials for use by industry.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2013

Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program A Reference Plan for Control Room Modernization: Planning and Analysis Phase

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) program is collaborating with a U.S. nuclear utility to bring about a systematic fleet-wide control room modernization. To facilitate this upgrade, a new distributed control system (DCS) is being introduced into the control rooms of these plants. The DCS will upgrade the legacy plant process computer and emergency response facility information system. In addition, the DCS will replace an existing analog turbine control system with a display-based system. With technology upgrades comes the opportunity to improve the overall human-system interaction between the operators and the control room. To optimize operator performance, the LWRS Control Room Modernization research team followed a human-centered approach published by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. NUREG-0711, Rev. 3, Human Factors Engineering Program Review Model (O’Hara et al., 2012), prescribes four phases for human factors engineering. This report provides examples of the first phase, Planning and Analysis. The three elements of Planning and Analysis in NUREG-0711 that are most crucial to initiating control room upgrades are: • Operating Experience Review: Identifies opportunities for improvement in the existing system and provides lessons learned from implemented systems. • Function Analysis and Allocation: Identifies which functions at the plant may be optimally handled by the DCS vs. the operators. • Task Analysis: Identifies how tasks might be optimized for the operators. Each of these elements is covered in a separate chapter. Examples are drawn from workshops with reactor operators that were conducted at the LWRS Human System Simulation Laboratory HSSL and at the respective plants. The findings in this report represent generalized accounts of more detailed proprietary reports produced for the utility for each plant. The goal of this LWRS report is to disseminate the technique and provide examples sufficient to serve as a template for other utilities’ projects for control room modernization.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Development of an Improved Process for Installation Projects of High Technology Manufacturing Equipment

High technology manufacturing equipment is utilized at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) to support nuclear missions. This is undertaken from concept initiation where equipment is designed and then taken through several review phases, working closely with system engineers (SEs) responsible for each of the affected systems or involved disciplines (from gasses to HVAC to structural, etc.). After the design is finalized it moves to procurement and custom fabrication of the equipment and equipment installation, including all of the paperwork involved. Not only are the engineering and manufacturing aspects important, but also the scheduling, financial forecasting, and planning portions that take place initially and are sometimes modified as the project progresses should requirements, changes or additions become necessary. The process required to complete a project of this type, including equipment installation, is unique and involves numerous steps to complete. These processes can be improved and recent work on the Direct Current Arc (DC Arc) Glovebox Design, Fabrication and Installation Project provides an opportunity to identify some important lessons learned (LL) that can be implemented in the future for continued project improvement and success.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2014

Ford Plug-In Project: Bringing PHEVs to Market Demonstration and Validation Project

This project is in support of our national goal to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. By supporting efforts that contribute toward the successful mass production of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, our nation’s transportation-related fuel consumption can be offset with energy from the grid. Over four and a half years ago, when this project was originally initiated, plug-in electric vehicles were not readily available in the mass marketplace. Through the creation of a 21 unit plug-in hybrid vehicle fleet, this program was designed to demonstrate the feasibility of the technology and to help build cross-industry familiarity with the technology and interface of this technology with the grid. Ford Escape PHEV Demonstration Fleet 3 March 26, 2014 Since then, however, plug-in vehicles have become increasingly more commonplace in the market. Ford, itself, now offers an all-electric vehicle and two plug-in hybrid vehicles in North America and has announced a third plug-in vehicle offering for Europe. Lessons learned from this project have helped in these production vehicle launches and are mentioned throughout this report. While the technology of plugging in a vehicle to charge a high voltage battery with energy from the grid is now in production, the ability for vehicle-to-grid or bi-directional energy flow was farther away than originally expected. Several technical, regulatory and potential safety issues prevented progressing the vehicle-to-grid energy flow (V2G) demonstration and, after a review with the DOE, V2G was removed from this demonstration project. Also proving challenging were communications between a plug-in vehicle and the grid or smart meter. While this project successfully demonstrated the vehicle to smart meter interface, cross-industry and regulatory work is still needed to define the vehicle-to-grid communication interface.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Idaho National Laboratory's FY13 Greenhouse Gas Report

A greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory is a systematic approach to account for the production and release of certain gases generated by an institution from various emission sources. The gases of interest are those that climate science has identified as related to anthropogenic global climate change. This document presents an inventory of GHGs generated during Fiscal Year (FY) 2013 by Idaho National Laboratory (INL), a Department of Energy (DOE) sponsored entity, located in southeastern Idaho. This report details the methods behind quantifying INL’s GHG inventory and discusses lessons learned on better practices by which information important to tracking GHGs can be tracked and recorded. It is important to note that because this report differentiates between those portions of INL that are managed and operated by Battelle Energy Alliance (BEA) and those managed by other contractors, it includes only the large proportion of Laboratory activities overseen by BEA. It is assumed that other contractors will provide similar reporting for those activities they manage, where appropriate.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2014

ReACT Methodology Proof of Concept Final Report

The Department of Energy’s Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability (DOE-OE) funded INL Researchers to evaluate a novel process for assessing and mitigating cyber security risks. The proof of concept level of the method was tested in an industry environment. This case study, plus additional case studies will support the further development of the method into a tool to assist industry in securing their critical networks. This report provides an understanding of the process developed in the Response Analysis and Characterization Tool (ReACT) project. This report concludes with lessons learned and a roadmap for final development of these tools for use by industry.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Fukushima Daiichi—A Case Study for BWR Instrumentation and Control Systems Performance During a Severe Accident, Rev 1

This report provides an assessment of the performance of various instrumentation and control (I&C) and monitoring systems, with a focus on the first few days of the Fukushima Daiichi accident starting on March 11, 2011. Similar to what occurred at the Three Mile Island Unit 2 (TMI-2) accident in 1979, operator responses were challenged when information on key parameters was lost, erroneous, or misleading. While numerous improvements in instrumentation capabilities have been made since the TMI-2 event, the accident at Fukushima Daiichi suggests the potential for further improvement. The objective of this research is to review the performance of the Fukushima Daiichi Units 1–3 instrumentation systems that could have helped ensure that plant operators and emergency responders had relevant, accurate, and timely knowledge of plant conditions as they managed the accident response. As was the case with TMI-2, forensic analyses of plant instrumentation failures will be a long-term effort. As an introduction to this long-term research, this report focuses on the information available in the control room during the accident and illustrates the challenges to operators in their understanding of plant conditions during the progression of the accident. I&C systems monitor the success or failure of achievement of light water reactor safety principles in which the protection of the reactor fuel, reactor coolant system, and reactor containment is accomplished. This report (1) provides an overview of the safety principles; (2) notes parameters associated with the boiling water reactor (BWR)/3 and BWR/4 protection, actuation, and monitoring systems as they relate to the achievement of these principles; (3) presents data from past research on predicted instrumentation performance during severe accidents, and (4) assesses performance of the key I&C and monitoring systems associated with BWR/3 and BWR/4 reactors like those at Fukushima Daiichi. Lessons learned or potential improvements associated with the performance of these systems in the context of severe accidents are delineated. As background information, an overview of key BWR/3- and BWR/4-Mark I reactor designs (BWR/3 and BWR/4 with a Mark I containment) reactor protection, engineered safety features actuation, and accident monitoring systems is provided. A brief description of plant safety systems used to prevent or mitigate reactor accidents is also provided. This background information provides context for the brief discussion of previous research that has been conducted on BWR severe accidents and for the discussion of the accident sequences, which led to core damage at Fukushima Daiichi Units 1–3. The progression of the accident sequences at Fukushima Daiichi Units 1–3 occurred very much as predicted in prior severe accident research conducted in the United States and internationally, given the complete station blackout that occurred when the tsunami generated by one of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded rolled onshore.

Accident Tolerant Equipment↗
DOE OSTI2014

Generic Argillite/Shale Disposal Reference Case

Radioactive waste disposal in a deep subsurface repository hosted in clay/shale/argillite is a subject of widespread interest given the desirable isolation properties, geochemically reduced conditions, and widespread geologic occurrence of this rock type (Hansen 2010; Bianchi et al. 2013). Bianchi et al. (2013) provides a description of diffusion in a clay-hosted repository based on single-phase flow and full saturation using parametric data from documented studies in Europe (e.g., ANDRA 2005). The predominance of diffusive transport and sorption phenomena in this clay media are key attributes to impede radionuclide mobility making clay rock formations target sites for disposal of high-level radioactive waste. The reports by Hansen et al. (2010) and those from numerous studies in clay-hosted underground research laboratories (URLs) in Belgium, France and Switzerland outline the extensive scientific knowledge obtained to assess long-term clay/shale/argillite repository isolation performance of nuclear waste. In the past several years under the UFDC, various kinds of models have been developed for argillite repository to demonstrate the model capability, understand the spatial and temporal alteration of the repository, and evaluate different scenarios. These models include the coupled Thermal-Hydrological-Mechanical (THM) and Thermal-Hydrological-Mechanical-Chemical (THMC) models (e.g. Liu et al. 2013; Rutqvist et al. 2014a, Zheng et al. 2014a) that focus on THMC processes in the Engineered Barrier System (EBS) bentonite and argillite host hock, the large scale hydrogeologic model (Bianchi et al. 2014) that investigates the hydraulic connection between an emplacement drift and surrounding hydrogeological units, and Disposal Systems Evaluation Framework (DSEF) models (Greenberg et al. 2013) that evaluate thermal evolution in the host rock approximated as a thermal conduction process to facilitate the analysis of design options. However, the assumptions and the properties (parameters) used in these models are different, which not only make inter-model comparisons difficult, but also compromise the applicability of the lessons learned from one model to another model. The establishment of a reference case would therefore be helpful to set up a baseline for model development. A generic salt repository reference case was developed in Freeze et al. (2013) and the generic argillite repository reference case is presented in this report. The definition of a reference case requires the characterization of the waste inventory, waste form, waste package, repository layout, EBS backfill, host rock, and biosphere. This report mainly documents the processes in EBS bentonite and host rock that are potentially important for performance assessment and properties that are needed to describe these processes, with brief description other components such as waste inventory, waste form, waste package, repository layout, aquifer, and biosphere. A thorough description of the generic argillite repository reference case will be given in Jové Colon et al. (2014).

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2014

NREL/SCE High-Penetration PV Integration Project: Report on Field Demonstration of Advanced Inverter Functionality in Fontana, CA

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory/Southern California Edison High-Penetration PV Integration Project is (1) researching the distribution system level impacts of high-penetration photovoltaic (PV) integration, (2) determining mitigation methods to reduce or eliminate those impacts, and (3) seeking to demonstrate these mitigation methods on actual high-penetration PV distribution circuits. This report describes a field demonstration completed during the fall of 2013 on the Fontana, California, study circuit, which includes a total of 4.5 MW of interconnected utility-scale rooftop PV systems. The demonstration included operating a 2-MW PV system at an off-unity power factor that had been determined during previously completed distribution system modeling and PV impact assessment analyses. Data on the distribution circuit and PV system operations were collected during the 2-week demonstration period. This demonstration reinforces the findings of previous laboratory testing that showed that utility-scale PV inverters are capable of operating at off-unity power factor to mitigate PV impacts; however, because of difficulties setting and retaining PV inverter power factor set points during the field demonstration, it was not possible to demonstrate the effectiveness of off-unity power factor operation to mitigate the voltage impacts of high-penetration PV integration. Lessons learned from this field demonstration are presented to inform future field demonstration efforts.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

Army Net Zero: Energy Roadmap and Program Summary, Fiscal Year 2013 (Brochure)

The U.S. Army (Army) partnered with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to assess opportunities for increasing energy security through improved energy efficiency and optimized renewable energy strategies at nine installations across the Army's portfolio. Referred to as Net Zero Energy Installations (NZEIs), these projects demonstrate and validate energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies with approaches that can be replicated across DOD and other Federal agencies, setting the stage for broad market adoption. This report summarizes the results of the energy project roadmaps developed by NREL, shows the progress each installation could make in achieving Net Zero Energy by 2020, and presents lessons learned and unique challenges from each installation.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2014

Differential Die-Away Instrument: Report on Fuel Assembly Mock-up Measurements with Neutron Generator

Fresh fuel experiments for the differential die-away (DDA) project were performed using a DT neutron generator, a 15x15 PWR fuel assembly, and nine 3 He detectors in a water tank inside of a shielded cell at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). Eight different fuel enrichments were created using low enriched (LEU) and depleted uranium (DU) dioxide fuel rods. A list-mode data acquisition system recorded the time-dependent signal and analysis of the DDA signal die-away time was performed. The die-away time depended on the amount of fissile material in the fuel assembly and the position of the detector. These experiments were performed in support of the spent nuclear fuel Next Generation Safeguards Initiative DDA project. Lessons learned from the fresh fuel DDA instrument experiments and simulations will provide useful information to the spent fuel project.

07 ISOTOPE AND RADIATION SOURCES↗
DOE OSTI2014

BC Transit Fuel Cell Bus Project Evaluation Results: Second Report

Second report evaluating a fuel cell electric bus (FCEB) demonstration led by British Columbia Transit (BC Transit) in Whistler, Canada. BC Transit is collaborating with the California Air Resources Board and the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory to evaluate the buses in revenue service. NREL published its first report on the demonstration in February 2014. This report is an update to the previous report; it covers 3 full years of revenue service data on the buses from April 2011 through March 2014 and focuses on the final experiences and lessons learned.

08 HYDROGEN↗