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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 1,099 records · Page 61
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2013

Teaching Radioactive Waste Management in an Undergraduate Engineering Program - 13269

The University of Ontario Institute of Technology is Ontario's newest university and the only one in Canada that offers an accredited Bachelor of Nuclear Engineering (Honours) degree. The nuclear engineering program consists of 48 full-semester courses, including one on radioactive waste management. This is a design course that challenges young engineers to develop a fundamental understanding of how to manage the storage and disposal of various types and forms of radioactive waste, and to recognize the social consequences of their practices and decisions. Students are tasked with developing a major project based on an environmental assessment of a simple conceptual design for a waste disposal facility. They use collaborative learning and self-directed exploration to gain the requisite knowledge of the waste management system. The project constitutes 70% of their mark, but is broken down into several small components that include, an environmental assessment comprehensive study report, a technical review, a facility design, and a public defense of their proposal. Many aspects of the project mirror industry team project situations, including the various levels of participation. The success of the students is correlated with their engagement in the project, the highest final examination scores achieved by students with the strongest effort in the project. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2017

Conceptualizing strategic environmental assessment: Principles, approaches and research directions

Increasing emphasis has been placed in recent years on transitioning strategic environmental assessment (SEA) away from its environmental impact assessment (EIA) roots. Scholars have argued the need to conceptualize SEA as a process designed to facilitate strategic thinking, thus enabling transitions toward sustainability. The practice of SEA, however, remains deeply rooted in the EIA tradition and scholars and practitioners often appear divided on the nature and purpose of SEA. This paper revisits the strategic principles of SEA and conceptualizes SEA as a multi-faceted and multi-dimensional assessment process. It is suggested that SEA can be conceptualized as series of approaches operating along a spectrum from less to more strategic – from impact assessment-based to strategy-based – with each approach to SEA differentiated by the specific objectives of SEA application and the extent to which strategic principles are reflected in its design and implementation. Advancing the effectiveness of SEA requires a continued research agenda focused on improving the traditional SEA approach, as a tool to assess the impacts of policies, plans and programs (PPPs). Realizing the full potential of SEA, however, requires a new research agenda — one focused on the development and testing of a deliberative governance approach to SEA that can facilitate strategic innovations in PPP formulation and drive transitions in short-term policy and initiatives based on longer-term thinking. - Highlights: • SEA facilitates strategic thinking, enabling transitions toward sustainability. • SEA is conceptualized as a spectrum of approaches, from IA-based to strategy-based. • Each approach variably emphasizes strategic principles in its design and practice. • There is no one conceptualization of SEA that is best, SEA is fit for PPP purpose. • Research is needed to advance SEA to facilitate strategic PPP transformations.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Providing a Flexible and Comprehensive Software Stack Via Spack, an Extreme-Scale Scientific Software Stack, and Software Development Kits

To manage the complex demands of modern high-performance computing (HPC), software applications increasingly depend on software developed by other teams, often at other institutions. An HPC software ecosystem approach is required to support dependencies on third-party scientific software. An ecosystem approach provides layers of activity above the individual software product level that promote interoperability, quality improvement, porting, testing, and deployment. The U.S. Exascale Computing Project (ECP) developed its HPC software ecosystem using a three-pronged approach. First, the ECP adopted and invested in Spack, a package manager designed to handle complex HPC package dependencies. Second, the ECP created the Extreme Scale Scientific Software Stack, an effort that supports developing, deploying, and running scientific applications on HPC platforms. Third, the ECP supported software product communities, or software development kits, to develop and promote best practices, improve software interoperability, and other collaborative efforts. This article describes ECP contributions to HPC software ecosystem challenges.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2025

Optimal sizing of battery energy storage systems for peak shaving and demand response using a degradation-aware Bayesian Optimization-Mixed-Integer Linear Programming framework

The increasing integration of renewable energy and rising electricity demand highlight the importance of battery energy storage systems for peak shaving and demand response. Unlike prior approaches that overlook operational impacts on degradation, this study proposes a Bayesian Optimization–Mixed Integer Linear Programming framework for optimal battery energy storage system sizing. In this framework, Mixed Integer Linear Programming determines short-term scheduling while a calibrated electrochemical model iteratively evaluates degradation. The central hypothesis is that the framework can efficiently identify optimal sizes that yield realistic and economically robust outcomes. The method is tested across three scenarios: peak shaving, peak shaving with energy-reduction demand response, and peak shaving with power-reduction demand response. Results show that the framework converge to the optimum within 20 iterations out of 150 possible sizes. Under baseline conditions, the framework consistently selects the smallest feasible system, minimizing unnecessary degradation costs from oversized storage. Sensitivity analyses reveal that larger systems are favored as demand rates or incentives increase. Comparisons of demand response programs indicate that power-reduction demand response offers greater economic benefits than energy-reduction demand response, although demand savings from peak shaving remain the dominant contributor to overall performance. This study demonstrates that the proposed framework balances computational tractability with degradation fidelity, identifies critical economic thresholds for investment, and offers a practical, flexible tool to guide industrial stakeholders in cost-effective battery energy storage system deployment.

Batteries↗
DOE OSTI2016

Walk the Talk: Progress in Building a Supply Chain Security Culture

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) has engaged industry to “go beyond compliance” for over a decade in controlling and securing their supply chains to ensure their goods are not diverted to nuclear weapons programs. This work has focused on dual-use industries that manufacture products that can be used in both commercial applications and in the development of a nuclear weapon. The team encourages industry to self-regulate to reduce proliferation risks. As part of that work, PNNL interviewed numerous companies about their compliance practices to understand their business and to build awareness around best practices to ensure security of goods, technology, and information along their supply chains. From conducting this work, PNNL identified indicators that a company can adopt as part of its commitment to nonproliferation ideals with a focus on supply chain security.

98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL P↗
DOE OSTI2015

Walk the Talk: How PNNL is developing a Supply Chain Security Culture

For the past decade, a team at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) has engaged industry to “go beyond compliance” in controlling and securing their supply chains to ensure their goods are not diverted to nuclear weapons programs. This work has focused on dual-use industries that manufacture products that can be used in both commercial applications and in the development of a nuclear weapon. The team encourages industry to self-regulate to reduce proliferation risks. As part of that work, PNNL interviewed numerous companies about their compliance practices in order to understand their business and to build awareness around best practices to ensure security of goods and information along their supply chains. As a result, PNNL has identified seven indicators that a company can adopt as part of their commitment to nonproliferation ideals.

98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL P↗
DOE OSTI2021

Per-Phase and 3-Phase Optimal Coordination of Directional Overcurrent Relays Using Genetic Algorithm

Penetration of the power grid by renewable energy sources, distributed storage, and distributed generators is becoming increasingly common. Increased utilization of these distributed energy resources (DERs) has given rise to additional protection coordination concerns, particularly where they are utilized in an unbalanced manner or where loading among phases is unbalanced. Digital relays such as the SEL-751 (produced by Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, Pullman, WA, USA) series have the capability of being set on a per-phase basis. This capability is underutilized in common practice. Additionally, in optimization algorithms for determining relay settings, the time-overcurrent characteristics (TOCs) of relays are generally not treated as variables and are assigned before running the optimization algorithm. In this paper, TOC options themselves are treated as discrete variables to be considered in the optimization algorithm. A mixed integer nonlinear programming problem (MINLP) is set up where the goal is to minimize relay operating times. A genetic algorithm (GA) approach is implemented in MATLAB where two cases are considered. In the first case, the TOC and Time dial setting (TDS) of each relay is set on a three-phase basis. In the second case, per-phase settings are considered. Relay TDSs and TOCs are both considered as simultaneous discrete control variables. Despite the stochastic nature of using per-phase settings for unbalanced systems is found to generally allow for shorter operating times. However, for relatively balanced systems, it is best to use three-phase settings if computation time is of importance.

Matthews, Ronald C.↗
DOE OSTI2014

Place Based STEM: Leveraging Local Resources to Engage K-12 Teachers in Teaching Integrated STEM and for Addressing the Local STEM Pipeline

Business, industry, parks, nature settings, government infrastructure, and people, can be invaluable resources for connecting STEM curriculum within context which results in conditions ideal for promoting purposeful learning of authentic STEM content. Thus, community-based STEM resources offer ideal context for teaching STEM content. A benefit of focusing teacher attention on these contextual, content aligned resources is that they are in every community; making place-based STEM education a possibility, regardless of the location of STEM teaching and learning. Further, associating STEM teaching and learning with local resources addresses workforce development and the STEM pipeline by exposing students to STEM careers and applications in their local communities. The desire to align STEM teaching and learning with local STEM related resources guided the design of our week-long integrated STEM K-12 teacher professional development (PD) program, i-STEM. We have completed four years of our i-STEM PD program and have made place-based STEM a major emphasis of our curriculum. This report focuses on the data collected in the fourth year of our program. Our week-long i-STEM PD served over 425 educators last summer (2013), providing them with in depth theme-based integrated STEM short courses which were limited to an average of 15 participants and whole group plenary sessions focused around placed based integrated STEM, inquiry, engineering design, standards and practices of Common Core and 21st Century skills. This state wide PD was distributed in five Idaho community colleges and took place over two weeks. The STEM short courses included topics on engineering for sustainability, using engineering to spark interest in STEM, municipal water systems, health, agriculture, food safety, mining, forestry, energy, and others. Integral to these short courses were field trips designed to connect the K-12 educators to the resources in their local communities that could be leveraged for teaching integrated STEM and provide a relevant context for teaching STEM content. Workplace presentations made by place-based STEM experts and provided teachers field trips to place-base STEM industries and business such as manufacturing plants, waste water treatment systems, mines, nature parks, food processing plants, research, hospitals, and laboratory facilities. We researched the 425 participants’ conceptions of place-based STEM prior to and after their taking part in the summer institutes, which included fieldtrips. Our findings revealed substantial increase in our participants’ knowledge, interest, and plans to use place-based resources for teaching integrated STEM. We detail the data analysis and provide a theoretical foundation and justification for the importance of place-based STEM to address the STEM pipeline for the future workforce.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Building Energy Codes: Policy Overview and Good Practices

Globally, 32% of total final energy consumption is attributed to the building sector. To reduce energy consumption, energy codes set minimum energy efficiency standards for the building sector. With effective implementation, building energy codes can support energy cost savings and complementary benefits associated with electricity reliability, air quality improvement, greenhouse gas emission reduction, increased comfort, and economic and social development. This policy brief seeks to support building code policymakers and implementers in designing effective building code programs.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2014

Review of Quantitative Monitoring Methodologies for Emissions Verification and Accounting for Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage for California’s Greenhouse Gas Cap-and-Trade and Low-Carbon Fuel Standard Programs

The Cap-and-Trade and Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) programs being administered by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) include Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage (CCS) as a potential means to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, there is currently no universal standard approach that quantifies GHG emissions reductions for CCS and that is suitable for the quantitative needs of the Cap-and-Trade and LCFS programs. CCS involves emissions related to the capture (e.g., arising from increased energy needed to separate carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) from a flue gas and compress it for transport), transport (e.g., by pipeline), and storage of CO 2 (e.g., due to leakage to the atmosphere from geologic CO 2 storage sites). In this project, we reviewed and compared monitoring, verification, and accounting (MVA) protocols for CCS from around the world by focusing on protocols specific to the geologic storage part of CCS. In addition to presenting the review of these protocols, we highlight in this report those storage-related MVA protocols that we believe are particularly appropriate for CCS in California. We find that none of the existing protocols is completely appropriate for California, but various elements of all of them could be adopted and/or augmented to develop a rigorous, defensible, and practical surface leakage MVA protocol for California. The key features of a suitable surface leakage MVA plan for California are that it: (1) informs and validates the leakage risk assessment, (2) specifies use of the most effective monitoring strategies while still being flexible enough to accommodate special or site-specific conditions, (3) quantifies stored CO 2 , and (4) offers defensible estimates of uncertainty in monitored properties. California’s surface leakage MVA protocol needs to be applicable to the main CO 2 storage opportunities (in California and in other states with entities participating in California’s Cap-and-Trade or LCFS programs), specifically CO 2 -enhanced oil recovery (CO 2 -EOR), CO 2 injection into depleted gas reservoirs (with or without CO 2 -enhanced gas recovery (CO 2 -EGR)), as well as deep saline storage. Regarding the elements of an effective surface leakage MVA protocol, our recommendations for California are that: (1) both CO 2 and methane (CH 4 ) surface leakage should be monitored, especially for enhanced recovery scenarios, (2) emissions from all sources not directly related to injection and geologic storage (e.g., from capture, or pipeline transport) should be monitored and reported under a plan separate from the surface leakage MVA plan that is included as another component of the quantification methodology (QM), (3) the primary objective of the surface leakage MVA plan should be to quantify surface leakage of CO 2 and CH 4 and its uncertainty, with consideration of best-practices and state-of-the-art approaches to monitoring including attribution assessment, (4) effort should be made to monitor CO 2 storage and migration in the subsurface to anticipate future surface leakage monitoring needs, (5) detailed descriptions of specific monitoring technologies and approaches should be provided in the MVA plan, (6) the main purpose of the CO 2 injection project (CO 2 -EOR, CO 2 -EGR, or pure geologic carbon sequestration (GCS)) needs to be stated up front, (7) approaches to dealing with missing data and quantifying uncertainty need to be described, and (8) post-injection monitoring should go on for a period consistent with or longer than that prescribed by the U.S. EPA.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

SciPy 1.0: fundamental algorithms for scientific computing in Python

SciPy is an open-source scientific computing library for the Python programming language. Since its initial release in 2001, SciPy has become a de facto standard for leveraging scientific algorithms in Python, with over 600 unique code contributors, thousands of dependent packages, over 100,000 dependent repositories and millions of downloads per year. In this work, we provide an overview of the capabilities and development practices of SciPy 1.0 and highlight some recent technical developments.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2013

Analysis of local warm forming of high strength steel using near infrared ray energy

The automotive industry has been pressed to satisfy more rigorous fuel efficiency requirements to promote energy conservation, safety features and cost containment. To satisfy this need, high strength steel has been developed and used for many different vehicle parts. The use of high strength steels, however, requires careful analysis and creativity in order to accommodate its relatively high springback behavior. An innovative method, called local warm forming with near infrared ray, has been developed to help promote the use of high strength steels in sheet metal forming. For this method, local regions of the work piece are heated using infrared ray energy, thereby promoting the reduction of springback behavior. In this research, a V-bend test is conducted with DP980. After springback, the bend angles for specimens without local heating are compared to those with local heating. Numerical analysis has been performed using the commercial program, DEFORM-2D. This analysis is carried out with the purpose of understanding how changes to the local stress distribution will affect the springback during the unloading process. The results between experimental and computational approaches are evaluated to assure the accuracy of the simulation. Subsequent numerical simulation studies are performed to explore best practices with respect to thermal boundary conditions, timing, and applicability to the production environment.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2017

Beyond Californium—A Neutron Generator Alternative for Dosimetry and Instrument Calibration in the U.S.

Many evaluations of neutron survey instruments, area monitors and personal dosimeters rely on neutron reference radiations from 252Cf, a source of spontaneous fission neutrons that produces high dose rates from an almost point source geometry. Its characteristics are generally more favorable when compared to (a,n), photoneutron and reactor-based sources of neutrons. The source is typically used in two standardized configurations: unmoderated, to yield a fission energy spectrum, or placed within a heavy-water moderating sphere to produce a softened spectrum that is more appropriate for evaluating devices used in nuclear power plant work environments. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) 252Cf Loan/Lease Program was terminated in 2009, and the replacement of high-activity sources is increasingly cost prohibitive for laboratories that formerly benefited from that program, including the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Neutron generators, based on the D-T and D-D fusion reactions, are becoming economically competitive with 252Cf and are recognized internationally as important calibration and test standards. Researchers from NIST and PNNLare jointly considering the practicality and technical challenges of implementing neutron generators as calibration standards in the U.S. This article reviews characteristics of isotope-based sources, leading to rationale behind increasing favor of electronically-generated neutron options. The evaluation of a D-T system at PNNL has revealed primary challenges in adapting generators to the task of calibration and testing in which neutron characteristics must be accurately determined. Concepts for modifying the generated neutron spectra to achieve particular targeted spectra, simulating 252Cf or workplace environments, are discussed.

Calibration, californium-252, Dosimeter Irradiatio↗
DOE OSTI2025

Fate of Listeria monocytogenes Serotypes on Frozen Mixed Vegetables During Consumer‐Simulated Thawing and Storage

ABSTRACT Recent outbreaks and recalls associated with frozen vegetables in the United States and Europe have been linked to Listeria monocytogenes . This study aims to understand the extent to which frozen vegetables support the growth of L. monocytogenes once thawed and held at different temperatures. Six L. monocytogenes strains, two of each from serotypes 1/2a, 1/2b, and 4b, were individually inoculated onto frozen vegetables and stored at −18°C for 7 days. After 7 days, the vegetables were thawed and stored at 5°C or 10°C for up to 14 days or at 25°C for up to 7 days. L. monocytogenes was enumerated from the thawed vegetables throughout the storage period. Population data were fitted to the primary Baranyi model to estimate growth rates and lag phase durations; the secondary Ratkowsky square root model was used to model the relationship of the growth rates with storage temperature. Five of the L. monocytogenes strains survived and grew on the thawed vegetables (population increases of > 1 log CFU/g) stored at 5°C, and all six of the strains proliferated at 10°C and 25°C (population increases of > 3 log CFU/g after 14 days and > 4 log CFU/g after 7 days, respectively). A secondary model was successfully generated based on the growth rates of the six L. monocytogenes strains on the thawed vegetables ( r 2 = 0.8888, RMSE = 0.2057). Results from this study fill a data gap associated with L. monocytogenes survival on thawed vegetables and can be used to determine safe handling and storage practices for these products to protect public health.

Salazar, Joelle K. [Division of Food Processing Sc↗
DOE OSTI2020

Physical Security Model Development of an Electrochemical Facility

Nuclear facilities in the U.S. and around the world face increasing challenges in meeting evolving physical security requirements while keeping costs reasonable. The addition of security features after a facility has been designed and without attention to optimization (the approach of the past) can easily lead to cost overruns. Instead, security should be considered at the beginning of the design process in order to provide robust, yet efficient physical security designs. The purpose of this work is to demonstrate how modeling and simulation can be used to optimize the design of physical protection systems. A suite of tools, including Scribe3D and Blender, were used to model a generic electrochemical reprocessing facility. Physical protection elements such as sensors, portal monitors, barriers, and guard forces were added to the model based on best practices for physical security. Two theft scenarios (an outsider attack and insider diversion) as well as a sabotage scenario were examined in order to optimize the security design. Security metrics are presented. This work fits into a larger Virtual Facility Distributed Test Bed 2020 Milestone in the Material Protection, Accounting, and Control Technologies (MPACT) program through the Department of Energy (DOE). The purpose of the milestone is to demonstrate how a series of experimental and modeling capabilities across the DOE complex provide the capabilities to demonstrate complete Safeguards and Security by Design (SSBD) for nuclear facilities.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Onboarding in a Virtual Environment

A need for a standardized Division 10000 onboarding program for virtual hires was identified by management to formalize the way employees and interns are onboarded and trained into Division 10000. This white paper provides effective short and long-term suggestions in the efforts of improving virtual onboarding. Data suggests that remote work is going to become the forefront of many industry practices, which indicates the need of a standardized virtual onboarding practices. With our research, gap assessments, benchmarking, and conducting interviews both internally and externally, we found that clarity, culture, and connection proved to be the strongest solutions in order to maintain Sandia’s competitive edge and sustain workers both remote and in-person.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Synthetic Metal Atomic Layer Deposition Tool (Final Report)

As part of the Cyclotron Road program, Laminera Inc. worked towards development of atomic layer deposition process customizations and tool modifications to produce synthetic metal films at commercial scale and improve the film quality. Today's state-of-the-art in atomic layer deposited synthetic metal technology is only possible at a research-scale because current tools have practical limitations for scaling industrially and generating high conductivity films. Ultrathin, conformal synthetic metal films have many possible applications such as high surface area nanoporous electrodes for supercapacitors and water desalination devices; protective electrode coatings for electrochemical devices; seed layers for semiconductor device fabrication; or metallic component stabilizing coatings that enable enhanced storage density in next generation hard disk drives. The best synthetic metal conductive and plasmonic properties have been demonstrated using sputtering, which relies on high temperature sputtering with substrate dependent and directional growth limiting usage. This work explored refining process and tool modifications to create ultrathin, conformal, synthetic metal films that can be deposited with high quality over complex three-dimensional surfaces.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2024

Codes and Ordinances for Clean Energy: Highland Park Pathways to Power [Slides]

Through the Communities LEAP (Local Energy Action Program) Pilot, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) engaged the Highland Park Stakeholder Coalition to scope four technical assistance work areas to address their energy needs and goals. This slide deck addresses the highlighted tasks under work area "A" related to policy analysis, due diligence, and case studies for removing barriers and providing best practices for local clean energy development.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗