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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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These are sample questions for focus groups to be conducted as part of qualitative data collection for Year 2- Year 6 of Girls in STEM. You may use any of the questions from the list during the two sessions during the school year, as long as those questions are not repeated in both Baseline and follow-up sessions.
Electrostatic discharge (ESD) events pose serious safety concerns for nuclear weapon handling and maintenance. Current safety analyses operate under overly conservative assumptions resulting in costly safety procedures to inadvertent discharges. Colorado School of Mines has developed a plasma kinetic model coupled with a Maxwell’s equations solver in COMSOL to address these assumptions. A spherical capacitor system was designed to measure current throughout a threshold breakdown. The results will be compared to the simulations run by CSM. This paper details the design process and preliminary results for this validation effort.
Growing up, Matthew Herman explored new worlds through books. He had enrolled at Western Washington University, intent on studying literature and becoming a writer, when a professor suggested he visit the school’s engineering department. Herman soon determined that science has, at its core, the same purpose that motivated him to write– problem-solving. He now makes discoveries as an R&D technologist in Engineered Materials (MST-7), applying his affinity for creating and problem-solving to materials with clear, concrete applications, such as additively manufactured microlattice structures and a particle accelerator the size of a shoebox.
The Northeast Solar Energy Market Coalition (NESEMC) brought together solar energy business associations and other stakeholders in the Northeast to harmonize regional solar energy policy and advance the solar energy market. The Coalition was managed by the Pace Energy and Climate Center, a project of the Pace University Elisabeth Haub School of Law. The NESEMC was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy SunShot Initiative as a cooperative agreement through 2017 as part of Solar Market Pathways.
Global nuclear energy has reached a critical juncture. The footprint of nuclear energy is growing and will continue to grow in coming decades to meet increasing global energy demands, desires for energy security, and mounting concerns about climate change. This growth includes construction of reactors in countries new to the nuclear energy enterprise, in addition to expansion of existing programs. The lack of operational experience coupled with weak regulatory systems in some countries raises the potential of a nuclear accident. The expansion of nuclear energy is also met with an increasingly complex threat environment, with threats to nuclear security from non-state actors as well as the continued risks of state proliferation. The trend towards increasingly digitized and networked nuclear facilities significantly expands operational uncertainty and adds complexity to implementing safeguards and security. These factors merit fresh consideration of potential safety, safeguards, security, and cyber (3SC) risks, as well as approaches for managing those risks in an integrated, sustainable, and internationally cooperative manner. In an effort to explore the emerging challenges and cooperative solutions to the global expansion of nuclear energy The George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs and Sandia National Laboratories convened a group of more than thirty experts from government, national laboratories, non-government organizations, and academia on May 5th, 2016 at George Washington University to discuss these issues in a not-for-attribution environment.
To help inform future decisions about the subsequent uses of water that has served as a heat source and sink in the heat exchanger component of a geothermal heat pump system, ORNL performed an independent assessment of data characterizing the quality of water that had passed through a heat exchanger supporting a geothermal heat pump in a school building. Water supply to the heat exchanger is treated drinking water from a public water supply system that derives its water from a groundwater source. Water analyses and bacteriological measurements collected from heat exchanger and inflow and outflow lines were supplied to ORNL for review. Data were compared with regulatory standards and inflow and outflow data were compared to identify changes occurring in the water resulting from its passage through the heat exchanger. Review of the data identified no conditions that would prevent the use of heat exchange outflow water for water supply. Water quality conforms with applicable regulatory standards. There were no discernible differences between inflow and outflow water quality for any parameters other than water temperature and formation of heterotrophic bacterial biofilms. Changes in water temperature are an expected result of the operation of the heat exchanger system and do not by themselves affect the suitability of the water for human consumption. Bacterial biofilm formation can be affected by water temperature, but the data did not show a consistent or statistically significant relationship between temperature parameters and biofilm formation, and the observations of biofilms formed in the heat exchanger water lines do not affect the suitability of the outflow water for water supply. Legionella, a bacterial genus that has been associated with outbreaks of waterborne pathogenic disease, was detected in one biofilm sample, and the water company is performing follow-up testing to assess the significance of this detection.
The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) is the national association representing 833 distribution and 62 generation and transmission (G&T) cooperatives. From booming suburbs to remote rural farming communities, America’s electric cooperatives are energy providers and engines of economic development and way of life for more than 19 million American homes, businesses, farms, and schools in 47 states across the U.S. Member owned and responsive, generally smaller than investor-owned and municipal utilities, often more nimble in services for members, co-ops provide the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) with a strong partner for testing and accelerating utility-scale solar design, pricing, and delivery models.
This DOE project concerns the molecular mechanisms by which plants coordinate carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) metabolism. Specifically, it focuses on a histone methyltransferase protein that targets C/N-metabolism genes for chromatin modifications. How the dynamic changes of chromatin regulate energy metabolism in response to developmental and environmental cues is a new area of study. We have filled this knowledge-gap with our studies of SDG8, a histone methyltransferase, that targets light, C and N metabolism genes. We aimed to understand how plants allocate C resources to assimilate inorganic N onto C-skeletons -- the most energy-intensive pathway in plants – in order to balance energy production and consumption in a changing environment. In order to achieve more C-efficient N-storage under low energy conditions, plants convert assimilated N from “reactive” Gln (C5:N2) into “inert” Asn (C4:N2) through the enzyme ASN1. To identify regulatory factors in this pathway, we used the ASN1 promoter in a genetic selection and discovered SDG8, a histone methyltransferase. We discovered that histone modification by SDG8 coordinates the expression of genes involved in energy generation (light-harvesting and C fixation) with energy consumption (N assimilation and sulfur metabolism). We used this opportunity to explore how histone modifications control energy metabolism genome-wide. Our aims focus on various levels of the regulation of energy related genes at the level of: 1) Chromatin; 2) Transcription; and 3) Metabolites of the C/N regulatory network. Specifically, we asked: 1) How does histone methylation regulate energy metabolism during the N response? 2) How does histone methylation control transcription of the energy metabolism genes? And 3) how does the histone methyltransferase SDG8 and other TF regulators affect C/N metabolism and N use efficiency? Our study indicates that N supply triggers genome-wide changes in chromatin modification via the histone methyltransferase SDG8 which impacts on gene expression, RNA processing, chlorophyll synthesis, N uptake and metabolism. Our study thus revealed a previously overlooked layer of chromatin regulation during nutrient signaling. In broad terms, our study provides a framework to understand how chromatin modifications influence responses to environmental changes and provides unique opportunities for breeding and engineering resilient crops with better performance in the current climate model. Accomplishments AIM 1 CHROMATIN: Role of histone methylation in the ASN1 energy metabolism network. This aim focuses on understanding the role of chromatin modification in response to the environment. We studied the targeting mechanism of histone methylation by SDG8, in particular the role of the CW domain in reading histone methylation status. We also began to study the effect of nitrogen-treatment on genome-wide chromatin modifications in WT and sdg8 mutant plants. AIM 2 TRANSCRIPTION: Transcription control of the ASN1 energy metabolism network. This aim investigated whether SDG8 and the histone modification it mediates affects mRNA processing. We performed genome-wide profiling that uncovered that histone methylation by SDG8 affects the co-transcriptional RNA processing of downstream genes involved in energy and photosynthesis. AIM 3 METABOLISM: A gene regulatory network controlling energy, C/N metabolism and N use efficiency. In Aim 3A, we showed that SDG8 affects the chromatin modification and expression of a transcription factor, CCT, which in turn affects the regulation of carbon responsive genes. In Aim 3B we showed that C and N metabolism is perturbed in the sdg8 mutant through differences in the chlorophyll content, free amino acids, and N uptake. Project activities In Aim 1, we uncovered that the histone methyltransferase SDG8 affects chromatin modification in response to N treatments. The N treatments causes changes in the H3K36me3 distribution off ~200 genes in WT plants, while the N-triggered changes in H3K36me3 of these genes is abrogated in the sdg8-5 mutant. The functional annotation of these 200 genes shows significant enrichment of N-related pathways. Overall, our study suggests that SDG8 mediates chromatin-level adaption of functionally relevant genes in response to changes in N. In Aim 2, we tested if SDG8 plays a role in transcriptional elongation and/or RNA processing. We detected more N-triggered isoform shifting events in the sdg8-5 mutant than in WT, which provides supports for SDG8 being required for proper RNA processing in response to N signaling. In Aim 3, we identified the gene network controlled by a CCT transcription factor under the epigenetic control of SDG8. Isoform abundance of the CCT protein is regulated by SDG8, which leads to an altered response of energy related genes to N level changes. Using physiological, metabolic and genetic approaches, we found that responses to N, including chlorophyll accumulation, N uptake and free amino acids, are altered in sdg8 mutants. Finally, this project provided training to a high school student who performed experiments on the complex interaction of photosynthesis and N availability. The student was named a semi-finalist in both the Regeneron and Siemens National Science competitions for her work.
The petroleum industry has had success in developing unconventional shale plays using horizontal drilling and multi-zonal isolation and stimulation techniques to fracture tight formations, thus enabling the commercial production of oil and gas. Wellbore similarity exists with enhanced geothermal system (EGS) proposals. The technologies and techniques from the petroleum industry are being stretched to accommodate the higher temperatures, high water flow rates, and large-diameter completions encountered in geothermal settings. In this study, we assess whether well completion techniques used in the unconventional shale industry to create multi-stage fractures can be applied to an enhanced geothermal system, focusing on the fracture construction and completion of the EGS production well. We reviewed technologies used in these systems to determine if commercially available equipment from the petroleum industry could be used at the temperatures, pressures, and sizes encountered in geothermal settings. Our study found no major technical barriers to employing shale gas multi-zonal completion techniques in a horizontal well in a geothermal setting for EGS development. Temperature limitations of equipment are a concern for all techniques considered. Equipment designed to operate at high temperatures encountered in geothermal systems is commercially available, but is generally unproven for geothermal applications. Based on our study, further evaluation is warranted on adapting oil and gas completion techniques to EGS. This project is a continuation of the FY14 Horizontal Geothermal Completion project sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy through the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the Colorado School of Mines.
Before any transfer or conveyance actions, DOE owned approximately 45 square miles (28,800 acres) and most of this comprised Los Alamos National Laboratory. Since 1999, under Public Law 105-119, DOE/LANL has conveyed 4.8 square miles (3072 acres) of property to Los Alamos County and 6 acres to the Los Alamos School District. In addition, 3.2 square miles (2,048 acres) and has been transferred to the Bureau of Indian Affairs to be held in trust for the Pueblo de San Ildefonso.
The study performed by an interdisciplinary team of the Bureau of Economic Geology (Jackson School of Geosciences, The University of Texas at Austin) presents an improved production outlook assessments for the major U.S. shale gas plays, including the Barnett, Fayetteville, Haynesville, and Marcellus. The team of geoscientists, engineers, statisticians, and economists has reviewed and analyzed developments in the understanding of geologic, production-technology, and economic factors and has developed a model to run various scenarios with respect to energy prices, costs, technological advances, changes in geologic attributes, and physical and regulatory constraints.
The grant started in 1989 and finished on 31 July, 2018. The PI (Vina Punjabi) with many Norfolk State University (NSU) undergraduate students, and several research associates have been involved in many research activity during this period. NSU is primarily a minority institution. The PI has worked with one or two students every year, most of the students involved in her research went on to graduate schools to pursue degrees in physics, applied physics or engineering. One of the most important goal of the PI’s research activity has been involving NSU physics undergraduate students in forefront nuclear and particle physics research. (List of students and research associates is given in Appendix I). Over the years the PI, students and research associates participated in many research activity, however there are two main projects where the PI has been involved as one of the project leader. (1) Investigation of the structure of the deuteron at Saturne national lab in Saclay, France and at Laboratory of High Energy (LHE), part of the Joint Institute of Nuclear Research (JINR) lab in Dubna, Russia. (2) Measurement of the ratio of electric to magnetic form factors of the proton , GEp/GMp at Jefferson Lab, to study the internal structure of the proton.
Many membrane distillation models have been created to simulate the heat and mass exchange process involved but most of the literature only validates models to a couple of cases with minor configuration changes. Tools are needed that allow tradeoffs between many configurations. The multiconfiguration membrane distillation model handles many configurations. This report introduces membrane distillation, provides theory, and presents the work to verify and validate the model against experimental data from Colorado School of Mines and a lower resolution model created at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Though more data analysis and testing are needed, an initial look at the model to experimental comparisons indicates that the model correlates to the data well but that design comparisons are likely to be incorrect across a broad range of configurations. More accurate quantification of heat and mass transfer through computational fluid mechanics is suggested.
In the summer of 2013, members of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Colorado School of Mines (CSM) identified an opportunity to improve geothermal drilling operations by transferring practices from the petroleum drilling field. The NREL/CSM group noted that significant changes in drilling efficiencies in petroleum operations have been made during the last decade. For example, five years ago, 14,000-foot wells in Wyoming took 60 days to drill. However, in September of 2015, these same wells were drilled in 7 days. This significant decrease in required drilling days resulted from analysis, goal setting, and management and technology improvements. The geothermal drilling industry can import these methods and technologies, where appropriate, with the possibility of similar improvements in drilling operations.
The PRIMA-X (Performance Retargeting of Instrumentation, Measurement, and Analysis Technologies for Exascale Computing) project was a collaborative research effort between the University of Oregon (UO) (Malony, PI) and the German Research School for Simulation Sciences GmbH (Wolf, PI) originally, later changed to the Technical University of Darmstadt. Our project aims addressed five areas -- scalability, dynamism, heterogeneity, locality, energy -- that present challenges to performance measurement systems at exascale, with emphasis placed on the first three. In essence, the general goal of the project was to prototype new technologies for performance measurement, analysis, and tuning on future exascale-enable computer systems. Each institution followed its research agena, with periodic coordination and sharing of ideas and results. After the 3-year funding, the PRIMA-X grant was extended beyond the 3-year period at no cost until the end of August 2018. This is the final technical report on the University of Oregon's progress during the entire project scope. Our main focus was to address the PRIMA-X challenges both through technological advancements in the TAU Performance System and their application, as well as prototypes developed in association with other exascale-directed research efforts (prior to the Exascale Computing Project (ECP)). Progress in Years 1 and 2 are summarized and our achievements in Year 3 (plus the extension) are discussed in more detail. This includes specific efforts on power, runtime systems, and monitoring infrastructure.
This report explains the roles of physical law standards. The presentation was given to a law school class at the University of New Mexico.
The Workshop for Applied Nuclear Data Activities (WANDA) was held at the Elliot School of International Affairs at George Washington University from 22 to 25 January 2019. The purpose of WANDA was to bring subject matter experts from the national laboratories, universities and industry together with government program managers and their advisors to develop collaborative plans of action (e.g., roadmaps ) to address outstanding issues in nuclear data that effect applications ranging from nuclear energy to national security and nonproliferation to isotope production. WANDA was the latest in a series of collaborative, cross-programmatic workshops focused on nuclear data needs for applications that started in 2015 with the Nuclear Data Needs and Capabilities for Applications Workshop (NDNCA) and continuing with the Nuclear Data Roadmapping Enhancement Workshop (NDREW) in 2018 focused on nuclear data needs for applications. NDREW and WANDA played an important role in providing guidance for the recently created Nuclear Data Interagency Working Group (NDIAWG) comprised of program managers from a panoply government agencies. The NDIAWG issued two Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOA) in FY2017 and FY2018 which are supporting collaborative efforts to address high-priority nuclear data needs.
This report gives an overview of STEM at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The report was presented for Career Day at University Prep Charter High School.