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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2014

SAVY-4000 Surveillance and Life Extension Program Fiscal Year 2013 Annual Report

The Packaging Surveillance Program section of the DOE M441.1-1 /sup>1, Nuclear Material Packaging Manual (DOE, 2008) requires DOE contractors to “ensure that a surveillance program is established and implemented to ensure the nuclear material storage package continues to meet its design criteria.” In order to ensure continuing safe storage of nuclear material and the maximization of risk reduction, TA-55 has established a Surveillance Program to ensure storage container integrity for operations within its specified design life. The LANL SAVY-4000 Field Surveillance Plan 2 defines the near-term field surveillance plan for SAVY-4000 containers as required by the Manual. A long-term surveillance plan will be established based on the results of the first several years of surveillance and the results of the lifetime extension studies as defined in the Accelerated Aging Plan 3 . This report details progress in positioning the Surveillance Program for successful implementation in FY14 and status of the Design Life Extension Program in terms of its implementation and data collection for FY13.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2014

Summary Report for ASC L2 Milestone #4782: Assess Newly Emerging Programming and Memory Models for Advanced Architectures on Integrated Codes

This document serves as a detailed companion to the powerpoint slides presented as part of the ASC L2 milestone review for Integrated Codes milestone #4782 titled “Assess Newly Emerging Programming and Memory Models for Advanced Architectures on Integrated Codes”, due on 9/30/2014, and presented for formal program review on 9/12/2014. The program review committee is represented by Mike Zika (A Program Project Lead for Kull), Brian Pudliner (B Program Project Lead for Ares), Scott Futral (DEG Group Lead in LC), and Mike Glass (Sierra Project Lead at Sandia). This document, along with the presentation materials, and a letter of completion signed by the review committee will act as proof of completion for this milestone.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2015

HTR-Proteus Pebble Bed Experimental Program Cores 5,6,7,&8: Columnar Hexagonal Point-on-Point Packing with a 1:2 Moderator-to-Fuel Pebble Ratio

PROTEUS is a zero-power research reactor based on a cylindrical graphite annulus with a central cylindrical cavity. The graphite annulus remains basically the same for all experimental programs, but the contents of the central cavity are changed according to the type of reactor being investigated. Through most of its service history, PROTEUS has represented light-water reactors, but from 1992 to 1996 PROTEUS was configured as a pebble-bed reactor (PBR) critical facility and designated as HTR-PROTEUS. The nomenclature was used to indicate that this series consisted of High Temperature Reactor experiments performed in the PROTEUS assembly. During this period, seventeen critical configurations were assembled and various reactor physics experiments were conducted. These experiments included measurements of criticality, differential and integral control rod and safety rod worths, kinetics, reaction rates, water ingress effects, and small sample reactivity effects (Ref. 3). HTR-PROTEUS was constructed, and the experimental program was conducted, for the purpose of providing experimental benchmark data for assessment of reactor physics computer codes. Considerable effort was devoted to benchmark calculations as a part of the HTR-PROTEUS program. References 1 and 2 provide detailed data for use in constructing models for codes to be assessed. Reference 3 is a comprehensive summary of the HTR-PROTEUS experiments and the associated benchmark program. This document draws freely from these references. Only Cores 9 and 10 are evaluated in this benchmark report due to similarities in their construction. The other core configurations of the HTR-PROTEUS program are evaluated in their respective reports as outlined in Section 1.0. Cores 9 and 10 were evaluated and determined to be acceptable benchmark experiments.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Personal Insights and Anecdotes about the Weatherization Assistance Program Process Field Study

The present report is based on the research conducted for the Process Field Study between March and September 2011. The Process Field Study documents how Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) services were delivered to clients, and the quality with which those services were delivered. The assessments were conducted by visiting 19 agencies in 19 states around the country interviewing agency managers, staff, and contractors; observing program intake along, with 43 audits, 45 measure installation and 37 final inspections; and conducting debriefing interviews with clients and weatherization staff following the observation of service delivery. In this report, we turn to detailed observations of a few field interactions. The client stories from our observations illustrate some of the ways clients and crew interact to build the success of the program, but shows there will always be unanticipated obstacles to building trust and getting the program to the public. Stories of staff and crew career paths indicate that weatherization technology and techniques are being learned and used by technicians out of the new home construction industry and that their new knowledge provides them with technical tools and methods that many hope to take back into the construction industry if and when they return. This report is organized according to the four stages of weatherization: intake, audit, installation, and inspection. It contributes to our understanding of the area where policy, environment, culture, and individual decisions influence social innovation. The anecdotes reveal the realities of implementing programs for the benefit of the greater good at minimal cost and sacrifice in times of ever restricting budgets. As the authors revisited their field notes and compiled memorable narratives to communicate the essence of the weatherization experience, they identified three key takeaways that summarize the major issues. First, in WAP as in all services there will always be challenges to reaching the community needing to be served. Second, crew and staff learn new skills and gain experience that can be and are applied in jobs elsewhere. Finally, in the best cases, changes from the weatherization experience permeate communities in unanticipated ways.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2016

Functional Programming in Computer Science

We explore functional programming through a 16-week internship at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Functional programming is a branch of computer science that has exploded in popularity over the past decade due to its high-level syntax, ease of parallelization, and abundant applications. First, we summarize functional programming by listing the advantages of functional programming languages over the usual imperative languages, and we introduce the concept of parsing. Second, we discuss the importance of lambda calculus in the theory of functional programming. Lambda calculus was invented by Alonzo Church in the 1930s to formalize the concept of effective computability, and every functional language is essentially some implementation of lambda calculus. Finally, we display the lasting products of the internship: additions to a compiler and runtime system for the pure functional language STG, including both a set of tests that indicate the validity of updates to the compiler and a compiler pass that checks for illegal instances of duplicate names.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2016

SRS environmental air surveillance program 1954-2015: General trends

The radiological monitoring program at SRS was established under the DuPont Company in June 1951 and was used as a measurement of the effectiveness of plant controls and as an authoritative record of environmental conditions surrounding the plant. It also served as a method of demonstrating compliance with applicable federal regulations and guidance. This document serves as a general summary of changes made specifically to the environmental air monitoring program since its inception, and a discussion of the general trends seen in the air monitoring program at SRS from 1954 to 2015. Initially, the environmental air surveillance program focused not only on releases from SRS but also on fallout from various weapons testing performed through the end of 1978. Flypaper was used to measure the amount of fallout in the atmosphere during this period, and was present at each of the 10 monitoring stations. By 1959, all site stacks were included in the air monitoring program to determine their contribution to the airborne radioactivity onsite, and the number of air surveillance samplers rose to 18. This trend of an increased number of sampling locations continued to a peak of 35 sampling locations before shifting to a downward trend in the mid-1990s. In 1962, 4 outer-range samplers were placed in Savannah and Macon, GA, and in Greenville and Columbia, SC. Until 1976, air samplers were simply placed around the perimeter of the various operation locations (after 1959, this included stacks to determine their contribution to the airborne radioactivity), with the intent of creating as representative a distribution as possible of the air surrounding operations.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2016

US Global Change Research Program Distributed Cost Budget Interagency Funds Transfer from DOE to NSF

These funds were transferred from DOE to NSF as DOE's contribution to the U.S. Global Change Research Program in support of 4 internationalnactivities/programs as approved by the U.S. Global Change Research Program on 14 March 2014. The programs are the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, the DIVERSITAS programme, and the World Climate Research Program. All program awards ended as of 09-23-2015.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Planning and Execution of a Marine Methane Hydrate Pressure Coring Program for the Walker Ridge and Green Canyon Areas of the Gulf of Mexico

The objective of this project (and report) is to produce a guide to developing scientific, operational, and logistical plans for a future methane hydrate-focused offshore pressure coring program. This report focuses primarily on a potential coring program in the Walker Ridge 313 and Green Canyon 955 blocks where previous investigations were undertaken as part of the 2009 Department of Energy JIP Leg II expedition, however, the approach to designing a pressure coring program that was utilized for this project may also serve as a useful model for planning pressure coring programs for hydrates in other areas. The initial portion of the report provides a brief overview of prior investigations related to gas hydrates in general and at the Walker Ridge 313 and Green Canyon 955 blocks in particular. The main content of the report provides guidance for various criteria that will come into play when designing a pressure coring program.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2016

SMART Scale An Innovative Program Accelerating the Energy Efficiency Market

Small business is a major component of the American economy. More than half of all private sector workers in this country are employed by small businesses and nearly two-thirds of the new jobs generated in the last ten years were created in this sector. Studies have shown that buildings of less than 50,000 square feet represent 94% of the commercial sector and half of all non-residential floor space in the United States. The future of the American economy relies on a vibrant, robust, and profitable small business community. Small and mid-sized businesses (SMB) can increase their profitability by reducing their operating costs through energy efficiency. The SMART Scale program delivers deep retrofits that maximize energy and cost savings for the SMB market and can be adapted throughout the country in markets of all sizes. For the past 14 years, Ecology Action has been perfecting a Direct Install (DI) program for the SMB market that offers this sector the type of sophisticated, comprehensive energy saving opportunities that were previously available only to large commercial and industrial customers. The DI 2.0 model that Ecology Action has administered for several public and investor-owned California utilities, and most recently for the Sacramento Municipal Utilities District (SMUD), provides the template for a successful retrofit program that can address the unique barriers faced by the SMB sector and achieve a greater impact than traditional DI programs. The impressive results produced by the DI 2.0 program prompted the US Department of Energy to award Ecology Action a $2 million grant in 2013 to create, demonstrate and roll out a replicable model for delivering deep retrofits to small commercial buildings. The grant enabled Ecology Action to build on the success of DI 2.0 by incorporating improvements into the model, market-testing it and designing a costeffective method of achieving significant energy savings for small businesses across the country.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2016

Report of the 2014 Programming Models and Environments Summit

Programming models and environments play the essential roles in high performance computing of enabling the conception, design, implementation and execution of science and engineering application codes. Programmer productivity is strongly influenced by the effectiveness of our programming models and environments, as is software sustainability since our codes have lifespans measured in decades, so the advent of new computing architectures, increased concurrency, concerns for resilience, and the increasing demands for high-fidelity, multi-physics, multi-scale and data-intensive computations mean that we have new challenges to address as part of our fundamental R&D requirements. Fortunately, we also have new tools and environments that make design, prototyping and delivery of new programming models easier than ever. The combination of new and challenging requirements and new, powerful toolsets enables significant synergies for the next generation of programming models and environments R&D. This report presents the topics discussed and results from the 2014 DOE Office of Science Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) Programming Models & Environments Summit, and subsequent discussions among the summit participants and contributors to topics in this report.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2016

Sun Grant Initiative Regional Biomass Feedstock Partnership Competitive Grants Program

The Sun Grant Initiative partnered with the US Department of Energy (DOE) in 2008 to create the Regional Biomass Feedstock Partnership Competitive Grants Program. The overall goal of this project was to utilize congressionally directed funds to leverage the North Central Regional Sun Grant’s Competitive Grant program at South Dakota State University (SDSU) to address key issues and research gaps related to development of the bioeconomy. Specific objectives of this program were to: 1. Identify research projects through a Regional Competitive Grants program that were relevant to the sustainable production, harvest, transport, delivery, and processing/conversion of cost-competitive, domestically grown biomass. 2. Build local expertise and capacity at the North Central Regional Sun Grant Center at SDSU through an internal selection of key bioenergy research projects. To achieve these, three nationwide Request for Applications (RFA) were developed: one each in 2008, 2009, and 2010. Internal, capacity building projects at SDSU were also selected during each one of these RFAs. In 2013 and 2015, two additional Proof of Concept RFAs were developed for internal SDSU projects. Priority areas for each RFA were 1) Biomass feedstock logistics including biomass harvesting, handling, transportation, storage, and densification; 2) Sustainable biomass feedstock production systems including biomass crop development, production, and life-cycle analysis; 3) Biomass production systems that optimize biomass feedstock yield and economic return across a diverse landscape while minimizing negative effects on the environment and food/feed production; and 4) Promotion of knowledge-based economic development in science and technology and to advance commercialization of inventions that meet the mission of the Sun Grant Initiative. A total of 33 projects were selected for funding through this program. Final reports for each of these diverse projects are included in this summary report. Projects funded under this award have contributed significantly to and advanced the bioeconomy body of knowledge. Specifically, no fewer than 109 peer-reviewed publications, 2 patents, 4 invention disclosures, 5 book chapters, 30 conference papers, 224 professional presentations, 31 outreach publications, and 1 website have been generated. This contribution to the scientific community (peer-reviewed literature, presentations, etc.) and to the public (outreach publications, websites, etc.) has been significant. In addition, a number of projects funded through this award included significant industry involvement and support both in terms of funding (both in-kind and direct) and input. Key industry stakeholders included AGCO, Alliant Energy, Applied Nanofilms, Archer Daniels Midland, ConocoPhillips, DuPont-Danisco Cellulosic Ethanol, EcoSun Prairie Farm, Federal Machine Co., Hawkeye Renewables, John Deere, Mendel, SD Innovation Partners, and Thermo-Ag.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2018

Program Correctness, Verification and Testing for Exascale (Corvette)

The goal of this project is to provide tools to assess the correctness of parallel programs written using hybrid parallelism. There is a dire lack of both theoretical and engineering know-how in the area of finding bugs in hybrid or large scale parallel programs, which our research aims to change. In the project we have demonstrated novel approaches in several areas: 1. Low overhead automated and precise detection of concurrency bugs at scale. 2. Using low overhead bug detection tools to guide speculative program transformations for performance. 3. Techniques to reduce the concurrency required to reproduce a bug using partial program restart/replay. 4. Techniques to provide reproducible execution of floating point programs. 5. Techniques for tuning the floating point precision used in codes.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2017

Xcel Energy – LBNL ‘Beyond Widgets’ Project. Workstation Specific Lighting with Daylight Dimming Controls System Program Manual

This program manual was developed through a U.S. Department of Energy project to develop streamlined utility program approaches to the deployment of integrated systems in commercial offices. Integrated systems present deep opportunities for energy savings, however by nature these systems have additional levels of complexity and effort required for their design and energy savings assessment, which create barriers for utility incentive programs to develop streamlined cost effective incentive programs to capture these savings. This project worked with Xcel Energy in Colorado and Minnesota to select an integrated system and develop a streamlined approach to its deployment for small and large commercial offices. Xcel Energy worked with LBNL to select a workstation specific lighting system with daylight dimming controls, applied as a retrofit in commercial office spaces. Previous studies indicated a potential lighting annual energy savings of 28-63%, with an average of 47% for this system type, due to reduced fixture LPD and controls only, not including a full fixture replacement from a condition such as T8 to LED. Xcel also had a desire to incorporate this fixture replacement in their integrated system package, and as a result annual energy lighting savings are expected to be higher. FLEXLAB testing of the system for 500 lux minimum output conditions translated into a 94% annual energy savings for this system. Market analysis was developed for large and medium commercial office buildings in Xcel’s Minnesota and Colorado markets showing a potential for 48-295 and 120-672 GWh of energy savings potential for Colorado and Minnesota respectively. Total Resource Costs (TRC) vary by location and technology package used (enterprise versus non-enterprise lighting controls system), and vary from 0.29 to 1.27 and 0.06 and 0.44 for a Retrofit case, and 0.20 to 1.63 and 0.07 to 0.57 for a Replace on Burnout strategy for Colorado and Minnesota respectively. These results indicate good potential for demonstrating a strong technical and economic case for deployment of this system type in Xcel’s Colorado territory, while deployment in the Minnesota market may be advisable as well as part of a portfolio of programs, or as an effort to help shift the market into integrated systems deployment in general. It should be noted that the cost of avoided energy in both markets is significantly low ($0.07/kWh for Minnesota, $0.08/kWh for Colorado), and these TRC values would not be representative of deployment potential in other markets with higher utility rates. In addition, installation costs used for these systems may decrease with time, further enhancing their return on investment. Overall, workstation specific lighting systems with daylight dimming controls present a very strong potential for cost effective lighting energy savings, as demonstrated by the FLEXLAB test results and previous case studies. Further energy savings may be realized from the use of fixture-specific occupancy sensors as well, although this approach was not considered in this study.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2018

Developing a Human Factors Engineering Program Plan and End State Vision to Support Full Nuclear Power Plant Modernization

The Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) Program, which is sponsored by the United States (U.S.) Department of Energy (DOE), conducts research and development (R&D) to establish the technical bases to sustain U.S. nuclear assets. One area in the LWRS program is the Plant Modernization pathway, which includes human factors R&D, human factors engineering (HFE), and ergonomics. LWRS program researchers in this pathway conduct targeted R&D to address aging and reliability concerns with the legacy instrumentation and control (I&C) and related information systems in commercial nuclear power plants (NPPs). One key aspect of this pathway is to develop a strategy for full nuclear plant modernization, which previous LWRS plant modernization milestone reports have begun to describe. To further support this comprehensive plan and vision for full plant modernization, additional details need to be further developed. In particular, a core aspect of a strategy for full nuclear plant modernization is an HFE program plan and an end state vision for plant modernization that is well-integrated with both 1) a technically defensible approach to migrating the existing, mostly analog I&C infrastructure to a digital I&C infrastructure, and 2) a valid business case methodology to cost-justify the modernization activity. Thus, the purpose of this LWRS R&D activity and milestone report is threefold. First, the report provides guidance for operating commercial NPPs to support their development and evaluation of an HFE program management plan (HFE PMP) and an end state vision for plant modernization. The report presents best practices and lessons learned related to HFE PMPs based on MCR modifications in which analog systems were replaced by digital I&C systems. Second, the report summarizes the rationale for full digital I&C integration, highlights a number of factors that are critical to consider, and describes how HFE should merge with full digital I&C integration. Finally, the report summarizes and integrates the economic factors that must be considered to cost-justify HFE involvement in plant modernization.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2019

US DOE Better Plants Program Energy Treasure Hunt Exchange Toolkit

The US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Better Buildings, Better Plants Program works with manufacturing companies to improve their facilities’ energy efficiency. By partnering with the program, companies commit to long-term energy efficiency goals, typically 25% energy savings in 10 years. The program provides technical support to help partners obtain their goals and recognizes partners’ outstanding achievements. One of the technical support offerings from the program is the Energy Treasure Hunt Exchange In-Plant Training. The Treasure Hunt Exchange is an adaptation of the Kaizen methodology for energy efficiency originally developed by Toyota. DOE developed the Energy Treasure Hunt Exchange Toolkit to facilitate program partners’ execution of the energy treasure hunt processes. The toolkit covers three phases of an energy treasure hunt for all major energy systems: pump systems, fan systems, process heating systems, process cooling systems, steam systems, compressed air systems, lighting systems, and motor systems. All the tools included in the toolkit can be downloaded from the DOE website. The purpose of this report is to provide Better Plants partners an overview of the toolkit and detailed descriptions of its capabilities.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2019

Fort Yukon wood Energy Program Wood Boiler Deployment (Final Report)

The Fort Yukon Gwitchyaa Zhee Corporation (GZ) worked with partners on the development of an Integrated Biomass Energy Program for Fort Yukon. This integrated approach linked sustainable forest management with an in- village for -profit wood harvest and delivery business to displace diesel energy with wood energy for heat and power. The program was based on the concept of ecological, economic and social sustainability with a goal of displacing as much diesel and fuel oil as is technically feasible and sustainable; essentially systematically converting a village to significant amounts of wood use. Additionally, GZ worked with the Alaska Energy Authority (AEA) on the development of a rural power system upgrade (RPSU) project that replaced GZ’s existing antiquated diesel power plant and provided upgrades to the existing electrical distribution system. Due to the synergy of the two projects, the Biomass and RPSU projects were combined to provide improved operating efficiency, economy of scale and increased benefits to GZ, the Council of Athabascan Tribal Governments (CATG) and the community of Fort Yukon. The combined project is referred to as the Fort Yukon Combined heat and power (CHP) project. The purpose of the DOE Tribal Energy Program award was to support the preconstruction tasks and installation of wood boilers at the CATG clinic, and at the new GZ diesel power plant as part of an overall program to create a for- profit wood energy utility in Native Village of Fort Yukon. The CHP project provides biomass and diesel generation recovered heat via a new district heating system to the major commercial buildings in Fort Yukon. The CATG clinic will receive heat from a separate biomass boiler to their heating needs. The award from the Department of Energy (DOE) Tribal Energy Program was divided into two phases: Design/Permitting (phase 1) and Construction (phase 2). Phase 1 (Design & Permitting) is cost shared using State of Alaska Renewable Energy Funding (REF) funds through the Alaska Energy Authority (AEA). Phase 2 (Construction) was funded by DOE, AEA and US Department of Agriculture Rural Utility Service (USDA-RUS). Phase 1 of this grant, along with a separate grant from the Denali Commission provided funding for development of the wood delivery infrastructure necessary to support the CHP project. Under phase 2, This DOE grant supported final design of the boiler, bidding, purchase and transport of boilers, installation, technical support and engineering. The AEA and RUS grants supported permitting, final design, material and equipment purchase, and construction and installation of the new diesel power plant and district heating distribution system.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2019

Annual Radioactive Waste Tank Inspection Program - 2018

The Department of Energy (DOE) requires that Savannah River Remediation LLC (SRR), the Liquid Waste contractor, maintain a robust and timely Structural Integrity Program for waste tanks that are leak-tight and for waste tanks that have leaked or are suspect. These requirements are promulgated in DOE Manual 435.1-1, Section II.Q.(2). A key aspect of SRR's implementation of these requirements is its annual tank inspection program. In 2018, the SRR Visual and In-Service Inspection Program used two visual imagery techniques to ascertain the integrity of the Savannah River Site (SRS) waste tanks: high resolution digital photography and closed-circuit television. The primary inspection method made use of direct photograph techniques, e.g., making a series of photographs providing detailed views of the tank and wide-angle photography for obtaining overviews of large areas. Closed-circuit television was then typically used to further investigate conditions found during the initial inspection. During 2018, a total of 4,853 photographs were taken and 47 video inspections were performed as part of this inspection program. Of the 51 waste tank systems at SRS that were designed, constructed, and placed into active service storing radioactive liquid waste, 43 remain in active service. Eight tanks have been cleaned, stabilized by filling with engineered grout, and removed from service (also known as operationally closed) -Tanks 5, 6, and 12 (Type I tanks); Tank 16 (Type II tank); and Tanks 17, 18, 19, and 20 (Type IV tanks). For the 43 waste tanks, inspections were successfully conducted in 2018 through all accessible annulus risers and inspection ports for nine Type I tanks, three Type II tanks, and 27 Type III/IIIA tanks; at least one inspection was made in the interior of four Type IV tanks (i.e., the tanks without annular spaces) above the liquid level in the tank. Rainwater continues periodically to be observed migrating into the annuli of some tanks. Evidence of this infiltration was primarily noted by observation of surface stains, and occasionally by calciferous deposits, changed configuration of salt deposits in the associated annulus, and mild surface corrosion. The conditions of the 43 tanks remained essentially unchanged from the conditions reported in 2017. The one key exception was the identification of eight new cracks in the Tank 15 primary tank wall. These newly identified cracks are located at 65, 67, 70, 76, 150, 152, 176 inches and 200 inches above the tank bottom. The identified cracks in Tank 15 do not constitute an impact on the structural integrity of the tank, as evaluated and confirmed in the referenced report, SRNS-STI-2008-00028, A Structural Impact Assessment of Flaws Detected During Ultrasonic Examination of Tank 15, and calculation, T-CLC-H-00890, Calculation of Critical Crack Lengths in HLW Tank 15. The 2018 inspection program confirmed the structural integrity and waste confinement capability of all 43 waste tanks.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2019

Methods to Automate Assessing the Outage Risk and Technical Specification Compliance for Planned Work and Current Plant Conditions. Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program report

This research effort is a part of the Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) Program, which is a research and development (R&D) program sponsored by the Department of Energy. The LWRS Program is performed in close collaboration with industry R&D programs that provide the technical foundations for licensing and managing the long term, safe, and economical operation of current nuclear power plants (NPPs). The LWRS Program serves to help the United States (U.S.) nuclear industry adopt new technologies and engineering solutions that facilitate the continued safe operation of these NPPs and the extension of their current operating licenses. The Outage Risk Management Improvement Pilot Project seeks to improve the management of nuclear power plant outages. This is done through the development of tools to assist in evaluating pending activities against requirements to detect undesired interactions. Significant efforts are expended to manage the nuclear risk of an outage. The utilities conduct pre outage risk assessments, based on a very detailed review of the outage schedule, to identify where combinations of outage work and out of service equipment would result in degraded conditions with respect to nuclear safety or regulatory compliance. Probabilistic risk assessment studies are conducted to quantify incremental core damage frequency as a result of the outage activities and system unavailability. These studies are usually presented to site and fleet management, the site plant operational review committee, and the NPP’s independent Nuclear Safety Review Board for concurrence that the outage is planned safely and that reasonable measures have been taken to reduce the added risk of conducting the outage. During the outage, the plant configuration is monitored continuously to ensure that it conforms to the approved safety plan. Deviations must be assessed and approved by management committees and, in some cases, the plant operational review committee. In virtually all outage meetings and job briefings, the current nuclear safety status of the plant is communicated, including information on the specific equipment necessary to meet the requirements of the nuclear safety plan. In addition, the operations and outage organizations implement several layers of physical and administrative barriers to prevent unintended interaction with the systems and equipment credited for nuclear safety. In spite of all these efforts, nuclear safety challenges still occur too frequently during outages. While some of these are due to failures of equipment credited for safety, the majority occur because of human error. These typically involve some form of interaction between work activities and plant configuration changes. Some of them are very subtle and are extremely challenging to detect in advance. Nevertheless, they are not acceptable and represent clear opportunities to improve nuclear safety during outages. This particular report will provide a demonstration of the capabilities in the development of a predictive software platform for improving configuration control and accessing the plant risks associated with outage work protocols and illustrate how the software assists in strategies to minimize these interactions. In addition to maintaining nuclear safety, there are numerous administrative requirements that must be complied with during an outage. This report will discuss the use of logic modelling to monitor planned work against technical specification requirements for given plant conditions and to integrate these requirements with shutdown risk models, clearance order requirements and other plant condition requirements.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗