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DOE OSTI2020

A Comprehensive System of Energy Intensity Indicators for the U.S.: Methods, Data and Key Trends

This report describes a comprehensive system of energy intensity indicators for the United States that has been developed for the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) over the past decade. This system of indicators is hierarchical in nature, beginning with detailed indexes of energy intensity for various sectors of the economy, which are ultimately aggregated to an overall energy intensity index for the economy as a whole. The aggregation of energy intensity indexes to higher levels in the hierarchy is performed with a version of the Log Mean Divisia index (LMDI) method. Based upon the data and methods in the system of indicators, the economy-wide energy intensity index shows a decline of about 16% in 2014 relative to a 1985 base year. Discussion of energy intensity indicators for each of the broad end-use sectors of the economy—residential, commercial, industrial, and transportation—is presented in the report. An analysis of recent changes in the efficiency of electricity generation in the U.S. is also included. A detailed appendix describes the data sources and methodology behind the energy intensity indicators for each sector.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

DOE OSTI2020

A Comprehensive System of Energy Intensity Indicators for the U.S.: Methods, Data and Key Trends

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

DOE OSTI2020

Oak Ridge Response to Versatile Test Reactor Environmental Impact Statement Data Request

The Versatile Test Reactor (VTR) is a fast-spectrum test reactor being developed in the United States under the direction of the US Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy (DOE-NE). The VTR mission is to enable accelerated testing of advanced reactor fuels and materials required for advanced reactor technologies. The conceptual design of the 300 MWth sodium-cooled metallic-fueled pool-type fast reactor has been led by the US National Laboratories in collaboration with General Electric–Hitachi and Bechtel National, Inc. In support of the VTR project, DOE issued a Notice of Intent (NOI) in the Federal Register on August 5, 2019, announcing the intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and its implementing regulations. The EIS will evaluate alternatives for a versatile reactor–based fast-neutron source facility and associated facilities for the preparation, irradiation, and post-irradiation examination (PIE) of test/experimental fuels and materials. Specifically, the NOI identified two siting alternatives for the VTR reactor facility: Idaho National Laboratory (INL) or Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). In addition, the NOI also specified two siting alternatives for VTR fuel fabrication: INL and the Savannah River Site (SRS). This report provides information in response to data requests made to ORNL to fill in site-specific knowledge gaps to develop a high-quality EIS. The responses provided are not required to provide full details in every aspect; instead, they adequately bound possible environmental impacts or provide sufficient information to adequately assess likely environmental impacts. This work is being performed under a subcontract from INL to ORNL using DOE-NE funds and is directed by DOE-NE and DOE-ID. Leidos has been contracted by DOE-NE to write the VTR EIS, so most data requests have come from Leidos but were often routed through INL or DOE-ID. DOE-ID is overseeing the NEPA and EIS processes for the VTR project. Leidos will use the information provided in this report to inform the VTR EIS and will also cite this document to establish a clear, publicly available source of the information. Section 2 of this report briefly describes the proposed ORNL VTR Alternative and illustrates the location of the proposed site for the ORNL VTR Alternative. Sections 3 through 7 provide direct responses to data requests received by ORNL. These sections use a tabular format in which data requests are divided into separate items to be addressed; the items are numbered, the data requests are restated with more topical information included, and then the responses are provided. Initial data requests and follow-on requests for additional information (RAIs) are combined under the original data request fields. Finally, Section 8 presents summarized conclusions and describes future work.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗

DOE OSTI2021

Pathways for Tamil Nadu’s Electric Power Sector: 2020 - 2030

This report is part one of a two-part series that represents a year-long collaboration with the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Limited (TANGEDCO) and Tamil Nadu Transmission Corporation Limited (TANTRANSCO) on power sector planning. This Pathways for Tamil Nadu’s Electric Power Sector 2020-2030 report outlines NREL’s work with TANGEDCO's electricity sector planning department to develop a model of the State power system and evaluate multiple scenarios of system evolution given resource constraints, costs of technologies, and power sector policies. A broad stakeholder group comprised of TANGEDCO leadership, developers, regulators, and researchers from within the power sector community in Tamil Nadu helped to guide the main objectives of the study and provided technical feedback to the research team. The outcomes of this effort include multiple pathways for power sector growth to 2030 and a robust model of Tamil Nadu's power system that can be used to continually analyze the impact of new policies, regulations, or system changes. The second report in this series will build on the bulk system analysis by focusing on the rapidly transforming distribution network in the State. The report will outline a framework developed by NREL and TANGEDCO's distribution utility to quickly and accurately analyze the impacts of integrating renewable energy onto Tamil Nadu's distribution system. Together these studies help to prepare Tamil Nadu for a rapidly transforming power system.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

DOE OSTI2021

Machine Learning Using Open Data Sources for Detection of Nuclear Proliferation Activities (U)

In FY2020, Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) in collaboration with the Sanghani Center for Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics (SCAIDA) at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (VT) and funded by the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Research and Development, began developing a demonstration prototype system that uses multiple machine learning and data analytic methods on large-scale open data sources to identify new, developing, and/or undeclared nuclear programs. Using the announcement in May 2018 of the proposed Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility (SRPPF) as a test subject, the goal of this 2-year project is to forecast the SRPPF using only data prior to May 2018. The project work is split into a preliminary prototype development for the first year with an initial evaluation of viability followed by the second year of development to create an integrated prototype system and more extensive performance evaluation. This report documents the results of the preliminary-phase tasks.

98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL P↗

DOE OSTI2021

An Analysis Framework for Distribution Network DER Integration Analysis in India: Distributed Solar in Tamil Nadu

This report is part of a two-part series that represents a year-long collaboration with the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Limited (TANGEDCO) on power sector planning. The first report in this series, the Pathways for Tamil Nadu’s Electric Power Sector 2017-2030 report outlines NREL’s work with TANGEDCO's electricity sector planning department to develop a model of the State’s power system and evaluate multiple scenarios of system growth given resource constraints, costs of technologies, and power sector policies. This second report in this series focuses on the rapidly transforming distribution network in the State. The report outlines a framework developed by NREL with TANGEDCO's distribution utility to quickly and accurately analyze the impacts of integrating renewable energy, specifically rooftop solar PV onto Tamil Nadu's distribution system. Together these studies help to prepare Tamil Nadu for a rapidly transforming power system.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2022

Machine Learning Modeling Pipeline for Extracting Nuclear Proliferation Events of Interest from Open Data Sources (U)

In FY2020, the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) and the Sanghani Center for Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University entered a collaboration funded by Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Research and Development. The project’s mission was to take the first steps toward developing a demonstration prototype system that uses multiple machine learning and data analytics methods on largescale open data sources to identify new, developing, and/or undeclared nuclear programs. Given the SRNL team’s on-site perspective of events culminating in the DOE’s decision to pursue the Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility (SRPPF), the team targeted the identification of events and indicators in retrospective datasets that pointed to the activity of “fissile core fabrication at the Savannah River Site” prior to the official announcement in May of 2018. A preliminary modeling pipeline was developed in FY20 that showed the datasets contained adequate signal for continuation of efforts. In FY21, a modular demonstration prototype modeling pipeline has continued in development for two text-based data sources: a broad internet archive (Webhose Ltd.) and a decahose Twitter database (i.e., a global sampling of one in every ten Tweets). The techniques that have been developed rely on graph theory and anomaly detection to identify contextual shifts in key words and phrases at various points in time such that indicators of events of interest could be identified and subsequently, events could be extracted from the corpuses. The foundational concept behind the approaches is that contextual shifts in key words and phrases can act as indicators of events of interest. Both datasets have proven successful in extracting events of interest related to pit production at the Savannah River Site prior to the official announcement. In addition, the pipelines have generated a wide range of events broadly summarized as: the awarding of DOE contracts at major sites, DOE investments in various programs, accidents at DOE national laboratories, speculations about the fate of pit production in the DOE complex, domestic and international shipments and receipts of nuclear materials at DOE sites, termination of non-proliferation agreements with Russia, termination of MOX, new weapons development approvals/testing, nuclear posture reviews, major DOE cleanup/production milestones, political opinions, and nuclear watch groups’ opinions, among many others.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

DOE OSTI2022

Utilization of the LMP Methodology in Support of the VTR Conceptual Safety Design Report

The Versatile Test Reactor (VTR) is a fast spectrum test reactor currently being developed in the United States under the direction of the US Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Nuclear Energy. The VTR is utilizing a risk-informed performance-based (RIPB) approach for design support and authorization by the DOE, derived from recent efforts by the US industry led Licensing Modernization Project (LMP). This document contains an overview of the implementation of the LMP approach in support of the VTR Conceptual Safety Design Report (CSDR). The work reported here is the result of studies supporting a VTR conceptual design, cost, and schedule estimate for DOE-NE to make a decision on procurement. As such, it is preliminary. The VTR RIPB authorization approach utilizes information from the probabilistic risk assessment (PRA), coupled with deterministic analyses, to aid in decision-making regarding the identification and categorization of safety basis events (SBEs), the classification of structures, systems, and components (SSCs), and the evaluation of defense-in-depth (DID) adequacy. As part of initial reactor design efforts, a VTR conceptual design PRA was developed to support the RIPB process, which focused on at-power internal events, with scoping analyses for seismic and sodium fire hazards. In addition to supporting numerous design studies, preliminary results from the RIPB approach and the VTR conceptual design PRA were utilized as the basis of the VTR CSDR. The initial identification and categorization of SBEs, SSC classification, and DID evaluation were contained within the CSDR, which was submitted to DOE in 2019 as part of the CD-1 submittal package. Following review, DOE approved the CSDR in April 2020 and the CD-1 package in late 2020. Valuable experience was gained through the implementation of the RIPB approach for design and authorization during the VTR conceptual design phase, which is summarized in this document. To the extent possible, this experience has been shared with the advanced reactor industry, through publications and participation in licensing tabletops, in addition to informing DOE:NE advanced reactor regulatory development efforts. Furthermore, the approval of the CSDR by the DOE as part of CD-1 represents a significant milestone in the use of RIPB approaches for advanced reactor licensing.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗

DOE OSTI2021

Science & Technology Review: Climate Change Comes into Focus

At Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, we focus on science and technology research to ensure our nation’s security. We also apply that expertise to solve other important national problems in energy, bioscience, and the environment. Science & Technology Review is published eight times a year to communicate, to a broad audience, the Laboratory’s scientific and technological accomplishments in fulfilling its primary missions. The publication’s goal is to help readers understand these accomplishments and appreciate their value to the individual citizen, the nation, and the world. The cover image shows a simulation run on the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) state-of-the-science Energy Exascale Earth Systems Model (E3SM), which leverages DOE’s advanced supercomputers for climate and earth science research. As the article beginning on p. 4 describes, the newly released version 2 will be used to simulate aspects of Earth’s variability at weather-scale resolution and investigate decadal changes in climate that will critically impact the United States in coming years.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2023

Key Goals and Innovations Needed for a U.S. Compact Fusion Pilot (Final Technical Report)

Fusion energy offers the prospect of addressing the nation's energy needs and contributing to the transition to a low-carbon emission electrical generation infrastructure. Technology and research results from U.S. investments in the major fusion burning plasma experiment known as ITER, coupled with a strong foundation of research funded by the Department of Energy (DOE), position the United States to begin planning for its first fusion pilot plant. Strong interest from the private sector is an additional motivating factor, as the process of decarbonizing and modernizing the nation's electric infrastructure accelerates and companies seek to lead the way. At the request of DOE, Bringing Fusion to the U.S. Grid builds upon the work of the 2019 report Final Report of the Committee on a Strategic Plan for U.S. Burning Plasma Research to identify the key goals and innovations - independent of confinement concept - that are needed to support the development of a U.S. fusion pilot plant that can serve as a model for producing electricity at the lowest possible capital cost.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

DOE OSTI2023

Environmental Chamber Testing and Headspace Evaluation of a Commercial-Off-The-Shelf Foam Fixative to Support Deactivation and Decommissioning Activities

The Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Environmental Management (EM) is tasked with identifying high priority technical needs and the Technology Development (TD) tasks required to meet those needs in support of ongoing deactivation and decommissioning (D&D) of Department of Energy infrastructure across the United States. This work consists of placing a radioactively contaminated facility in stable condition to minimize any risks that could affect workers, the public, and the environment. Successful deactivation and decommissioning will leave the buildings in an agreed upon end state to provide future protection against a wide range of hazards that include radiation, asbestos, polychlorinated biphenyls, and other environmental and public health risks.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

DOE OSTI2024

Safety in Artificial Intelligence: Challenges and Opportunities for the U.S. National Labs and Beyond

This report discusses the importance of the critical and underexplored topic of artificial intelligence (AI) safety, as highlighted during the “Strategy Alignment on AI Safety” workshop convened at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in April 2024. Through a summary of keynote talks, panel discussions, and breakout sessions, world-leading AI safety experts from academic, industry, national labs, and government agencies clearly agree on the need for and importance of large-scale investments for research and capabilities in AI safety. With the field innovating at unprecedented rates, there is increasing urgency to develop novel evaluation methodologies that allow full considerations of risks/threats of AI technologies in different domains. Quantitative metrics and effective methodologies that can evaluate and audit the “safeness” of how a given AI technology is trained, deployed, or regulated are, at best, nascent for certain scenarios or, more commonly, nonexistent. This maturation gap presents the possibility of serious threats to national security, and further inaction may have serious consequences. Additionally, the gap between the public’s and research community’s perceptions of AI risks/rewards is significant. While numerous voices from the AI community have expressed concern that the risks could be so high that future AI systems could inflict extinction-level damage to humanity if deployed incorrectly, the public largely is aware only of risk in low-impact scenarios. This discrepancy highlights the crucial need for researchers to articulate to governmental bodies what, why, and when various AI risks matter as part of motivating funding requests. Thus, the call to action for this community is to pursue AI safety as a “Big Science” project on a scale comparable to the Manhattan Project. High risks and high payoffs are on the table, but safe AI is a fast-moving target, and large-scale investments are needed to guide development of this technology in a responsible way. We highlight the need for a multilayered solution combining the development of new methods and algorithmic approaches to mitigate threats with an active participation of the government(s) in setting high industry standards and regulations based on state-of-the-art technology. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratories have served as leading institutions for scientific innovation in the U.S. for more than 70 years. Drawing on their expertise in the AI community and their history of safeguarding critical and sensitive information, and as we look to the future, national labs are the best choice for evaluating and safeguarding AI technologies.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

DOE OSTI2025

Life Cycle Analysis of Natural Gas Extraction and Power Generation: U.S. 2020 Emissions Profile

This analysis expands upon previous life cycle analyses (LCAs) of natural gas systems performed by the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL). It provides a complete inventory of emissions to air and water, water consumption, and land use change. These environmental burdens are detailed for all supply chain steps from natural gas production through natural gas distribution. This package includes the report, the NETL Natural Gas Model, and appendices that include several Excel workbooks and a python script to provide transparent access to the calculations and resulting data. This is revision 1 of the 2024 study (published December 17, 2024 and updated on January 24, 2025) and corrects a modeling error in natural gas composition. See the errata on page 2 for more information.

03 NATURAL GAS↗

DOE OSTI2025

Feature Based Qualification of 17-4PH Stainless Steel to Evaluate Location-Specific Variability in Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing

Qualifying large-scale metal additive manufacturing (M-AM) technologies such as wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) can be challenging. This is especially significant in precipitation hardened martensitic stainless steels like SS 17-4PH, where thermal histories induce location-specific microstructural variability and property anisotropy. The Department of Defense (DOD) and the United States Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Ground Vehicle Systems Center (GVSC) Ground Vehicle Materials Engineering (GVME) aim to build robust and qualified large-scale M-AM workflows that could reduce the time and cost through quick and informed evaluation, testing, and development of feedstock, processes, and parts. The report presents the findings from the collaborative efforts between Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and the U.S. Army GVSC GVME. The aim of this project was to develop a geometric feature-based qualification framework for WAAM of SS 17-4PH components. This report outlines selection methodology of representative build geometries, optimization of WAAM process parameters, in-situ monitoring, microstructure-property evaluation, thermal simulations, as well as data visualization techniques incorporated in this project. The results from this project demonstrate a clear understanding of thermal history dependent phase evolution and consequent location-specific property variations in WAAM of SS 17-4PH. These results in conjunction with the data-driven methodologies used in this project are expected to reduce qualification timelines, improve predictability, and accelerate the development of reliable feature-based qualification strategies for part production via large-scale M-AM technologies.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2025

PFAS Waste Management for Industrial, Water, and Wastewater Treatment Facilities

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), including perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), are widely used in industrial and consumer products due to their unique water and oil repelling properties. These slow-degrading and bio-accumulating compounds, often called "forever chemicals," are not typically removed by conventional industrial and municipal water/wastewater (W/WW) treatment. This tip of the month provides comprehensive strategies for managing PFAS-contaminated waste streams. Understanding the various types of PFAS waste streams is the first step in managing them. Primary PFAS waste includes contaminated process W/WW and solid materials directly from the production and processing of PFAS-containing materials. These might come from manufacturing facilities, firefighting training areas, or other industrial operations where PFAS compounds are used or were historically present. Secondary PFAS waste results from treatment and disposal mechanisms of primary PFAS waste streams, including spent activated carbon, used ion exchange resins, membrane reject streams, PFAS-laden backwash water, landfill leachate, incineration residuals, etc. TABLE 1 lists examples of the most common PFAS waste streams in different industrial facilities.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

DOE OSTI2024

Analyze Scrap Rate for Waste Reduction

Manufacturing scrap is a term used for denoting in-process raw material waste. Many manufacturers accept scrap as an unavoidable part of the manufacturing. Scrap is created in all the phases of a manufacturing process and represents varying value of wasted materials along with other resources. The scrap is usually created in the final phases. Quality testing is the most expensive type of scrap and represents highest waste creation.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2022

1.4.1.401 - Fish Protection Prize

The Fish Protection Prize sought new solutions, designs, and strategies to prevent fish from swimming into water infrastructure, such as water diversions and pipes and intakes at hydropower dams. Participants submitted innovative ideas to advance fish exclusion technology. WPTO collaborated with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation on the Fish Protection Prize to inspire innovators to compete for $700,000 of combined cash prizes and voucher support to help protect fish from these threats. Five experts in fish passage and protection served as reviewers in the Pitch Contest, and represented a number of Federal and State agencies, including NOAA, USGS, ORNL, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, and AFS. Three finalists were selected as Grand Prize winners.

fish passage↗

DOE OSTI2022

Assessment of Thermal Stratification in Versatile Test Reactor Transients

The Versatile Test Reactor (VTR) is a fast-spectrum test reactor currently being developed in the United States under the direction of the US Department of Energy. The conceptual design of the 300 MWth pool-type sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR) has been led by the US National Laboratories in collaboration with General Electric-Hitachi and Bechtel National Inc. Safety performance analysis for the VTR conceptual design is being performed with the systems thermal-hydraulics (SYSTH) module of the SAS4A/SASSYS-1 liquid-metal reactor safety analysis code system. Since the current model of the VTR employs a simple perfect mixing model for large plena like the hot pool, it is not able to predict temperature variations that may develop during the transient. Prior work simulating the response of SFRs to postulated events like the Protected Station Blackout (PSBO) has shown that the phenomenon of thermal stratification, where stable thermal layers accumulate in the hot pool, may delay the transition to natural circulation and thus impact the predicted transient progression. Thus, an effort has begun to model this transient by integrating a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model of the hot pool into the SAS4A/SASSYS-1 model of the Primary Heat Transport System during the simulation of the PSBO event. A three-dimensional Volume-Of-Fluid CFD model of the VTR hot pool has been developed for the co-simulation of SAS4A/SASSYS-1 with CFD. In this work, the standalone SAS4A/SASSYS-1 calculation and the standalone CFD calculation based on the SAS4A/SASSYS-1 calculation result were produced on the Idaho National Laboratory High Performance Computing cluster, SAWTOOTH. At this time, only the standalone CFD and SAS4A/SASYS-1 simulation results are provided.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗