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At least 1,315 records · Page 73
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

14 MeV Irradiation and Analysis of a 93% 239 Pu Target in Preparation for a F2019 FY22 Pu Campaign

In this work, we present the irradiation of a 93% 239 Pu with 14 MeV neutrons and subsequent analysis of the fission and activation products. The fully assembled target, a Pu metal bead encapsulated in Al, further encapsulated in welded stainless steel, was analyzed 22 times over more than 100 days using gamma emission analysis (GEA). Using the results from these analyses, R-values and fission yields for fission products were determined. To prepare for the FY22 Pu irradiation using the GODIVA critical assembly at NCERC, the irradiated Pu target was disassembled, dissolved, and separated using chemistry provided by LANL collaborators. This chemical separation was intended to remove the Pu from solution with little to no effect on the remaining elements. The chemistry was assessed to try to determine possible routes of fractionation of the sample and the fission products. The separation process used was successful for the bulk of the analyzed fission and activation products, as well as the added radiotracers. The final dissolved solution and separated fractions were analyzed by GEA looking at the remaining fission, activation and radiotracers and thermal ionization mass spectrometry analysis looking at the Pu isotopics.

14MeV↗
DOE OSTI2023

Accelerator Performance Tuning for E3SM: 2022 Annual Report [Abstract]

Over the past few years, we have been porting the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) to GPU-accelerated architectures with a focus on the Leadership Computing Facilities at Oak Ridge and Argonne National Laboratories. This brief report describes work under a small allocation on the LANL Institutional Computing Chicoma machine to perform initial porting and performance tuning of the GPU-accelerated portions of E3SM for later production use on Chicoma, Perlmutter (a similar machine at NERSC) and eventually Venado.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Nuclear Security Mission Growth: A regional strategy for meeting operational challenges [Slides]

The nation's growing nuclear security requirements have yielded three major conclusions: (1) LANL possesses an exceptionally diversified workforce, multidimensional infrastructure and mission-focused strategy to fulfill the responsibilities entrusted to us; (2) However, amidst significant opportunity and growth, regional considerations have exposed several operational challenges; and (3) Given these challenges and the Lab's many strengths, assistance is needed to successfully execute our mission.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Perspectives on the status of fusion energy research and near term directions [Slides]

Over the past few years, nearly five billion dollars of private investments from private industry sparked excitement for accelerating the development of fusion energy technologies. Driving these investments are various technical advances in research such as those at facilities such as JET, EAST, NIF, etc. At the same time, the Office of the President, in the spring of 2022, announced a commitment to fusion energy development as part of its strategy to combat climate change. With the goal of a pilot power plant by the 2040s, the research strategy shifted to public private partnerships as a means for the government to support the lofty goal of shorten the deployment time of fusion energy technologies. The rapid change in strategy created a quickly changing research landscape with many potential opportunities. In this presentation, I will attempt to paint a picture of the current state of fusion energy, highlight major challenges, and provide insights into some near-term opportunities for LANL.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

w22_laser-radiography: Laser-Based MeV Radiography [Slides]

X-ray sources based on high-power short pulse lasers have unique advantages over conventional sources, like small spot size, flexible configuration, and tailorable spectra. Development of these sources will allow LANL to fulfill an urgent need to deploy flexible, compact, x-ray sources for static and dynamic radiography at our firing sites and facilities such as pRad and U1a. Our IC allocation supports the development of a predictive modeling capability of these laser-based sources.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2023

Development of Low-Power H - Proton Beam Capability in Area-A

A low-power proton beam capability in Area-A will support NNSA, LANL, Global Security, DoD, and Office of Science missions. It will also provide a stepping-stone towards other future uses of Area-A. We propose a cost-effective technical approach to achieve this goal. The main focus of this project will be to provide beam for a radiation effect beamline and a second pRad beamline.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Release of ENDF/B-VIII.1β1-Based ACE Data Files

On March 1 st , 2023, the National Nuclear Data Center (NNDC) released the ENDF/B-VIII.1β1 nuclear data library, which contained neutron, spontaneous and neutron-induced fission yield, and alpha sublibraries. The library was released in the standard Evaluated Nuclear Data File (ENDF) format. The files can be accessed on Brookhaven National Laboratory’s GitLab. The thermal scattering law (TSL) sublibrary will be released at a later date. The files provided in the neutron sublibrary were processed into A Compact ENDF (ACE)-formatted files, verified, and validated by the XCP-5 Nuclear Data Team. The resulting collection of ACE files will be referred to as the “e81b1” library. This report details the processing of these files and the quality assurance approach taken. This is not intended to be a full validation effort; rather, this library is intended to simply reproduce the released files for further validation testing by the community. The e81b1 ACE library will be released to the NNDC for access through GitLab and hosted locally on LANL computing resources. This library is only intended for analysis to support the future ENDF/B-VIII.1 release and should not be used for production results.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

The GammaSpec Package for Automated Gamma-ray Analysis (V.1.0)

This report describes the GammaSpec package, a tool developed to automate the analysis and comparison of gamma-ray spectra. The goal of this tool is to drastically reduce, or even eliminate, currently time consuming processes for comparing large sets of gamma-ray measurements. There are a number of potential applications for this work throughout the laboratory, but particularly within Global Security. Current work flows where large numbers of measured spectra must be compared for anomolies and outliers often consist of loading and visually inspecting individual spectra, or utilizing small-batch tools. One such example is the PeakEasy tool also developed at LANL. PeakEasy has a robust and tested feature set for calibrating, identifying, and fitting gamma-ray spectra. However it’s intention was not for batch processing and automated comparison of large numbers of spectra. This tool is not intended to replace PeakEasy in an analyzers arsenal, but to instead augment it. The intention here is to automate the isolation of spectra of particular interest, which can then be studied in further detail. This report is arranged as follows. Section 2 lays out the design goals and desired functionality of the package. Section 3 describes the algorithms developed and chosen to accomplish those goals. Section 4 describes the primary interaction with the tool, as well as it’s resulting output. Following these sections, results are presented from a set of example datasets from High Purity Germanium (HPGe) detectors in Sec. 5. Finally, the current status is summarized in Sec. 6.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

An evaluation of risks associated with relying on Fortran for mission critical codes for the next 15 years

This document examines risks associated with relying on Fortran for codes critical to nuclear security into the late 2030s. The study was requested by the LANL ASC program office to support its decisions. To date, much of the discussion about the prospects for Fortran has tended to be informal and centered on questions (such as, “will the language be around in 20 years”) that are impossible to answer with any certainty. By focusing on estimates of the likelihood associated with different outcomes, rather than on specific predictions, we hope to clarify points of disagreement within the community and strengthen the analytic basis for reasoning about the future.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2023

Initial Delayed Critical Configuration of SHEBA I and Subcritical Measurements by Californium Source-Driven Noise Analysis

In September 1980, the initial delayed critical configuration of the Solution High-Energy Burst Assembly (SHEBA I) was assembled, and the US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) staff performed near critical and subcritical measurements using the californium source-driven noise analysis (CSDNA) method at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) Critical Experiments Facility. An unreflected 56 cm outside diameter stainless-steel cylindrical tank was partially filled with uranyl fluoride solution (235U enrichment was 4.95 wt %) until delayed criticality was achieved. Then, measurements were performed for various fuel solution heights from delayed critical to 60% of the height required for delayed criticality. The stainless-steel tank had an inside diameter of 54.6 cm and a height of 105 cm and was partially (20–36.5 cm) filled with an aqueous solution of uranyl fluoride (with a density of 2.162 g/cm 3 ). The density of the uranium in solution was 1.042 g/cm 3 , and the solution had a H/U atomic ratio of 20.43. The tank had a 6.35 mm wall thickness and an axial reentrant tube with an inside diameter of 6.02 cm and wall thickness of 0.165 cm. The tank was essentially unreflected on the top and sides because it was in a thin metal shed. The reactivity of the near–delayed critical configuration was −10.4 cents, which corresponds to a k eff value of 0.99922. In addition to the CSDNA measurements, the prompt neutron decay constants were determined from break frequency noise analysis (BNFA) measurements. The subcritical neutron multiplication factors from CSDNA and BFNA compared extremely well. These data can be used as the basis of International Nuclear Criticality Safety Evaluation benchmark for the near-critical configuration, and the k eff values at various subcritical configurations can be used as subcritical benchmarks. Furthermore, the measured prompt neutron decay constants can be used as reactor physics benchmarks. This report documents the experimental information for the measurements performed so that, at a later date, researchers could perform the required uncertainty and calculational analyses and documentation to use these data for an International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Program (ICSBEP) or Nuclear Energy Agency benchmarks. The measured prompt neutron decay constants can be used as the basis of a benchmark for the International Reactor Physics Evaluation Program (IRPhEP). The data from these measurements are available from the ORNL Records Management Services Department, and the logbook is available from ICSBEP at Idaho National Laboratory.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Application of Particle Accelerators to Mitigate Energy and Climate Change Problems Facing America

Reliable CO 2 -free baseload power is needed to address ever-increasing demands for electricity while minimizing adverse climate change. Diversified power supply provided by solar, wind, geothermal, and nuclear reactors can displace the use of fossil fuels. The United States (U.S.) is taking a new look at nuclear power as a source of electrical energy and the nuclear industry is proposing new approaches which may minimize capital costs. However, nuclear power comes with a variety of technical problems. Chief among those is managing the used fuel from nuclear reactors. No long-term, practicable solution to this problem is available. The lack of progress on a comprehensive waste management strategy restricts growth in the nuclear power industry and minimizes the role that nuclear energy may serve as part of a zero-carbon future (Bahr, 2021). According to the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, as amended, the U.S. Government has possession of the used reactor fuel and incurs large annual storage fees paid to utilities to store and safeguard the accumulated used fuel. In effect, short term on-site storage of nuclear waste is the current waste management plan. The amount of used reactor fuel in the U.S. is approximately 80,000 metric tons. While no geologic repository exists within the U.S., the potential site at Yucca Mountain, NV would accommodate 70,000 metric tons, which fails to meet current and future needs. Given the technical and political challenges associated with establishing a single geological storage site, it is necessary for the U.S. to implement technologies that improve the suitability of geological storage by reducing the volume and radiotoxicity of stored material. No extant technology meets this need. Accelerator driven waste burners have been proposed as a scalable method to process used nuclear fuel, however considerable technical challenges remain which impede commercialization. Innovations in design require investigation of novel materials, development of accurate models and simulations, and a comprehensive assessment of safety and performance. This proposal elaborates how LANL is uniquely positioned to make key contributions to this area of research.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2023

IER - 551: Experiment for Unresolved Resonance of Plutonium Actinides (EUROPA): CED-1 for True Intermediate Pu Benchmark

IER-551 or the Experiment for Unresolved Resonance Of Plutonium Actinides (EUROPA), is an experiment campaign to design and execute a series of true intermediate energy plutonium critical configurations. EUROPA is a collaboration between Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), and the French Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire (IRSN) to validate current and future evaluations of 239,240 Pu isotopes. Preliminary designs were optimized using Particle Swarm Optimization to save on computation time and the configuration with highest percentage of intermediate neutrons causing fission found was BeO-Cd. This combination has over 70% of fissions occurring from intermediate energy neutrons. Secondary considerations regarding end benchmark uncertainties and quality of nuclear data resulted in a beryllium metal only experiment proposed as the final system. This final preliminary design achieves 68% intermediate fissions, sensitivities of fission and capture cross sections of 239 Pu of 0.3021 and -0.1610 respectively.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Solving National Security Challenges [Slides]

In 1943, Los Alamos National Laboratory was founded with a single, urgent purpose: to build an atomic bomb. Today, LANL focuses on maintaining a strategic nuclear deterrent, developing technology, and using science and engineering to protect the nation's security. Our workers, facilities, and instruments detect nuclear weapons, facilities, and instruments; promote cooperation and diplomacy; and limit nuclear arms and the spread of nuclear materials, technology, and expertise.

45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEF↗
DOE OSTI2023

DOE Sustainability Award

I’m nominating Shannon Blair from the Sustainability Program and Michael Moss from Pollution Prevention Program for the DOE Outstanding Sustainability Program/Project Award for their efforts in reducing sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) emissions at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and creating a system of accounting for improved tracking of SF6 emissions in the future.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Soil, Foodstuffs, and Biota Program [Slides]

We use several environmental monitoring tools to assess ecosystem health and in part, risk to human health. Generally, the concentrations of chemicals we observe are below background and screening levels. All of our monitoring data are available in Intellus, and our analyses and results are reported in the Annual Site Environmental Report. Our program is only one of several monitoring programs at LANL, others include air, surface water, ground water, canyon sediments. We strive to improve the program by incorporating new monitoring techniques, monitoring new locations, monitoring new chemicals of interest, and by using robust statistical analyses.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

DRiFT - Release 1.1.1: Organic Scintillators

DRiFT (a Detector Response Function Toolkit) is LANL-developed software that postprocesses output from the extensively validated radiation transport code, MCNP, and generates realistic nuclear instrumentation response. DRiFT is designed to be flexible, enabling users to specify detector type and many experimental settings, as well as accommodating the addition of their own desired features. Although DRiFT development has included scintillator, gas, and semiconductor features, the focus of this release is on organic scintillator and associated capabilities. Organic scintillators are widely used in the areas of nuclear safeguards and nuclear non-proliferation efforts. DRiFT has several diagnostic and detector physics features relevant to detailed scintillator simulations including: tracking source particle information, scintillation light production, the effects of PMT quantum efficiency and gain, and digitizer settings. Users can select responses from many scintillator and PMT types supported natively by DRiFT, or add their own by following the instructions in this document. We acknowledge that DRiFT is under active development, bug reports and general questions and comments should be directed to Madison Andrews, madison@lanl.gov. This manual is divided into four parts: I) An overview of DRiFT, including how to obtain and install the executable, II) A description of the detector physics related to scintillators available, III) a description of more general DRiFT features the user may find useful, and IV) a description of the test suite and examples made available with the code release.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2023

IER 296 Experiment-Thermal Analysis and IRSN Response [Slides]

This set of slides summarizes progress, highlights, and issues related to the LANL design engineering effort for the IER 296 critical experiment. FEA simulation results are presented for the fuel elements on an insulated surface. Preliminary responses for the meeting agenda are documented.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2023

FY22 NCSP accomplishments for U and Pu Evaluations [Slides]

This presentation covers fiscal year 2022 for Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP) accomplishments for Uranium (U) and Plutonium (Pu) evaluations. This presentation includes an overview on plutonium and uranium. Additionally, this presentation covers the inclusion of sub-thermal data for 235 U and the inclusion of LANL ratio capture-to-fission data for 233 U and 235 Pu. The presentation ends with a discussion on 239 Pu Primary fit of Mosby's data as reported and a look at the uncertainty quantification.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗