Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “Source release”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 1,315 records · Page 73

Fission Matrix Processing Using the MCNP6.3 HDF5 Restart File

This paper describes an approach to interrogating the fission matrix available in the HDF5-formatted restart file (also known as the “runtape” file), which is produced by the upcoming public release of the MCNP R code, version 6.3. The fission matrix, its eigenvalues, and its eigenvectors, are important tools for characterizing fissile systems such as research and power reactors and for accelerating the convergence of the Monte Carlo fission-source site distribution.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Precursor Analysis Report: Cyber Attack on Thyssenkrupp Blast Furnace 2014

The Cyber Attack on Thyssenkrupp Blast Furnace 2014 Precursor Analysis Report leverages publicly available information about the Thyssenkrupp Steel Mill cyber attack and catalogs anomalous observables for each technique employed in the attack. This analysis is based upon the methodology of the Cybersecurity for the Operational Technology Environment (CyOTE) program. In December 2014, the German Government’s Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) released a report detailing a cyber attack on a German steel mill that occurred earlier that year, though exact dates and details of the attack were not revealed. While the report did not specify the name of the company, multiple sources identified the victim as one of Europe’s largest steel manufacturers, Thyssenkrupp AG. Further, Thyssenkrupp announced on 16 May of that year that Europe’s largest blast furnace, “Schwelgern 2,” located at its facility in Duisburg, Germany, would be offline for several weeks for repairs and upgrades, suggesting Schwelgern 2 was likely the target of the attack. The attack began in early 2014, when adversaries infiltrated the victim steel mill’s Information Technology (IT) network via a spearphishing campaign, then worked their way into the Operational Technology (OT) environment, where they executed software that caused denial of service, denial of control, and eventually a loss of control. This led to the blast furnace shutting down without proper safety procedures, resulting in catastrophic physical damage. No lives were lost in the incident, but ThyssenKrupp suffered $4 million in damage to the blast furnace and an additional $6 million in lost revenue. The adversaries required specialized knowledge and expertise in steel production, which enabled them to compromise a variety of internal systems and components across both IT and OT networks. The attack also demonstrated detailed knowledge of the industrial control systems (ICS) and production processes being used. This combination resulted in one of the earliest known publicly reported cybersecurity incidents resulting in physical damage to ICS equipment. Researchers and analysts identified 19 unique techniques (used in a sequence of 20 steps) utilized during the attack with a total of 454 observables using MITRE ATT&CK® for Industrial Control Systems. The CyOTE program assesses observables accompanying techniques used prior to the triggering event to identify opportunities to detect malicious activity. If observables accompanying the attack techniques are perceived and investigated prior to the triggering event, earlier comprehension of malicious activity can take place. Fifteen of the identified techniques used during the Thyssenkrupp cyber attack were precursors to the triggering event. Analysis identified 369 observables associated with these precursor techniques, 316 of which were assessed to have an increased likelihood of being perceived in the 120 days preceding the triggering event. The response and comprehension time could have been reduced if the observables had been identified earlier. The information gathered in this report contributes to a library of observables tied to a repository of artifacts, data sources, and technique detection references for practitioners and developers to support the comprehension of indicators of attack. Asset owners and operators can use these products if they experience similar observables or to prepare for comparable scenarios.

45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEF↗

On the continuing stellar formation in the central regions of some globular clusters and their relation to the pulsars

The discrepancy between the predicted and observed quantities of gas in the central regions of massive globular clusters is discussed. It is hypothesized that star formation continues in the central regions by means of gas released during stellar evolution or trapped by the central region when the globular clusters pass through the center of the galaxy. Nine globular clusters are indicated at distances less than 1000 ps from which radio pulsars or X-ray sources are observed. It is argued that they could have formed relatively recently in closed pairs in the central regions and then ejected at the stage of supernova bursts with velocities over 100 ks/s.

Komberg, B. V.↗

Solar and stellar flares - Questions and problems

Topics which can be discussed quantitatively for both solar and stellar flares are reviewed. Physical conditions in stellar flares are briefly discussed and radio flares are considered, emphasizing the role of maser process in such flares. The penetration of particle beams and photons is examined, addressing the question whether an electron beam can penetrate to the chromosphere of a flare star. The existence of momentum balance in stellar flares is investigated, and solar-stellar differences regarding subsurface source of flare power are described. The significance for the interstellar medium of the flare star mass loss rate is addressed, and differences in mass loss mechanism between the sun and flare stars are discussed. Reconnection modeling of flare energy release is studied, and the geometrical structure of the flare site in a stellar atmosphere is described. The connection between coronal heating and flares is considered, and the origins of flare magnetic fields are discussed.

Mullan, D. J.↗

More rapid polar ozone depletion through the reaction of HOCl with HCl on polar stratospheric clouds

The direct reaction of HOCl with HCl is shown here to play a critical part in polar ozone loss. Observations of high levels of OClO and ClO in the springtime Antarctic stratosphere confirm that most of the available chlorine is in the form of ClO(x). But current photochemical models have difficulty converting HCl to ClO(x) rapidly enough in early spring to account fully for the observations. Here, a chemical model is used to show that the direct reaction of HOCl with HCl provides the missing mechanism. As alternative sources of nitrogen-containing oxidants have been converted in the late autumn to inactive HNO3 by known reactions on the sulfate layer aerosols, the reaction of HOCl with HCl on polar stratospheric clouds becomes the most important pathway for releasing that stratospheric chlorine which goes into polar night as HCl.

Prather, Michael J.↗

A Regional-Scale Assessment of Satellite Derived Precipitable Water Vapor Across The Amazon Basin

Atmospheric water vapor is widely recognized as a key climate variable, linking an assortment of poorly understood and complex processes. It is a major element of the hydrological cycle and provides a mechanism for energy exchange among many of the Earth system components. Reducing uncertainty in our current knowledge of water vapor and its role in the climate system requires accurate measurement, improved modeling techniques, and long-term prediction. Satellites have the potential to satisfy these criteria, as well as provide high resolution measurements that are not available from conventional sources. The focus of this paper is to examine the temporal and mesoscale variations of satellite derived precipitable water vapor (PW) across the Amazon Basin. This region is pivotal in the functioning of the global climate system through its abundant release of latent heat associated with heavy precipitation events. In addition, anthropogenic deforestation and biomass burning activities in recent decades are altering the conditions of the atmosphere, especially in the planetary boundary layer. A physical split-window (PSW) algorithm estimates PW using images from the GOES satellites along with the NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis data that provides the first guess information. Retrievals are made at a three-hourly time step during daylight hours in the Amazon Basin and surrounding areas for the months of June and October in 1988 (dry year) and 1995 (wet year). Spatially continuous fields are generated 5 times daily at 12Z, 15Z, 18Z, 21Z, and 00Z. These fields are then averaged to create monthly and 3 hourly monthly grids. Overall, the PSW estimates PW reasonable well in the Amazon with MAE ranging from 3.0 - 9.0 mm and MAE/observed mean around 20% in comparison to radiosonde observations. The distribution of PW generally mimics that of precipitation. Maximum values (42 - 52 mm) are located in the Northwest whereas minimum values (18 - 27 mm) are found along Brazil's East coast. Aside from the East coast, PW has a stronger north-south gradient than that of rainfall. As for the temporal variation of PW, June (1988 and 1995) experiences a peak about 1400 local time, corresponding to a maximum in air temperature. In contrast, October (1988 and 1995) experiences a maximum early in the day, 1100 local time, with a gradual decrease toward nighttime.

DeLiberty, Tracy↗

The First Widespread Solar Energetic Particle Event Observed By Solar Orbiter on 2020 November 29

Context. On 2020 November 29, the first widespread solar energetic particle (SEP) event of solar cycle 25 was observed at four widely separated locations in the inner (. 1AU) heliosphere. Relativistic electrons as well as protons with energies > 50MeV were observed by Solar Orbiter (SolO), Parker Solar Probe (PSP), the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO)-A and multiple near-Earth spacecraft. The SEP event was associated with an M4.4 class X-ray flare and accompanied by a coronal mass ejection (CME) and an extreme ultraviolet (EUV) wave as well as a type II radio burst and multiple type III radio bursts. Aims. We present multi-spacecraft particle observations and place them in context with source observations from remote sensing instruments and discuss how such observations may further our understanding of particle acceleration and transport in this widespread event. Methods. Velocity dispersion analysis (VDA) and time shift analysis (TSA) were used to infer the particle release times at the Sun. Solar wind plasma and magnetic field measurements were examined to identify structures that influence the properties of the energetic particles such as their intensity. Pitch angle distributions and first-order anisotropies were analyzed in order to characterize the particle propagation in the interplanetary medium. Results. We find that during the 2020 November 29 SEP event, particles spread over more than 230° in longitude close to 1AU. The particle onset delays observed at the different spacecraft are larger as the flare–footpoint angle increases and are consistent with those from previous STEREO observations. Comparing the timing when the EUV wave intersects the estimated magnetic footpoints of each spacecraft with particle release times from TSA and VDA, we conclude that a simple scenario where the particle release is only determined by the EUV wave propagation is unlikely for this event. Observations of anisotropic particle distributions at SolO, Wind, and STEREO-A do not rule out that particles are injected over a wide longitudinal range close to the Sun. However, the low values of the first-order anisotropy observed by near-Earth spacecraft suggest that diffusive propagation processes are likely involved.

A Kollhoff↗

Partially Erupted Prominence Material as a Diagnostic of Coronal Mass Ejection Trajectory

Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are energetic releases of large-scale magnetic structures from the Sun. CMEs can have impacts on spacecraft and at Earth. This trajectory is typically assumed to be radial, but often the CME moves outward with some spatial off set from the source region where the eruption initially occurred. A CME is frequently accompanied by a prominence eruption, a movement of cool, dense material up into the corona that can be ejected or fall back down. We investigate eruptions in which some portion of the prominence material falls back to the Sun along field lines which have reconfigured in the eruption, rather than draining back to the source or escaping with the CME. Using a method called persistence mapping, 304 ˚A images from the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), and coronagraph images from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), we measure and compare the offsets in latitude of 20 CMEs and their respective prominences with respect to the source region. The 20 events were chosen to sample over the first 10 years of the SDO mission. We find that the offsets are correlated. We find no difference between eruptions offset towards the equator or the poles, suggesting that the offset is a result of local changes in the eruptive field, rather than of the Sun’s global magnetic field structure. These findings help us contextualize individual eruptions and highlight changes in the local magnetic field associated with the prominence eruption.

B A Hovis-Afflerbach↗

Unveiling Hidden Lyman Alpha Emitters in the DESI DR1 Data

We present an automatic method based on machine-learning convolutional neural network (CNN) architecture to detect Lyman alpha emitters (LAE) hidden in the Data Release 1 spectroscopic dataset of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI). Those LAEs mostly have incorrect redshift estimations because the current DESI pipeline is not designed to detect and measure the redshifts of galaxies at $z>2$. To uncover those sources, we first visually inspect thousands of DESI spectra and construct a sample, consisting of both LAEs and non-LAEs, for training and testing the CNN-based model to (1) detect LAEs in DESI spectra and (2) determine their Ly$α$ redshifts. The final model yields $95.2\%$ purity and $95.9\%$ completeness for detecting LAEs. We apply this model to approximately $2\times10^{6}$ spectra of sources targeted as emission-line galaxies and detect 19,685 LAEs from $z\sim2$ to $3.5$ within 12 minutes with a single GPU, illustrating the high efficiency of this model for identifying LAEs. The detected LAEs are mostly at the bright end of the luminosity function with Ly$α$ luminosity $L_{\rm Lyα} \gtrsim 10^{43}$ erg/s. The high signal-to-noise composite spectrum of the detected LAEs further shows various spectral features, including P-Cygni profiles of metal lines and MgII emission lines, possible indicators of Lyman continuum escape fraction, revealing the rich astrophysical information in this LAE sample. Finally, this sample can be used to train and validate the pipelines for redshift determination of LAEs for the preparation of the DESI-II survey.

Chan, Jui-Kuan [Taiwan, Natl. Taiwan U.] (ORCID:00↗

The right conditions for high-precision dynamic temperature and heat capacity measurement via pyrometry and conductivity

The pursuit of accurate bulk temperature T under extreme conditions has been a long-standing goal of the high pressure science community, complicated by a lack of data to inform models. To reach these extremely high-pressure, high-temperature (high P − T) conditions, a combination of dynamic and heated static experiments (e.g., diamond or gem anvil cel experiments) are used. For example, in a diamond anvil cell (DAC) experiment, a sample placed in the DAC is first pressurized. Following pressurization, the sample T is increased either by heating the entire DAC (usually using resistive heating, and limited to ∼1000K) or by applying intense laser power to the sample surfaces. In a dynamic experiment, the process of pressurizing the sample also heats it. In the case of shock physics experiments, such heating is substantial, easily reaching thousands of Kelvin; in our work we have seen T ∼17000K. Most methods of measuring temperature at ambient are not compatible with experiments under these high-pressure, high-temperature conditions: thermocouples break, melt, or have conductivity properties that differ from ambient where they are calibrated; thermometers would melt; both are too slow. As a result most methods are based on non-contact techniques such as x-ray diffraction broadening, neutron scattering, or optical methods. Of these, optical methods using the visible and near-infrared region of the spectrum are the most commonly used as the sources and detectors are readily available. In the case of optical methods the optical depth, and therefore the measurement location, is limited to the surface. When a window or anvil material is used, heat flows from the sample into the window/anvil. Likewise, if the sample undergoes a change in thermodynamic state, such as expansion upon release, different T may be expected. As a result, the surface or apparent temperature T app measurement will differ from the bulk or interior temperature that is desired. This surface measurement must be related to the bulk measurement using thermal transport models and material models. While it is tempting to conclude that one should just use x-ray methods that directly probe the interior, even these methods have been shown to depend on thermal transport and material models. Regardless of the method used to create the high P − T condition, therefore, we must understand the role of thermal transport and material models upon our interpretation of the T measurement, as well as the errors and uncertainties associated with the choice of models used in the analysis. This is a substantial area of research and this paper is by no means a complete survey of the relevant sources of uncertainty. For example, we have yet to begin to address alternate transport models in a detailed manner (e.g., Tan-Ahrens), or the many models that use additional layers to approximate melting, turbulence, or epitaxial phenomena). Likewise, we have not explored the impact upon uncertainty of thermal models that use temperature-dependent thermal transport coefficients, or the wide range of material models that can be applied. Instead, this paper focuses on using one simple model, the Urtiew-Grover model, to understand the sources of error in T measurement so that we may identify how best to focus future research efforts to return the best improvements and avoid working on over-optimizing a single type of measurement. To this end, we work through some of the best and worst case scenarios for T measurement.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Quantity of 135I Released from the AGR 5/6/7 Experiment

A series of four Advanced Reactor Technologies (ART) experiments have been conducted in the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) at Idaho National Laboratory (INL). From 2006 through 2020, these experiments supported the development and qualification of the new U.S. tristructural isotropic (TRISO) particle fuel for Very High Temperature Reactors (VHTR). Each Advanced Gas Reactor (AGR) experiment consisted of multiple fueled capsules, each plumbed for independent temperature control using a mix of helium and neon gases. The gas leaving a capsule was routed to individual Fission Product Monitor (FPM) detectors. For intact fuel particles, the TRISO particle coatings provide a substantial barrier to fission product release. However, particles with failed coatings, whether because of a minute percentage of initially defective particles, those which fail during irradiation, or those designed to fail (DTF) particles, can release fission products to the flowing gas stream. Because reactive fission product elements like iodine and cesium quickly deposit on cooler capsule components and piping structures as the effluent gas leaves the reactor core, only the noble fission gas isotopes of Kr and Xe tend to reach FPM detectors. The FPM system utilizes High Purity Germanium (HPGe) detectors coupled with a thallium activated sodium iodide NaI(Tl) scintillator. The HPGe detector provides individual isotopic information, while the NaI(Tl) scintillator is used as a gross count rate meter. During irradiation, the 135mXe concentration reaching the FPM detectors is from both direct fission and by decay of the accumulated 135I. About 2.5 hours after irradiation (ten 15.3 minute 135mXe half lives) the directly produced 135mXe has decayed and only the longer lived 135I remains as a source. Decay systematics dictate that 135mXe will be in secular equilibrium with its 135I parent, such that its production rate very nearly equals the decay rate of the parent, and its concentration in the flowing gas stream will appear to decay with the parent half life. This equilibrium condition enables the determination of the amount of 135I released from the fuel particles by measurement of the 135mXe at the FPM following reactor shutdown. In this paper, the 135I released will be reported.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Hydrogen-Enhanced Lunar Oxygen Extraction and Storage Using Only Solar Power

The innovation consists of a thermodynamic system for extracting in situ oxygen vapor from lunar regolith using a solar photovoltaic power source in a reactor, a method for thermally insulating the reactor, a method for protecting the reactor internal components from oxidation by the extracted oxygen, a method for removing unwanted chemical species produced in the reactor from the oxygen vapor, a method for passively storing the oxygen, and a method for releasing high-purity oxygen from storage for lunar use. Lunar oxygen exists in various types of minerals, mostly silicates. The energy required to extract the oxygen from the minerals is 30 to 60 MJ/kg O. Using simple heating, the extraction rate depends on temperature. The minimum temperature is approximately 2,500 K, which is at the upper end of available oven temperatures. The oxygen is released from storage in a purified state, as needed, especially if for human consumption. This method extracts oxygen from regolith by treating the problem as a closed batch cycle system. The innovation works equally well in Earth or Lunar gravity fields, at low partial pressure of oxygen, and makes use of in situ regolith for system insulation. The innovation extracts oxygen from lunar regolith using a method similar to vacuum pyrolysis, but with hydrogen cover gas added stoichiometrically to react with the oxygen as it is produced by radiatively heating regolith to 2,500 K. The hydrogen flows over and through the heating element (HE), protecting it from released oxygen. The H2 O2 heat of reaction is regeneratively recovered to assist the heating process. Lunar regolith is loaded into a large-diameter, low-height pancake reactor powered by photovoltaic cells. The reactor lid contains a 2,500 K HE that radiates downward onto the regolith to heat it and extract oxygen, and is shielded above by a multi-layer tungsten radiation shield. Hydrogen cover gas percolates through the perforated tungsten shielding and HE, preventing oxidation of the shielding and HE, and reacting with the oxygen to form water vapor. The water vapor is filtered through solid regolith to remove unwanted extraction byproducts, and then condensed to a liquid state and stored at 300 to 325 K. Conversion to usable oxygen is achieved by pumping liquid water into a high-pressure electrolyzer, storing the gaseous oxygen at high pressure for use, and diverting the hydrogen back to the reactor or to storage. The results from this design effort show that this oxygen-generating concept can be developed in an efficient system with low specific mass. Advantages include use of regolith as an oxygen source, filter, and thermal insulator. The system can be tested in Earth gravity and can be expected to operate similarly in lunar gravity. The system is scalable, either by increasing the power level and output of a standard module, or by employing multiple modules.

Burton, rodney↗

Tomographic Reconstruction of the Neutron Time-Energy Spectrum from a Dense Plasma Focus

A dense plasma focus (DPF) nuclear fusion device is an attractive pulsed neutron source in many applications, due to its relatively large neutron yield, produced in a short time duration. In order to design a DPF that generates neutrons within a specified time profile, or generates a neutron energy spectrum with specific properties, it is necessary to be able to characterize and model the results of the fusion process releasing the neutrons. The time-energy spectrum of fusion neutrons is an ideal quantity to use to validate multiphysics codes that simulate the pinch and fusion processes, because it is a quantity that requires the physics of each of the stages leading up to and ending in the fusion reaction to be simulated correctly. In particular, since DPF fusion neutrons are not monoenergetic -- and there can often be several fusion pinches creating neutrons -- a computer simulation matching high quality neutron spectrum measurements provides great confidence in the fidelity of the simulation. In order to make such a comparison, it is first necessary to have quality measurements from which to infer the spectrum. In this work we pose neutron spectroscopy as the classical tomographic inverse problem from neutron time of flight data at multiple distances, but enhanced by using an additional measurement of the time profile of the fusion pinch near its source and by using detector pairs set up in a geometry that allows for scatter background subtraction. The detector pairs enhance the quality of the time of flight measurements, and the additional constraint posed by the measured time profile allows for reconstructions discretized as finely as the time measurements and in energy as finely as 100 keV, without the problem being underdetermined. We present results from a Deuterium-fueled DPF at the U.S. Department of Energy's Nevada National Security Site and show that we can infer the time-energy spectrum from our measurements for both single and multi-pinch fusion reactions with equal fidelity.

Catenacci, Jared↗

Tundra Underlain By Thawing Permafrost Persistently Emits Carbon to the Atmosphere Over 15 Years of Measurements

Warming of the Arctic can stimulate microbial decomposition and release of permafrost soil carbon (C) as greenhouse gases, and thus has the potential to influence climate change. At the same time, plant growth can be stimulated and offset C release. This study presents a 15-year time series comprising chamber and eddy covariance measurements of net ecosystem C exchange in a tundra ecosystem in Alaska where permafrost has been degrading due to regional warming. The site was a carbon dioxide source to the atmosphere with a cumulative total loss of 781.6 g C m -2 over the study period. Both gross primary productivity (GPP) and ecosystem respiration (R eco ) were already likely higher than historical levels such that increases in R eco losses overwhelmed GPP gains in most years. This shift to a net C source to the atmosphere likely started in the early 1990s when permafrost was observed to warm and thaw at the site. Shifts in the plant community occur more slowly and are likely to constrain future GPP increases as compared to more rapid shifts in the microbial community that contribute to increased Reco. Observed rates suggest that cumulative net soil C loss of 4.18–10.00 kg C m -2 —8%–20% of the current active layer soil C pool—could occur from 2020 to the end of the century. This amount of permafrost C loss to the atmosphere represents a significant accelerating feedback to climate change if it were to occur at a similar magnitude across the permafrost region.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Development of a Versatile, Full-featured Search Functionality for Indico

Indico, CERN’s popular open-source tool for event management, is in widespread use among facilities that make up the HEP community. It is extensible through a robust plugin architecture that provides features such as search and video conferencing integration. In 2018, Indico version 2 was released with many notable improvements, but without a full-featured search functionality that could be implemented easily outside of CERN. At both Fermi and Brookhaven National Laboratories, the user community viewed the lack of this popular feature as a significant impediment to deployment of the new software. In the meantime, CERN embarked upon a major redesign of their core search service, one that would also necessitate a rewrite of the Indico search interface. Seeing this pressing need, the two US labs decided to collaborate, with assistance from the CERN development team, on a project to develop the requisite search functionality for the larger user community. The resulting design exploits the simplified schema defined in the new CERN Search micro-service, based on Invenio and Elasticsearch, while still providing a flexible path to implementation for alternative backend search services. It is intended to provide a software package that can be installed easily and used out of the box, by anyone at any site. This paper will discuss the design choices and architectural challenges, and provide an overview of the deployment and use of these new plugins.

Constanta, Penelope↗

pyJSPEC - A Python Module for IBS and Electron Cooling Simulation

The intrabeam scattering is an important collective effect that can deteriorate the property of a high-intensity beam and electron cooling is a method to mitigate the IBS effect. JSPEC (JLab Simulation Package on Electron Cooling) is an open-source C++ program developed at Jefferson Lab, which simulates the evolution of the ion beam under the IBS and/or the electron cooling effect. The Python wrapper of the C++ code, pyJSPEC, for Python 3.x environment has been recently developed and released. It allows the users to run JSPEC simulations in a Python environment. It also makes it possible for JSPEC to collaborate with other accelerator and beam modeling programs as well as plentiful python tools in data visualization, optimization, machine learning, etc. In this paper, we will introduce the features of pyJSPEC and demonstrate how to use it with sample codes and numerical results.

Zhang, H.↗

Review of Release Behavior of Hydrogen & Natural Gas Blends from Pipelines

Hydrogen can be used to reduce carbon emissions by blending into other gaseous energy carriers, such as natural gas. However, hydrogen blending into natural gas has important implications for safety which need to be evaluated. Hydrogen has different physical properties than natural gas, and these properties affect safety evaluations concerning a leak of the blended gas. The intent of this report is to begin to investigate the safety implications of blending hydrogen into the natural gas infrastructure with respect to a leak event from a pipeline. A literature review was conducted to identify existing data that will better inform future hazard and risk assessments for hydrogen/natural gas blends. Metrics with safety implications such as heat flux and dispersion behavior may be affected by the overall blend ratio of the mixture. Of the literature reviewed, there was no directly observed separation of the hydrogen from the natural gas or methane blend. No literature was identified that experimentally examined unconfined releases such as concentration fields or concentration at specific distances. Computational efforts have predicted concentration fields by modified versions of existing engineering models, but the validation of these models is limited by the unavailability of literature data. There are multiple literature sources that measured flame lengths and heat flux values, which are both relevant metrics to risk and hazard assessments. These data can be more directly compared to the outputs of existing engineering models for validation.

03 NATURAL GAS↗

Development of electrostatic precipitator (ESP) technology to remove elemental mercury vapor, HG(0)

The presence of mercury vapor or other forms of mercury presents issues with worker safety, decommissioning facilities, and environmental impacts. As such, it is desired to develop a strategy to either remove or reduce mercury levels in Oak Ridge’s Y-12 Complex facilities. A testing methodology was developed to evaluate electrostatic precipitator technology for removal of mercury vapor. This methodology involved supplying mercury vapor-containing air to the ESP device by flowing air through a column containing alternating layers of sand and liquid mercury droplets. Initial attempts at quantifying the efficacy of the ESP device in removing mercury vapor were plagued with difficulties in controlling the flow of mercury into the ESP device due to poor performance of the generator column and the contamination of these experiments with mercury from an unknown source. These issues were resolved by creating a new generator column with slower air velocity and higher surface area of liquid mercury, along with moving the air intake for the ESP device to outside of the chemical hood in which testing took place. This resulted in a steady, quantified flow of mercury vapor from the generator column and no observation of unintended mercury sources. A final test of the ESP device under these controlled conditions showed that for a certain amount of time (on the order of 20-30 minutes) mercury concentrations were reduced by approximately 33 - 67% of the inlet concentration. However, episodic releases or pulses of mercury observed only at the outlet indicated that the mercury accumulated in the ESP device is periodically expelled. As a result, it was not deemed to be an efficient strategy for the removal of elemental mercury vapor.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗