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DOE OSTI2019

Path of Disposal for Hazardous and Non-hazardous Waste from Cradle to Grave

Hazardous waste is a threat to human health and the environment and must be managed and disposed of properly. A Solid Waste is defined as any material (solid, liquid, containerized gas) which has been discarded, abandoned (no longer needed), or recycled. The Resource Conservation Recovery Act (RCRA) is a law that creates the framework for the proper management of solid waste. Under RCRA, EPA has developed a program which ensures hazardous waste is managed safely from the moment it is generated to its final disposal (cradle-to-grave)2. To educate about how waste is handled at the Savannah River Research Campus (SRRC) under RCRA, the path it takes from point of generation (cradle) to disposal (grave), and the responsibilities of every person involved in the process. Researcher or other laboratory personnel that generates waste as a result of their work Responsibilities: - Fill out inventory log sheet and corresponding container sheet which includes the constituents of the waste; - Properly label waste container with SAA/WSA ID no., generator's name, what it is, the hazards, and date; - Place waste in designated waste storage area. Laboratory Custodian Responsibilities: - Ensures waste is handled and stored properly; - Ensures inventory is updated; - Ensures all container sheets are completed; - Ensures only authorized personal have access to waste storage areas. Environmental Compliance Authority Responsibilities: - Develops waste procedures; - Provide waste training; - Inspects for improperly handled waste; - Establishes or closes waste storage areas as needed; - Determines if waste can be recycled; - Determines if waste is RCRA hazardous: Is it U or P listed? - Unused commercial chemical products; Is it F listed - Spent solvents; Is it characteristic? - Flammable/Oxidizer, Corrosive, Reactive, Toxic; - Weighs waste to ensure laboratory has not exceeded its monthly or total storage limits; - Maintains waste records; - Determines how waste should be disposed: Trash - Nonhazardous solids; Drain - Nonhazardous Liquids; Labpack; - Prepares waste for shipment with Vendor and Department of Transportation (DOT) personnel. Packages, Transports, and Treats Hazardous Waste Responsibilities: - Must be EPA permitted and approved by the Department of Energy - Picks up hazardous waste for transport to a treatment, storage or disposal facility depending on waste disposal requirements - Must meet all Department of Transportation regulations for transporting hazardous waste - Dispose of waste according to RCRA regulations. Due to the potential risks to human health and the environment, waste must be handled safely through the chain of possession from cradle to grave. To ensure proper handling, there are many safety checks as required by RCRA and DOT regulations. This includes proper labeling, inventory, and characterization to ensure all hazards are known, inspections by the Custodian, ECA, and the state regulator (SCDHEC), and transportation verifications and manifesting. One of the best ways to reduce the risks that waste presents is to minimize or eliminate the creation of waste. This can be accomplished through source reduction which includes: Inventory control, material substitution, process modification, improved housekeeping, and preventative maintenance and recycling.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

DOE OSTI2016

FARGO3D: A NEW GPU-ORIENTED MHD CODE

We present the FARGO3D code, recently publicly released. It is a magnetohydrodynamics code developed with special emphasis on the physics of protoplanetary disks and planet–disk interactions, and parallelized with MPI. The hydrodynamics algorithms are based on finite-difference upwind, dimensionally split methods. The magnetohydrodynamics algorithms consist of the constrained transport method to preserve the divergence-free property of the magnetic field to machine accuracy, coupled to a method of characteristics for the evaluation of electromotive forces and Lorentz forces. Orbital advection is implemented, and an N-body solver is included to simulate planets or stars interacting with the gas. We present our implementation in detail and present a number of widely known tests for comparison purposes. One strength of FARGO3D is that it can run on either graphical processing units (GPUs) or central processing units (CPUs), achieving large speed-up with respect to CPU cores. We describe our implementation choices, which allow a user with no prior knowledge of GPU programming to develop new routines for CPUs, and have them translated automatically for GPUs.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2025

Data-Driven Energy Resilience Assessment and Enhancement in Urban Communities: A Case Study in Detroit

This paper presents a data-driven framework for assessing and enhancing energy resilience in urban communities. The resilience assessment is based on two datasets: 1) annual aggregated power outage data and 2) 15-minute interval outage data. High-impact, low-probability (HILP) events are identified within these datasets to evaluate community resilience under extreme conditions. To enhance resilience, an optimization framework utilizing mixed integer linear programming is developed to determine the optimal sizing and placement of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems and battery energy storage systems (BESS). This method offers a cost-effective and practical solution for improving energy resilience in vulnerable communities. Furthermore, a case study of the City of Detroit in Michigan demonstrates the effectiveness of the framework through simulation and validation.

Energy resilience assessment↗

DOE OSTI2014

Nuclear Data for Medical Applications – Recent Developments and Future Requirements

Cancer treatment represents a major economic and medical issue because of the extensive incidence of the disease worldwide, with a particularly large rate of increase to be found in developing countries. Over the previous twenty years, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has dedicated a series of investigations towards identifying and quantifying the production routes and decay characteristics of radioisotopes judged to be of existing and emerging importance in nuclear medicine and radiotherapy. Both the recommendations formulated during the course of these technical debates and the results of recently completed and on-going IAEA coordinated research projects are focused towards the successful evolution of improvements in nuclear data for medical applications throughout the early 21{sup st} century.

07 ISOTOPE AND RADIATION SOURCES↗

DOE OSTI2021

Demonstration of the On-the-Fly Shielding Analysis Method: Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition

This report documents work performed supporting the US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Nuclear Energy (NE) Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition (SFWD) Integrated Waste Management activities under work breakdown structure element 1.08.02.04.01, “Data and Tools Development, Validation, and Maintenance.” In particular, this report fulfills milestone M3SF-21OR020401016, “Implement on-the-fly dose analysis methodology in UNF-ST&DARDS” within work package SF-21OR02040101, “Commercial SNF Characterization - ORNL.” The Used Nuclear Fuel - Storage, Transportation & Disposal Analysis Resource and Data System (UNFST& DARDS) enables automated dose rate calculations for spent nuclear fuel (SNF) transportation packages and storage casks using a Monte Carlo radiation transport code. The explicit method uses a detailed model of the SNF system and its contents. Therefore, a dose rate calculation is required for each as-loaded transportation package or storage cask because the SNF assemblies within a canister typically have unique irradiation characteristics. An alternate method, referred to as the “on-the-fly” shielding analysis method, has been proposed that requires only a set of Monte Carlo dose rate calculations for each transportation packaging/storage cask design. The results of the Monte Carlo dose rate calculations are independent of the SNF assembly irradiation and decay characteristics. The dose rate values may then be combined with the radiation source strength of the SNF assemblies associated with a particular transportation packaging/storage cask design to determine actual dose rates. This report presents on-the-fly dose rate calculations for a representative SNF storage cask and verification of the on-the-fly dose rate calculation results by comparison with reference dose rate calculations using the explicit Monte Carlo dose rate calculation. The on-the-fly shielding analysis method was implemented in UNF-ST&DARDS. A Python program was developed to process the MAVRIC dose rate results obtained by source particle type, energy group, and fuel geometry region. A Python processor created binary files, which were saved as a special UNF-ST&DARDS library for on-the- fly shielding analyses. UNF-ST&DARDS uses the precalculated on-the-fly binary libraries generated by the Python data processor and directly executes the Python code for on-the-fly dose analysis. This Python code unzips the pre-generated binary files mentioned above, reads the data, and combines them with user-specified sources for dose and uncertainty calculations. The Python programs were verified using Excel calculations and by comparison with the values obtained with the MAVRIC post-processing utilities applied to the 3dmap files. This method can currently be used to determine dose rates for as-loaded HI-STORM FW storage casks. The UNF-ST&DARDS analysis wizard for on-the-fly shielding analysis is described in this report.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

DOE OSTI2015

Design Studies for a Multiple Application Thermal Reactor for Irradiation Experiments (MATRIX)

The Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) is a high power density test reactor specializing in fuel and materials irradiation. For more than 45 years, the ATR has provided irradiations of materials and fuels testing along with radioisotope production. Should unforeseen circumstances lead to the decommissioning of ATR, the U.S. Government would be left without a large-scale materials irradiation capability to meet the needs of its nuclear energy and naval reactor missions. In anticipation of this possibility, work was performed under the Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) program to investigate test reactor concepts that could satisfy the current missions of the ATR along with an expanded set of secondary missions. A survey was conducted in order to catalogue the anticipated needs of potential customers. Then, concepts were evaluated to fill the role for this reactor, dubbed the Multi-Application Thermal Reactor Irradiation eXperiments (MATRIX). The baseline MATRIX design is expected to be capable of longer cycle lengths than ATR given a particular batch scheme. The volume of test space in In-Pile-Tubes (IPTs) is larger in MATRIX than in ATR with comparable magnitude of neutron flux. Furthermore, MATRIX has more locations of greater volume having high fast neutron flux than ATR. From the analyses performed in this work, it appears that the lead MATRIX design can be designed to meet the anticipated needs of the ATR replacement reactor. However, this design is quite immature, and therefore any requirements currently met must be re-evaluated as the design is developed further.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

DOE OSTI2022

Assessment of ASI-developed Sensors for Inclusion in METL Testing

The Advanced Sensors and Instrumentation (ASI) program facilitates the development of new sensors for both conventional and advanced reactors. Advanced reactor concepts utilize coolants other than light water, such as molten salts, liquid sodium, and high-temperature helium. Qualification of sensors developed for these advanced reactors is complicated by the relatively small number of facilities available that can provide relevant testing conditions (e.g., temperature, flow, and coolant chemistry). This report identifies sensors that were developed under the ASI program and may be tested in one available testbed: the Mechanisms Engineering Test Loop (METL) at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), a non-nuclear liquid sodium flow facility.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

DOE OSTI2014

Guidelines for Implementation of an Advanced Outage Control Center to Improve Outage Coordination, Problem Resolution, and Outage Risk Management

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 Department of Energy (DOE) and 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. The LWRS program serves to help the U.S. nuclear industry adopt new technologies and engineering solutions that facilitate the continued safe operation of the plants and extension of the current operating licenses. The purpose of this research is to improve management of nuclear power plant (NPP) outages through the development of an advanced outage control center (AOCC) that is specifically designed to maximize the usefulness of communication and collaboration technologies for outage coordination and problem resolution activities. This technical report for industry implementation outlines methods and considerations for the establishment of an AOCC. This report provides a process for implementation of a change management plan, evaluation of current outage processes, the selection of technology, and guidance for the implementation of the selected technology. Methods are presented for both adoption of technologies within an existing OCC and for a complete OCC replacement, including human factors considerations for OCC design and setup.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

DOE OSTI2023

2022 Annual Report Laboratory Directed Research & Development

Idaho National Laboratory’s (INL’s) mission is “to discover, demonstrate and secure innovative nuclear energy solutions, other clean energy options and critical infrastructure.” INL executes this mission through research and development across the continuum from basic science to applied science to engineering demonstration and then deployment. The Department of Energy (DOE) Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) program enables INL to conduct high-risk, impactful research that enriches the laboratory capabilities in order to further its missions. INL’s LDRD portfolio specifically advances the core capabilities of the laboratory aligned with its five science and technology initiatives: 1) nuclear reactor sustainment and expanded deployment, 2) integrated fuel cycle solutions, 3) integrated energy systems, 4) advanced design and manufacturing for extreme environments, and 5) secure and resilient cyber-physical systems. The 45 projects that ended in fiscal year 2022 and highlighted in this report are just a small sample of the impressive breadth and depth of cutting-edge science, technology, and engineering ongoing at INL.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

DOE OSTI2015

Deactivation and decommissioning web log analysis using big data technology - 15710

The D and D Knowledge Management Information Tool (D and D KM- IT) is a web-based knowledge management information tool built for the D and D user community. Big data is a massive volume of structured and unstructured datasets which is so large that it's difficult to process using traditional database techniques. Web logs are the repository of files which are generated automatically for any operation on the web site. Web log files generated from the D and D KM-IT will be processed using the Apache Hadoop Framework to extract meaningful data. Hadoop is an open-source software framework for storing and processing big data in a distributed environment on large clusters of commodity hardware. Hadoop framework consists of two main layers: Hadoop distributed file system (HDFS) and the Execution engine (MapReduce). Automatic parallelization and distribution; clean and simple programming abstraction. Implementation: Web log files from the D and D KM-IT server are fetched using Apache Flume and loaded into the Hadoop distributed file system. Using the Apache Hcatalog tool, the web log data is parsed and converted into a structured table format. A Pig program is developed to query the tables to retrieve and store the significant information onto the HDFS. The extracted data is fed to business visualization tools such as Microsoft Excel for analysis and reporting. Results The reports generated through the web log data processing will be analyzed to improve the usability and performance of the D and D KM-IT. Conclusion/Future Work: User keyword information can be explored to add new trending topics to the D and D KM-IT application. Statistics generated can be compared to analysis reports from existing analytical tools.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

DOE OSTI2022

A709 Qualification Plan Update and Mechanical Properties Data Assessment

This report provides a summary of the development effort for the qualification of Alloy 709, an advanced austenitic stainless steel, in the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code, Section III, Division 5, High Temperature Reactors. It provides an assessment of the mechanical properties data generated to date from the tensile, creep, fatigue and creep-fatigue tests of the precipitation-treated Alloy 709 from two commercial heats in plate product form. It was concluded that the mechanical properties of Alloy 709 with the precipitation treatment continued to outperform those of Type 316 stainless steel. This affirms the recommendation to Code qualification this alloy as a replacement for Type 316 stainless steel to support the objective of reducing the construction and operating costs to incentivize advanced reactor deployment. The data also demonstrated that the precipitation treatment is effective in enhancing the creep-fatigue resistance of Alloy 709 while maintaining a significant creep strength advantage over Type 316 stainless steel. This report also provides an update to the test conditions for the creep, fatigue and creep-fatigue test matrices in order to cover the Code Case data package more effectively. Finally, it is recommended to continue the Alloy 709 Code Case Testing Program to develop the data package needed for the determination of the material-specific design parameters for inclusion in the Alloy 709 Code Case.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

DOE OSTI2018

Prototype System for Detecting Interactions between Current Plant Configuration States and Component Manipulations Directed by In-Use Procedures

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 extension of their current operating licenses. The Outage Risk Management Improvement Pilot Project seeks to improve the management of nuclear power plant outages 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 equipment out of service would result in degraded conditions with respect to nuclear safety or regulatory compliance. Probabilistic risk assessment studies are conducted to quantify the 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 that is being relied on to meet the requirements of the nuclear safety plan. In addition, Operations and the 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 in 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 project will develop tools and strategies to minimize these interactions. This report describes a prototype tool designed to support plant personnel in controlling work during NPP outages to prevent unintended interactions. A software application was created to manage and display important configuration information and utilize natural language processing to access the impacts of upcoming procedures and work orders. Initial industry feedback is also presented.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

DOE OSTI2024

Rooftop Photovoltaics and Electric Vehicle Co-Adoption: Attitudes, Norms, Diffusion, and Economics

The overall objectives of the project were to (1) Identify personal and social norms, peer effects, demographics and contextual factors (such as household energy expenditures, experience with outages, charging infrastructure availability) that may facilitate or hinder Solar-EV co-adoption; (2) outline strategies for the design of programs and practices that will enable reasoned RPV and EV adoption and their co-adoption; and (3) assemble a dataset comprised of survey responses of RPV-EV co-adopters, RPV-only adopters, EV-only adopters, and non-adopters. These objectives were only partially fulfilled given the decision to terminate the project. The research team was able to complete the semi-structured interviews, the core BY1 task and summarize the results below. As well, once the team learned of the research project’s fate, it sought and obtained the DOE SETO Technical Manager’s approval to repurpose funds for BY2 tasks to the extent feasible. Rather than invest further resources in expanding the pool of potential survey respondents and having no budget to survey, the research team repurposed funds subject and undertook a more limited (geographically) survey, but also expanded to it to include contingent valuation questions. The analysis of the survey data will necessarily be delayed given the lack of budget support, although some information on the respondent sample is in the results. Given a lack of attention to co-adoption previously, the insights generated in this project should assist decision-makers and industry actors in the development of programs and practices that enable reasoned RPV adoption and EV adoption and their co-adoption.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2017

Baseline Characterization Database Verification Report – NBG-18 Billet 635-4

This engineering calculations and analysis report is a validity evaluation of the physical and mechanical property databases collected on a billet of nuclear grade graphite (i.e., NBG-18 Billet 635-4) in support of the Advanced Reactor Technologies Baseline Graphite Characterization Program. Millions of raw data points that have been collected during testing and quantification analyses for these billets, the summary scalar property values and supplementary traceability data are collected into comprehensive spreadsheets. Data sets are comprised of single billets of graphite for any given grade, organized by mechanical test specimen type and further subdivided into individual spreadsheet tabs according to the specific test or evaluation being performed. This report is not a direct analysis of properties and will not provide information on the validity or performance characteristics of the graphite itself. Rather, it is intended as a verification of the completeness of actual data collected in accordance with PLN-3467, “Baseline Graphite Characterization Plan: Electromechanical Testing,” and its representation of the measurement and test results with sole regard to the graphite billets under evaluation.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

DOE OSTI2017

Technologies for Detecting Interactions between Current Plant Configuration States and Component Manipulations Directed by In-Use Procedures

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 extension of their current operating licenses. A new area of LWRS research, Outage Risk Management Improvement (ORMI) seeks to improve the management of nuclear power plant outages 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 equipment out of service would result in degraded conditions with respect to nuclear safety or regulatory compliance. Probabilistic risk assessment studies are conducted to quantify the 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 that is being relied on to meet the requirements of the nuclear safety plan. In addition, Operations and the 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 in 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 project will develop tools and strategies to minimize these interactions.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

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↗

DOE OSTI2014

Free software for performing physical analysis of systems for digital radiography and mammography

Purpose: In this paper, the authors present a free software for assisting users in achieving the physical characterization of x-ray digital systems and image quality checks. Methods: The program was developed as a plugin of a well-known public-domain suite ImageJ. The software can assist users in calculating various physical parameters such as the response curve (also termed signal transfer property), modulation transfer function (MTF), noise power spectra (NPS), and detective quantum efficiency (DQE). It also includes the computation of some image quality checks: defective pixel analysis, uniformity, dark analysis, and lag. Results: The software was made available in 2009 and has been used during the last couple of years by many users who gave us valuable feedback for improving its usability. It was tested for achieving the physical characterization of several clinical systems for digital radiography and mammography. Various published papers made use of the outcomes of the plugin. Conclusions: This software is potentially beneficial to a variety of users: physicists working in hospitals, staff working in radiological departments, such as medical physicists, physicians, engineers. The plugin, together with a brief user manual, are freely available and can be found online ( http://www.medphys.it/downloads.htm ). With our plugin users can estimate all three most important parameters used for physical characterization (MTF, NPS, and also DQE). The plugin can run on any operating system equipped with ImageJ suite. The authors validated the software by comparing MTF and NPS curves on a common set of images with those obtained with other dedicated programs, achieving a very good agreement.

62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE↗

DOE OSTI2020

Cummins Electric Truck with Range-Extending Engine (ETREE) Project (Final Technical Report)

The Cummins Electric Truck with Range Extending Engine (ETREE) program designed, developed, and demonstrated a range extending electric vehicle that employs an electrified propulsion system installed in a class 6 commercial vehicle (Peterbilt 220). This project was relevant to industry and the greater public because at the time of the project there were two keys to widespread electrified commercial vehicle adoption yet to be realize: 1) For pure electrified vehicle adoption, battery improvements are needed: Cost must decrease, and energy density must increase. 2) Electric vehicles must overcome fleet operator risks such as: operations in cold climates, hilly terrain, or where majority of conventional trucks are replaced with electrified vehicles. In the near to medium term these adoption hurdles were address by the objectives of this project. A plug-in hybrid vehicle that could be operated in all electric mode for most of its workday optimizing the use of grid energy with the ability to supplement energy demand with the onboard range extending engine. This project’s architecture provided ability to match a conventional class 6 commercial vehicle range and performance characteristics prior to the ubiquitous adoption of battery electric vehicle charging infrastructure as well. Additionally, the vehicles produced as part of this project can be considered a prototype for a commercially viable heavily electrified commercial vehicle because most of the physical hardware used for the project is commercially available in the market today. The ETREE program met its main objectives and demonstrated 65% fuel consumption reduction as compared to a conventional class 6 vehicle while meeting performance and range expectations. This was achieved by drawing upon the strengths of the assembled team: Cummins, PACCAR, the Ohio State University, Argonne National Laboratory and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS↗