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At least 1,423 records · Page 79

Establishing nationwide power system vulnerability index across US counties using interpretable machine learning

Power outages have become increasingly frequent, intense, and prolonged in the US due to climate change, aging electrical grids, and rising energy demand. However, largely due to the absence of granular spatiotemporal outage data, we lack data-driven evidence and analytics-based metrics to quantify power system vulnerability. This limitation has hindered the ability to effectively evaluate and address vulnerability to power outages in US communities. Here, in this work, we collected ∼179 million power outage records at 15-min intervals across 3022 US contiguous counties (96.15 % of the area) from 2014 to 2023. We developed a power system vulnerability assessment framework based on three dimensions (intensity, frequency, and duration) and applied interpretable machine learning models (XGBoost and SHAP) to compute Power System Vulnerability Index (PSVI) at the county level. Our analysis reveals a consistent increase in power system vulnerability across the US counties over the past decade. We identified 318 counties across 45 states as hotspots for high power system vulnerability, particularly in the West Coast (California and Washington), the East Coast (Florida and the Northeast area), the Great Lakes megalopolis (Chicago-Detroit metropolitan areas), and the Gulf of Mexico (Texas). Our heterogeneity analysis indicates that urban counties and those located along regional transmission boundaries tend to exhibit significantly higher vulnerability. Our results highlight the significance of the proposed PSVI for evaluating the vulnerability of communities to power outages. The findings underscore the widespread and pervasive impact of power outages across the country and offer crucial insights to support infrastructure operators, policymakers, and emergency managers in formulating policies and programs aimed at enhancing the resilience of the US power infrastructure.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Microstructural development from interdiffusion and reaction between U–Mo and AA6061 alloys annealed at 600° and 550 °C

The U.S. Material Management and Minimization Reactor Conversion Program is developing low enrichment fuel systems encased in Al-alloy for use in research and test reactors. Monolithic fuel plates have local regions where the Usingle bondMo fuel plate may come into contact with the Al-alloy 6061 (AA6061) cladding. This results in the development of interdiffusion zones with complex microstructures with multiple phases. In this study, the microstructural development of diffusion couples, U–7 wt%Mo, U–10 wt%Mo, and U–12 wt%Mo vs. AA6061, annealed at 600 °C for 24 h and at 550 °C for 1, 5, and 20 h, were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy with x-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy. The microstructural development and kinetics were compared to diffusion couples U–Mo vs. high purity Al and binary Al–Si alloys. As a result, the diffusion couples developed complex interaction regions where phase development was influenced by the alloying additions of the AA6061.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Long-Term Fish Monitoring in Large Rivers: Utility of “Benchmarking” across Basins

Abstract In business, benchmarking is a widely used practice of comparing your own business processes to those of other comparable companies and incorporating identified best practices to improve performance. Biologists and resource managers designing and conducting monitoring programs for fish in large river systems tend to focus on single river basins or segments of large rivers, missing opportunities to learn from those conducting fish monitoring in other rivers. We briefly examine five long-term fish monitoring programs in large rivers in the United States (Colorado, Columbia, Mississippi, Illinois, and Tallapoosa rivers) and identify opportunities for learning across programs by detailing best monitoring practices and why these practices were chosen. Although monitoring objectives, methods, and program maturity differ between each river system, examples from these five case studies illustrate the important role that long-term monitoring programs play in interpreting temporal and spatial shifts in fish populations for both established objectives and newly emerging questions. We suggest that deliberate efforts to develop a broader collaborative network through benchmarking will facilitate sharing of ideas and development of more effective monitoring programs.

Ward, David L.↗

Implementing the OpenACC Data Model

Programming accelerators today usually requires managing separate virtual and physical memories, such as allocating space in and copying data between host and device memories. The OpenACC API provides data directives and clauses to control this behavior where it is required. This paper describes how the data model is supported in current OpenACC implementations, ranging from research compilers (OpenUH and OpenARC) to a commercial compiler (the PGI OpenACC compiler). This includes implementation of the data directives and clauses, testing whether the data is already present on the device, OpenCL support, managing asynchronous data transfers and memory allocations, handling aliased data, reusing device memory, managing partially present data, and support for shared memory between host and device. Lastly, it also discusses on-going work to manage large, complex dynamic data structures.

Wolfe, Michael↗

Development of Physical Protection Regulations for Rosatom State Corporation Sites under the U.S.-Russian MPC&A Program

This paper describes issues related to upgrading the physical protection regulatory basis for Rosatom State Corporation sites. It is underlined that most of the regulatory and methodological documents for this subject area have been developed under the U.S.-Russian MPC&A Program. According to the joint management plan developed and agreed upon by the parties in 2005, nearly 50 physical protection documents were identified to be developed, approved and implemented at Rosatom sites by 2012. It is also noted that, on the whole, the plans have been fulfilled.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

Savannah River Site Environmental report for 2012

This report is an overview of effluent monitoring and environmental surveillance activities conducted on and in the vicinity of SRS from January 1 through December 31, 2012 - including the Site's performance against applicable standards and requirements. Details are provided on major programs such as the Environmental Management System (EMS) and permit compliance.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

U.S. Department of Energy Office of Health, Safety and Security Illness and Injury Surveillance Program Worker Health at a Glance, 2000-2009

The Worker Health at a Glance, 2000 – 2009 provides an overview of selected illness and injury patterns among the current DOE contractor workforce that have emerged over the 10-years covered by this report. This report is a roll-up of data from 16 individual DOE sites, assigned to one of three program offices (Office of Environmental Management, Office of Science and the National Nuclear Security Administration). In this report, an absences is defined as 40 or more consecutive work hours (5+ calendar days) off the job. Shorter absences were not included.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

Rolling Process Modeling Report. Finite-Element Model Validation and Parametric Study on various Rolling Process parameters

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) has been investigating manufacturing processes for the uranium-10% molybdenum alloy plate-type fuel for high-performance research reactors in the United States. This work supports the U.S. Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration’s Office of Material Management and Minimization Reactor Conversion Program. This report documents modeling results of PNNL’s efforts to perform finite-element simulations to predict roll-separating forces for various rolling mill geometries for PNNL, Babcock & Wilcox Co., Y-12 National Security Complex, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Idaho National Laboratory. The model developed and presented in a previous report has been subjected to further validation study using new sets of experimental data generated from a rolling mill at PNNL. Simulation results of both hot rolling and cold rolling of uranium-10% molybdenum coupons have been compared with experimental results. The model was used to predict roll-separating forces at different temperatures and reductions for five rolling mills within the National Nuclear Security Administration Fuel Fabrication Capability project. This report also presents initial results of a finite-element model microstructure-based approach to study the surface roughness at the interface between zirconium and uranium-10% molybdenum.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Review of the TREAT Conversion Conceptual Design and Fuel Qualification Plan

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is preparing to re establish the capability to conduct transient testing of nuclear fuels at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Transient Reactor Test (TREAT) facility. The original TREAT core went critical in February 1959 and operated for more than 6,000 reactor startups before plant operations were suspended in 1994. DOE is now planning to restart the reactor using the plant's original high-enriched uranium (HEU) fuel. At the same time, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Office of Material Management and Minimization Reactor Conversion Program is supporting analyses and fuel fabrication studies that will allow for reactor conversion to low-enriched uranium (LEU) fuel (i.e., fuel with less than 20% by weight 235U content) after plant restart. The TREAT Conversion Program's objectives are to perform the design work necessary to generate an LEU replacement core, to restore the capability to fabricate TREAT fuel element assemblies, and to implement the physical and operational changes required to convert the TREAT facility to use LEU fuel.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Post-Closure Report for Closed Resource Conservation and Recovery Act Corrective Action Units, Nevada National Security Site, Nevada: For Calendar Year 2017, Revision 0

This report serves as the combined annual report for post-closure activities for the following closed corrective action units (CAUs): CAU 90, Area 2 Bitcutter Containment; CAU 91, Area 3 U-3fi Injection Well CAU 92, Area 6 Decon Pond Facility; CAU 110, Area 3 WMD U-3ax/bl Crater; CAU 111, Area 5 WMD Retired Mixed Waste Pits; and, CAU 112, Area 23 Hazardous Waste Trenches. The results of the inspections, a summary of maintenance activities, and an evaluation of monitoring data are presented in this report. Site inspections are conducted annually at CAUs 90, 91, and 112; semiannually at CAUs 92 and 110; and quarterly at CAU 111. Additional inspections are conducted at CAU 92 if precipitation occurs in excess of 1.0 inches in a 24-hour period and at CAU 111 if precipitation occurs in excess of 1.0 inch in a 24-hour period. Inspections include an evaluation of the condition of the units, including covers, fences, signs, gates, and locks. At CAU 110, soil moisture monitoring, vegetation evaluations, and subsidence surveys are conducted in addition to the visual inspections. At CAU 111, soil moisture monitoring, vegetation evaluations, subsidence surveys, direct radiation monitoring, air monitoring, radon flux monitoring, and groundwater monitoring are conducted. This report will address all monitoring items notes above except groundwater monitoring. Groundwater monitoring is documented in the Nevada National Security Site Data Report: Groundwater Monitoring Program Area 5 Radioactive Waste Management Site. All required inspections, maintenance, and monitoring were conducted in accordance with the post-closure requirements of the permit. Revision 4 of Permit NEV HW0101 was issued effective December 10, 2015, and remains in effect until December 10, 2020.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Analysis of Radiolytically Generated Gases in Mini-AMORE Experiment

Argonne National Laboratory (Argonne) is assisting one of the potential domestic Mo-99 producers, SHINE Medical Technologies, as part of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Office of Material, Management, and Minimization (M 3 ) program in the development of a domestic Mo-99 production pathway that does not use highly enriched uranium (HEU). The process proposed by SHINE would produce Mo-99 by neutron-induced fission of a low enriched uranium (LEU) solution as uranyl sulfate in a subcritical assembly. As part of the development effort, Argonne is undertaking the AMORE (Argonne Molybdenum Research Experiment) project, which is essentially a pilot facility for all phases of Mo-99 production, recovery, and purification. Mini-AMORE is a part of the AMORE experiment where 2 mL samples of uranyl sulfate solution are inserted in the dry well of the AMORE target solution vessel.

07 ISOTOPE AND RADIATION SOURCES↗

MP1 Intermediate Characterization Report Summary

Great effort worldwide has been invested in replacing high enriched uranium (HEU) fuel with low enriched uranium (LEU) fuel in nuclear plants. This effort aims in safeguarding nuclear material and promoting the proliferation resistance of current reactors. The United States Department of Energy (DOE), National Nuclear Security Administration's (NNSA) Materials Management and Minimization Reactor Conversion program is actively working to convert civilian research and test reactors from the use of HEU to LEU fuel. To date, DOE NNSA has converted or verified the shutdown of various domestic reactors and also reactors worldwide. The task to develop and test a new LEU fuel while maintaining current performances has been assigned to the High-Performance Research Reactor (USHPRR) program. U alloyed with Mo achieves the goal of high uranium density necessary for the conversion of the high performance research reactors, and has also demonstrated good performance in pile [1]. The alloying process of U with Mo stabilizes the body-centered cubic (bcc) gamma phase (?-U) at room temperature. Without this alloying property enhancement, this phase is only stable at temperatures only above 770 °C. Retaining this isotropic gamma phase within the U-Mo alloy provides swelling and oxidation resistance and desired mechanical properties [2]. Generally 10% w. has been considered sufficient to achieve stabilization. However, local phenomena within the alloy can affect the local Mo content and lead to gamma phase decomposition. Because of this, it has been suggested that controlling gamma phase decomposition is most critical during processing [2-3]. The work detailed in this document is part of the HPPR program and focuses on the characterization of fresh fuel (a.k.a. as fabricated, before reactor testing) in collaboration with other laboratories including PNNL (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory), LANL (Los Alamos National Laboratory) and BWXT (Babcock and Wilcox Technologies). This testing is part of a 4 way validation for which similar samples from master plates were taken and distributed to each laboratory to independently analyze utilizing a standardized set of measurement and analysis procedures. When complete this work will supply a “toolbox” of information for alloying and fabrication parameters with its direct effects on microstructure quantified. Various parameters have been analyzed in this characterization effort (including grain size, quality of the coating layer, composition of the samples, carbide content etc.), based on the direction of the working group in ref.[4]. The final aim of this work is to increase the understanding of the impact of processing conditions on the final fuel microstructure, using fabrication processes that meet “commercial viability” requirements [4]. The strength of this campaign rests on the extent of the samples studied and the variation of the manufacture parameters which will permit to achieve the required understanding. Thus permitting to use these experiments to down-select test samples used to evaluate irradiation performance [4] to be tested in various locations of the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Advanced Test Reactor (ATR).

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Post-Closure Report for Closed Resource Conservation and Recovery Act Corrective Action Units, Nevada National Security Site, Nevada: For Calendar Year 2018 (Revision 0)

This report serves as the combined annual report for post-closure activities for the following closed corrective action units (CAUs): CAU 90, Area 2 Bitcutter Containment; CAU 91, Area 3 U-3fi Injection Well; CAU 92, Area 6 Decon Pond Facility; CAU 110, Area 3 WMD U-3ax/bl Crater; CAU 111, Area 5 WMD Retired Mixed Waste Pits; and CAU 112, Area 23 Hazardous Waste Trenches. The locations of the sites are shown in Figure ES-1. This report covers calender year 2018. The post-closure requirements for these sites are described in Resource Conservation and Recovery Act Permit Number NEV HW0101 and are summarized in each CAU-specific section of this report. The results of the inspections, a summary of maintenance activities, and an evaluation of monitoring data are presented in this report. Site inspections are conducted annually at CAUs 90, 91, and 112; semiannually at CAUs 92 and 110; and quarterly at CAU 111. Additional inspections are conducted at CAUs 92 and 111 if precipitation occurs in excess of 1.0 inch in a 24-hour period. Inspections include an evaluation of the condition of the units, including covers, fences, signs, gates, and locks. At CAUs 110 and 111, soil moisture monitoring and subsidence surveys are conducted in addition to the visual inspections. At CAU 110 the site fence, gate, lock and use restriction signs are evaluated. At CAU 111, an ecological survey, direct radiation monitoring, air monitoring, radon flux monitoring, and groundwater monitoring are also conducted. This report will address all monitoring item notes above except groundwater monitoring. Groundwater monitoring is documented in the Nevada National Security Site Data Report: Groundwater Monitoring Program Area 5 Radioactive Waste Management Site. All required inspections, maintenance, and monitoring were conducted in accordance with the post-closure requirements of the permit. Revision 6 of Permit NEV HW0101 was issued effective December 10, 2015, and remains in effect until December 10, 2020.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Low LET Irradiations of Uranyl Sulfate Solutions in the Absence and Presence of Fe +2 and Fe +3 ions

Argonne National Laboratory (Argonne) is assisting one of the potential domestic Mo-99 producers, SHINE Medical Technologies, as part of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Office of Material, Management, and Minimization (M 3 ) program in the development of a domestic Mo-99 production pathway that does not use highly enriched uranium (HEU). The process proposed by SHINE would produce Mo-99 by neutron-induced fission of a low enriched uranium (LEU) solution as uranyl sulfate in a subcritical assembly.

07 ISOTOPE AND RADIATION SOURCES↗

NuScale Systems Engineering Program Overview and Status

NuScale systems engineering program overview, including technical data management and model-based engineering, product structures, architecture views, and model-based systems engineering. Includes a discussion on technical risk and opportunity management and technical readiness levels, as well as risk-informed performance-based principles and methods.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Post-Closure Report for Closed Resource Conservation and Recovery Act Corrective Action Units, Nevada National Security Site, Nevada (CY2021)

This report serves as the combined annual report for post-closure activities in compliance with the requirements listed in Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Permit Number NEV HW0101 associated with the following closed corrective action units (CAUs): CAU 90, Area 2 Bitcutter Containment, CAU 91, Area 3 U-3fi Injection Well, CAU 92, Area 6 Decon Pond Facility, CAU 110, Area 3 WMD U-3ax/bl Crater, CAU 111, Area 5 WMD Retired Mixed Waste Pits, and CAU 112, Area 23 Hazardous Waste Trenches. This report covers calendar year 2021. The post-closure requirements for these sites are described in RCRA Permit NEV HW0101 and are summarized in each CAU-specific section of this report. The results of the inspections, a summary of maintenance activities, and an evaluation of monitoring data are presented in this report. This report will address all monitoring requirements noted in the RCRA Permit NEV HW0101, except groundwater monitoring. Groundwater monitoring is documented in the Nevada National Security Site Data Report: Groundwater Monitoring Program Area 5 Radioactive Waste Management Site. All required inspections, maintenance, and monitoring were conducted in accordance with the post-closure requirements of the permit. Revision 6 of RCRA Permit NEV HW0101 was issued effective December 10, 2015, and remained in effect until December 10, 2020. At the time of this report submittal, the new RCRA permit application was in review.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗