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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2017

Phyto-screening for Volatile Organic Compounds in a Clay-based Glacial Till at the Niagara Falls Storage Site, New York - 17372

The Niagara Falls Storage Site (NFSS) and associated vicinity properties (VPs) occupy approximately 607 hectares (1,500 acres) of the original 3,035-hectare (7,500-acre) Lake Ontario Ordnance Works (LOOW). The NFSS was used to store radioactive materials, residues and waste from uranium ore processing between 1944 and 1952. The waste-handling practices produced an array of groundwater impacts throughout the site. Although the groundwater at the NFSS is naturally high in total dissolved solids that preclude untreated consumption, the groundwater contaminant levels in some areas of the site are very high and may pose risk to a Construction Worker receptor, as well as limit the options for future site re-use. Volatile organic compound (VOC) impacted soil in the northern portion of the site has produced a groundwater plume with significant concentrations of tetrachloroethene (PCE) and associated daughter compounds. Active groundwater remediation is impractical due to the clayey soils, as evident from adjacent property owners who have unsuccessfully attempted active remediation of their VOC plumes. Consequently, the Buffalo District may evaluate excavation options, with secondary phyto-remediative approaches as passive alternatives to lessen the groundwater impacts during the project's life cycle. A preliminary field-study in the VOC plume area sampled the interior of a Black Locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) tree using a Haglof tree corer. Detectable levels of tetrachloroethene (PCE), trichloroethene (TCE), and cis-1,2,-dichloroethene (cis-DCE) were found in the woody interior of the tree. Subsequent sampling and analyses were performed on proximal trees of varying species in and around the currently delineated VOC plume. The results indicate that poplar and native cottonwood variants preferentially contain the VOCs, whereas collocated hardwood trees produced non-detectable results. Additional sampling of Cottonwoods in the VOC-impacted area promoted further delineations of the impacts. The tree-sampling data can be considered a broad surrogate for soil sampling to optimally delineate the VOC plume without performing additional invasive sampling of the subsurface (e.g., drilling). The results also will be used to determine which native tree species preferentially uptake the VOCs from soil and groundwater. These species, and possibly other hybrid species known for VOC uptake and transpiration, would be propagated to promote interim phyto-extraction of the VOCs during the maintenance period between decision-document completion and likely remedial action under the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP). (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2020

Evaluation of the MARVEL Reactor Inhalation Dose Consequences

A dose consequence analysis was performed to support the preliminary Microreactor Applications Research Validation and Evaluation Project (MARVEL) design effort. The purpose of the MARVEL project is to develop a nuclear microreactor applications test bed at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) to perform research and development on various operational features of microreactors to ultimately improve integration of microreactors to end-user applications. The MARVEL concept is a 100 kilowatt (kW) thermal (kWth) and approximately 20-kW electric (kWe) generating microreactor. The MARVEL system will be located in the INL TREAT facility in the north high-bay equipment pit. The analysis considers the bounding release fractions of the MARVEL reactor concept and documents the dose consequences to the public and collocated worker.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2018

High Angle Remediation Antimony, Mercury, and Pu-239/240 Contaminated Soil at LANL near Los Alamos Town Site - 18579

The Manhattan Project and early Cold War era operations at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) left behind soil contaminated with antimony, mercury, and Pu-239/240. TerranearPMC (TPMC) successfully completed a phased three-year high-angle legacy cleanup project to excavate contaminated soil from a steep, difficult-to-access canyon wall in the Upper Los Alamos Canyon Aggregate Area bordering Los Alamos town site. The first and third phases of the project (years 2015 and 2017) utilized a Menzi Muck (spider excavator) in concert with a 275 US ton telescoping crane to remove ∼158 cubic yards (cy) of mercury-contaminated rock and soil (i.e. media) from one solid waste management unit (SWMU) in 2015; and ∼70 cy of antimony contaminated media, and ∼65 cy of collocated mercury and Pu-239/240 contaminated media from two SWMUs in 2017. All soil excavated from the site was containerized in soft-sided 1.0 cy, 1.77 cy, and 3.5 cy IP-1 containers and shipped to an approved, licensed, off-site disposal facility. The crane was also used to move the spider excavator, field personnel, tools, the packaged waste, and restoration materials into and out of the canyon. In 2016, conventional but miniaturized excavation equipment was used to remove about 133 cy of Pu-239/240 contaminated media from four SWMUs west of both the 2015 and 2017 excavations. A total of 398 soil screening, waste composite, characterization/bounding, and confirmation samples were collected during the project. Media that was left in place after the excavation was sampled to confirm that human health concerns and environmental risk issues had been mitigated. This proven technical approach was the preferred method for cleaning up ∼426 cy of contaminated media from steep, difficult-to-access legacy waste sites within the Upper Los Alamos Canyon Aggregate Area between 2015 and 2017. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2016

Cost saving opportunities in emergency planning at nuclear power plants - 18819

This paper identifies generalized offsite emergency planning costs for 2014 covering twenty different commercial nuclear plant locations in the U.S. This information was analyzed to quantify the potential cost savings associated with reduction in offsite emergency planning zone size as a function of sixteen offsite emergency planning standards contained in 10 CFR 50.47(b). Mean annual operating and maintenance costs and startup costs for a typical offsite nuclear power plant emergency planning program were $2.25 M and $10 M, respectively. However, if a reactor design technical basis were developed that allowed for a reduction in offsite plume emergency planning zone (EPZ) size from the nominal 10 mile standard currently used, collocation of that EPZ with the site plant boundary could produce programmatic savings in excess of 90% over a typical 40 year plant life. Lesser, but still potentially significant savings, are possible if the plume EPZ were resized to five and two miles. Negligible potential cost savings were identified with reductions in the ingestion pathway EPZ size which has been typically set at 50 miles. (authors)

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Quantifying the Uncertainty in Deterministic Phonon Transport Calculations of Thermal Conductivity using Polynomial Chaos Expansions

The nature of computational simulations requires the inclusion of an uncertainty analysis, as we have limited knowledge of all physically determined input parameters for a computationally simulated problem. We rely on uncertainty quantification (UQ) to characterize our confidence in the outcomes. Quantifying uncertainty can provide a basis for certifications in high-consequence decisions, such as nuclear reactor design, and is a fundamental component of model validation. We employ a previously developed method of uncertainty quantification, polynomial chaos expansion with stochastic collocation (PCE-SC), applied to deterministic phonon transport simulations. In these simulations, we use the neutron transport code Rattlesnake, which solves the Self-Adjoint Angular Flux (SAAF) formulation of the transport equation with a continuous finite element (CFEM) spatial discretization and discrete ordinates, spherical harmonics angular discretizations. Rattlesnake was developed in the multi-physics object oriented simulation environment (MOOSE) framework. We have previously shown Rattlesnake to be effective in simulating phonon transport. We aim to provide a deterministic phonon transport framework for heterogeneous nuclear fuel with fission product defects to predict thermal conductivity (?). A first principles, physics-based calculation of thermal conductivity must involve factors such as the microstructure of nuclear fuel, which constantly changes during the fission process through the formation of isotopic decay products. Heat transport in oxide nuclear fuels is dominated by phonon transport. Impurities in the bulk material influence the transport of energy at the fundamental level, altering the scattering behavior of phonons and electrons. Conventionally, heat transport follows classical physics based on the heat equation derived from Fourier's law q = -k∇T, where q is heat flux, k is thermal conductivity and ∇T is a temperature gradient. However, Fourier's law is a macroscopic empirical law in which the thermal conductivity? does not have a mechanistic connection to the underpinning heat transport processes. Thermal conductivity of a material depends both on the material's intrinsic ability to transport heat and a variety of resistive effects caused by defects in the material. Thus ab initio prediction of the macroscopic conductivity - the property of interest for safe reactor operation - requires simulating detailed processes of heat transport, and then determining the effective thermal conductivity of the simulated material from the resulting heat flux under the imposed temperature difference. The thermal conductivity of a bulk, homogeneous, dielectric material can be well estimated by the mechanistically derived expression: k{sub bulk} = 1/3 C{sub ν}νgλ (2), where C{sub ν}, νg, and λ are the volumetric specific heat, phonon speed, and phonon mean free path, respectively. In these problems the relevant parameter is the material's acoustic thickness, its characteristic distance L relative to the phonon mean free path λ. In Eq. (2) the largest source of uncertainty is λ. While propagating uncertainty in λ to uncertainty in k through Eq. (2) is trivial, systems with extrinsic scattering require more sophisticated approaches. At the microscopic level, uncertainty in λ changes both a material's intrinsic thermal conductivity. Our goal is to propagate the uncertainty in λ through the deterministic transport computation of k. Because there are a small number of uncertain input quantities, we use the method of polynomial chaos expansion (PCE), which expresses solutions in the form of spectral expansions of an uncertain variable. This approach combines both intrusive and nonintrusive methods of uncertainty propagation techniques and results in a unique formulation which is very effective and efficient for problems with few uncertain parameters. Uncertainty Quantification and Sensitivity Analysis We use PCE-SC to measure propagation of uncertainty in a 3-D phonon transport problem of homogeneous silicon, to compute the mean and variance in temperature, heat flux and thermal conductivity. (authors)

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Time-Dependent Sensitivity Analysis of OECD Benchmark using BISON and RAVEN

Developments in uncertainty quantification for nuclear simulations have decreased the computational cost required to perform accurate sensitivity analysis. This work demonstrates implementation of these methods in the RAVEN framework, allowing for time-dependent sensitivity analysis. By demonstration we consider an OECD benchmark case. We propagate uncertainties using RAVEN operating on the BISON fuels performance code. We then consider the time-evolution of output response sensitivity to uncertain inputs. We perform sensitivity analysis using time-based stochastic collocation for generalized polynomial chaos (SCgPC) and high-dimension model reduction (HDMR). While uncertainty quantification applied to end-of-cycle statistics is useful, we demonstrate that dominant sources of uncertainty for figures of merit may fluctuate throughout the simulation. Time-dependent sensitivity analysis allows more insight on key design parameters for fuel. (authors)

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Error Convergence Characterization for Stochastic Transport Methods

There has been increased interest in reliably and efficiently solving engineering systems involving uncertainty in recent years. Characterization of the convergence of errors within the problem, including statistical and bias errors, increases confidence that chosen solution methods are appropriate for a particular problem and quantity of interest (QoI), that implementation errors have not been made, and can aid users or algorithms in solving problems within a tolerance efficiently. We demonstrate a method for characterizing error convergence in a simple stochastic transport problem. Though the approach is applicable to problems with more complicated physics, our simple problem enables analytic QoI solutions so that error convergence behavior and the identification of limiting errors can be presented with high precision. A one-dimensional, two-material, neutral-particle, and absorption-only transport problem involving uniformly distributed uncertain total cross sections is presented. Random sampling (RS) and stochastic collocation (SC) are used as stochastic solvers which sample from the uncertain space and Monte Carlo (MC) transport is employed to solve transport results on the resulting realizations. Probability density functions (PDFs) are created using either RS solutions or samples taken from a polynomial chaos expansion (PCE) constructed with SC solutions. The convergence of each solver is characterized with respect to the QoI against analytic solutions, convergence behavior is used to efficiently solve a QoI within a tolerance, and convergence plots are used to identify dominant solution errors.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2022

Demonstrating Advanced Nuclear Energy Solutions for Net Zero

Background/Objectives. The aggressive goals being set by nation states, communities, and private industry for decarbonization of grid electricity, industrial heat sources, and transportation around the world are imperative to mitigating the devastating effects that we are seeing from climate change. Although many of these goals focus on accomplishments by 2035 or 2050, the decisions that we make today won’t just impact the landscape of energy systems for the next 20 or 30 years—they will shape the world’s environment for centuries to come. That means that we can’t just focus on technologies that will get us to 2050, but technologies that will withstand our energy demands over that long-ranging future. Success will require us to utilize all of the clean energy resources that we have available to meet demands for electricity, heat, and steam, and we will need energy carriers such as hydrogen that do not emit additional greenhouse gases at the point of use. Nuclear energy, ranging from technologies in service today to advanced, higher temperature and modular systems that will be in service this decade, will provide a robust complement to renewable energy resources that operate variably. Researchers across the U.S. Department of Energy laboratory complex are working to advance multiple aspects of these clean energy solutions, with many focusing on integrated energy system solutions that leverage all available clean energy assets to meet wide-ranging energy demands. Approach/Activities. Nuclear energy is a proven, zero-emission option during operation that can provide consistent, dispatchable power to meet electricity demands while also providing high-quality heat that can meet energy demands beyond the electricity sector. Energy system design should seek to maximize these assets. As a dispatchable energy source with a small land utilization footprint, nuclear energy can be collocated with renewable resources, and the smaller systems that will be deployed this decade (ranging from a few megawatts to hundreds of megawatts) can be installed right where that energy is needed. Integrated nuclear and renewable systems will enhance power grid reliability and resilience, and they will help stabilize the grid through their increasingly flexible operation. Licensing, installation, and broad adoption of these advanced nuclear energy systems are expected to progress significantly in the 2020s, but this may be longer than desired by some stakeholders wishing to implement impactful clean energy decisions today. However, one must recall that nuclear energy systems will operate for 80 or more years, as is being demonstrated by current fleet nuclear systems. The nuclear community is extremely thorough in reviewing these systems with regard to safety and security; these efforts ensure that the deployed systems will continue to provide reliable, resilient energy over that operational lifetime. That investment of time up front will ensure that we can support energy demands over the centuries to come. While advanced nuclear technologies move through this process, communities and private industry may choose to install renewable generation systems that can later be coupled to the complementary nuclear systems as they become available—thus moving closer to the net zero goals in the near term. Choosing technologies and deployment configurations that allow small modular nuclear powerhouses to be added to these “energy parks” as they become available will ensure that advanced technologies can be readily adopted to support growing demands for clean energy. Results/Lessons Learned. The primary focus of integrated energy systems (IES) research is to assess the technical and economic potential of novel multi-input, multioutput solutions that are expected to enhance energy system flexibility, reliability, and resilience as we pursue a clean energy transition. Various energy applications and product streams beyond electricity are being evaluated, ranging from generation of potable water to production of hydrogen, fertilizers, synthetic fuels, and various chemicals. In early FY23 Idaho National Laboratory (INL) will commission thermal energy generation systems that emulate nuclear fission energy input using electric heating and will allow for integrated system testing with thermal energy storage, hydrogen production via high temperature electrolysis (HTE), and power systems hardware to demonstrate operation of a clean energy park within a microgrid or larger grid infrastructure, supporting up to 450 kW of heat input via electric heating and demonstrating operation of HTE systems at the multi-hundred kW scale. This presentation will highlight the wide array of RD&D being conducted at INL and partner laboratories to develop and deploy nuclear and renewable-based IES that will be key to achieving our net zero goals, including both computational and experimental demonstrations. By working with key collaborators in industry, analytical st

08 HYDROGEN↗
DOE OSTI2024

Site Integration and Regulatory Considerations for a Nuclear Power Plant Colocated with Industrial Facilities: Colocation Studies for a Petroleum Refinery, Methanol Plant, and Wood Pulp Plant

This research explores the colocation of nuclear power plants (NPPs) with industrial applications. Three existing industrial sites were considered to demonstrate the siting process and illuminate technological gaps for future work. The three applications demonstrated for colocation here are a petroleum refinery, a methanol production plant, and a pulp and paper plant. This study uses a modified version of the EPRI siting criteria to explore the geological and demographic characteristics of the location of the current industrial site, as well as exploring external hazards from the industrial plant and its surrounding land use. Data was collected from public databases to estimate site characteristics. We then discuss how the site characteristics may impact the ability to colocate an NPP with an industrial application. The application site and 5 additional sites were explored for each application to give a general indication of the siting implications for an NPP in each area. The hazards for each industrial application was also explored to determine how colocation may impact reactor safety. The following gaps have been identified and should be explored in future research on colocation of NPPs with petroleum refineries, methanol plants, and pulp and paper plants: - There is a variety of industrial use, hazards, and pipelines in the surrounding area. A more thorough review of these hazards should be considered for colocation. - In general, the whole region around some applications seems to have softer soil, with implications for large site preparation costs. Further site investigations should prioritize looking into the geotechnical conditions. - Applications along coastlines are susceptible to flooding and hurricanes. The benefits of colocation should be weighed against the potential design implications. - The benefits of natural gas pipeline infrastructure in place should be explored further. If heat supply from the NPP is not required or not feasible due to the distance between the NPP and the application, there may be an opportunity to supply hydrogen to the plant through an existing pipeline. - Because there are several collocated industrial plants in the regions for the refinery and methanol plant, the benefits of sharing resources from the NPP should be explored further. This may open up additional sites for colocation. The following knowledge gaps were identified for the colocation of NPPs with these three industries, and industrial applications in general. These gaps are: - While the STAND tool contains many important characteristics for the reactor siting process, it is not calibrated for the colocation of NPPs with industrial facilities. - There are aspects of both the NPP and industrial application that need to be quantified for a siting analysis. Particularly, we need to understand the water intake requirements for NPPs and each application. - Further work may focus on adapting the STAND site comparison methodology to comparison of sites for co-location. This will involve using the data documented in this report as a starting point and performing a comprehensive and quantitative comparison. - Without spending significant resources, it would be impossible to gather data for each site to evaluate all aspects of siting. One approach to finding data and understanding its implications to siting is looking at FSARs for existing plants. For example, most sites considered in this study have small Vs30 values, indicating soft soil. However, there are NPPs located in the vicinity of most of the sites (e.g., Waterford Steam Electric Station near New Orleans) and reviewing available site characteristics and geotechnical data for these NPPs, might provide further information for siting. - The siting analysis in this study indicates that colocation of the NPP with the industrial site could be difficult based on external hazards, cooling requirements, weather, or population. We need to determine the impact of distance between the two facilities on cost and quality of energy transport. - This study did not touch on socioeconomic impacts for NPP colocation with industrial facilities. The input-output analysis methodology could be applied to the communities referenced in this study to determine the socioeconomic impact of these projects. - Similarly, the impacts of colocation on emergency planning was not explored in this study. The impacts on emergency planning infrastructure are somewhat related to the socioeconomic impacts, and could be explored using a similar methodology. - This study also did not address physical and cybersecurity, which will be important aspects of co-location [ref] . Cybersecurity will be important, regardless of the distance, but physical security will be important if the facilities are located very closely. Physical security might also be important for the steam lines between the plants, unless they are determined to be non-safety significant. - In many site l

08 HYDROGEN↗
DOE OSTI2024

Geothermal Uncertainty Representation in reV: the Renewable Energy Potential Model

We present a preliminary methodology for including geothermal resource uncertainty into the Renewable Energy Potential model, which estimates potential capacity and costs on a gridded surface at the national scale. The uncertainty outputs characterize the 10th, 50th and 90th percentile for geothermal resources using two energy capacity estimation equations. We then present a method and results that demonstrate how other geologic data layers, which may be indicative of permeability, can be used to inform the mean and standard deviation of the geothermal capacity. We demonstrate how the mean and standard deviation can be defined or partially informed by using collocated regression estimates and estimate errors, respectively . These regression results are from 36 observed geothermal power plants in the Great Basin region and are also used to benchmark the P10-P90 calculations.

exclusions↗
DOE OSTI2024

Direct Air Capture and Utilization System (DACUS): FEED Study of CarbonCapture Inc. DAC and CarbonCure Utilization Technologies Using United States Steel’s Gary Works Plant Waste Heat

The effects of climate change are drastically perceived through the alarming rates of severe events such as flooding, hurricanes, wildfires, global temperature rise, sea-level rise, and ocean acidification etc., which has prompted the nations across the globe to control & reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, by massive adoption of electric vehicles, switching to renewal energy sources and promoting sustainable green products. However, recent climate studies have shown that such efforts will not be enough to keep the global temperature rising under 1.5° Celsius by the year 2050, which lead to the development of multiple Direct Air Capture (DAC) technologies. A DAC system extracts CO2 directly from the atmosphere, which is either stored underground for long term or utilized in other processes. The DACUS proposed at U.S. Steel Corporation’s Gary Works Plant in Gary, Indiana, will include an innovative DAC technology from CarbonCapture Inc. (CCI), which will be collocated and powered by waste heat from the steel plant to capture CO2 from ambient air, and CarbonCure CO2 utilization technology- which is a commercial technology that is already installed and in use by early adopters in more than 150 concrete mixing plants across North America and Asia. The University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign spearheaded this Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) study project, which was funded by US Department of Energy (DOE), aimed at designing a state-of-the art DACU system that can remove minimum of 5,000 tonne/year net CO2 from air (based on cradle-to-gate LCA) and converting the captured CO2 into low carbon intensity products. The off takers of the low Carbon product produced by the DACUS have also been identified near the steel plant in the Indiana, Illinois & Wisconsin Region. This creates a full CO2 value chain and provides a means to assess the impact of this holistic approach on job creation, regional economic impact, and environmental justice. DACUS is a promising new technology for reducing greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. Operation costs are minimized by locating CCI’s innovative DAC collector at United States Steel's Gary Works site where waste heat is utilized. Carbon emissions are minimized in CO2 transportation. The captured CO2 will be permanently sequestered in concrete used as construction material. This DOE funded FEED study demonstrates a full CO2 value chain for a DACU system, supported by an industrial facility. If this project were constructed, it would have a very positive and lasting impact on both the environment and the community.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2025

Site Integration and Regulatory Considerations for an NPP Colocated with a Petroleum Refinery, Methanol Plant, and Wood Pulp Plant

This research explores the colocation of nuclear power plants (NPPs) with industrial applications. Three existing industrial sites were considered to demonstrate the siting process and illuminate technological gaps for future work. The three applications demonstrated for colocation here are a petroleum refinery, a methanol production plant, and a pulp and paper plant. This study uses a modified version of the EPRI siting criteria to explore the geological and demographic characteristics of the location of the current industrial site, as well as exploring external hazards from the industrial plant and its surrounding land use. Data was collected from public databases to estimate site characteristics. We then discuss how the site characteristics may impact the ability to colocate an NPP with an industrial application. The application site and 5 additional sites were explored for each application to give a general indication of the siting implications for an NPP in each area. The hazards for each industrial application was also explored to determine how colocation may impact reactor safety. The following gaps have been identified and should be explored in future research on colocation of NPPs with petroleum refineries, methanol plants, and pulp and paper plants: - There is a variety of industrial use, hazards, and pipelines in the surrounding area. A more thorough review of these hazards should be considered for colocation. - In general, the whole region around some applications seems to have softer soil, with implications for large site preparation costs. Further site investigations should prioritize looking into the geotechnical conditions. - Applications along coastlines are susceptible to flooding and hurricanes. The benefits of colocation should be weighed against the potential design implications. - The benefits of natural gas pipeline infrastructure in place should be explored further. If heat supply from the NPP is not required or not feasible due to the distance between the NPP and the application, there may be an opportunity to supply hydrogen to the plant through an existing pipeline. - Because there are several collocated industrial plants in the regions for the refinery and methanol plant, the benefits of sharing resources from the NPP should be explored further. This may open up additional sites for colocation. The following knowledge gaps were identified for the colocation of NPPs with these three industries, and industrial applications in general. These gaps are: - While the STAND tool contains many important characteristics for the reactor siting process, it is not calibrated for the colocation of NPPs with industrial facilities. - There are aspects of both the NPP and industrial application that need to be quantified for a siting analysis. Particularly, we need to understand the water intake requirements for NPPs and each application. - Further work may focus on adapting the STAND site comparison methodology to comparison of sites for co-location. This will involve using the data documented in this report as a starting point and performing a comprehensive and quantitative comparison. - Without spending significant resources, it would be impossible to gather data for each site to evaluate all aspects of siting. One approach to finding data and understanding its implications to siting is looking at FSARs for existing plants. For example, most sites considered in this study have small Vs30 values, indicating soft soil. However, there are NPPs located in the vicinity of most of the sites (e.g., Waterford Steam Electric Station near New Orleans) and reviewing available site characteristics and geotechnical data for these NPPs, might provide further information for siting. - The siting analysis in this study indicates that colocation of the NPP with the industrial site could be difficult based on external hazards, cooling requirements, weather, or population. We need to determine the impact of distance between the two facilities on cost and quality of energy transport. - This study did not touch on socioeconomic impacts for NPP colocation with industrial facilities. The input-output analysis methodology could be applied to the communities referenced in this study to determine the socioeconomic impact of these projects. - Similarly, the impacts of colocation on emergency planning was not explored in this study. The impacts on emergency planning infrastructure are somewhat related to the socioeconomic impacts, and could be explored using a similar methodology. - This study also did not address physical and cybersecurity, which will be important aspects of co-location [ref] . Cybersecurity will be important, regardless of the distance, but physical security will be important if the facilities are located very closely. Physical security might also be important for the steam lines between the plants, unless they are determined to be non-safety significant. - In many site l

08 - HYDROGEN↗
DOE OSTI2024

ECAR-5127 Rev 1 Evaluation of the MARVEL Reactor Inhalation Dose Consequences

The following dose consequence analysis is performed to support the preliminary Microreactor Applications Research Validation and Evaluation Project (MARVEL) design effort. The purpose of the MARVEL project is to develop a nuclear microreactor applications test bed at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) to perform research and development on various operational features of microreactors to ultimately improve integration of microreactors to end-user applications. The MARVEL concept is a 100 kilowatt (kW) thermal (kWth) and approximately 20-kW electric (kWe) generating microreactor. The MARVEL system will be located in the INL TREAT facility in the north high-bay equipment pit. This ECAR considers the bounding release fractions of the MARVEL reactor concept and documents the dose consequences to the public and collocated worker.

21 - SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLAN↗
DOE OSTI2019

Gaussian wave packet transform based numerical scheme for the semi-classical Schrödinger equation with random inputs

In this work, we study the semi-classical limit of the Schrödinger equation with random inputs, and show that the semi-classical Schrödinger equation produces O(ε) oscillations in the random variable space. With the Gaussian wave packet transform, the original Schrödinger equation is mapped to an ordinary differential equation (ODE) system for the wave packet parameters coupled with a partial differential equation (PDE) for the quantity w in rescaled variables. Further, we show that the w equation does not produce ε dependent oscillations, and thus it is more amenable for numerical simulations. We propose multi-level sampling strategy in implementing the Gaussian wave packet transform, where in the most costly part, i.e. simulating the w equation, it is sufficient to use ε independent samples. We also provide extensive numerical tests as well as meaningful numerical experiments to justify the properties of the numerical algorithm, and hopefully shed light on possible future directions.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2019

Evaluating the Uncertainty of Terrestrial Water Budget Components Over High Mountain Asia

This study explores the uncertainties in terrestrial water budget estimation over High Mountain Asia (HMA) using a suite of uncoupled land surface model (LSM) simulations. The uncertainty in the water balance components of precipitation (P), evapotranspiration (ET), runoff (R), and terrestrial water storage (TWS) is significantly impacted by the uncertainty in the driving meteorology, with precipitation being the most important boundary condition. Ten gridded precipitation datasets along with a mix of model-, satellite-, and gauge-based products, are evaluated first to assess their suitability for LSM simulations over HMA. The datasets are evaluated by quantifying the systematic and random errors of these products as well as the temporal consistency of their trends. Though the broader spatial patterns of precipitation are generally well captured by the datasets, they differ significantly in their means and trends. In general, precipitation datasets that incorporate information from gauges are found to have higher accuracy with low Root Mean Square Errors and high correlation coefficient values. An ensemble of LSM simulations with selected subset of precipitation products is then used to produce the mean annual fluxes and their uncertainty over HMA in P, ET, and R to be 2.11 ± 0.45, 1.26 ± 0.11, and 0.85 ± 0.36 mm per day, respectively. The mean annual estimates of the surface mass (water) balance components from this model ensemble are comparable to global estimates from prior studies. However, the uncertainty/spread of P, ET, and R is significantly larger than the corresponding estimates from global studies. A comparison of ET, snow cover fraction, and changes in TWS estimates against remote sensing-based references confirms the significant role of the input meteorology in influencing the water budget characterization over HMA and points to the need for improving meteorological inputs.

Yoon, Yeosang↗
NASA NTRS2019

Evaluating the Uncertainty of Terrestrial Water Budget Components over High Mountain Asia

This study explores the uncertainties in terrestrial water budget estimation over High Mountain Asia (HMA) using a suite of uncoupled land surface model (LSM) simulations. The uncertainty in the water balance components of precipitation (P), evapotranspiration (ET), runoff (R), and terrestrial water storage (TWS) is significantly impacted by the uncertainty in the driving meteorology, with precipitation being the most important boundary condition. Ten gridded precipitation datasets along with a mix of model-, satellite-, and gauge-based products, are evaluated first to assess their suitability for LSM simulations over HMA. The datasets are evaluated by quantifying the systematic and random errors of these products as well as the temporal consistency of their trends. Though the broader spatial patterns of precipitation are generally well captured by the datasets, they differ significantly in their means and trends. In general, precipitation datasets that incorporate information from gauges are found to have higher accuracy with low Root Mean Square Errors and high correlation coefficient values. An ensemble of LSM simulations with selected subset of precipitation products is then used to produce the mean annual fluxes and their uncertainty over HMA in P, ET, and R to be 2.11 ± 0.45, 1.26 ± 0.11, and 0.85 ± 0.36 mm per day, respectively. The mean annual estimates of the surface mass (water) balance components from this model ensemble are comparable to global estimates from prior studies. However, the uncertainty/spread of P, ET, and R is significantly larger than the corresponding estimates from global studies. A comparison of ET, snow cover fraction, and changes in TWS estimates against remote sensing-based references confirms the significant role of the input meteorology in influencing the water budget characterization over HMA and points to the need for improving meteorological inputs.

Terrestrial water budget↗