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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.
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Historical and current data requirements for component qualification, as-manufactured graphite material properties, Irradiated & degraded material issues, code rules – Construction & Operation, status of current ASME code rules, progress in design rules, degradation, construction vs. operation, what should we be planning, and new technical areas getting started.
The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management (DOE-EM) established a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with nine HBCUs in South Carolina and Northeast Georgia. The nine HBCUs (Allen University, Benedict College, Claflin University, Clinton Junior College, Demark Technical College, Morris College, South Carolina State University, Voorhees College and Paine College of Northeast Georgia) have formulated a consortium to address the technical and workforce development needs of the DOE’s Office of Environmental Management. These institutions have the qualifications and expertise to provide the technical cooperation and operations support in the areas of environmental remediation, nuclear regulatory and transportation safety, modeling, technology transfer and workforce development. Several of the HBCUs have received awards from the DOE to address issues related to ground water, surface water, plant communities, the development of an interdisciplinary waste management institute, and the establishment of an environmental science field station. Also, the acquisition of these grant awards have afforded the participating institutions with the ability to instruct students by providing them with the appropriate skill sets to address the future employment needs of DOE to include: Hands-on field experiences; Classroom demonstrations; and, Research and education experiences. South Carolina State University will build upon its existing relationships with DOE-EM by creating a "pipeline" for minorities in Mathematics, Science & Technology, Engineering, Research, and other related fields. Students will be specifically trained and mentored to enter the DOE workforce in these technical areas of need. The integration of technology in research and education is essential for meeting the demanding need to develop a workable mechanism to optimize the effectiveness of research and education in this nation. This is extremely critical in this age of unprecedented technological advances when information delivery, training, and continuous research to improve performance and skill enhancement hold the key to competition. This development relies on a program of applied science to identify and help implement the technologies, as well as programs that energize and mentor the next generation of scientists and engineers. To foster these goals, SCSU proposes research and educational projects that will support the integration of technology in research and education.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Environmental Management (EM) conducts international collaboration activities in support of U.S. policies and objectives regarding the accelerated risk reduction and remediation of the environmental cleanup legacy resulting from the nations' nuclear weapons program and government sponsored nuclear energy research. The EM International Program, supported out of the EM Office of the Associate Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary pursues collaborations with foreign government organizations, educational institutions and private industry to assist in identifying technologies and promote international collaborations that leverage resources and link international experience and expertise. The primary objective of the International Program is to work closely with the various technical program offices within EM (e.g., tank waste and nuclear materials management, groundwater and soil remediation, deactivation and decommissioning) to identify collaborative opportunities related to innovative technologies, as well as best management practices, that support successful completion of the EM mission. This objective is directly aligned with the current DOE Strategic Plan 2014 - 2018, issued in April 2014. In mid-fiscal year (FY) 2014, the International Program awarded several collaborative projects for work scope spanning waste management, tank waste management, groundwater and soil remediation, deactivation and decommissioning (D and D), disposal operations, and nuclear materials disposition initiatives to nine foreign organizations. These projects include both technical and non-technical activities, with opportunities for continuation into FY 2015 and beyond. (authors)
Despite having a large geothermal power potential in the United States, only a small fraction has been developed for power generation. Various barriers, including technical, financial, and regulatory permit delays, are attributed to lower contribution of geothermal energy in the national grid. Unpredictable environmental reviews and permitting timelines are some of the non-technical barriers that can cause delays in geothermal exploration and utilization plans. This study shows that the geothermal permitting timelines can vary from six months to several years, depending on the presence or absence of biological resources, cultural resources, and sensitive environmental issues at the project site. The potential impacts of these permit barriers can range from investors abandoning geothermal development to making the product (i.e., electricity) more expensive and uncompetitive.
This multi-unit field demonstration of combined space and water heating (combi) systems was conducted to help document combi system installation and performance issues that needed to be addressed through research. The objective of the project was to put commercialized forced-air tankless combi units into the field through local contractors that were trained by manufacturers and GTI staff under the auspices of utility-implemented ETPs.
This multi-unit field demonstration of combined space and water heating (combi) systems was conducted to help document combi system installation and performance issues that needed to be addressed through research. The objective of the project was to put commercialized forced-air tankless combi units into the field through local contractors that were trained by manufacturers and GTI staff under the auspices of utility-implemented ETPs.
The purpose of this workshop was to explore the state-of-the-art in decision analysis in the context of being able to objectively allocate constrained technical resources to enable future space missions and optimize science return.
The Solar Technical Assistance Team (STAT) is a network of solar technology and implementation experts who provide timely, unbiased expertise to assist policymakers and regulators in making informed decisions about solar programs and policies. Government officials can submit requests directly to the STAT for technical assistance. STAT then partners with experts in solar policy, regulation, finance, technology, and other areas to deliver accurate, up-to-date information to state and local decision makers. The STAT responds to requests on a wide range of issues -- including, but not limited to, feed-in tariffs, renewable portfolio standards, rate design, program design, workforce and economic impacts of solar on jurisdictions, and project financing.
The air quality monitor (AQM) began operations on the International Space Station (ISS) in March 2013 and was validated for operational use in January 2014. The AQM is a gas chromatograph-differential mobility spectrometer that currently monitors 22 target compounds in the ISS atmosphere. Data are collected twice per week, although data collection can be more frequent in contingency situations. In its second year, the AQM has provided data to decision-makers on several ISS contaminant related issues in both air and water. AQM has been used in strictly air incidents, such as a potential ammonia leak, and to investigate air contaminants affecting the water processing (excess ethanol). In the latter case data from water monitors and AQM were compared to understand the issue with the water processor. Additionally, the AQM has been moved to different ISS modules to determine whether air is sufficiently mixed between modules so that a central LAB module location is representative of the entire ISS atmosphere. Historic data on the ISS atmosphere in different modules from archival samples (ground lab analysis) suggest that the atmosphere is usually homogenous. This presentation will briefly describe the technical aspects of the AQM operations and summarize the validation results. The main focus of the presentation will be to discuss the results from the AQM survey of the ISS modules and to show how the AQM data has contributed to an understanding of environmental issues that have arisen on ISS. Presentation of a potential ammonia leak (indicated by an alarm) in 2015 will illustrate the use and value of the AQM in such situations.
Motivation Generating phylogenomic trees from the genomic data is essential in understanding biological systems. Each step of this complex process has received extensive attention and has been significantly streamlined over the years. Given the public availability of data, obtaining genomes for a wide selection of species is straightforward. However, analyzing that data to generate a phylogenomic tree is a multistep process with legitimate scientific and technical challenges, often requiring a significant input from a domain-area scientist. Results We present Poplar, a new, streamlined computational pipeline, to address the computational logistical issues that arise when constructing the phylogenomic trees. It provides a framework that runs state-of-the-art software for essential steps in the phylogenomic pipeline, beginning from a genome with or without an annotation, and resulting in a species tree. Running Poplar requires no external databases. In the execution, it enables parallelism for execution for clusters and cloud computing. The trees generated by Poplar match closely with state-of-the-art published trees. The usage and performance of Poplar is far simpler and quicker than manually running a phylogenomic pipeline. Availability and implementation Freely available on GitHub at https://github.com/sandialabs/poplar. Implemented using Python and supported on Linux.
With the increased variability and uncertainty of net load induced from high penetrations of renewable energy resources and more flexible interchange schedules, power systems are facing great operational challenges in maintaining balance. Among these, the scarcity of ramp capability is an important culprit of power balance violations and high scarcity prices. To address this issue, market-based flexible ramping products (FRPs) have been proposed in the industry to improve the availability of ramp capacity. This paper presents an in-depth review of the modeling and implementation of FRPs. The major motivation is that although FRPs are widely discussed in the literature, it is still unclear to many how they can be incorporated into a co-optimization framework that includes energy and ancillary services. The concept and a definition of power system operational flexibility as well as the needs for FRPs are introduced. The industrial practices of implementing FRPs under different market structures are presented. Market operation issues and future research topics are also discussed. In conclusion, this paper can provide researchers and power engineers with further insights into the state of the art, technical barriers, and potential directions for FRPs.
The system has been in continuous operation since October 1986 and serves various customers with approximately 180°F geothermal heating water for use at each facility as shown in Exhibit B. The system which is maintained by the school district consists of two main water loops. The system was designed for a large temperature difference instead of the normal 20°ΔT heating system. Using the design 80°ΔT, we yield 4+ times more energy with the same water flow. Loop 1 is the main geothermal water loop which flows from the production well through two main system heat exchangers and, after heat is extracted, to the disposal area. Loop 2, the customer heating loop, is heated in the main heat exchangers and then runs through approximately 5500 feet of buried supply piping and approximately 5500 feet of buried return piping to each customer facility where a facility heat exchanger is provided for each customers use. All piping on the customers’ side of each facility heat exchanger is the responsibility of the individual customer. Although originally designed to work with an 80ºΔT, this has deteriorated over the years and cannot achieve this at the present time. The system has operated over the last 29 years with minimal maintenance but is now starting to show its age with various corrosion issues, control problems, and several leaks. Some parts of the system are also located in areas where proposed building expansions will require piping relocations.This is the final technical report for the Great Basin College Direct Use Geothermal Demonstrationn Project, outlining the technical aspects of the User Group System.
The Transient Reactor Test Facility (TREAT), located at Idaho National Laboratory (INL), is a test facility designed to evaluate the performance of reactor fuels and materials under transient accident conditions. The facility, an air-cooled, graphite-moderated reactor designed to utilize fuel containing high-enriched uranium (HEU), has been in non-operational standby status since 1994. Currently, in support of the missions of the Department of Energy (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Material Management and Minimization (M3) Reactor Conversion Program, a new core design is being developed for TREAT that will utilize low-enriched uranium (LEU). The primary objective of this conversion effort is to design an LEU core that is capable of meeting the performance characteristics of the existing HEU core. Minimal, if any, changes are anticipated for the supporting systems (e.g. reactor trip system, filtration/cooling system, etc.); therefore, the LEU core must also be able to function with the existing supporting systems, and must also satisfy acceptable safety limits. In support of the LEU conversion effort, a range of ancillary safety analyses are required to evaluate the LEU core operation relative to that of the existing facility. These analyses cover neutronics, shielding, and thermal hydraulic topics that have been identified as having the potential to have reduced safety margins due to conversion to LEU fuel, or are required to support the required safety analyses documentation. The majority of these ancillary tasks have been identified in [1] and [2]. The purpose of this report is to document the ancillary safety analyses that have been performed at Argonne National Laboratory during the early stages of the LEU design effort, and to describe ongoing and anticipated analyses. For all analyses presented in this report, methodologies are utilized that are consistent with, or improved from, those used in analyses for the HEU Final Safety Analysis Report (FSAR) [3]. Depending on the availability of historical data derived from HEU TREAT operation, results calculated for the LEU core are compared to measurements obtained from HEU TREAT operation. While all analyses in this report are largely considered complete and have been reviewed for technical content, it is important to note that all topics will be revisited once the LEU design approaches its final stages of maturity. For most safety significant issues, it is expected that the analyses presented here will be bounding, but additional calculations will be performed as necessary to support safety analyses and safety documentation. It should also be noted that these analyses were completed as the LEU design evolved, and therefore utilized different LEU reference designs. Preliminary shielding, neutronic, and thermal hydraulic analyses have been completed and have generally demonstrated that the various LEU core designs will satisfy existing safety limits and standards also satisfied by the existing HEU core. These analyses include the assessment of the dose rate in the hodoscope room, near a loaded fuel transfer cask, above the fuel storage area, and near the HEPA filters. The potential change in the concentration of tramp uranium and change in neutron flux reaching instrumentation has also been assessed. Safety-significant thermal hydraulic items addressed in this report include thermally-induced mechanical distortion of the grid plate, and heating in the radial reflector.
This Environmental Restoration Operations (ER) Consolidated Quarterly Report (ER Quarterly Report) provides the status of ongoing corrective action activities being implemented at Sandia National Laboratories, New Mexico (SNL/NM) during the July, August, and September 2016 quarterly reporting period. The Solid Waste Management Units (SWMUs) and Areas of Concern (AOCs) identified for corrective action at SNL/NM are listed in Table I-1. Sections I.2.1 and I.2.2 summarize the work completed during this quarter. Section I.2.1 summarizes the quarterly activities at sites undergoing corrective action field activities. Field activities are conducted at the three groundwater AOCs (Burn Site Groundwater [BSG AOC], Technical Area [TA]-V Groundwater [TAVG AOC], and Tijeras Arroyo Groundwater [TAG AOC]). Section I.2.2 summarizes quarterly activities at sites where the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) issued a certificate of completion and the sites are in the corrective action complete (CAC) regulatory process. Currently, SWMUs 8 and 58, 68, 149, 154, and 502 are in the CAC regulatory process. Corrective action activities are deferred at the Long Sled Track (SWMU 83), the Gun Facilities (SWMU 84), and the Short Sled Track (SWMU 240) because these three sites are active mission facilities. These three active sites are located in TA-III.
Pumped storage hydropower (PSH) capabilities are generally characterized as either open-loop or closed-loop. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) defines open-loop PSH as “continuously connected to a naturally flowing water feature,” and closed-loop PSH as “not continuously connected to a naturally flowing water feature.” All the PSH projects constructed in the United States to date are open-loop, so the potential environmental effects of closed-loop systems are not as well documented as the effects of open-loop systems. To address this knowledge gap, the DOE Water Power Technologies Office, under its HydroWIRES Initiative, has prepared this report to: (1) compare the potential environmental effects of open-loop PSH projects with those of closed-loop PSH projects; (2) describe how these effects are being avoided, minimized, or mitigated at existing projects in other countries and proposed projects in the United States; and (3) discuss the relative significance of the environmental issues. The report begins with a brief introduction on the current status of PSH development in the United States. Next, the report describes the current Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) hydropower licensing process, emphasizing some recent regulatory changes that affect closed-loop PSH development. The report then provides a summary comparison of the environmental effects of constructing and operating open-loop and closed-loop PSH systems and discusses the relative significance of those issues. This comparison and discussion are based on the results of a literature review and a review of FERC licensing records. The literature review includes journal articles, technical reports, and presentations on the environmental effects of PSH systems. It includes literature from the United States as well as countries where closed-loop PSH projects have been constructed. The FERC records review examines the FERC licensing record (e.g., National Environmental Policy Act documents and license orders) to identify the environmental effects anticipated and mitigation measures proposed for six of the closed-loop PSH projects currently licensed or permitted in the United States. For comparison, the FERC records review also discusses the environmental effects and mitigation measures for four open-loop PSH projects proposed or currently operating in the United States. The comparison of effects between open-loop and closed-loop projects is relative; that is, it characterizes the impacts of each project type as generally lower or higher than another project type. The comparison reflects general trends among project types because there are sometimes exceptions to the examples cited. The comparison is based on both spatial (location) and temporal (duration) factors and reflects both the severity and likelihood of effects. The report concludes that the environmental effects of closed-loop PSH projects are generally lower (i.e., more localized and of shorter duration) than those of open-loop PSH projects because they are located “off-stream,” minimizing aquatic and terrestrial impacts, and often have greater siting flexibility than open-loop PSH projects. For certain closed-loop project designs, however, impacts to groundwater may be higher relative to open-loop projects and should be considered in any environmental review.
Manufactured homes offer American consumers an affordable option for decent single-family detached housing. For working-class American families in many U.S. markets, manufactured homes are the first step toward home ownership. They now make up 10% of all new homes constructed in the United States, with higher percentages in the south and in rural communities. To help encourage the production of homes that are more durable, healthy, efficient, and disaster resistant, the U.S. Department of Energy is bringing its building science research to the manufactured housing industry through DOE’s Zero Energy Ready Manufactured Home (ZER-MH) program, which provides technical assistance and voluntary guidelines to manufactured home builders. Homes built to these guidelines are better able to handle power outages and less likely to experience moisture issues, offering a better product option for American families. This higher quality is evidenced by energy modeling which shows homes manufactured to these voluntary guidelines will typically use half the energy of manufactured homes built to the current minimum requirements of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)’s Manufactured Housing and Construction Safety Standard (MHCSS). These homes can also reduce critical energy demand during the busiest hours of the day, typically late afternoon and early evening in the summer when air conditioning demand is highest and mornings in the winter when furnaces and heaters are heating up. Reducing electricity demand during these peak periods when electricity rates are at their highest reduces costs for American families while freeing up capacity on overburdened energy distribution networks. Builders participating in the DOE ZER-MH program are eligible for a tax incentive via the 45L tax credit, which helps to offset the costs of ZER-MH upgrades, enabling builders to offer these certified homes at no additional cost. Together these factors enable manufactured homes to offer home buyers a housing option that is both affordable to finance and affordable to operate, with lower monthly mortgage payments and lower monthly energy bills.
In 2023, the National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR) partnered with the Renewable Energy Alaska Project (REAP) to provide technical assistance to Igiugig through the US Department of Energy's Energy Transitions Initiative Partnership Project (ETIPP). The overall objective of this ETIPP project was to provide technical support to help the community achieve their energy goal of reducing diesel fuel for electricity by 50% by 2030 through the implementation of high priority strategies defined in their 2022 Community Energy Plan. Technical support focused on evaluating additional renewables and renewable heating scenarios, identifying heat recovery system design options for high penetration renewables, investigation power quality and line loss issues, and supporting integration of battery energy storage.
This bibliography is issued in two sections: Section 1 - Abstracts, and section 2 - Indexes. The abstract section cites 217 patents and applications for patent introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system during the period of January 1974 through June 1974. Each entry consists of a citation, an abstract, and, in most cases, a key illustration selected from the patent or application for patent. The index section contains entries for 2653 patent and application for patent citations covering the period May 1969 through June 1974. The index section contains five indexes -- subject, inventor, source, number and accession number.