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At least 1,585 records · Page 88

Multi-wavelength high-resolution observations of a small-scale emerging magnetic flux event and the chromospheric and coronal response

State-of-the-art solar instrumentation is now revealing magnetic activity of the Sun with unprecedented temporal and spatial resolutions. Observations with the 1.6 m aperture New Solar Telescope (NST) of the Big Bear Solar Observatory are making next steps in our understanding of the solar surface structure. Granular-scale magnetic flux emergence and the response of the solar atmosphere are among the key research topics of high-resolution solar physics. As part of a joint observing program with NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) mission on 2013 August 7, the NST observed active region NOAA 11,810 in the photospheric TiO 7057 Å band with a resolution of pixel size of 0.''034 and chromospheric He I 10830 Å and Hα 6563 Å wavelengths. Complementary data are provided by the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) and Hinode space-based telescopes. The region displayed a group of solar pores, in the vicinity of which we detect a small-scale buoyant horizontal magnetic flux tube causing granular alignments and interacting with the preexisting ambient field in the upper atmospheric layers. Following the expansion of distorted granules at the emergence site, we observed a sudden appearance of an extended surge in the He I 10830 Å data (bandpass of 0.05 Å). The IRIS transition region imaging caught ejection of a hot plasma jet associated with the He I surge. The SDO/HMI data used to study the evolution of the magnetic and Doppler velocity fields reveal emerging magnetic loop-like structures. Hinode/Ca II H and IRIS filtergrams detail the connectivities of the newly emerged magnetic field in the lower solar chromosphere. From these data, we find that the orientation of the emerging magnetic field lines from a twisted flux tube formed an angle of ∼45° with the overlying ambient field. Nevertheless, the interaction of emerging magnetic field lines with the pre-existing overlying field generates high-temperature emission regions and boosts the surge/jet production. The localized heating is detected before and after the first signs of the surge/jet ejection. We compare the results with previous observations and theoretical models and propose a scenario for the activation of plasma jet/surges and confined heating triggered by buoyant magnetic flux tubes rising up into a magnetized upper environment. Such process may play a significant role in the mass and energy flow from the interior to the corona.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Assessment of Optimal Flexibility in Ensemble of Frequency Responsive Loads

Potential of electrical loads in providing grid ancillary services is often limited due to the uncertainties associated with the load behavior. A knowledge of the expected uncertainties with a load control program would invariably yield to better informed control policies, opening up the possibility of extracting the maximal load control potential without affecting grid operations. In the context of frequency responsive load control, a probabilistic uncertainty analysis framework is presented to quantify the expected error between the target and actual load response, under uncertainties in the load dynamics. A closed-form expression of an optimal demand flexibility, minimizing the expected error in actual and committed flexibility, is provided. Analytical results are validated through Monte Carlo simulations of ensembles of electric water heaters.

Kundu, Soumya↗

Distributionally Robust Bilevel Optimization Model for Distribution Network With Demand Response Under Uncertain Renewables Using Wasserstein Metrics

Here, we consider a distribution network integrating demand response (DR) participants in the presence of uncertain renewable suppliers and outdoor temperatures. A bilevel optimization model is proposed to capture the intricate dynamics between price-incentivized DR participants and distribution system operations, including energy procurement and active/reactive power flows. The model is formulated as a distributional robust bilevel optimization using Wasserstein metrics. We show favorable data-driven properties including out-of-sample guarantee and asymptotic consistency. Furthermore, we present a tractable mixed-integer linear programming reformulation and characterize the worst-case distribution. Computational experiments are conducted on a modified 33-bus system. Our findings underscore the efficacy of the pricing strategies derived from the proposed bilevel optimization model. These strategies not only effectively manage DR participants' behavior but also bring equity considerations among households with various characteristics to light. The results contribute to a deeper understanding of the interplay between distribution system operators and DR participants.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program: Analysis of Pressurized Water Reactor Station Blackout Caused by External Flooding Using the RISMC Toolkit

The existing fleet of nuclear power plants is in the process of extending its lifetime and increasing the power generated from these plants via power uprates. In order to evaluate the impact of these factors on the safety of the plant, the Risk Informed Safety Margin Characterization (RISMC) project aims to provide insight to decision makers through a series of simulations of the plant dynamics for different initial conditions (e.g., probabilistic analysis and uncertainty quantification). This report focuses, in particular, on the application of a RISMC detailed demonstration case study for an emergent issue using the RAVEN and RELAP-7 tools. This case study looks at the impact of a couple of challenges to a hypothetical pressurized water reactor, including: (1) a power uprate, (2) a potential loss of off-site power followed by the possible loss of all diesel generators (i.e., a station black-out event), (3) and earthquake induces station-blackout, and (4) a potential earthquake induced tsunami flood. The analysis is performed by using a set of codes: a thermal-hydraulic code (RELAP-7), a flooding simulation tool (NEUTRINO) and a stochastic analysis tool (RAVEN) – these are currently under development at the Idaho National Laboratory.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

DARMA-EMPIRE Integration and Performance Assessment – Interim Report

We begin by presenting an overview of the general philosophy that is guiding the novel DARMA developments, followed by a brief reminder about the background of this project. We finally present the FY19 design requirements. As the Exascale era arises, DARMA is uniquely positioned at the forefront of asychronous many-task (AMT) research and development (R&D) to explore emerging programming model paradigms for next-generation HPC applications at Sandia, across NNSA labs, and beyond. The DARMA project explores how to fundamentally shift the expression(PM) and execution(EM)of massively concurrent HPC scientific algorithms to be more asynchronous, resilient to executional aberrations in heterogeneous/unpredictable environments, and data-dependency conscious—thereby enabling an intelligent, dynamic, and self-aware runtime to guide execution.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Integrating Cambium Marginal Costs into Electric Sector Decisions: Opportunities to Integrate Cambium Marginal Cost Data into Berkeley Lab Analysis and Technical Assistance

NREL’s Cambium tool generates forward-looking simulations of marginal wholesale electricity costs associated with NREL’s Standard Scenarios. The scenarios include growing shares of variable renewable energy (VRE, i.e. wind and solar), among other power sector assumptions, between 2018 and 2050. The tool’s primary output—hourly costs at more than 130 balancing areas—could serve as public and transparent data source that supports electric-sector decision-making processes across the U.S. Berkeley Lab conducts a large range of analyses that use historical and forward-looking wholesale electricity prices to inform electric-sector decisions. In this report, Berkeley Lab uses its expertise to evaluate the Cambium cost data. We compare Cambium data with historical wholesale prices for the year 2018 and other modeled prices for the year 2030. We then present eight case studies in which Berkeley Lab researchers use Cambium data to replicate previous analyses based on other price datasets. We describe where primary findings and underlying key price dynamics align or differ, and highlight possible novel insights from the Cambium data. Finally, we qualitatively evaluate the suitability of Cambium costs in ten additional Berkeley Lab studies, though a direct comparison with alternative price data was not feasible at this time. The goal is to inform how electric-sector decision-makers and DOE program offices may be able to use this cohesive dataset, and to highlight what improvements to Cambium may make it even more useful.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

Seismic and LOCA safety testing and analysis program for Westinghouse PWR fuel under end of life conditions

The NRC issued Information Notice - IN 2012-09 in June 2012 which challenges approved assumptions based on the beginning of life (BOL) conditions in seismic and LOCA analysis. Westinghouse manufactures a variety of PWR fuel designs, including 14*14, 15*15, 16*16 and 17*17 array, also different fuel lengths from 12 feet to 14 feet. The fuels are supplied to the cores designed by Westinghouse and Combustion Engineering, and other cores around world. To address IN 2012-09 efficiently and economically, Westinghouse and PWR Owner Groups launched a testing and analysis program funded by PWROG. The program planed testing and analysis matrices based on types of fuel designs. The testing plan includes grid crush tests, fuel assembly mechanical tests and flowing water damping tests. Applying modelling technique, the program will reduce the number of test and cost. The ultimate goal of the program is to generate fuel assembly EOL models for all fuel designs manufactured by Westinghouse and to be ready for any plant specific seismic and LOCA analysis to address NRC IN for EOL effect. The phase I of PWROG for EOL conditions has been completed and several conclusions are obtained. First, the gapped grids reduce grid dynamic stiffness, local impact stiffness and crush strength. Also, due to gapped grids, both the fuel assembly natural frequency and stiffness are reduced. Secondly, applying higher fuel assembly damping due to the flowing water effect can significantly reduce fuel assembly impact forces. However, during a seismic event the reactor coolant pumps may trip resulting in a coast-down. As such, reduced flow rates that occur during the pump coast-down must be considered. Thirdly, the analytical model representation of a reactor core adequately characterizes the core response under seismic and LOCA excitations. Static and dynamic structural test results of a fuel assembly compared with analytical predictions indicate that the fuel assembly lateral and axial structural behavior can be fully determined with finite element models. Fourthly, analyses for EOL fuel assemblies under seismic and LOCA loads demonstrate EOL effect and flowing water damping effect. With flowing water damping benefit, significant margin can be recovered for fuel assemblies with EOL conditions and under seismic loads.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗

Hanford Tank Waste Technology Development Integration and Innovation Synergy

The Chief Technology Office (CTO) within Hanford Tank Waste Operations & Closure (H2C) identifies technology development needs and develops solutions for tank waste treatment. One key element of the technology development (TD) program is the annual Technology Development Integrated Coordination (TDIC) meeting series. The main goal of these meetings is to inform the National Laboratories and other entities of the needs identified by the end users of the technology. In turn, the meetings provide an opportunity for National Laboratories and others to provide insight into potential solutions. This dynamic facilitates dialogues that frequently identify not only new, innovative approaches, but also enhancements to ongoing technology development projects.

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Liquid Metals as Plasma-facing Materials for Fusion Energy Systems: From Atoms to Tokamaks

The objective of our studies was to advance our fundamental understanding of liquid metals as plasma-facing materials for fusion energy systems, with a broad scope: from atoms to tokamaks. The flow of liquid metals offers solutions to significant problems of the plasma-facing materials for fusion energy systems. Candidate metals include lithium, tin, gallium, and their eutectic combinations. However, such liquid metal solutions can only be designed efficiently if a range of scientific and engineering issues are resolved that require advances in fundamental fluid dynamics, materials science and surface science. In our research we investigated a range of significant and timely problems relevant to current and proposed engineering designs for fusion reactors, including high-heat flux configurations that are being considered by leading fusion energy groups world-wide. Using experimental and theoretical tools spanning atomistic to continuum descriptions of liquid metals, and bridging surface chemistry, wetting/dewetting and flow, our research has advanced the science and engineering of fusion energy materials and systems. Specifically, we developed a combined experimental and theoretical program to investigate flows of liquid metals in fusion-relevant geometries, including equilibrium and stability of thin-film flows, e.g. wetting and dewetting, effects of electromagnetic and thermocapillary fields on liquid metal thin-film flows, and how chemical interactions and the properties of the surface are influenced by impurities and in turn affect the surface wetting characteristics, the surface tension, and its gradients. Because high-heat flux configurations produce evaporation and sputtering, which forces rearrangement of the liquid, and any dewetting exposes the substrate to damage from the plasma, our studies addressed such evaporatively driven liquid flows and measured and simulated properties of the different bulk phases and material interfaces. The range of our studies included (i) quantum mechanical calculations that allow inclusion of many thousands of atoms for the characterization of the interface of liquid metals exposed to continuous bombardment by deuterium and tritium as expected in fusion, (ii) molecular dynamics studies of the phase behavior of liquid metals, which (a) utilize thermodynamic properties computed using our quantum mechanical calculations and (b) establish material and wetting properties of the liquid metals, including relevant eutectics, (iii) experimental investigations of the surface science of liquid metals, interacting both with the solid substrate as well as gaseous species, and (iv) fluid dynamical studies that incorporate the material and surface science results of (ii) and (iii) in order to characterize flow in capillary porous materials and the thin-film flow along curved boundaries, both of which are potentially major components of plasma-facing materials. The outcome of these integrated studies was new understanding that enables developing design rules useful for future developments of the plasma-facing components critical to the success of fusion energy systems.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Nonlinear burn control in ITER using adaptive allocation of actuators with uncertain dynamics

Abstract ITER will be the first tokamak to sustain a fusion-producing, or burning, plasma. If the plasma temperature were to inadvertently rise in this burning regime, the positive correlation between temperature and the fusion reaction rate would establish a destabilizing positive feedback loop. Careful regulation of the plasma’s temperature and density, or burn control, is required to prevent these potentially reactor-damaging thermal excursions, neutralize disturbances and improve performance. In this work, a Lyapunov-based burn controller is designed using a full zero-dimensional nonlinear model. An adaptive estimator manages destabilizing uncertainties in the plasma confinement properties and the particle recycling conditions (caused by plasma–wall interactions). The controller regulates the plasma density with requests for deuterium and tritium particle injections. In ITER-like plasmas, the fusion-born alpha particles will primarily heat the plasma electrons, resulting in different electron and ion temperatures in the core. By considering separate response models for the electron and ion energies, the proposed controller can independently regulate the electron and ion temperatures by requesting that different amounts of auxiliary power be delivered to the electrons and ions. These two commands for a specific control effort (electron and ion heating) are sent to an actuator allocation module that optimally maps them to the heating actuators available to ITER: an electron cyclotron heating system (20 MW), an ion cyclotron heating system (20 MW), and two neutral beam injectors (16.5 MW each). Two different actuator allocators are presented in this work. The first actuator allocator finds the optimal mapping by solving a convex quadratic program that includes actuator saturation and rate limits. It is nonadaptive and assumes that the mapping between the commanded control efforts and the allocated actuators (i.e. the effector model) contains no uncertainties. The second actuator allocation module has an adaptive estimator to handle uncertainties in the effector model. This uncertainty includes actuator efficiencies, the fractions of neutral beam heating that are deposited into the plasma electrons and ions, and the tritium concentration of the fueling pellets. Furthermore, the adaptive allocator considers actuator dynamics (actuation lag) that contain uncertainty. This adaptive allocation algorithm is more computationally efficient than the aforementioned nonadaptive allocator because it is computed using dynamic update laws so that finding the solution to a static optimization problem is not required at every time step. A simulation study assesses the performance of the proposed adaptive burn controller augmented with each of the actuator allocation modules.

Physics↗

Phenomena Identification and Ranking Table (PIRT) for heat pipes

Heat pipes are advanced passive thermal management devices that utilize phase change and capillary action to achieve efficient heat transfer. However, due to the complexity of the phenomena coupled in heat pipes, including capillary, phase change, turbulence, and compressibility effects, there are high uncertainties in the predictability of their operational regimes and performance. This PIRT exercise, conducted as a collaborative effort involving the Department of Energy (DOE) Microreactor Program (MRP), the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), and university partners systematically identifies, reviews, and prioritizes critical phenomena affecting the operation of heat pipes based on their importance and knowledge levels. Additional analyses and discussion are provided for phenomena with high importance and low knowledge, such as wick de-wetting, critical heat flux, contact angles, and pressure dynamics. The discussions included the recognizing challenges and proposing future research directions for both modeling and simulation and experimental efforts. Additionally, the report addresses phenomena with medium importance and low knowledge that could impact heat pipe operation during non-normal or transient operation, including frozen startup, laminar to turbulent transition, geyser boiling, wick priming, underfilling conditions, surface roughness of the wick, NCGs trapped in the wick, and the timescales of startup and shutdown. In conclusion, this comprehensive evaluation serves as a valuable resource for guiding future research and development efforts, supporting the successful integration of heat pipes into critical applications such as nuclear reactors, and contributing to the advancement of heat pipe technologies in safety-critical industries.

21 - SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLAN↗

Controlled Organization of Inorganic Materials Using Biological Molecules for Activating Therapeutic Functionalities

Precise control over the assembly of biocompatible three-dimensional (3D) nanostructures would allow for programmed interactions within the cellular environment. Nucleic acids can be used as programmable crosslinkers to direct the assembly of quantum dots (QDs) and tuned to demonstrate different interparticle binding strategies. In this work, morphologies of self-assembled QDs are evaluated via gel electrophoresis, transmission electron microscopy, small-angle X-ray scattering, and dissipative particle dynamics simulations, with all results being in good agreement. The controlled assembly of 3D QD organizations is demonstrated in cells via the colocalized emission of multiple assembled QDs, and their immunorecognition is assessed via enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. RNA interference inducers are also embedded into the interparticle binding strategy to be released in human cells only upon QD assembly, which is demonstrated by specific gene silencing. The programmability and intracellular activity of QD assemblies offer a strategy for nucleic acids to imbue the structure and therapeutic function into the formation of complex networks of nanostructures, while the photoluminescent properties of the material allow for optical tracking in cells in vitro.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

CO Oxidation on Au/TiO 2 : Condition-Dependent Active Sites and Mechanistic Pathways

We present results of ab initio electronic structure and molecular dynamics simulations (AIMD), as well as microkinetic modeling of CO oxidation catalyzed by TiO2 supported Au nanocatalysts. A coverage-dependent microkinetic analysis, based on energetics obtained with density functional methods, shows that the dominant kinetic pathway, activated oxygen species, and catalytic active sites are all strongly depended on both temperature and oxygen partial pressure. A dynamic single atom catalytic (DSAC) mechanism for CO oxidation is proposed to be the dominant (but not the exclusive) pathway for this reaction under oxidative conditions below T < 400 K. This mechanism proceeds via an Au+-CO species that transfers from the Au-cluster to a surface oxygen ad-atom, where it reacts with the TiO2 support with a Mars van Krevelen mechanism to form CO2 and subsequently reintegrates back into the gold cluster to complete the catalytic cycle. At 300 = T = 600 K oxygen-bound single Au+CO sites and the perimeter sites of the Au-nanoparticle work in tandem to optimally catalyze the reaction. Above 600 K a variety of alternate pathways associated with the perimeter sites of the Au nanoparticle and/or the single atom site are found to be the most active pathways. Overall our results highlight the importance of the dynamic behavior of interfacial area between the catalysts and the support, which allows for a high degree of adaptation. This work was supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Chemical Sciences, Geosciences & Biosciences and performed at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). PNNL is a multi-program national laboratory operated for Department of Energy by Battelle. Computational resources were provided at W. R. Wiley Environmental Molecular Science Laboratory (EMSL), a national scientific user facility sponsored by the Department of Energy’s Office of Biological and Environmental Research located at PNNL and the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Wang, Yang-Gang↗

Evaluation of an Improved Convective Triggering Function: Observational Evidence and SCM Tests

This study provides a strong observational support for a recently developed convective triggering function that uses the large-scale dynamic convective available potential energy (dCAPE) as a constraint combined with an unrestricted air parcel launch level (ULL) to relax the unrealistic strong coupling of convection to surface heating and capture nocturnal elevated convection. Both case study and statistical analysis are conducted using the observations collected from the Department of Energy (DOE)'s Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) program at its Southern Great Plains (SGP) and Manaus (MAO) sites. They show that dCAPE has a much stronger correlation with precipitation than CAPE and ULL is essential to detect elevated convection above boundary layer under both midlatitude and tropical conditions and for both afternoon and nighttime deep convection regimes. Sensitivity tests with the single-column model (SCM) of DOE's Energy Exascale and Earth System Model (E3SM) indicate that the role of dCAPE in suppressing daytime convection is more effective for tropical convection than midlatitude convection. Even though the dCAPE can suppress the overestimated convection, ULL plays a much bigger role in improving the diurnal cycle of precipitation than dCAPE. It not only helps capture nocturnal elevated convection, but also significantly removes the spurious morning precipitation seen in the default model, due to the release of unstable energy at night. However, the use of ULL has led to an overestimation of light-to-moderate precipitation (1-10 mm/day) due to more convection being triggered above boundary layer.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Phase-based design of CO 2 capture, transport, and storage infrastructure via SimCCS 3.0

The design of optimal infrastructure is essential for the deployment of commercial and large-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology. During the design process, it is important to consider CO 2 capture and storage locations and CO 2 transportation pipelines to minimize the total project cost. SimCCS, first introduced in 2009, is an integrated open-source tool to optimize CCS infrastructure. The core CCS infrastructure design problem in SimCCS is structured as a mixed-integer linear programming problem by selecting the optimal pipeline routes, searching CO 2 source capture and storage locations, and determining the corresponding CO 2 amounts to meet desired capture targets. Multiple important and practical features have been developed to the latest version of SimCCS, SimCCS 3.0 . One of these features is phase-based modeling which enables users to dynamically design the CCS infrastructure. We demonstrate the phased-based modeling capability using two CCS infrastructure optimization case studies. The results from these case studies reveal that the phase-based modeling capability in SimCCS is particularly useful to optimize the dynamic deployment of CCS projects.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

A performance model for the communication in fast multipole methods on high-performance computing platforms

Exascale systems are predicted to have approximately 1 billion cores, assuming gigahertz cores. Limitations on affordable network topologies for distributed memory systems of such massive scale bring new challenges to the currently dominant parallel programing model. Currently, there are many efforts to evaluate the hardware and software bottlenecks of exascale designs. It is therefore of interest to model application performance and to understand what changes need to be made to ensure extrapolated scalability. The fast multipole method (FMM) was originally developed for accelerating N-body problems in astrophysics and molecular dynamics but has recently been extended to a wider range of problems. Its high arithmetic intensity combined with its linear complexity and asynchronous communication patterns make it a promising algorithm for exascale systems. In this paper, we discuss the challenges for FMM on current parallel computers and future exascale architectures, with a focus on internode communication. We focus on the communication part only; the efficiency of the computational kernels are beyond the scope of the present study. We develop a performance model that considers the communication patterns of the FMM and observe a good match between our model and the actual communication time on four high-performance computing (HPC) systems, when latency, bandwidth, network topology, and multicore penalties are all taken into account. To our knowledge, this is the first formal characterization of internode communication in FMM that validates the model against actual measurements of communication time. The ultimate communication model is predictive in an absolute sense; however, on complex systems, this objective is often out of reach or of a difficulty out of proportion to its benefit when there exists a simpler model that is inexpensive and sufficient to guide coding decisions leading to improved scaling. The current model provides such guidance.

Computer Science↗

A Surveillance Infrastructure for Malaria Analytics: Provisioning Data Access and Preservation of Interoperability

Background: According to the World Health Organization, malaria surveillance is weakest in countries and regions with the highest malaria burden. A core obstacle is that the data required to perform malaria surveillance are fragmented in multiple data silos distributed across geographic regions. Furthermore, consistent integrated malaria data sources are few, and a low degree of interoperability exists between them. As a result, it is difficult to identify disease trends and to plan for effective interventions. Objective: We propose the Semantics, Interoperability, and Evolution for Malaria Analytics (SIEMA) platform for use in malaria surveillance based on semantic data federation. Using this approach, it is possible to access distributed data, extend and preserve interoperability between multiple dynamic distributed malaria sources, and facilitate detection of system changes that can interrupt mission-critical global surveillance activities. Methods: We used Semantic Automated Discovery and Integration (SADI) Semantic Web Services to enable data access and improve interoperability, and the graphical user interface-enabled semantic query engine HYDRA to implement the target queries typical of malaria programs. We implemented a custom algorithm to detect changes to community-developed terminologies, data sources, and services that are core to SIEMA. This algorithm reports to a dashboard. Valet SADI is used to mitigate the impact of changes by rebuilding affected services. Results: We developed a prototype surveillance and change management platform from a combination of third-party tools, community-developed terminologies, and custom algorithms. We illustrated a methodology and core infrastructure to facilitate interoperable access to distributed data sources using SADI Semantic Web services. This degree of access makes it possible to implement complex queries needed by our user community with minimal technical skill. We implemented a dashboard that reports on terminology changes that can render the services inactive, jeopardizing system interoperability. Using this information, end users can control and reactively rebuild services to preserve interoperability and minimize service downtime. Conclusions: We introduce a framework suitable for use in malaria surveillance that supports the creation of flexible surveillance queries across distributed data resources. The platform provides interoperable access to target data sources, is domain agnostic, and with updates to core terminological resources is readily transferable to other surveillance activities. A dashboard enables users to review changes to the infrastructure and invoke system updates. The platform significantly extends the range of functionalities offered by malaria information systems, beyond the state-of-the-art.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

Application of GOTHIC to Groundwater Transport Analysis - 20152

Migration of pollutants and hazardous wastes, potentially containing radioactive isotopes, via groundwater transport is a concern at most waste cleanup sites. Predictive analysis can be used to evaluate mitigating actions intended to minimize impact on the environment and public exposure. GOTHIC is a multipurpose thermal hydraulics code that is used extensively in the nuclear industry for design, licensing and operation evaluations. It combines the capabilities of typical one-dimensional system codes and the essential features of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) codes for three-dimensional analysis. There are other codes that are specifically developed for groundwater transport analysis and the results presented here are consistent with prior analyses. However, GOTHIC has some unique features that offer advantages for applications related to nuclear waste. Most importantly, it has been developed and maintained under a Quality Assurance program in compliance with the requirements of 10CFR50 Appendix B [2] and applicable portions of ASME NQA-1 [3] since 1995. Available GOTHIC capabilities that make the code especially useful for groundwater transport of nuclear materials include: - Tracking of any number of tracer elements for contaminants and other species of interest; - Radioactive decay and progeny of tracer elements; - Adsorption/desorption of tracer elements; - Tracking of any number of dissolved gases; - Release and absorption for dissolved gases; - Vapor phase tracking; - Non-Newtonian fluid modeling. The general porous body modeling approach makes GOTHIC well suited to groundwater transport analysis. The multi-region modeling approach used by GOTHIC simplifies model construction for regions of varying hydrologic characteristics and focuses the computational effort on regions of particular interest while simultaneously capturing the macroscopic response and any feedback effects across the larger domain. The applicability of GOTHIC to groundwater transport applications is demonstrated by comparing code results with available analytic or semi-analytic solutions for groundwater behavior. (authors)

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