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Ta compressibility to 20+ Mbar

Developing techniques for experimentally constraining equation of state (EOS) models for important programmatic materials under extreme conditions is vital for advancing our modeling and predictive capabilities. Tantalum is a frequently used standard material for both calibration and testing, and this report describes our work to both measure Ta compressibility to very high pressures and densities using the Ramp Compression Equation of State platform on the National Ignition Facility (NIF). Using a series of seven shots, increasing in peak pressure with each shot, we have made absolute measurements of the compressibility of Ta along the ramp compression path up to 2.3 TPa. Previous experimental measurements constrained the cold compressibility up to ~400 GPa, and there is a spread in the EOS models above that pressure. To improve communication and collaboration between the experimental team and the EOS development group, these new data, along with other experimental and theoretical constraints, were used to develop a Ta equation of state table, M73000. This report first describes the experimental measurements made at the NIF, and then discusses the construction of the EOS model. The ramp compression data can be found in tabular form in Appendix A. Appendix B contains some additional experimental details. In Appendix C we include some additional details on the EOS modeling. At the end of this document, we have attached a detailed report on the NIF ramp compression platform itself and in the main text referenced specific sections for additional details.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Comprehensive Technology Readiness Assessment Report for LL20-ML-AIT-NE-1-PD3TB

This document ensures that technologies relevant to LL20-ML-AIT-NE-1-PD3TB “AIT-NEO” have been demonstrated to work as intended and at the appropriate technology readiness level. This assessment is intended to offer management tools for understanding and mitigating programmatic risks associated with new technologies being developed under the AIT-NEO effort.

45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEF↗

Staffing Analyses Tool

The Staffing Analyses Tool is an interactive resource planning tool used for visualizing programmatic staffing financial information. This dashboard provides historical and current staff charging data under organizations’ and/or programs’ views. This tool is used to manage staffing cost and inform outyear planning. It was developed in collaboration with Associate Laboratory Directorate for Infrastructure and Capital Projects (ALDICP) Planning Office.

96 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND PRESERVATION↗

U Metal Oxidation with Steam (U)

The Savannah Rive National Laboratory 9SRNL) is evaluating a method to produce uranium oxide (UO 2 ) from uranium metal using steam. The typical methods for making UO 2 yield powders with particle-size ranges of 1 to 50 micron. The goal of the steam oxidation is to produce a depleted uranium (DU) product with a larger particle size that can be used as a surrogate for testing physical and mechanical process techniques to refine uranium and/or plutonium bearing residues. Several studies in the literature indicated that reactions between uranium metal and steam will yield UO 2 as fine powders in the 160 to 500 °C range, but granular materials form above 500°C. Above 880 °C, a hard compact scale forms on the U metal. Furthermore, sintering of UO 2 occurs at about 1300 °C, but it has been stated that the presence of steam enhances the sintering characteristics of UO 2 . Initial studies into the oxidation of DU metal in an atmosphere of argon and steam have been completed. Oxidation of depleted uranium metal in Ar/steam at 600, 710, 700, and 830 °C yielded at UO 2 product with little or no impurity at each temperature. Although not enough sample was available to perform sieve analysis for particle size distribution, SEM images reveal that a significant volume fraction of the products at 710, 770, and 830 °C exceeds 100 microns. The material produced at 600 °C was too fine for programmatic needs. Questions associated with the UO 2 include morphology of product, mechanical strength of the particles, and performance in milling operations. The size of the samples produced in these tests did not allow for quantitative assessment of particle size of mechanical strength. A qualitative assessment of the particles formed at 710, 770, and 830 °C was that the samples produced at 710 and 770 °C were friable, and the sample produced 830 °C had more mechanical strength. Sintering of the samples in Ar/steam at 970 °C appeared to increase the strength of the particles without changing their general particle size characteristics. Due to the small sample sizes, the increase in strength could not be quantified. If the sintering at 970 °C is inadequate, higher sintering temperatures in Ar/steam can be evaluated. Future work will increase scale of the steam oxidation conditions which yield the most-favorable particle-size distributions with sufficient mechanical strength for programming usage. Further consideration will be given to oxidation temperature, steam addition to the reaction vessel, U metal pretreatment, and sintering conditions after oxidation. The UO 2 production could involve a two-step process where particles are formed in steam at lower temperatures (700-850 °C) and then sintered in Ar/steam at elevated temperatures (950-1200 °C). Larger samples (50-100 g each) will provide sufficient UO 2 product for sieve analysis and assessment of mechanical strength relatives to subsequent milling operations.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Evaluation of Building 23-620, Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory J-3 Office, Nevada National Security Site, Nye County, Nevada

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration Nevada Field Office (NNSA/NFO) plans to demolish Building 23-620, the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory (LASL) J-3 Office Building (Nevada State Historic Preservation Office [SHPO] Resource No. B15283) at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) in Nye County, Nevada. The NNSA/NFO is implementing a long-term project to modernize the town of Mercury for future mission needs. The project is considered an undertaking subject to review under Title 54 of United States Code (USC) § 306108, commonly known as Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, Title 54 USC § 300101, et seq., and its implementing regulations, Title 36 of the Code of Federal Regulations (36 CFR) Part 800. In 2018, Desert Research Institute (DRI) completed an architectural survey of the town of Mercury. This effort resulted in the identification, recordation, and evaluation of the Mercury Historic District (MHD, SHPO Resource No. D230), including the identification of its contributing elements (Reno et al. 2018). The MHD was recommended eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP, National Register) under the Secretary of the Interior’s (SOI) Significance Criteria A and C, as defined in 36 CFR Part 60.4, as a significant concentration of buildings and structures with a direct and important association with Cold War-era nuclear testing from 1951 through 1992. It has not been evaluated under Criteria B and D to date. As part of a larger modernization program for Mercury, the NNSA/NFO and the SHPO executed the 2018 Programmatic Agreement between the National Nuclear Security Administration Nevada Field Office and the Nevada State Historic Preservation Officer regarding Modernization and Operational Maintenance of the Nevada National Security Site, at Mercury in Nye County, Nevada (Mercury PA). The Mercury PA includes streamlined Section 106 procedures for undertakings in the MHD based on contributing element categories. Building 23-620 is identified in Appendix C of the Mercury PA as a Category I contributing element, indicating that it might be individually eligible for the NRHP. It is a historic property for the purposes of Section 106 compliance and subject to the stipulations of the Mercury PA. Per Stipulation VI of the Mercury PA, when the Area of Potential Effect (APE) for an undertaking includes Category I elements, the NNSA/NFO must evaluate the Category I elements for individual NRHP eligibility under all of the SOI Significance Criteria prior to initiating any activity that may affect the elements. The purpose of this report is to evaluate Building 23-620 as a potential individually eligible historic property in fulfillment of Stipulation VI of the Mercury PA. The evaluation detailed herein concludes that Building 23-620 is not individually eligible for listing in the NRHP. Although it retains aspects of integrity and continues to contribute to the MHD, it is not individually significant under any of the SOI Significance Criteria.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

LANSCE Science Overview [Slides]

LANSCE’s combination of beam power, flexibility, and authorization basis uniquely positions it to address a broad set of NNSA (and beyond) science. We have a programmatically motivated science vision for the facility that extends through the next several decades.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Considerations on Managing Flowsheet and Technology for DFLAW Production

This report evaluates best practices for flowsheet and technology (F&T) management and makes recommendations for Hanford tank waste treatment operations initially for Direct Feed Low Activity Waste (DFLAW). Establishing practicing F&T management operations prior to hot commissioning the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant is desirable to ensure focused F&T leadership and F&T capabilities and competencies are immediately ready to sustain DFLAW production operations. Management of F&T is characterized by the five programmatic elements important to sustained operations and leads to recommendations for Hanford tank waste treatment operations:

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

Secure Storage: Historical Documentation of TA-08-0032, TA-11-0036, TA-22-0016, TA-22-0023, TA-22-0025, TA-22-0035, TA-37-0006, TA-37-0009, and TA-37-0020

The U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration, Los Alamos Field Office (NA-LA), is pursuing the decommissioning and demolition (D&D) of facilities contaminated with high-explosives residues at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (Laboratory or LANL). This effort affects nine facilities associated with high-explosives and detonator research, development, and storage: Technical Area (TA) 8 Facility 32 (TA-08-0032), TA-11-0036, TA-22-0016, TA-22-0023, TA-22-0025, TA-22-0035, TA-37-0006, TA-37-0009, and TA-37-0020. All nine facilities proposed for D&D have been evaluated for listing in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) and determined eligible. NA-LA previously requested the State Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO) to concur with the NRHP-eligibility determinations of these nine properties presented in four reports: (1) TA-08-0032 was determined eligible for listing in the NRHP in the report, From Ranching to Radiography: An Assessment of Historic Buildings at Anchor West Site (TA-8), Vol. 1 (McGehee et al. 2008a). The SHPO concurred with this eligibility determination on November 26, 2008. (2) TA-11-0036 was determined eligible for listing in the NRHP in the report, ESA Division’s Five-Year Plan: Consolidation and Revitalization at Technical Areas 3, 8, 11, and 16, Vol. 1) (McGehee et al. 2003). The SHPO concurred with this eligibility assessment on June 22, 2003. (3) TA-22-0016, TA-22-0023, TA-22-0025, and TA-22-0035 were determined eligible for listing in the NRHP in the report, DX Division’s Facility Strategic Plan: Consolidation and Revitalization at Technical Areas 6, 8, 9, 14, 15, 22, 36, 39, 40, 60, and 69, Vol. 1 (McGehee et al. 2005a). The SHPO concurred with these eligibility determinations on April 18, 2006. (4) TA-37-0006, TA-37-0009, and TA-37-0020 were determined eligible for listing in the NRHP in the report, High Explosives and the Nuclear Stockpile: An Assessment of Historic Buildings at Magazine Area C (TA-37), Vol. 1 (McGehee et al. 2008b). The SHPO concurred with these eligibility determinations on April 17, 2008. In a letter dated January 24, 2020, NA-LA acknowledged that the D&D of these nine NRHP-eligible facilities was an adverse effect that requires resolution through mitigation. NA-LA proposed the use of standard mitigation practices as defined in the Programmatic Agreement (PA) among the U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration, Los Alamos Field Office, the New Mexico State Historic Preservation Office, and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation Concerning Management of the Historic Properties at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico. The PA states that adverse effects to NRHP-eligible buildings and structures will be resolved according to the standard practices defined in Part II, Section 10, of the Laboratory’s Cultural Resources Management Plan, A Plan for the Management of the Cultural Heritage at Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico (Purtzer et al. 2019), and Section 2.B of Appendix D of the PA itself. The standard practice documentation package includes the following components: (1) Interior and exterior photography and production of archival-quality digital photographs; (2) Documentation and curation of historically significant equipment and artifacts; (3) A list of all known drawings for the property; (4) Reduced-scale reproductions of selected drawings for the property; (5) A location map that shows the location of the property relative to the entire Laboratory property; (6) Reproduction of historical TA maps; (7) A TA map that depicts the footprint of each eligible and non-eligible facility; and (8) An expanded historic context that uses oral-history interviews, if available. On March 3, 2020, the SHPO concurred with the adverse effect determination and the mitigation plan. The documentation package, as previously described, is provided in Volumes 1 and 2 of this report.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

Agile Research and Technology Transitions (ARTT)

The Energy and Environment Directorate (EED) supports an extensive portfolio of strategic Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) research through its SEED, strategic, Agile and Initiative programs. Of paramount importance is the relevance of these investments to the long-term objectives of our various Department of Energy (DOE) programmatic sponsors. This LDRD project seeks to maximize impact to our sponsors by providing an agile funding approach to develop/enhance DOE relevant technologies in an accelerated and responsive manner to emerging and adjacent technical challenges. Staff will propose small development activities to be carried out under the overall Agile Research and Technology Transitions project.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

Packaging Plan for Mark-18A Plutonium Oxide

Mark-18A (Mk-18A) targets were irradiated at the Savannah River Site and have been in wet storage at the site since the 1970s. The Mk-18A Target Material Recovery Program has been established to recover the 244 Pu and heavy curium (≥50% 246 Cm and 248 Cm) in the targets at the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) and ship the materials to Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s (ORNL’s) Radiochemical Engineering Development Center for programmatic use. Two products will be recovered from the Mk- 18A targets for shipment from SRNL to ORNL: a plutonium oxide stream and an oxide material that will contain the americium, curium, and lanthanides. This document presents the plan for packaging of the plutonium oxide material for shipment and storage at ORNL.

98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL P↗

Multigrid Reduction in Time for Chaotic and Hyperbolic Problems (Final Report)

The coming massive parallelism of exascale computing presents a pressing challenge for the many DOE simulations of time-dependent partial differential equations (PDEs), which typically use traditional sequential time stepping methods. Since this traditional approach is inherently serial, it presents a sequential bottleneck when moving to exascale computing, because future performance gains will come through greater concurrency, not faster clock speeds. Thus, the goal of this work is to research parallelism in time, i.e., methods that compute multiple time values simultaneously, not sequentially. The focus will be on hyperbolic and chaotic problems of interest to DOE, with the goal of enabling scalable simulations of time-dependent hyperbolic and chaotic problems on future architectures. The chosen methodology for solving these problems parallel-in-time is multigrid, because multigrid (when it works) is a powerful, optimal, and scalable solver for discretized PDEs. Multigrid is already commonly used in many DOE simulations for scalably and optimally solving space-only PDE problems. The areas of hyperbolic and chaotic problems are chosen because of their relevance to problems of programmatic interest to DOE. However, these problems are also well-known to be difficult for parallelin-time methods, with the most common method, parareal, diverging in many cases. The current state-of-the-art for parallel-in-time at LLNL is the multigrid reduction in time (MGRIT) XBraid package, which also struggles for such problems, while still showing some improvement over parareal. In summary, new methods are needed for an efficient parallel-in-time scheme for hyperbolic and chaotic problems, and this work shall research promising new multigrid methods in this area. In particular, this work shall continue researching the directions from the current collaboration with Dr. Falgout, which are laid out in the work Toward Parallel in Time for Chaotic Dynamical Systems and showed the first known results of a parallel-in-time speedup for a chaotic problem. This work outlines two key improvements to XBraid for chaotic problems, the so-called “theta” and “delta-correction” methods. Here, these two improvements will be implemented in a high-performance but general way in XBraid and explored for more complicated problems. We will additionally research, as time allows, improvements to these techniques, as well as multigrid relaxation techniques based on Least Squares Shadowing (LSS by Wang) and a nonintrusive block tridiagonal solver based on MGRIT, called TriMGRIT.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Multi-shock design tools in double shell models

The essence of the project was to implement a program in python that demonstrated certain models put forth by fusion physicists. Across the time spent at Los Alamos National Laboratory, much was spent programming. Though fundamentally programmatical in nature, the task contained considerable difficulty hid within mathematically deriving and manipulating the models while maintaining data discretization. The result of solving these complications gave invaluable experience in applied mathematics. The final product, a piece of lengthy code, ended up having the full range of desired capabilities, with plans for more. Given the laser power history from a pulse shot on NIF, Omega, or any other Inertial Confinement Fusion facility, the code maps the terrain of radiation temperature inside the hohlraum throughout the period of the shot. Additionally, shock wave convergence prediction was implemented as additional capability. As the name of the project suggests, this tool acts as a compass of direction for researchers designing laser power profiles. Further development of this tool will undoubtedly assist in the research conducted on single and double-shell indirect ICF, consequently expanding the capabilities of operating stewardship over the national nuclear stockpile.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Biomass Gasification for Chemicals Production Using Chemical Looping Techniques (Final Report)

The Ohio State University (OSU) is investigating the Biomass to Syngas (BTS) chemical looping technology to produce syngas for chemical production applications from biomass under US Department of Energy (DOE) Award #DE-EE0007530. The BTS process aligns with the programmatic area of interest of “Conversion, via biological, thermal, catalytic or chemical means, of acceptable feedstocks into advanced biofuels and/or biobased products including intermediate and end-use products”. Compared to conventional biomass gasification processes, the BTS process eliminates the need for air separation units and tar reforming reactors, which leads to energy efficiency improvement and capital cost reduction. The overall objective is to ascertain the potential of biomass gasification based on the chemical looping technique through mitigation of the possible techno-economic challenges in the steps of scale up for commercialization. The scope of work consists of 1) designing, constructing and operating a 10 kWth commercially scalable sub-pilot BTS system and; 2) completing a comprehensive techno-economic analysis (TEA) of the BTS process using methanol production as an example. Over the course of the project, the project team completed the design, fabrication, and operation of a 10 kWth sub-pilot scale test unit for the BTS process. Corn cob and wood pellets were successfully tested in the unit for high purity syngas generation in extended test campaigns that totals over 200 hours. Syngas purity (H2 and CO) of >70% was achieved with a CH 4 concentration of <6%. The H 2 /CO ratio was greater than 1.8. A comprehensive techno-economic analysis was performed to compare the BTS process and a reference indirectly heated gasification process for methanol synthesis. The result, updated with experimental results for BTS process performance, shows a methanol required selling price (MSP) of $\$ $1.15/gal, compared to $1.28/gal for the reference case.

08 HYDROGEN↗

Annual Technology Baseline: ATB-calc Open Source Tools [Slides]

The Annual Technology Baseline (ATB) team will introduce the new open-source Python tools for processing and interacting with electricity ATB data and provide helpful user demonstrations, including how to: extract data from the ATB workbook and calculate levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) in Python; programmatically interact with and modify ATB data; and use the tools to modify the tax credit assumptions of the ATB to account for bonus credits from the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

Biomolecular and Characterization Imaging Science Program: 2023 Principal Investigator Meeting Proceedings

The 2023 U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Biological and Environmental Research (BER) program’s Biomolecular Characterization and Imaging Science (BCIS) Principal Investigator Meeting expanded in scope from previous Bioimaging Science Program (BSP) meetings to include BER Structural Biology and Imaging Resources, which are located largely at DOE Office of Science national laboratories. The BCIS meeting was part of BER’s Biological Systems Science Division (BSSD) annual PI meeting, which was held April 17–19, 2023, and featured parallel meetings of the BCIS and Genomic Science programs (GSP). The meetings were held together to encourage networking and idea exchange across technologies and biological application areas, forging new multidisciplinary collaborations among researchers from adjacent BSSD programmatic areas. Two joint BCIS-GSP sessions were held: “BCIS Technologies for Investigating the Rhizosphere” and “Joint Emerging Topics and Technologies.” The rhizosphere session focused on scientific findings from BCIS and GSP PIs, including national laboratory collaborations. The intent was to identify new opportunities to measure and understand the complex community of microbes, roots, and soils that support plant growth under challenging environmental conditions. The emerging technologies session highlighted forward-looking approaches and tools to tackle challenges within the scope of BSSD research on investigating and modifying genomic and molecular function. A final interactive discussion of the BCIS program was led by plenary session chairs.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Environmental Air Monitoring at LANL: 2023 External Program Assessment [Slides]

Radioactive Air Emissions Management evaluates radiological impacts of LANL operations on members of the public, identifies and quantifies releases, and assesses impacts. It is not directly affiliated with cleanup operations or programmatic work and has independent oversight. The focus areas in Environmental Compliance Programs are stack emissions measurements, ambient air measurements, minor source operations evaluations, data management and quality assurance, collaboration with Meteorology program, and collaboration with Dose Assessment program (EPC-ES).

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Bioimaging Science Program: 2022 Principal Investigator Meetings Proceedings

The mission of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Biological and Environmental Research (BER) program’s Bioimaging Science Program (BSP) is to understand the translation of genomic information into the mechanisms that power living cells, communities of cells, and whole organisms. The goal of BSP is to develop new imaging and measurement technologies to visualize the spatial and temporal relationships of key metabolic processes governing phenotypic expression in plants and microbes. The extended goal of dynamic imaging is to functionally connect cellular components and interdependent organisms. Information about the time and place of chemical reactions in situ can identify causal relationships between biological activators and downstream effectors. BSP held its annual PI meeting virtually February 28–March 1. Contributing investigators are convened to review progress and current state-of-the-art bioimaging research. Holding the 2022 BSP meeting as part of the broader Genomic Science Program (GSP) PI meeting allowed researchers to interact with the extended GSP community. This convergence provided a platform for networking and exchange of ideas with experts in other technologies and in target BSP application areas, helping to forge new multidisciplinary collaborations among investigators from the sister programmatic areas within BER’s Biological Systems Science Division. An important highlight of the BSP meeting was the keynote presentation by Nobel Laureate Dr. Joachim Frank on Time-Resolved Macromolecular Imaging using Cryo-EM. He discussed microfluidic mixing and fast freezing to capture nonequilibrium intermediate states during molecular binding and conformational changes. The action of molecular machines can be captured at nanometer resolution and millisecond discrimination. BSP PIs made presentations describing their research focus and progress in plenary sessions on bioimaging science and on quantum-enabled bioimaging science research projects. BSP research at universities and DOE laboratories is presented in this report. A final discussion of the BSP was organized by meeting plenary session chairs, who prepared the following Executive Summary of current BSP research, research challenges, future opportunities, and potential ideas for expanding the BSP’s impact and interactions.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Coupling hydrodynamics to a rigid-body motion solver for fluid-structure interaction [Slides]

Quinoa is a massively parallel computational fluid dynamics with multi-material and programmed burn capabilities developed from Programmatic and LDRD funds. Overset is a well-established method of using an “inset” mesh that communicates with a background mesh. Solutions transfer freely from one to another and operate as boundary conditions on the opposite mesh. Either mesh can move at specified velocity! This project couples the existing Mesh-to-mesh transfer with Quinoa and demonstrates use of resulting Overset solver in computational simulation of blast effects on a re-entry body for survivability assessments.

42 ENGINEERING↗