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DOE OSTI2014

Research in Neutrino Physics

We describe here the recent activities of our two groups over the first year of this award (effectively November 2010 through January 2012) and our proposed activities and associated budgets for the coming grant year. Both of our groups are collaborating on the Double Chooz reactor neutrino experiment and are playing major roles in calibration and analysis. A major milestone was reached recently: the collaboration obtained the first result on the search for θ 13 based on 100 days of data from the far detector. Our data indicates that θ 13 is not zero; specifically the best fit of the neutrino oscillation hypothesis to our data gives sin 2 (2θ 13 ) = 0.086 ± 0.041 (stat) ± 0.030 (syst). The null oscillation hypothesis is excluded at the 94.6% C.L. This result has been submitted to Physical Review Letters. As we continue to take data with the far detector in the coming year, in parallel with completing the construction of the near lab and installing the near detector, we expect the precision of our measurement to improve as we gather significantly more statistics, gain better control of backgrounds through use of partial power data and improved event selection, and better understand the detector energy scale and detection efficiency from calibration data. With both detectors taking data starting in the second half of 2013, we expect to further drive down the uncertainty on our measurement of sin 2 (2θ 13 ) to less than 0.02. Stancu’s group is also collaborating on the MiniBooNE experiment. Data taking is scheduled to continue through April, by which time 1.18 × 10 21 POT is projected. The UA group is playing a leading role in the measurement of antineutrino cross sections, which should be the subject of a publication later this year as well as of Ranjan Dharmapalan’s Ph.D. thesis, which he is expected to defend by the end of this year. It is time to begin working on projects which will eventually succeed Double Chooz and MiniBooNE as the main foci of our efforts. The Stancu group plans to become re–involved in LBNE and possibly also to join NO A, and the Busenitz group has begun to explore joining a direct dark matter search.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Development of a Low Input and sustainable Switchgrass Feedstock Production System Utilizing Beneficial Bacterial Endophytes

Switchgrass represents a promising feedstock crop for US energy sustainability. However, its broad utilization for bioenergy requires improvements of biomass yields and stress tolerance. In this DOE funded project, we have been working on harnessing beneficial bacterial endophytes to enhance switchgrass performance and to develop a low input feedstock production system for marginal lands that do not compete with the production of food crops. We have demonstrated that one of most promising plant growth-promoting bacterial endophytes, Burkholderia phytofirmans strain PsJN, is able to colonize roots and significantly promote growth of switchgrass cv. Alamo under in vitro, growth chamber, greenhouse, as well as field conditions. Furthermore, PsJN bacterization improved growth and development of switchgrass seedlings, significantly stimulated plant root and shoot growth, and tiller number in the field, and enhanced biomass accumulation on both poor (p<0.001) and rich (p<0.05) soils, with more effective stimulation of plant growth in low fertility soil. Plant physiology measurements showed that PsJN inoculated Alamo had consistently lower transpiration, lower stomatal conductance, and higher water use efficiency in greenhouse conditions. These physiological changes may significantly contribute to the recorded growth enhancement. PsJN inoculation rapidly results in an increase in photosynthetic rates which contributes to the advanced growth and development. Some evidence suggests that this initial growth advantage decreases with time when resources are not limited such as in greenhouse studies. Additionally, better drought resistance and drought hardening were observed in PsJN inoculated switchgrass. Using the DOE-funded switchgrass EST microarray, in a collaboration with the Genomics Core Facility at the Noble Foundation, we have determined gene expression profile changes in both responsive switchgrass cv. Alamo and non-responsive cv. Cave-in-Rock (CR) following PsJN bacterization. With the MapMan software to analyze microarray data, the number of up- and down-regulated probes was calculated. The number of up-regulated probes in Alamo was 26, 14, 14, and 12% at 0.5, 2, 4 and 8 days after inoculation (DAI) with PsJN, respectively while the corresponding number in CR was 24, 22, 21, and 19%, respectively. In both cultivars, the largest number of up-regulated probes occurred at 0.5 DAI. Noticeable differences throughout the timeframe between Alamo and CR were that the number was dramatically decreased to half (12%) in Alamo but remained high in CR (approximately 20%). The number of down regulated genes demonstrated different trends in Alamo and CR. Alamo had an increasing trend from 9% at 0.5 DAI to 11, 17, and 28% at 2, 4, and 8 DAI, respectively. However, CR had 13% at 0.5 and 2 DAI, and declined to 10% at 4 and 8 DAI. With the aid of MapMan and PageMan, we mapped the response of the ID probes to the observed major gene regulatory network and major biosynthetic pathway changes associated with the beneficial bacterial endophyte infection, colonization, and early growth promotion process. We found significant differences in gene expression patterns between responsive and non-responsive cultivars in many pathways, including redox state regulation, signaling, proteolysis, transcription factors, as well as hormone (SA and JA in particular)-associated pathways. Form microarray data, a total of 50 key genes have been verified using qPCR. Ten of these genes were chosen for further functional study via either overexpression and/or RNAi knockout technologies. These genes were calmodulin-related calcium sensor protein (CAM), glutathione S-transferase (GST), histidine-containing phosphotransfer protein (H-221), 3 different zinc finger proteins (ZF-371, ZF131 and ZF242), EF hand transcription factor (EF-622), peroxidase, cellulose synthase catalytic submit A2 (CESA2), and Aux/IAA family. A total of 8 overexpression and 5 RNAi transgenic plants have been regenerated, and their gene expression levels determined using qPCR. Consequently high, medium and low expression lines were propagated in vitro for gene function study. When adequate numbers of individual transgenic lines were obtained, they were challenged with PsJN to see if PsJN promotes or inhibits growth of transgenic plants. Our results demonstrated that EF-622 overexpression, ZF-371, GST, H-221 and CAM RNAi transgenic lines lost responses to PsJN, i.e. PsJN had no growth promotive effects on these transgenic plants. Further study needs to be done to characterize this loss of responsiveness to PsJN. During this funding period, we have done more work related to this funded project and established collaborations with other institutions and obtained some interesting results, building a foundation for further research projects. For example, we isolated a naturally-occurring bacterium from surface-sterilized switchgrass seeds, identified as a unique Panteoa agglomerans species, and named strain PaKM. PaKM has been proved to be an efficient growth promoter of switchgrass over a broad spectrum of genotypes and has potential in applications with low input and sustainable production systems on marginal lands. In collaboration with Dr. Shuijin Hu (North Carolina State University), we conducted experiments on how endophyte-inoculated switchgrass affects soil N and P availability and the number of AMF in roots. Our preliminary results showed that PsJN increased AMF infection of switchgrass roots, and enhanced soil N availability and soil N mineralization on a low nutrient field. Further study of this phenomenon on different soils, over longer time periods, is needed to assess its potential impact on the productivity and longevity of switchgrass stands.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2013

A Fault-Oblivious Extreme-Scale Execution Environment (FOX)

IBM Research’s contribution to the Fault Oblivious Extreme-scale Execution Environment (FOX) revolved around three core research deliverables: • collaboration with Boston University around the Kittyhawk cloud infrastructure which both enabled a development and deployment platform for the project team and provided a fault-injection testbed to evaluate prototypes • operating systems research focused on exploring role-based operating system technologies through collaboration with Sandia National Labs on the NIX research operating system and collaboration with the broader IBM Research community around a hybrid operating system model which became known as FusedOS • IBM Research also participated in an advisory capacity with the Boston University SESA project, the core of which was derived from the K42 operating system research project funded in part by DARPA’s HPCS program. Both of these contributions were built on a foundation of previous operating systems research funding by the Department of Energy’s FastOS Program. Through the course of the X-stack funding we were able to develop prototypes, deploy them on production clusters at scale, and make them available to other researchers. As newer hardware, in the form of BlueGene/Q, came online, we were able to port the prototypes to the new hardware and release the source code for the resulting prototypes as open source to the community. In addition to the open source coded for the Kittyhawk and NIX prototypes, we were able to bring the BlueGene/Q Linux patches up to a more recent kernel and contribute them for inclusion by the broader Linux community. The lasting impact of the IBM Research work on FOX can be seen in its effect on the shift of IBM’s approach to HPC operating systems from Linux and Compute Node Kernels to role-based approaches as prototyped by the NIX and FusedOS work. This impact can be seen beyond IBM in follow-on ideas being incorporated into the proposals for the Exasacale Operating Systems/Runtime program.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2014

BOCC Blueprint

The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) Facility and Operations (F&O) Division strives to manage performance, to assure long-term health and sustainability for the organization and our staff through innovation and learning. The F&O organization is committed to achieving five strategic outcomes over the next several years. The strategic outcomes are aligned with the Department of Energy (DOE) and PNNL mission and vision. One key outcome important to enabling our vision is to integrate the smartest facilities, connected to the smartest people, by the smartest systems. We call this our SMART3 Initiative. The F&O SMART3 Initiative will connect human capital with intelligent systems, resulting in a best-in-class, integrated facility-operations strategy that improves productivity and optimizes operational costs. The Building Operations Control Center (BOCC) Blueprint is a key deliverable in this effort and will define near-term and long-term objectives aligned with the SMART3 Initiative. The BOCC Blueprint provides a plan to successfully position the BOCC and assure full integration into the new Systems Engineering Laboratory (SEL). The BOCC Blueprint near-term objectives will satisfy each of the three elements of the SMART3 Initiative. 1. The facilities element will be achieved by defining the minimum set of smart sensors for deployment, establishing dashboards and metrics, and initiating a Real-Time Commissioning Program (RT-Cx). 2. The people element will be achieved as F&O and the Energy and Environment Directorate (EED) collaborate, mentor, and cross-train within F&O. The collaboration effort will provide proof of concept by testing, applying and sharing information on facility systems through smart grid, facility re-tuning & audits, and DSOM fault detection and diagnostics. The mentoring and cross-training will be realized by integrating air balance operators, power operators and FMCS specialists within the BOCC. 3. The systems element will be achieved by standardizing the Facility Management Control Systems (FMCS) and Decision Support for Operations and Maintenance (DSOM) development, specifically by implementing facility dashboards and tools. The long-term objectives are to enhance reliability, reduce cost, and demonstrate the “Living Laboratory,” as defined by the way facilities are used to advance research from theoretical to practical applications through scientific collaboration among PNNL’s research and development (R&D) staff. With the BOCC Blueprint defining the objectives to meet the SMART3 Initiative, the BOCC will become a valuable PNNL core competency, and allow for additional R&D opportunities.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Experimental Systems-Biology Approaches for Clostridia-Based Bioenergy Production

This is the final project report for project "Experimental Systems-Biology Approaches for Clostridia-Based Bioenergy Production" for the funding period of 9/1/12 to 2/28/2015 (three years with a 6-month no-cost extension) OVERVIEW AND PROJECT GOALS The bottleneck of achieving higher rates and titers of toxic metabolites (such as solvents and carboxylic acids that can used as biofuels or biofuel precursors) can be overcome by engineering the stress response system. Thus, understanding and modeling the response of cells to toxic metabolites is a problem of great fundamental and practical significance. In this project, our goal is to dissect at the molecular systems level and build models (conceptual and quantitative) for the stress response of C. acetobutylicum (Cac) to its two toxic metabolites: butanol (BuOH) and butyrate (BA). Transcriptional (RNAseq and microarray based), proteomic and fluxomic data and their analysis are key requirements for this goal. Transcriptional data from mid-exponential cultures of Cac under 4 different levels of BuOH and BA stress was obtained using both microarrays (Papoutsakis group) and deep sequencing (RNAseq; Meyers and Papoutsakis groups). These two sets of data do not only serve to validate each other, but are also used for identification of stress-induced changes in transcript levels, small regulatory RNAs, & in transcriptional start sites. Quantitative proteomic data (Lee group), collected using the iTRAQ technology, are essential for understanding of protein levels and turnover under stress and the various protein-protein interactions that orchestrate the stress response. Metabolic flux changes (Antoniewicz group) of core pathways, which provide important information on the re-allocation of energy and carbon resources under metabolite stress, were examined using 13C-labelled chemicals. Omics data are integrated at different levels and scales. At the metabolic-pathway level, omics data are integrated into a 2nd generation genome-scale model (GSM) (Maranas group). Omics data are also integrated using bioinformatics (Wu and Huang group), whereby regulatory details of gene and protein expression, protein-protein interactions and metabolic flux regulation are incorporated. The PI (Papoutsakis) facilitated project integration through monthly meeting and reports, conference calls, and collaborative manuscript preparation. The five groups collaborated extensively and made a large number of presentations in national and international meetings. It has also published several papers, with several more in the preparation stage. Several PhD, MS and postdoctoral students were trained as part of this collaborative and interdisciplinary project.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2015

WindFloat Feasibility Study Support. Cooperative Research and Development Final Report, CRADA Number CRD-11-419

This shared resource CRADA defines research collaborations between the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Principle Power, Inc. and its subsidiaries (“Principle Power”). Under the terms and conditions described in this CRADA agreement, NREL and Principle Power will collaborate on the DEMOWFLOAT project, a full-scale 2-MW demonstration project of a novel floating support structure for large offshore wind turbines, called WindFloat. The purpose of the project is to demonstrate the longterm field performance of the WindFloat design, thus enabling the future commercialized deployment of floating deepwater offshore wind power plants. NREL is the leading U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) laboratory for the development and advancement of renewable energy and has a strong interest in offshore wind and the development of deepwater offshore wind systems. NREL will provide expertise and resources to the DEMOWFLOAT project in assessing the environmental impacts, independent technical performance validation, and engineering analysis. Principle Power is a Seattle, Washington-based renewable energy company that owns all the intellectual property associated with the WindFloat. In return for NREL’s support of the DEMOWFLOAT project, Principle Power will provide NREL with valuable test data from the project that will be used to validate the numerical tools developed by NREL for analyzing offshore wind turbines. In addition, NREL will gain experience and knowledge in offshore wind designs and testing methods through this collaboration. 2 This report is available at no cost from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) at www.nrel.gov/publications. NREL and Principle Power will work together to advance floating offshore wind technology, and demonstrate its viability for supplying the world with a new clean energy source.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

A realistic 3+1D Viscous Hydro Algorithm

DoE funds were used as bridge funds for the faculty position for the PI at the University of Colorado. The total funds for the Years 3-5 of the JET Topical Collaboration amounted to about 50 percent of the academic year salary of the PI.The PI contributed to the JET Topical Collaboration by developing, testing and applying algorithms for a realistic simulation of the bulk medium created in relativistic ion collisions.Specifically, two approaches were studied, one based on a new Lattice-Boltzmann (LB) framework, and one on a more traditional viscous hydro-dynamics framework. Both approaches were found to be viable in principle, with the LB approach being more elegant but needing still more time to develop.The traditional approach led to the super-hybrid model of ion collisions dubbed 'superSONIC', and has been successfully used for phenomenology of relativistic heavy-ion and light-on-heavy-ion collisions.In the time-frame of the JET Topical Collaboration, the Colorado group has published 15 articles in peer-reviewed journals, three of which were published in Physical Review Letters. The group graduated one Master student during this time-frame and two more PhD students are expected to graduate in the next few years. The PI has given more than 28 talks and presentations during this period.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2015

Final Report for EPSCoR Implementation Award DE-FG02-08ER46528 to University of Tennessee

With the completion of the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) and upgrading of the High-Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) the state of Tennessee now leads the world in the capability of neutron scattering research. This project aimed at directing the great impact of these facilities to researchers in the EPSCoR states, Tennessee in particular, by creating a research collaboration network around these facilities. The plan consisted of two parts: (1) Direct effort to increase the user base through the travel fellowship for graduate students and faculty from the EPSCoR states to use the neutron facilities at the ORNL, and through workshops and schools on the application of neutron scattering, and (2) Research collaboration among the core participants from UTK, ORNL and other states. The EPSCoR Travel Fellowship Program has supported over 300 distinct and 600 cumulative neutron facility users and over 250 workshop participants, with the total of nearly 600 distinct recipients. This program has been highly popular particularly among young faculty members who often have difficulty in raising travel funds, and enabled participation of young graduate students to neutron research. This program has been the foundation of this project. We supported several educational workshops, organized one (“neutrons for novice”) by ourselves each year, targeting non-users of neutron scattering. These efforts significantly contributed to expand the neutron user base among the EPSCoR states. The core research targeted condensed matter physics and soft matter sciences. The core research groups participating in this project include not only researchers from Tennessee but those from Kansas, South Carolina, Puerto Rico and Louisiana, making this project a national, rather than regional, enterprise. Collaborations that were seeded by this project have grown into two major projects, one in materials science (irradiation effects on high-entropy alloys) and the other in soft matter sciences (bio-membranes). Through this project we promoted the use of neutron scattering, particularly in biological and life sciences and in energy sciences, and facilitated the DOE investment in this field to impact wide fields of science and engineering. This project was administered through the Joint Institute for Neutron Sciences (JINS) of the University of Tennessee (UT) and ORNL. JINS is jointly supported by both UT and ORNL, and participate in organizing workshops and schools to promote the use of neutron scattering.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2015

Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program: Reactor Safety Technologies Pathway Technical Program Plan

In the aftermath of the March 2011 multi-unit accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant (Fukushima), the nuclear community has been reassessing certain safety assumptions about nuclear reactor plant design, operations and emergency actions, particularly with respect to extreme events that might occur and that are beyond each plant’s current design basis. Because of our significant domestic investment in nuclear reactor technology (99 operating reactors in the fleet of commercial LWRs with five under construction), the United States has been a major leader internationally in these activities. The U.S. nuclear industry is voluntarily pursuing a number of additional safety initiatives. The NRC continues to evaluate and, where deemed appropriate, establish new requirements for ensuring adequate protection of public health and safety in the occurrence of low probability events at nuclear plants; (e.g., mitigation strategies for beyond design basis events initiated by external events like seismic or flooding initiators). The DOE has also played a major role in the U.S. response to the Fukushima accident. Initially, DOE worked with the Japanese and the international community to help develop a more complete understanding of the Fukushima accident progression and its consequences, and to respond to various safety concerns emerging from uncertainties about the nature of and the effects from the accident. DOE R&D activities are focused on providing scientific and technical insights, data, analyses methods that ultimately support industry efforts to enhance safety. These activities are expected to further enhance the safety performance of currently operating U.S. nuclear power plants as well as better characterize the safety performance of future U.S. plants. In pursuing this area of R&D, DOE recognizes that the commercial nuclear industry is ultimately responsible for the safe operation of licensed nuclear facilities. As such, industry is considered the primary “end user” of the results from this DOE-sponsored work. The response to the Fukushima accident has been global, and there is a continuing multinational interest in collaborations to better quantify accident consequences and to incorporate lessons learned from the accident. DOE will continue to seek opportunities to facilitate collaborations that are of value to the U.S. industry, particularly where the collaboration provides access to vital data from the accident or otherwise supports or leverages other important R&D work. The purpose of the Reactor Safety Technology R&D is to improve understanding of beyond design basis events and reduce uncertainty in severe accident progression, phenomenology, and outcomes using existing analytical codes and information gleaned from severe accidents, in particular the Fukushima Daiichi events. This information will be used to aid in developing mitigating strategies and improving severe accident management guidelines for the current light water reactor fleet.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Development of Improved Graphical Displays for an Advanced Outage Control Center, Employing Human Factors Principles for Outage Schedule Management

The long-term viability of existing nuclear power plants in the United States (U.S.) is dependent upon a number of factors, including maintaining high capacity factors, maintaining nuclear safety, and reducing operating costs, particularly those associated with refueling outages. Refueling outages typically take 20-30 days, and for existing light water NPPs in the U.S., the reactor cannot be in operation during the outage. Furthermore, given that many NPPs generate between $1-1.5 million/day in revenue when in operation, there is considerable interest in shortening the length of refueling outages. Yet refueling outages are highly complex operations, involving multiple concurrent and dependent activities that are somewhat challenging to coordinate; therefore, finding ways to improve refueling outage performance, while maintaining nuclear safety has proven to be difficult. The Advanced Outage Control Center (AOCC) project is a research and development (R&D) demonstration activity under the LWRS Program. LWRS is an R&D program that works closely with industry R&D programs to establish technical foundations for the licensing and managing of long-term, safe, and economical operation of current fleet of NPPs. As such, the LWRS Advanced Outage Control Center project has the goal of improving the management of commercial NPP refueling outages. To accomplish this goal, INL is developing an advanced outage control center (OCC) that is specifically designed to maximize the usefulness of communication and collaboration technologies for outage coordination and problem resolution activities. The overall focus is on developing an AOCC with the following capabilities that enables plant and OCC staff to; Collaborate in real-time to address emergent issues; Effectively communicate outage status to all workers involved in the outage; Effectively communicate discovered conditions in the field to the OCC; Provide real-time work status; Provide automatic pending support notifications; Provide real-time requirements monitoring; Maximize their collective situational awareness to improve decision-making; and Leverage macro data to better support resource allocation. INL has partnered with several commercial NPP utilities to develop a number of advanced outage management technologies. These outage management technologies have focused on both collaborative technologies for control centers and developing mobile technologies for NPP field workers. This report describes recent efforts made in developing a suite of outage technologies to support more effective schedule management. Currently, a master outage schedule is created months in advance using the plant’s existing scheduling software (e.g., Primavera P6). Typically, during the outage, the latest version of the schedule is printed at the beginning of each shift. INL and its partners are developing technologies that will have capabilities such as Automatic Schedule Updating, Automatic Pending Support Notifications, and the ability to allocate and schedule outage support task resources on a sub-hour basis (e.g., outage Micro-Scheduling). The remaining sections of this report describe in more detail the scheduling challenges that occur during outages, how the outage scheduling technologies INL is developing helps address those challenges, and the latest developments on this task (e.g., work accomplished to date and the path forward)

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2015

2015 Summary Report on Industrial and Regulatory Engagement Activities

The Advanced Instrumentation, Information, and Control (II&C) Systems Technologies pathway of the Light Water Reactor Sustainability(LWRS) Program conducts a vigorous engagement strategy with the U.S. nuclear power industry, including the nuclear operating companies, major support organizations, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), and suppliers. The goal of this engagement strategy is to develop a shared vision and common understanding across the nuclear industry of the need for II&C modernization, the performance improvement that can be obtained, and the opportunities for collaboration to enact this vision. The primary means of engaging the nuclear operating companies is through a Utility Working Group (UWG), composed of utility representatives that participate in formal meetings and bi-monthly phone calls to provide input on nuclear plant needs and priorities for II&C technologies. Two working groups were initiated during FY 2015 to provide a means for UWG members to focus on particular technologies of interest. The Outage Improvement Working Group consists of eight utilities that participate in periodic conference calls and have access to a share-point web page for acccess to project materials developed in the Advanced Outage Control Center pilot project. In the area of computer-based procedures and automated work packages, the II&C Pathway has worked with the Nuclear Information Technology Strategic Leadership (NITSL) to set up a monthly conference call with interested utility members to discuss various aspects of mobile worker technologies. Twenty one technical and project reports were delivered to the UWG during FY 2015, reflecting the work of the II&C Pathway pilot projects during the year. Distribution of these reports is one of the primary means of transferring to the nuclear industry the knowledge and experience gained during the development of advanced II&C technologies in support of LWR sustainability. Site visits to discuss pilot project activities and future plans were made to Arizona Public Service, Exelon, Duke Energy, Pacific Gas & Electric, SCANA, Southern Nuclear, South Texas Project, STARS Alliance, Tennessee Valley Authority, and Xcel. Discussions were also held on the pathway goals and activities with major industry support organizations during FY 2102, including the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO), the Nuclear Information Technology Strategic Leadership (NITSL), the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), and the Electric Power Research Institute. The Advanced II&C Pathway work was presented at five major industry conferences and Informal discussions were held with key NRC managers at industry conferences. In addition, discussions were held with NRC senior managers on digital regulatory issues through participation on the NEI Digital I&C Working Group. Meetings were held with major industry suppliers and consultants, to explore opportunities for collaboration and to provide a means of pilot project technology transfer. In the international area, discussions were held with Electricite’ de France (EdF) concerning possible collaboration in the area NPP configuration control using intelligent wireless devices.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2016

Final Report DE-SC0006997; PI Sharp; Coupled Biological and Micro-XAS/XRF Analysis of In Situ Uranium Biogeochemical Processes

Project Overview: The impact of the original seed award was substantially increased by leveraging a postdoctoral fellowship (Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship) and parallel funds from (A) synergistic project supported by NSF and (B) with DOE collaborators (PI’s Ranville and Williams) as well as no-cost extension that greatly increased the impact and publications associated with the project. In aligning with SBR priorities, the project’s focus was extended more broadly to explore coupled biogeochemical analysis of metal (im)mobilization processes beyond uranium with a foundation in integrating microbial ecology with geochemical analyses. This included investigations of arsenic and zinc during sulfate reducing conditions in addition to direct microbial reduction of metals. Complimentary work with NSF funding and collaborative DOE interactions further increased the project scope to investigate metal (im)mobilization coupled to biogeochemical perturbations in forest ecosystems with an emphasis on coupled carbon and metal biogeochemistry. In total, the project was highly impactful and resulted in 9 publications and directly supported salary/tuition for 3 graduate students at various stages of their academic careers as well as my promotion to Associate Professor. In going forward, findings provided inspiration for a two subsequent proposals with collaborators at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and others that are currently in review (as of March 2016).

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2014

Final Technical Report for Years 1-4 of the Early Career Research Project "Viscosity and equation of state of hot and dense QCD matter" - ARRA portion

The Section below summarizes research activities and achievements during the first four years of the PI’s Early Career Research Project (ECRP). Two main areas have been advanced: i) radiative 3 ↔ 2 radiative transport, via development of a new computer code MPC/Grid that solves the Boltzmann transport equation in full 6+1D (3X+3V+time) on both single-CPU and parallel computers; ii) development of a self-consistent framework to convert viscous fluids to particles, and application of this framework to relativistic heavy-ion collisions, in particular, determination of the shear viscosity. Year 5 of the ECRP is under a separate award number, and therefore it has its own report document ’Final Technical Report for Year 5 of the Early Career Research Project “Viscosity and equation of state of hot and dense QCDmatter”’ (award DE-SC0008028). The PI’s group was also part of the DOE JET Topical Collaboration, a multi-institution project that overlapped in time significantly with the ECRP. Purdue achievements as part of the JET Topical Collaboration are in a separate report “Final Technical Report summarizing Purdue research activities as part of the DOE JET Topical Collaboration” (award DE-SC0004077).

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Final Technical Report for Year 5 Early Career Research Project "Viscosity and equation of state of hot and dense QCD matter"

The Section below summarizes research activities and achievements during the fifth (last) year of the PI’s Early Career Research Project (ECRP). Unlike the first four years of the project, the last year was not funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The ECRP advanced two main areas: i) radiative 3 ↔ 2 radiative transport, via development of a new computer code MPC/Grid that solves the Boltzmann transport equation in full 6+1D (3X+3V+time); and ii) application of relativistic hydrodynamics, via development of a self-consistent framework to convert viscous fluids to particles. In Year 5 we finalized thermalization studies with radiative gg ↔ ggg transport (Sec. 1.1.1) and used nonlinear covariant transport to assess the accuracy of fluid-to-particle conversion models (Sec. 1.1.2), calculated observables with self-consistent fluid-to-particle conversion from realistic viscous hydrodynamic evolution (Secs. 1.2.1 and 1.2.2), extended the covariant energy loss formulation to heavy quarks (Sec. 1.4.1) and studied energy loss in small systems (Sec. 1.4.2), and also investigated how much of the elliptic flow could have non-hydrodynamic origin (Sec 1.3). Years 1-4 of the ECRP were ARRA-funded and, therefore, they have their own report document ’Final Technical Report for Years 1-4 of the Early Career Research Project “Viscosity and equation of state of hot and dense QCD matter”’ (same award number DE-SC0004035). The PI’s group was also part of the DOE JET Topical Collaboration, a multi-institution project that overlapped in time significantly with the ECRP. Purdue achievements as part of the JET Top- ical Collaboration are in a separate report “Final Technical Report summarizing Purdue research activities as part of the DOE JET Topical Collaboration” (award DE-SC0004077).

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2013

Final Technical Report – DOE Grant DE-SC0005904

DOE grant DE-SC0005904 was allocated to fund the faculty development, curriculum development and travel to support the four institutions of the Connecticut State University System’s (CSUS) Initiative for Nanotechnology-related Equipment, Faculty Development and Curriculum Development. DOE grant DE-SC0005072 was also awarded for this program. In 2010, CSUS had identified the establishment of nanotechnology programs and infrastructure as a priority. At that time, the system set the goal of establishing an academic initiative in nanotechnology for the CSUS, beginning with the development of a series of courses at the graduate level. Implementation was planned via a collaborative effort including faculty from all four of the CSUS campuses. The CSUS Nanotechnology Working Group [CSUS NWG] was established to accomplish this goal. A faculty member from the Physics Department at Southern Connecticut State University [SCSU] was assigned the task of organizing and coordinating the work of the CSUS NWG. Representatives from each of the four CSUS campuses were appointed to join the CSUS NWG with the following initial representation: SCSU [Physics and Biology], Western Connecticut State University (WCSU) [Chemistry], Eastern Connecticut State University (ECSU) [Chemistry] and Central Connecticut State University (CCSU) [Chemistry. As a further outcome it was determined that this collaborative effort would lead to the establishment of a formal nanotechnology center, serving as the nucleus of CSUS student and faculty learning and research. This CSUS Nanotechnology Center [CSUS-NC] was to be located at Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU). The goal of this grant was to provide funding for curriculum and faculty development necessary to facilitate the development and implementation of a collaborative Graduate Certificate in Nanotechnology for the Connecticut State University System. This outcome has been successfully achieved. The courses and structure of the Graduate Certificate program have been developed and approved and the program will be completely implemented in the fall of 2013. The Nanotechnology Center will be recognized as the CSCU Center for Nanotechnology and will thus impact both the CSUS and Connecticut Community College Systems.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2016

Search for the Neutrino Less Double Beta Decay

During the past few years our understanding of neutrino properties has reached a new level, with experiments such as Super-K, SNO, KamLAND, and others obtaining exciting results. Major questions such as “Do neutrinos have mass?” and “Do neutrinos oscillate?” now have positive answers. However, an extensive program of neutrino research remains. Undoubtedly, the most important of these is the question pointed out by the National Research Council in its February 2002 report “Connecting Quarks with the Cosmos”, specifically: What are the masses of neutrinos and how have they shaped the evolution of the Universe? The MAJORANA collaboration has proposed to build the world’s most sensitive one-ton scale experiment to search for neutrino less double beta decay to answer this question. In its initial stage, the collaboration is building a prototype MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR (MJD) experiment consisting of detectors made out of enriched Ge 76 with a total sensitive mass of ~30 kg. This will accomplish two goals. First, it will test not yet confirmed claim for observation of neutrino-less double beta decay. Second, it will establish that the selected technology is capable of extension to a one-ton experiment with sufficient sensitivity to measure neutrino mass m ββ down to 10 meV. To achieve the last goal, collaboration must demonstrate that a background level of 1 count per year per 4 keV per ton of detector is achievable. The University of Tennessee (UT) neutrino group has made a major commitment to the MJD. P.I. accepted the responsibility for one of the major tasks of the experiment, “Materials and Assay Task” which is crucial to the achievement of low background levels required for the experiment. In addition, the UT group is committed to construct, commission, and operate the MJD active veto system. Those activities were supported by NP-DOE via program funding for “Search for the Neutrino Less Double Beta Decay” at the University of Tennessee. We would like to report the results and achievements under this grant for Material and Assay Task and for task to build and deploy veto system for the Majorana Experiment separately.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

University of Utah, Energy Commercialization Center

During the Energy Commercialization Center’s (ECC) three years in operation, the only thing constant was change. The world of commercialization and cleantech evolved significantly during the time the ECC was formed and operating, including: the availability of cleantech funding lessoned, the growth of incubators and accelerators skyrocketed, the State of Utah created an office dedicated to energy development, the University of Utah was both praised and criticized for its success in commercialization, and the Federal government temporarily shut down. During the three-year grant there were three principle investigators on the grant, as well as three directors for the University’s Commercialization Office. Change can be hard for an organization,but as we instruct the companies we support, “Fail fast and fail often, because it is the fastest path to success.” Although there were some unanticipated challenges along the way, the local ecosystem is stronger because of the ECC’s efforts. Perhaps the greatest lesson learned was the importance of aligned incentives between key stakeholders in the commercialization process and the need for resources at the company and individual entrepreneur levels. The universities have systems and incentives to commercialize technologies, but creating value and companies generally rest with the individuals and entrepreneurs. Unfortunately the ECC was unable to create a viable mechanism to transfer the commercialization process that successfully aligned incentives and achieve a more effective ecosystem within the Rocky Mountain West. However, the ECC was successful in adding value to the individual ecosystems, and connecting national resources to regional and local needs. Regarding the ECC’s effectiveness in developing a cleantech commercialization ecosystem, initial inroads and relationships were established with key stakeholders. However, incentives, perceived or real competition, differences in commercialization processes, and culture all played a role in inhibiting the development and distribution of a regional ecosystem and commercialization process. Had the University and the ECC been able to develop a software platform, some of these challenges may have been overcome, but without the final development and release of the Western Innovation Network, the ECC realistically could not scale and distribute a commercialization platform. Further, cleantech startups need to engage in a more intensive customer validation process, and establish strong community connections if they are to succeed in commercializing their products. The university system incentivizes research and access to research funding and risk capital is competitive, so by nature collaboration on commercialization was difficult. Each of the local ecosystems within the Rocky Mountain West was unique. Utah did not, and does not, have a system outside of the universities to support entrepreneurs and cleantech commercialization. Through the ECC’s efforts developing a regional ecosystem, it became clear that successful ecosystems had a community and associated mechanisms that supported local entrepreneurs and startups. Most importantly the ECC aided in the creation of Utah’s cleantech ecosystem, one that supports entrepreneurs and startup companies that need help and support in their efforts to commercialize clean technologies. The absence of support for clean tech from state government and local organizations was a significant impediment to cleantech commercialization. To overcome this challenge, the ECC has formed Sustainable Startups. Sustainable Startups is a new non-profit organization designed to build a culture and community in Utah that supports and understands the importance of cleantech and sustainable development. While the ECC generated mixed success in building a regional commercialization ecosystem for cleantech, the organization did provide tremendous benefit to startups and the broader public. Over 60 companies were given direct business development support by the ECC, many of whom then generated direct economic development impacts. In addition, the ECC served an important role as community convener, educator and relationship builder through hosting numerous public and private events including: Energize 2013; Millennial Train whistle stop; business plan competition supporter; Clean Tech Open Accelerator organizer; Sustainable Startups Series developer, and much more. While the ECC did not fully apply, develop, and transmit the University of Utah’s TCO commercialization model to cleantech, it nevertheless assisted numerous inventors, entrepreneurs and institutions in furthering the growth of clean energy and energy efficiency technologies. The TCO’s commercialization model was not applied to regional clean tech initiatives for several main reasons. First, flaws with the commercialization model were realized after the ECC’s formation. Second, leadership changes within the TCO and ECC hampered early organizational development and implementation initiatives. Third, misaligned incentives between the ECC, regional universities, institutions, and the State of Utah resulted in a lack of collaboration and knowledge transfer regarding commercialization. In principle, everyone was aligned and willing to collaborate, but reality was much different and challenging.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2016

Resource for the Development of Biomedical Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS)

The NIH Research Resource for Biomedical AMS was originally funded at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in 1999 to develop and apply the technology of accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) in broad- based biomedical research. The Resource’s niche is to fill needs for ultra high sensitivity quantitation when isotope-labeled agents are used. The Research Resource’s Technology Research and Development (TR&D) efforts will focus on the needs of the biomedical research community in the context of seven Driving Biomedical Projects (DBPs) that will drive the Center’s technical capabilities through three core TR&Ds. We will expand our present capabilities by developing a fully integrated HPLC AMS to increase our capabilities for metabolic measurements, we will develop methods to understand cellular processes and we will develop and validate methods for the application of AMS in human studies, which is a growing area of demand by collaborators and service users. In addition, we will continue to support new and ongoing collaborative and service projects that require the capabilities of the Resource. The Center will continue to train researchers in the use of the AMS capabilities being developed, and the results of all efforts will be widely disseminated to advance progress in biomedical research. Towards these goals, our specific aims are to:1.) Increase the value and information content of AMS measurements by combining molecular speciation with quantitation of defined macromolecular isolates. Specifically, develop and validate methods for macromolecule labeling, characterization and quantitation.2.) Develop and validate methods and strategies to enable AMS to become more broadly used in human studies. Specifically, demonstrate robust methods for conducting pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamics studies in humans and model systems.3.) Increase the accessibility of AMS to the Biomedical research community and the throughput of AMS through direct coupling to separatory instruments.4.) Provide high throughput 14C BioAMS analysis for collaborative and service clients.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗