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At least 1,675 records · Page 93

Industrial Assessment Center for Energy Efficiency, Smart Manufacturing and Cyber Security of Illinois and Northwestern Indiana Small and Medium Sized Manufacturing Companies and Water Facilities (Final Technical Report)

The University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) established and implemented a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) sponsored Industrial Assessment Center (IAC) from September 1, 2016 through December 31, 2021. The established UIC IAC focused on providing 1) technical assistance to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and water and wastewater facilities in Illinois and northwestern Indiana and 2) education and training university students developing the future energy workforce. The technical assessments incorporated energy efficiency, increasing productivity via smart manufacturing, energy management systems, enhancing on-site cyber security practices, and the promotion of DOE best practices and tools. The educational training enabled UIC faculty and staff to provide classroom education, exposure to industry research, multiple targeted training sessions, real world experience with industry professionals, and live training to implement professional grade audits and recommendations.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

Comparison of Energy Storage and Arbitrage Options for Nuclear Power

Nuclear power is the most reliable source of clean energy and plays a crucial role in decarbonization efforts and national energy security. Achievement of Net-Zero targets depends on the deployment of new Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) – both advanced reactors and large-scale Light-Water Reactors (LWRs) – as well as continuing operations at existing LWR plants. The Light-Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) program seeks to extend the lifetime of existing NPPs and improve their economic performance through research into plant modernization, Flexible Plant Operation and Generation (FPOG), risk-informed systems analysis, materials research, and physical security. The FPOG pathway investigates alternative revenue streams for LWRs. When electricity prices are driven low by an oversupply of renewable energy, steam and electricity from an NPP can be used to make value-added products while taking advantage of the low energy price; alternatively, this cheap energy can be stored chemically, electrically, or thermally, and used to regenerate-generate electricity at a later time when energy demand, and therefore the wholesale price of electricity, is higher in an economic concept called arbitrage. The purpose of this report is to investigate energy storage technologies that can store 500 MW of electricity from an LWR for a wide spectrum of durations.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗

Utilization of Local Law Enforcement Aerial Resources in Consequence Management (CM) Response

During the past decade the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was instrumental in enhancing the nation’s ability to detect and prevent a radiological or nuclear attack in the highest risk cities. Under the DHS Securing the Cities initiative, nearly 13,000 personnel in the New York City region have been trained in preventive radiological and nuclear detection operations, and nearly 8,500 pieces of radiological detection equipment have been funded. As part of the preventive radiological/nuclear detection (PRND) mission, several cities have received funding to purchase commercial aerial radiation detection systems. In 2008, the U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration Aerial Measuring System (AMS) program started providing Mobile Aerial Radiological Surveillance (MARS) training to such assets, resulting in over 150 HAZMAT teams’ officers and pilots from 10 law enforcement organizations and fire departments being trained in the aerial radiation detection. From the beginning, the MARS training course covered both the PRND and consequence management (CM) missions. Even if the law enforcement main focus is PRND, their aerial assets can be utilized in the collection of initial radiation data for post-event radiological CM response. Based on over 50 years of AMS operational experience and information collected during MARS training, this presentation will focus on the concepts of CM response using aerial assets as well as utilizing law enforcement/fire department aerial assets in CM. Also discussed will be the need for establishing closer relationships between local jurisdictions’ aerial radiation detection capabilities and state and local radiation control program directors, radiological health department managers, etc. During radiological events these individuals may become primary experts/advisers to Incident Commanders for radiological emergency response, especially in the early stages of a response. The knowledge of the existence, specific capabilities, and use of local aerial radiation detection systems would be critical in planning the response, even before federal assets arrive on the scene. The relationship between local and federal aerial assets and the potential role for the further use of the MARS training and expanded AMS Reachback capabilities in facilitating such interactions will be discussed.

consequence management, CM, local law enforcement,↗

The initial flight anomalies of Skylab 1

At approximately 63 seconds into the flight of Skylab 1 on May 14, 1973, an anomaly occurred which resulted in the complete loss of the meteoroid shield around the orbital workshop. This was followed by the loss of one of the two solar array systems on the workshop and a failure of the inter stage adapter to separate from the S-II stage of the Saturn V launch vehicle. The investigation reported herein identified the most probable cause of this flight anomaly to be the breakup and loss of the meteoroid shield due to aerodynamic loads that were not accounted for in its design. The breakup of the meteoroid shield, in turn, broke the tie downs that secured one of the solar array systems to the workshop. Complete loss of this solar array system occurred at 593 seconds when the exhaust plume of the S-II stage retro-rockets impacted the partially deployed solar array system. Falling debris from the meteoroid shield also damaged the S-II inter stage adapter ordnance system in such a manner as to preclude separation. Of several possible failure modes of the meteoroid shield that were identified, the most probable in this particular flight was internal pressurization of its auxiliary tunnel which acted to force the forward end of the meteoroid shield away from the shell of the workshop and into the supersonic air stream. The pressurization of the auxiliary tunnel was due to the existence of several openings in the aft region of the tunnel. Another possible failure mode was the separation of the leading edge of the meteoroid shield from the shell of the workshop (particularly in the region of the folded ordnance panel) of sufficient extent to admit ram air pressures under the shield.

Source record↗

NASA IV&V's Cyber Range for Space Systems

A cyber range is a virtual environment that is used for cyberwarfare training and cyber technology development. It provides tools that help strengthen the stability, security and performance of cyber infrastructures and IT systems. NASA IV&V has created an adaptable virtual environment that is representative of a typical NASA mission system of systems environment that serves multiple purposes: Training of network defenders. Ability to perform simulated red vs blue training events. Ability to deploy mission specific technologies in a cyber contested environment. Ability to demonstrate vulnerabilities and their impact to ground and space systemsThe overall system is comprised of more than 70 virtual machines and physical infrastructure to demonstrate real-world cyber attacks against: email users, wireless networks, and physically implanted devices with command and control call-back. The cyber range was built to emulate a NASA precipitation satellite infrastructure.This presentation will give an overview of the virtual cyber range and how it was used to conduct a simulate red vs blue exercise with the goal of compromising the simulated spacecraft that utilizes real NASA flight software.

test and evaluation DT&E↗

Autonomous Satellite Operations Via Secure Virtual Mission Operations Center

The science community is interested in improving their ability to respond to rapidly evolving, transient phenomena via autonomous rapid reconfiguration, which derives from the ability to assemble separate but collaborating sensors and data forecasting systems to meet a broad range of research and application needs. Current satellite systems typically require human intervention to respond to triggers from dissimilar sensor systems. Additionally, satellite ground services often need to be coordinated days or weeks in advance. Finally, the boundaries between the various sensor systems that make up such a Sensor Web are defined by such things as link delay and connectivity, data and error rate asymmetry, data reliability, quality of service provisions, and trust, complicating autonomous operations. Over the past ten years, researchers from the NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC), General Dynamics, Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL), Cisco, Universal Space Networks (USN), the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the Naval Research Laboratory, the DoD Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) Office, and others have worked collaboratively to develop a virtual mission operations capability. Called VMOC (Virtual Mission Operations Center), this new capability allows cross-system queuing of dissimilar mission unique systems through the use of a common security scheme and published application programming interfaces (APIs). Collaborative VMOC demonstrations over the last several years have supported the standardization of spacecraft to ground interfaces needed to reduce costs, maximize space effects to the user, and allow the generation of new tactics, techniques and procedures that lead to responsive space employment.

Miller, Eric↗

Cyber Security Primer for DER Vendors Aggregators and Grid Operators

This report provides an introduction to cyber security for distributed energy resources (DER) - such as photovoltaic (PV) inverters and energy storage systems (ESS). This material is motivated by the need to assist DER vendors, aggregators, grid operators, and broader PV industry with cyber security resilience and describe the state-of-the-art for securing DER communications. The report outlines basic principles of cyber security, encryption, communication protocols, DER cyber security recommendations and requirements, and device-, aggregator-, and utility-level security best practices to ensure data confidentiality, integrity, and availability. Example cyber security attacks, including eavesdropping, masquerading, man-in-the-middle, replay attacks, and denial-of-service are also described. A survey of communication protocols and cyber security recommendations used by the DER and power system industry are included to elucidate the cyber security standards landscape. Lastly, a roadmap is presented to harden end-to-end communications for DER with research and industry engagement.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

A Distributed Trust Model Simulator for Energy Grid of Things Distributed Energy Resource Management System

The evolution of networks into more distributed, self-reliant nodes has mitigated single-point failures that plagued traditional centralized networks. Applied to power grids, distributed systems can increase the integrity and availability of grid services while also offering a power management solution. However, while distributed networks provide scalability, security, and sustainability compared to centralized networks, their distributed nature makes them harder for anomaly detection and prevention. Incorporating a Distributed Trust Model (DTM) System into an Energy Grid of Things Distributed Energy Resource Management System (EGOT DERMS) allows grid participants to be characterized and their communication to be analyzed for possible attacks. A Trust Model simulator is needed to evaluate and improve the DTM System.Trustworthiness is calculated using a Trust Model. While many trust models exist, most only consider 2-3 matrices to evaluate trust. The TM proposed in this thesis uses a Metric Vector of Trust (MVoT) monitoring 17 parameters when assessing trust. Moreover, unlike standard trust models, the proposed trust model establishes a method to test the trust between various actors within the network and probe the trust model itself. Using a Trust Model Simulator, MVoT calaculations, initial values, and parameters are fine-tuned to achieve high-confidence message classifications and minimize false positives. The DTM System and Trust Mode Simulation Suite allow for distributed trust evaluation with a real-time classification of EGOT DERMS actors, providing additional security for distributed systems.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Controlled environment agriculture: An opportunity to strengthen interagency research collaboration in the US government

Challenges facing food production and agricultural systems are increasingly interconnected with economic, security, health, and equity issues, among others. Threats such as extreme weather, economic volatility, and shrinking water resources and arable land, influence our ability to maintain a safe and resilient food supply. One promising solution to these threats is controlled environment agriculture (CEA). In many cases, CEA can drastically reduce the amount of water and land used in crop production while increasing productivity. Operations may be established in nearly any environment and harvests can take place year-round, supporting food system resiliency and sustainability. CEA sits at the nexus of a number of disciplines and industries, making it well suited for transdisciplinary and multi-institutional research coordination. Herein, authors from multiple US government agencies present CEA as a case study in improving cross-agency research collaboration. The federal government houses a range of scientific expertise and research capabilities, positioning scientists to lead national and global efforts in transdisciplinary, interagency approaches to complex challenges. Navigating cross-agency collaboration can be a challenge, especially coordinating across different scientific disciplines, geographic locations, and funding mechanisms. To enhance multiagency efforts, collaborators could prioritize (i) organizing personnel and resources, (ii) enhancing existing multiagency collaborations, and (iii) focusing on further opportunities for coordination. Adopting these approaches could enable federal researchers to reinforce and advance academic and industry efforts to address current CEA challenges while solidifying the United States as a leader in this arena.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

PIMS-Universal Payload Information Management

As the overall manager and integrator of International Space Station (ISS) science payloads and experiments, the Payload Operations Integration Center (POIC) at Marshall Space Flight Center had a critical need to provide an information management system for exchange and management of ISS payload files as well as to coordinate ISS payload related operational changes. The POIC's information management system has a fundamental requirement to provide secure operational access not only to users physically located at the POIC, but also to provide collaborative access to remote experimenters and International Partners. The Payload Information Management System (PIMS) is a ground based electronic document configuration management and workflow system that was built to service that need. Functionally, PIMS provides the following document management related capabilities: 1. File access control, storage and retrieval from a central repository vault. 2. Collect supplemental data about files in the vault. 3. File exchange with a PMS GUI client, or any FTP connection. 4. Files placement into an FTP accessible dropbox for pickup by interfacing facilities, included files transmitted for spacecraft uplink. 5. Transmission of email messages to users notifying them of new version availability. 6. Polling of intermediate facility dropboxes for files that will automatically be processed by PIMS. 7. Provide an API that allows other POIC applications to access PIMS information. Functionally, PIMS provides the following Change Request processing capabilities: 1. Ability to create, view, manipulate, and query information about Operations Change Requests (OCRs). 2. Provides an adaptable workflow approval of OCRs with routing through developers, facility leads, POIC leads, reviewers, and implementers. Email messages can be sent to users either involving them in the workflow process or simply notifying them of OCR approval progress. All PIMS document management and OCR workflow controls are coordinated through and routed to individual user's "to do" list tasks. A user is given a task when it is their turn to perform some action relating to the approval of the Document or OCR. The user's available actions are restricted to only functions available for the assigned task. Certain actions, such as review or action implementation by non-PIMS users, can also be coordinated through automated emails.

Elmore, Ralph↗

Accessing Wi-Fi Data for Occupancy Sensing

A key issue for saving energy in buildings is to assure that delivery of energy services matches building occupancy as closely as possible, to assure that energy is not wasted providing the services to empty rooms or buildings, and to assure that needed services are provided during all times when desired. Accomplishing this to date has been significantly hampered by a lack of inexpensive mechanisms to obtain and use building-wide and more granular data about occupancy. In recent years, the concept of inferential (or implicit) sensing has been proposed and explored to use data from IT systems that already exists in most buildings, to obtain data that are not perfect, but are nearly free to obtain. Past work by LBNL and others has primarily demonstrated the principle and potential for this, with a primary focus on data from Wi-Fi networks as the best near-term opportunity for inferential sensing from IT networks. This is due to its near-ubiquity, ease of explanation to many audiences, relative uniformness in deployment, low latency of detection, clear ways to mitigate privacy and security, and other benefits (Price et al., 2015). While the potential and value are clear, researchers or building managers who want to obtain the data lack a source of information to understand what data might exist, what devices may have it, and what mechanisms are available to obtain the data. The purpose of this report is to fill that gap. The report begins with a review of institutional issues in collecting such data, including very real concerns about privacy and IT security. It then describes the various system architectures used in Wi-Fi systems in commercial buildings today, and a variety of mechanisms that can be used to obtain information from them, including examples of how to use them, and sample output. Next is a summary of how to use such data for several different purposes, from retrospective analysis to dynamic building operation, and a conclusion. An appendix provides additional detail on specific mechanisms available from major equipment manufacturers. The mechanisms specified in this report can be used by building owners and operators to confirm proper operation and uncover any issues or unexpected conditions as a resource for building owners and researchers interesting in utilizing inferential sensing data.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Secured Optical Communications Using Quantum Entangled Two-Photon Transparency Modulation

A system and method is disclosed wherein optical signals are coded in a transmitter by tuning or modulating the interbeam delay time (which modulates the fourth-order coherence) between pairs of entangled photons. The photon pairs are either absorbed or not absorbed (transparent) by an atomic or molecular fluorescer in a receiver, depending on the inter-beam delay that is introduced in the entangled photon pairs. Upon the absorption, corresponding fluorescent optical emissions follow at a certain wavelength, which are then detected by a photon detector. The advantage of the disclosed system is that it eliminates a need of a coincidence counter to realize the entanglement-based secure optical communications because the absorber acts as a coincidence counter for entangled photon pairs.

Kojima, Jun↗

Resilient Reinforcement in Secure State Estimation against Sensor Attacks with a priori Information

This paper deals with the state estimation problem in the presence of malicious sensor attacks. Unlike the existing work, in this paper, we address the problem with a priori information of the state to be estimated. Specifically, we address three prior knowledge: the sparsity information, (alpha, n_0)-sparsity information, and side information, and in each scenario, we show that the state can be reconstructed even if more sensors are compromised. This implies that the prior information reinforces the system resilience against sensor attacks. Then, an estimator under sensor attacks considering the information is developed and, under a certain condition, the estimator can be relaxed into a tractable convex optimization problem. Further, we extend this analysis to systems in presence of measurement noises, and it is shown that the prior information reduces the state-estimation error caused by the noise. Here, the numerical simulations in a diffusion process finally illustrate the reinforcement and error-reduction results with the information.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

The SCALE/AMPX multigroup cross section processing for fast reactor analysis

The SCALE/AMPX multigroup (MG) cross section processing procedure has been updated to minimize reactivity differences for fast reactor designs and boiling water reactors (BWRs) with very high void fractions to provide excellent agreement with continuous-energy reference calculations. SCALE MG calculations are widely applied to thermal spectrum light-water reactor (LWR) systems as well as fast spectrum metallic systems of interest to National Nuclear Security Administration. With growing interest from industry and regulators in applying SCALE for the design of fast spectrum reactors, both sodium and molten salt, and in the licensing of power up rates for BWRs, it is desirable to review the SCALE/AMPX procedure for unresolved resonance self-shielded data and high energy neutron spectra. The data were improved by generating MG unresolved resonance data based on the analytic probability table method with the narrow resonance approximation as well as the use of a very fine group structure typically used in fast system analysis. This study focused on verifying the probability table and the SCALE/AMPX MG cross section processing procedure by performing reaction rate analysis and benchmark calculations for various fast reactor and high void BWR systems. Here, results indicate that the improved SCALE/AMPX MG cross section processing provides excellent results for the fast reactor analysis.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Radioisotope Power System Delivery, Ground Support and Nuclear Safety Implementation: Use of the Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator for the NASA's Mars Science Laboratory

Radioisotope power systems have been used for over 50 years to enable missions in remote or hostile environments. They are a convenient means of supplying a few milliwatts up to a few hundred watts of useable, long-term electrical power. With regard to use of a radioisotope power system, the transportation, ground support and implementation of nuclear safety protocols in the field is a complex process that requires clear identification of needed technical and regulatory requirements. The appropriate care must be taken to provide high quality treatment of the item to be moved so it arrives in a condition to fulfill its missions in space. Similarly it must be transported and managed in a manner compliant with requirements for shipment and handling of special nuclear material. This presentation describes transportation, ground support operations and implementation of nuclear safety and security protocols for a radioisotope power system using recent experience involving the Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator for National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Mars Science Laboratory, which launched in November of 2011.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Opportunities and Challenges for Remote Microreactor Operations

The nuclear industry is developing new advanced reactor technologies, and many companies are embracing this advancement by pursuing the development of microreactors. The term microreactor generally refers to a nuclear reactor with an operating power of 20 MW or less. The power range of microreactors makes them appealing for many use cases, such as powering remote communities, mining sites, and military bases. Most of the microreactor designs being pursued will incorporate remote facility operations into the final product. However, no framework has yet been developed to determine what remote operations systems require for reliable, resilient, and secure operation of a microreactor. This work identifies the challenges unique to remote operations and monitoring for microreactors specifically regarding instrumentation and control, communication methods, regulatory requirements, and operational policies. The types of commands and sensor measurements that must be transmitted between the facilities as well as methods for verifying the trustworthiness of these signals are assessed. This work evaluates the security, reliability, and performance requirements that must be met when considering the selection of communication hardware and protocols for use in remote operations. Also, an assessment was performed to study how remote operations fit within current regulatory requirements and what may need to be updated in regulatory policy to allow for remote operation. Finally, the operational contingencies unique to remote operations that must be in place for response to abnormal events are identified. This paper details these challenges and research opportunities to provide a foundation for the design of remote operation systems.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗