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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2012

Optimization and Domestic Sourcing of Lithium Ion Battery Anode Materials

The purpose of this Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) between ORNL and A123Systems, Inc. was to develop a low-temperature heat treatment process for natural graphite based anode materials for high-capacity and long-cycle-life lithium ion batteries. Three major problems currently plague state-of-the-art lithium ion battery anode materials. The first is the cost of the artificial graphite, which is heat-treated well in excess of 2000°C. Because of this high-temperature heat treatment, the anode active material significantly contributes to the cost of a lithium ion battery. The second problem is the limited specific capacity of state-of-the-art anodes based on artificial graphites, which is only about 200-350 mAh/g. This value needs to be increased to achieve high energy density when used with the low cell-voltage nanoparticle LiFePO4 cathode. Thirdly, the rate capability under cycling conditions of natural graphite based materials must be improved to match that of the nanoparticle LiFePO4. Natural graphite materials contain inherent crystallinity and lithium intercalation activity. They hold particular appeal, as they offer huge potential for industrial energy savings with the energy costs essentially subsidized by geological processes. Natural graphites have been heat-treated to a substantially lower temperature (as low as 1000-1500°C) and used as anode active materials to address the problems described above. Finally, corresponding graphitization and post-treatment processes were developed that are amenable to scaling to automotive quantities.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2012

Johnson Noise Thermometry for Advanced Small Modular Reactors

Temperature is a key process variable at any nuclear power plant (NPP). The harsh reactor environment causes all sensor properties to drift over time. At the higher temperatures of advanced NPPs the drift occurs more rapidly. The allowable reactor operating temperature must be reduced by the amount of the potential measurement error to assure adequate margin to material damage. Johnson noise is a fundamental expression of temperature and as such is immune to drift in a sensor’s physical condition. In and near the core, only Johnson noise thermometry (JNT) and radiation pyrometry offer the possibility for long-term, high-accuracy temperature measurement due to their fundamental natures. Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) place a higher value on long-term stability in their temperature measurements in that they produce less power per reactor core and thus cannot afford as much instrument recalibration labor as their larger brethren. The purpose of the current ORNL-led project, conducted under the Instrumentation, Controls, and Human-Machine Interface (ICHMI) research pathway of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Advanced SMR Research and Development (R&D) program, is to develop and demonstrate a drift free Johnson noise-based thermometer suitable for deployment near core in advanced SMR plants.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2012

Bulk nanostructured austenitic stainless steels with enhanced radiation tolerance

The objective of this project is to increase radiation tolerance in austenitic steels through optimization of grain size and grain boundary (GB) characteristics. The focus will be on nanocrystalline austenitic Fe-Cr-Ni alloys with an fcc crystal structure. The long-term goal is to design and develop bulk nanostructured austenitic steels with enhanced void swelling resistance and substantial ductility, and to enhance their creep resistance at elevated temperatures via GB engineering. The combination of grain refinement and grain boundary engineering approaches allows us to tailor the material strength, ductility, and resistance to swelling by 1) changing the sink strength for point defects, 2) by increasing the nucleation barriers for bubble formation at GBs, and 3) by changing the precipitate distributions at boundaries. Compared to ferritic/martensitic steels, austenitic stainless steels (SS) possess good creep and fatigue resistance at elevated temperatures, and better toughness at low temperature. However, a major disadvantage of austenitic SS is that they are vulnerable to significant void swelling in nuclear reactors, especially at the temperatures and doses anticipated in the Advanced Burner Reactor. The lack of resistance to void swelling in austenitic alloys led to the switch to ferritic/martensitic steels as the preferred material for the fast reactor cladding application. Recently a type of austenitic stainless steel, HT-UPS, was developed at ORNL, and is expected to show enhanced void swelling resistance through the trapping of point defects at nanometer-sized carbides. Reducing the grain size and increasing the fraction of low energy grain boundaries should reduce the available radiation-produced point defects (due to the increased sink area of the grain boundaries), should make bubble nucleation at the boundaries less likely (by reducing the fraction of high-energy boundaries), and improve the strength and ductility under radiation by producing a higher density of nanometer sized carbides on the boundaries. This project will focus on void swelling but advances in processing of austenitic steels are likely to also improve the radiation response of the mechanical properties.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2012

Resolution of Qualification Issues for Existing Structural Materials

This report gives a detailed assessment of several key technical issues that needs resolution for the existing structural materials with emphasis on application in liquid metal reactors (LMRs), in particular, sodium cooled fast reactors. The work is a combined effort between Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) with ANL as the technical lead, as part of Advanced Structural Materials Program for the Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative (AFCI) Reactor Campaign. The report is the second deliverable in FY09 (M2505050201) under the work package “Advanced Materials Code Qualification”. The overall objective of the Advanced Materials Code Qualification project is to evaluate the key technical requirements for the qualification of currently available and future advanced materials for application in sodium reactor systems and the resolution of issues that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has raised in the past on structural materials in support of the design and licensing of the LMR. Advanced materials are a critical element in the development of sodium reactor technologies. Enhanced materials performance not only improves safety margins and provides design flexibility, but also is essential for the economics of future advanced sodium reactors. Qualification and licensing of advanced materials are prominent needs for developing and implementing advanced sodium reactor technologies. However, the development of sufficient database and qualification of these materials for application in LMRs require considerable amount of time and resources. In the meantime, the currently available materials will be used in the early development of fast reactors. Nuclear structural component designs in the U.S. comply with the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code Section III (Rules for Construction of Nuclear Facility Components) and the NRC grants licensing. As the LMR will operate at higher temperatures than the current light water reactors (LWRs), the design of elevated-temperature components must comply with ASME Section III Subsection NH (Class 1 Components in Elevated Temperature Service). Assessment of materials performance issues and high temperature design methodology issues pertinent to the LMR were presented in an earlier report (Natesan et al. 2008). In a subsequent report (Majumdar et al. 2009), we addressed the needs in high temperature methodologies for design of various high temperature components in sodium cooled fast reactor. The present report addresses several key technical issues for the currently available structural materials such as Type 304 and 316 austenitic stainless steels and ferritic steels such as 2.25Cr-1Mo and modified 9Cr-1Mo. The 60-year design life for the LMR presents a significant challenge to the development of database, extrapolation/prediction of long-term performance, and high temperature structural design methodology. The current Subsection NH is applicable to the design life only up to 34 years. No experimental data contain test durations of 525,000 hours, and it is impractical to conduct such long-term tests in any types of testing. So far the longest creep tests for Grade 91 and Grade 92 steels have run up to 100,000 hours. It has been noted that there is a large drop in creep rupture strength in long-term tests for these high-Cr creep-resistant steels, which may result in overestimation of the long-term creep strength and allowable stress. The report addresses in detail the need for a mechanistic understanding of the structural materials, from the standpoint of the effects of thermal aging, creep deformation, creep fracture, fatigue and creep-fatigue, creep-fatigue predictive models, fatigue and creep crack growth, and fracture toughness. Based on an in-depth assessment of the available data and mechanistic understanding, key technical issues are identified and discussed for each of the property areas. Furthermore, we have proposed viable approaches to resolve the issues and prioritized our recommendations.

Natesan, K.↗
DOE OSTI2012

CRADA NFE-07-00912: Development of Model Fuels Experimental Engine Data Base & Kinetic Modeling Parameter Sets (Final Report)

The automotive and engine industries are in a period of very rapid change being driven by new emission standards, new types of after treatment, new combustion strategies, the introduction of new fuels, and drive for increased fuel economy and efficiency. The rapid pace of these changes has put more pressure on the need for modeling of engine combustion and performance, in order to shorten product design and introduction cycles. New combustion strategies include homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI), partial-premixed combustion compression ignition (PCCI), and dilute low temperature combustion which are being developed for lower emissions and improved fuel economy. New fuels include bio-fuels such as ethanol or bio-diesel, drop-in bio-derived fuels and those derived from new crude oil sources such as gas-to-liquids, coal-to-liquids, oil sands, oil shale, and wet natural gas. Kinetic modeling of the combustion process for these new combustion regimes and fuels is necessary in order to allow modeling and performance assessment for engine design purposes. In this research covered by this CRADA, ORNL developed and supplied experimental data related to engine performance with new fuels and new combustion strategies along with interpretation and analysis of such data and consulting to Reaction Design, Inc. (RD). RD performed additional analysis of this data in order to extract important parameters and to confirm engine and kinetic models. The data generated was generally published to make it available to the engine and automotive design communities and also to the Reaction Design Model Fuels Consortium (MFC).

computational fluid dynamics↗
DOE OSTI2012

Environmental Monitoring Plan for the Oak Ridge Reservation, 2012

The purpose of Oak Ridge Reservation (ORR) environmental surveillance is to characterize radiological and nonradiological conditions of the off-site environs and estimate public doses related to these conditions, confirm estimations of public dose based on effluent monitoring data, and, where appropriate, provide supplemental data to support compliance monitoring for applicable environmental regulations. This environmental monitoring plan (EMP) is intended to document the rationale, frequency, parameters, and analytical methods for the ORR environmental surveillance program and provides information on ORR site characteristics, environmental pathways, dose assessment methods, and quality management. ORR-wide environmental monitoring activities include a variety of media including air, surface water, vegetation, biota, and wildlife. In addition to these activities, site-specific effluent, groundwater, and best management monitoring programs are conducted at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), the Y-12 National Security Complex (Y-12), and the East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP). This is revision 5.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2012

DOE EiR at Oakridge National Lab 2008/09

This project placed an experienced technology entrepreneur at Oak Ridge National Lab, one of DOE's premier laboratories undertaking cutting edge research in a variety of fields, including energy technologies. With the goal of accelerating the commercialization of advanced energy technologies, the task was to review available technologies at the lab and identify those that qualify for licensing and commercialization by a private startup company, backed by private venture capital. During the project, more than 1,500 inventions filed at the lab were reviewed over a 1 year period; a successively smaller number was selected for more detailed review, ultimately resulting in five, and then 1 technology, being reviewed for immediate commercialization. The chosen technology, consisting in computational chemistry based approached to optimization of enzymes, was tested in lab experiments, paid for by funds raised by ORNL for the purpose of proving out the effectiveness of the technology and readiness for commercialization. The experiments proved out that the technology worked however it's performance proved not yet mature enough to qualify for private venture capital funded commercialization in a high tech startup. As a consequence, the project did not result in a new startup company being formed, as originally intended.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2011

Swirling jets for the mitigation of hot spots and thermal stratification in the VHTR lower plenum

The Department of Energy (DOE) has a special interest in the development of Generation IV next generation nuclear plants (NGNPs) in the form of very high (gas cooled) temperature reactors (VHTRs) for the production of electricity, hydrogen, and process heat. As of 2010, the prismatic and pebble bed reactors are the top VHTR candidates [ORNL, 2010; Wikipedia, 2010a; World Nuclear News, 2010; Kinsey, 2010]. However, for reasons elucidated in Section 2, this research will concentrate on the prismatic core VHTR.

Rodriguez, Salvador B.↗
DOE OSTI2012

Campbell Creek Research Homes (FY 2012 Annual Performance Report)

The Campbell Creek project is funded and managed by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Technology Innovation, Energy Efficiency, Power Delivery and Utilization Office. Technical support is provided under contract by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). The project was designed to determine the relative energy efficiency of typical new home construction, energy efficiency retrofitting of existing homes, and high-performance new homes built from the ground up for energy efficiency. This project will compare three houses that represented the current construction practices: a base case (Builder House—CC1); a modified house that could represent a major energy-efficient retrofit (Retrofit House—CC2); and a house constructed from the ground up to be a high-performance home (High Performance House—CC3). To enable a valid comparison, it was necessary to simulate occupancy in all three houses and heavily monitor the structural components and the energy usage by component. All three houses are two story, slab on grade, framed construction. CC1 and CC2 are approximately 2,400 ft 2 . CC3 has a pantry option, primarily used as a mechanical equipment room, that adds approximately 100 ft 2 . All three houses are all-electric (with the exception of a gas log fireplace that is not used during the testing) and use air-source heat pumps for heating and cooling. The three homes are located in Knoxville in the Campbell Creek Subdivision. CC1 and CC2 are next door to each other and CC3 is across the street and a couple of houses down. The energy data collected will be used to determine the benefits of retrofit packages and high-performance new home packages. There are over 300 channels of continuous energy performance and thermal comfort data collection in the houses (100 for each house). The data will also be used to evaluate the impact of energy-efficient upgrades on the envelope, mechanical equipment, and demand-response options. Each retrofit will be evaluated incrementally, by both short-term measurements and computer modeling, using a calibrated model. This report is intended to document the comprehensive testing, data analysis, research, and findings within the January 2011 through October 2012 timeframe at the Campbell Creek research houses. The following sections will provide an in-depth assessment of the technology progression in each of the three research houses. A detailed assessment and evaluation of the energy performance of technologies tested will also be provided. Finally, lessons learned and concluding remarks will be highlighted.

Annual Report↗
DOE OSTI2012

White Paper on Data Repository Reorganization Proposal for the xLPR Project

As the xLPR project moves along, it is important to properly manage the knowledge generated by the different groups. We focus specifically on the knowledge and communications written in files, including general documents, source code and executable files. Data generated through the project are different in nature and, for this reason, need to be treated differently. To that end, ORNL put in place a series of tools that facilitate proper storage and management of project data, document and code changes, group collaboration, knowledge transfer, transparency, accountability and auditability. This paper describes the approaches/tools that we recommend for moving the project forward on knowledge management.

Klasky, Hilda B.↗
DOE OSTI2012

Small- and Medium-Sized Commercial Building Monitoring and Controls Needs: A Scoping Study

Buildings consume over 40% of the total energy consumption in the U.S. A significant portion of the energy consumed in buildings is wasted because of the lack of controls or the inability to use existing building automation systems (BASs) properly. Much of the waste occurs because of our inability to manage and controls buildings efficiently. Over 90% of the buildings are either small-size (<5,000 sf) or medium-size (between 5,000 sf and 50,000 sf); these buildings currently do not use BASs to monitor and control their building systems from a central location. According to Commercial Building Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS), about 10% of the buildings in the U.S. use BASs or central controls to manage their building system operations. Buildings that use BASs are typically large (>100,000 sf). Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) were asked by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Building Technologies Program (BTP) to identify monitoring and control needs for small- and medium-sized commercial buildings and recommend possible solutions. This study documents the needs and solutions for small- and medium-sized buildings.

Katipamula, Srinivas↗
DOE OSTI2013

Enhanced Ex-Vessel Analysis for Fukushima Daiichi Unit 1: Melt Spreading and Core-Concrete Interaction Analyses with MELTSPREAD & CORQUENCH

System-level code analyses by both United States and international researchers predict major core melting, bottom head failure, and corium-concrete interaction for Fukushima Daiichi Unit 1. Although system codes such as MELCOR and MAAP are capable of capturing a wide range of accident phenomena, they do not contain detailed models for evaluating ex-vessel core melt behavior. However, specialized codes containing more detailed modeling are available for melt spreading—such as MELTSPREAD—as well as long-term molten corium-concrete interaction (MCCI) and debris coolability—such as CORQUENCH. On this basis, the Office of Nuclear Energy within the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE-NE) funded an analysis to further evaluate the ex-vessel core debris location and extent of interaction for Unit 1 using modern modeling and simulation tools. The high-level objective was to utilize MELTSPREAD and CORQUENCH to provide rigorous “best estimate” predictions and analysis of ex-vessel core melt accident progression and final debris configuration. Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) performed the MELTSPREAD calculations, while Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) performed the CORQUENCH calculations.

Corium↗
DOE OSTI2012

Manufacturing Cost Analysis of Novel Steel/Concrete Composite Vessel for Stationary Storage of High-Pressure Hydrogen

A novel, low-cost, high-pressure, steel/concrete composite vessel (SCCV) technology for stationary storage of compressed gaseous hydrogen (CGH 2 ) is currently under development at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) sponsored by DOE s Fuel Cell Technologies (FCT) Program. The SCCV technology uses commodity materials including structural steels and concretes for achieving cost, durability and safety requirements. In particular, the hydrogen embrittlement of high-strength low-alloy steels, a major safety and durability issue for current industry-standard pressure vessel technology, is mitigated through the use of a unique layered steel shell structure. This report presents the cost analysis results of the novel SCCV technology. A high-fidelity cost analysis tool is developed, based on a detailed, bottom-up approach which takes into account the material and labor costs involved in each of the vessel manufacturing steps. A thorough cost study is performed to understand the SCCV cost as a function of the key vessel design parameters, including hydrogen pressure, vessel dimensions, and load-carrying ratio.

cost analysis↗
DOE OSTI2012

A Path to Operating System and Runtime Support for Extreme Scale Tools

In this project, we cast distributed resource access as operations on files in a global name space and developed a common, scalable solution for group operations on distributed processes and files. The resulting solution enables tool and middleware developers to quickly create new scalable software or easily improve the scalability of existing software. The cornerstone of the project was the design of a new programming idiom called group file operations that eliminates iterative behavior when a single process must apply the same set of file operations to a group of related files. To demonstrate our novel and scalable ideas for group file operations and global name space composition, we developed a group file system called TBON-FS that leverages a tree-based overlay network (TBON), specifically MRNet, for logarithmic communication and distributed data aggregation. We also developed proc++, a new synthetic file system co-designed for use in scalable group file operations. Over the course of the project, we evaluated the utility and performance of group file operations, global name space composition, TBON-FS, and proc++ in three case studies. The first study focused on the ease in using group file operations and TBON-FS to quickly develop several new scalable tools for distributed system administration and monitoring. The second study evaluated the integration of group file operation and TBON-FS within the Ganglia Distributed Monitoring System to improve its scalability for clusters. The final study involved the integration of group file operations, TBON-FS, and proc++ within TotalView, the widely-used parallel debugger. For this project, the work of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) team occurred primarily in two directions: bringing the MRNet tree-based overlay network (TBON) implementation to the Cray XT platform, and investigating techniques for predicting the performance of MRNet topologies on such systems. Rogue Wave Software (RWS), formerly TotalView Technologies Inc., worked with the University ofWisconsin (UW) team on the design and prototyping of a scalable version of the TotalView debugger. RWS assisted UW with their "proc++" design effort. RWS assisted UW with strategy for integrating proc++ into TotalView.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2013

Evaluation of Suitability of Selected Set of Coal Plant Sites for Repowering with Small Modular Reactors

This report summarizes the approach that ORNL developed for screening a sample set of small coal stations for possible repowering with SMRs; the methodology employed, including spatial modeling; and initial results for these sample plants. The objective in conducting this type of siting evaluation is to demonstrate the capability to characterize specific sample coal plant sites to identify any particular issues associated with repowering existing coal stations with SMRs using OR-SAGE; it is not intended to be a definitive assessment per se as to the absolute suitability of any particular site.

Coal↗
DOE OSTI2013

Evaluation of Suitability of Selected Set of Department of Defense Military Bases and Department of Energy Facilities for Siting a Small Modular Reactor

This report summarizes the approach that ORNL developed for screening a sample set of US Department of Defense (DOD) military base sites and DOE sites for possible powering with an SMR; the methodology employed, including spatial modeling; and initial results for several sample sites. The objective in conducting this type of siting evaluation is demonstrate the capability to characterize specific DOD and DOE sites to identify any particular issues associated with powering the sites with an SMR using OR-SAGE; it is not intended to be a definitive assessment per se as to the absolute suitability of any particular site.

small modular reactor↗
DOE OSTI2013

Critical Configuration and Physics Measurements for Assemblies of U(93.15)O 2 Fuel Rods (1.506-cm Pitch)

A series of critical experiments were completed from 1962–1965 at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s (ORNL’s) Critical Experiments Facility (CEF) in support of the Medium-Power Reactor Experiments (MPRE) program. In the late 1950s, efforts were made to study “power plants for the production of electrical power in space vehicles.”(a) The MPRE program was a part of those efforts and studied the feasibility of a stainless-steel system, boiling potassium 1 MW(t), or about 140 kW(e), reactor. The program was carried out in [fiscal years] 1964, 1965, and 1966. A summary of the program’s effort was compiled in 1967.a The delayed critical experiments were a mockup of a small, potassium-cooled space power reactor for validation of reactor calculations and reactor physics methods. Initial experiments, performed in November and December of 1962, consisted of a core of unmoderated stainless-steel tubes, each containing 26 UO 2 fuel pellets, surrounded by a graphite reflector. Measurements were performed to determine critical reflector arrangements, relative fission-rate distributions, and cadmium ratio distributions. Subsequent experiments used beryllium reflectors and also measured the reactivity for various materials placed in the core. “The [assemblies were built] on [a] vertical assembly machine so that the movable part was the core and bottom reflector” (see Reference 1). The experiment studied in this evaluation was the second of the series and had the fuel rods in a 1.506-cm-triangular pitch. One critical configuration was found (see Reference 3). Once the critical configuration had been achieved, various measurements of reactivity, relative axial and radial activation rates of 235U,bc and cadmium ratios were performed. The cadmium ratio, reactivity, and activation rate measurements performed on the critical configuration are described in Sections 1.3, 1.4, and 1.7, respectively.

1.506-cm pitch↗
DOE OSTI2013

Application of Wear-Resistant, NanoComposite Coatings Produced from Iron-Based Glassy Powders

The innovative iron-based amorphous alloy powders and the high heating and cooling rates associated with infrared and laser technologies at ORNL allow for the production of nanostructured coatings and bulk nano-crystalline materials via devitrification. The ability to engineer mechanically-superior formations, and “dial-in” desired nano-structures is possible. Previous work demonstrated in-field testing of laser fused nanocrystalline coatings on full-sized disc cutters used on tunnel boring machines, which resulted in a 20% or better improvement in wear resistance in the most aggressive of wear conditions. The current project demonstrated that standard, high yield, low-cost, scalable processes are available for incorporating nano-sized, complex metal boron-carbides (CMBCs) into metal matrix coatings and the ability to produce nanocomposites in bulk form for heavy machinery applications.

Peter, William H.↗