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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.
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This is the results of advanced conductor testing in report form. This report demonstrates the characteristics of the Southwire C7 TP conductor when exposed to wildfire conditions.
The CIE for Power Generation: Insights and Case Studies guide is being developed to assist engineers at utilities, asset owner-operators developers, and cybersecurity teams to build in robustness and cyber resiliency into their designs using cyber-informed engineering practices. This guide will break out these topics including use cases by chapters for areas such as Nuclear, IBRs, Geothermal, natural gas, etc.
The primary objective of this project is to assess the techno-economic viability of hydropower resources with supplementary investments, including microgrid controllers, storage solutions, load banks, additional generation like diesel generators, communication links, and transmission infrastructure. The aim is to enable these systems to operate autonomously (in islanded mode) and ensure grid resiliency during and after wildfire events. The project seeks to establish a comprehensive framework for setting up hydropower-based microgrids, from risk estimation to final investment decisions. These microgrids can provide critical support during emergencies and offer additional grid stability and revenue opportunities during regular operations and other system contingencies.
The gamma-ray emitting radionuclide concentration and decontamination factor results from gamma-ray spectrometry measurements of ATR loop liquid samples by the Radiation Measurements Laboratory (RML) are contained in this report for ATR Cycle 175B-1 from August 4, 2025 to October 6, 2025.
This study documents the work that was done to explore near-term opportunities for Eastern Kentucky to participate in the nuclear energy industry.
The rapid expansion of large electric loads is reshaping the operational and regulatory landscape of the U.S. electric grid. These facilities are reaching new scales of expansion, now exceeding a gigawatt per site, and their highly sensitive, digitally driven behaviors introduce new reliability risks. Recent grid events, including large load losses following routine transmission disturbances, highlight the consequences of limited ride-through capability, inconsistent protection settings, inadequate modeling, and lack of behind-the-meter visibility. Parallels to earlier integration challenges of new grid technologies suggest that the grid’s existing processes, standards, and interconnection frameworks are no longer adequate for emerging large loads. This brief synthesizes lessons from the evolution of inverter-based resource regulation and applies them to large-load integration. It identifies critical gaps in modeling accuracy, interconnection processes, performance standards, and compliance mechanisms. Technical recommendations emphasize advanced monitoring, improved modeling, coordinated communication protocols, modernized substations, and structured behind-the-meter control schemes. Collectively, these measures provide a roadmap to maintain bulk power system reliability while enabling the continued growth of large, electrified digital infrastructure.
Across the United States (U.S.) grid expansion and modernization is underway, paving the way for accelerated load growth and intelligent resource management. Digitization of the grid is supported by several state and federal programs, providing support for utilities installing advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), AI-powered analytics systems, battery energy storage systems (BESS), and distributed energy resource management systems (DERMS) to transform the grid from a one-way power delivery system into an intelligent, responsive network that will enable faster load growth and power expansion of data centers for advanced artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The digital transformation of America's grid presents opportunity for increased efficiency and resiliency but also introduces new digital risks that require careful management. Digital equipment often contains several vulnerabilities such as unencrypted communication protocols, and persistent remote access capabilities that could be exploited to manipulate device settings, coordinate service disruptions, or inject false data into grid operations. These digital risks become particularly important as the grid must rapidly scale to support AI-driven data centers, which the administration has identified as essential for maintaining U.S. technological leadership and economic competitiveness. These vulnerabilities are compounded by supply chain realities: Chinese manufacturers currently produce 70-90% of essential grid components including inverters, batteries, and control systems, with the U.S. lacking domestic manufacturing capacity for critical assets like extra-high voltage transformers. Recent federal legislation has established Foreign Entity of Concern (FEOC) restrictions to address these risks, requiring projects to achieve escalating thresholds of non-FEOC content to receive tax credits while utilities work to expand sourcing channels for their supply chains and strengthen security measures. These restrictions arrive precisely when utilities face unprecedented electricity demand growth driven by the rapid growth in data centers, creating a considerable challenge: rapidly expanding infrastructure while navigating complex compliance requirements while lacking viable alternatives for many critical components. Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and its partners have developed practical approaches to help utilities navigate these intersecting challenges as they leverage federal investment to strengthen and grow the grid. These solutions include Cyber-Informed Engineering (CIE) principles that build resilience directly into systems, the Cirrus tool for secure cloud migration, and enhanced procurement guidance that embeds security requirements throughout equipment lifecycles. Federal initiatives, such as the Technical Assistance for Digital Assurance (TADA) project, provide direct support to utilities implementing these approaches while facilitating knowledge sharing across the industry. While these tools and frameworks cannot eliminate all risks inherent in foreign supply chain dependencies, they offer pragmatic pathways for strengthening security posture without sacrificing the deployment momentum essential to meeting surging electricity demand. Ultimately, securing America's digital energy infrastructure demands dedicated coordination across multiple fronts: building domestic supply chains, implementing robust digital assurance practices, and maintaining the aggressive modernization timeline necessary for reliability, resilience, and energy independence.
This report provides an analysis of the U.S. standards and regulatory landscape for digital energy systems, focusing on cybersecurity, safety, and reliability requirements. It examines the interplay between federal mandates, state regulations, voluntary industry standards, and utility-specific policies, highlighting critical gaps between compliance and real-world risk mitigation. While NERC CIP standards enforce cybersecurity for Bulk Electric System assets, distribution-level infrastructure and emerging technologies often fall outside mandatory oversight, creating vulnerabilities. The report identifies systemic challenges such as reliance on self-attestation, uneven state adoption of safety codes, and lagging standards for advanced technologies like battery energy storage and inverter-based resources. Through a detailed gap analysis, it underscores the urgency of proactive risk-based approaches, independent verification, and strategic engagement with state and federal entities. Recommendations include adopting tiered security frameworks, strengthening procurement practices, and addressing emerging technology risks to ensure resilient and secure digital energy infrastructure. This guidance is intended for utilities, regulators, and stakeholders navigating compliance obligations and seeking to enhance cybersecurity and safety beyond minimum standards.
This report presents guidance to support the implementation of security objectives during the design process for nuclear facilities using an organization’s quality management system. The guidance in this document is intended for design vendors and operators of nuclear power facilities. Additionally, this guidance document can be beneficial to regulatory bodies, industry partners, customers, and other stakeholders within the nuclear power market. This report aims to ensure security consequences are identified before designs are completed, which may lead to reduced costs and higher security effectiveness and efficiency.
Fuel rods irradiated in light-water reactors to burnup values above 45 MWd/kgU are subject to the formation of a chemical and mechanical bond between the fuel and cladding upon gap closure. The formation of the bond subsequently inhibits the ability of fission gases released from the fuel to flow freely to the plenum of the rod. The flowing of gases within fuel rods is referred to as axial gas communication. During transients, such as loss of coolant accidents, the bond may influence cladding deformation prior to breaking. Upon bond breakage, gases are able to more freely communicate to the lower pressure regions of the rod. The impact of bonding on gas communication and the ballooning behavior of the cladding during a loss of coolant accident is of interest to the nuclear industry in support of burnup extension for the existing light-water reactor fleet. In this report, a model to capture the effects of fuel cladding bonding in the BISON fuel performance code is presented. The theory of the model along with implementation testing is provided. A summary of a previously developed axial gas communication is given to set the stage for how the two models may be coupled together. A full-length pressurized-water reactor fuel rod demonstration is highlighted to evaluate the impact of including bonding on axial gas communication calculations using a preliminary coupling methodology. An overview of the next steps regarding the modeling of bonding, axial gas communication, and a more tightly coupled framework is also provided.
The purpose of this report is to coordinate with the staff from WRPS, the current contract holder for operations at the Hanford site to better inform design decisions for the Autonomous systems for Hanford waste tank handling project. The project goals are to support risk reduction associated with monitoring, inspection and mapping of Hanford tank underground pits and includes: 1. A pit mock-up demonstration of Idaho National Laboratory’s (INL) Autonomous Pit Exploration System (APES) technology, which has two configurations: A. The Autonomous Robotic Arm, which is a proposed collaboration with Florida International University (FIU) and has capabilities to visually inspect, monitor, map and conduct simple tool manipulation tasks in the tank pits, and B. The robotic crawler configuration, which has capabilities to deploy to the bottom of the pits and conduct closer and bottom-up visual inspections. 2. An Implementation Plan that identifies Hanford site-wide application of the INL remote robotics technologies to enhance the performance of the tank farm systems and the characterization of the waste they contain to mitigate risk and optimize the overall waste mission. 3. A first-of-a-kind environmental digital twin will be produced. Digital twins to date require permanently installed sensors in order to produce asset specific predictions. This project will use the intermittent signals during inspections from deployed sensors on robotic systems to produce the data sets used by AI/ML to enable predictions of issues on tanks.
The gamma-ray emitting radionuclide concentration and decontamination factor results from gamma-ray spectrometry measurements of ATR loop liquid samples by the Radiation Measurements Laboratory (RML) are contained in this report for ATR Cycle 173-B from Feb.04, 2025.
This manual describes the use of the Portable, Extensible Toolkit for Scientific Computation (PETSc) and the Toolkit for Advanced Optimization (TAO) for the numerical solution of partial differential equations (PDEs) and related problems on high-performance computers. PETSc/TAO is a suite of data structures and routines that provide the building blocks for implementing large-scale application codes on parallel (and serial) computers. PETSc uses the MPI standard for all distributed memory communication.
This technical document is a user guide to help users of the Livewire Data Platform understand the standards and requirements for storing and sharing data on the Livewire Data Platform.
The gamma-ray emitting radionuclide concentration and decontamination factor results from gamma-ray spectrometry measurements of ATR loop liquid samples by the Radiation Measurements Laboratory (RML) are contained in this report for ATR Cycle 174-A from Feb.24, 2025 to Mar. 03, 2025.
Many potential Accident Tolerant Fuel (ATF) technologies with the potential for making substantive improvements to the performance of Light Water Reactors (LWRs) in accident scenarios will require development and qualification timelines longer than 4 years. These technologies are named “Long Term” ATF. The attached report summarizes the irradiation testing capabilities available for use in the development and qualification of these technologies and presents a nominal test sequence.
Thermophysical properties of salt systems relevant to molten salt reactors (MSRs) are experimentally measured in support of the US Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy (DOE-NE) MSR campaign within the Advanced Reactor Technology (ART) Program. These property measurements also support the development of the thermophysical arm of the Molten Salt Database (MSD) within DOE-NE’s Nu clear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) Program. Several US Department of Energy (DOE) laboratories, including Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), have been capitalizing on modern methodologies and sample characterization techniques to conduct thermophysical property measurements to support these programs and to provide MSR developers and modelers with more recent and higher-quality data.
This report presents guidance to support the implementation of security objectives during the design process for nuclear facilities using an organization’s quality management system. The guidance in this document is intended for design vendors and operators of nuclear power facilities. Additionally, this guidance document can be beneficial to regulatory bodies, industry partners, customers, and other stakeholders within the nuclear power market. This report aims to ensure security consequences are identified before designs are completed, which may lead to reduced costs and higher security effectiveness and efficiency.