Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “silos”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2017

Pile Fuel Cladding Silo Deflector Plate Removal Project Using Long Reach Tooling and Suspended Abrasive Water Jet Cutting System - 17541

The Pile Fuel Cladding Silo (PFCS) at the Sellafield decommissioning, reprocessing and nuclear waste management facility in the UK was constructed in the late 1940-s and used for the storage of Intermediate Level Waste (ILW) arising from the Windscale Piles, Calderhall and Chapelcross Reactors until the 1960's. The PFCS is 21 metres high and comprises 6 identical tall compartments with the waste added to the silo via a charge-hole at the top of each compartment; each compartment is split by a central dividing wall that runs from the base of the silo to a few metres below the underside of the silo roof. A deflector plate assembly (DPA) supported on two horizontal beams is located between the top of the dividing wall and the roof and allowed the waste to spread as it fell into the silo and prevent excessive mounding. Sellafield Ltd is currently engaged in an overall programme of works to remove the waste for storage within modern ILW containers. Prior to the commencement of these works the Deflector Plate Assemblies (DPA) and beam structures within the silos are required to be removed to allow access for the waste retrievals equipment through the side of the silo at the point where the DPAs are situated. James Fisher Nuclear (JFN) and Sellafield Ltd have developed a system using suspended water jet cutting equipment combined with custom long reach tooling, installed through penetrations made in the side of the silo, to enable the remote size reduction of the DPA and beams within each compartment. The use of a low pressure suspended water jet cutting system has enabled a single water/abrasive hose to be routed down a tool deployment pole and allowed long hose lengths up to 80 m from pump to nozzle enabling siting of equipment on a congested and difficult access site. The use of lightweight, yet high strength, carbon fibre poles within the tools has enabled the deployment of tool end effectors at distances of up to 6.5 m from the compartment walls using a relatively small 60 mm diameter pole. This maximised articulation of the pole within the 300 mm wall penetrations to reach all areas of the DPA. Capability of the operators to install the tooling and size reduce DPA and beam assemblies have been demonstrated through the training on a Full Scale Test Rig (FSTR). The FSTR was integral to the development of the equipment and techniques and to providing assurance to the client that the project was technically achievable given the tight building restraints and safety issues. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2016

Chute Silo ILW Project Berkeley - 16649

Magnox, a Tier 1 Site Licensed Company (SLC), is the management and operations contractor responsible for the decommissioning of twelve of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority's (NDA) nuclear sites in the UK. Aquila Nuclear Engineering is a specialist Tier 3, turnkey engineering company based in the UK, delivering mission critical engineering solutions to Europe's nuclear and nuclear medicine industries. Berkeley Nuclear Power Station, Berkeley, England started generating electricity in 1962, ceasing operation 27 years later in 1989. The Chute Silo ILW Project at this Reactor Site had been set up to retrieve irradiated control rods and charge chutes disposed of within a subterranean vault (silo). The project involved in-silo size reduction of waste in to 30-35 waste baskets. The waste basket was then to be retrieved via a pintle grab and hoist mechanism in to a Transfer Flask (through a silo and a Transfer Flask gamma gate). The Transfer Flask was then to transit along existing crane rails, out of the silo building and over the top of an Import/Export Facility. A Ductile Cast Iron Container (DCIC) was to be imported into Import/Export Facility and inspected/prepared to receipt the waste basket from the Transfer Flask. Once filled, the DCIC was then to be sealed and exported to an on-site storage facility. Due to an issue with the Magnox Tier 2 Framework holder in delivering a cost effective and viable solution for their Chute Silo ILW Retrieval Project, Magnox took the ground breaking decision to 'self-perform'. This involved dividing the larger project into several smaller packages. Two of these packages - for the shielded Transfer Flask and the Import/Export facility - were put out for competitive tendering directly to the Tier 3 Supply Chain. The work completed by the Tier 2 Company was shared with the Tier 3's, but Magnox expressly requested the Tier 2 proposals were scrutinised and that far more cost effective, robust and simpler solutions were provided for within the Tier 3 Tenders. Aquila won both work packages and delivered them with significant and demonstrable cost savings, on time and under budget. This was achieved by the collaborative arrangements between Aquila and Magnox, the methodologies of both company's project teams and the innovation and 'fitness for purpose' of Aquila's design pragmatism. The original Tier 2 Framework holder's price to Magnox for the Chute Silo ILW Project was between UK Pounds 2-3 M. Aquila delivered the equivalent scope for under UK Pounds 1 M. Aquila's original programme was maintained despite the award of additional scope and (Magnox) delays on site. Aquila came under the original target price for each discrete phase of the project. The above was achieved because of: - the collaborative arrangements between Aquila and Magnox; - the methodologies of both company's project teams; - the design features put forward by Aquila (welcomed and adopted by Magnox). In 2014 Aquila Nuclear Engineering received formal recognition of its achievements on this project by winning an NDA Supply Chain Award for 'Best example of supplier 'going the extra mile''. Points highlighted in the award were: - improved customer focus, leading to stronger relationships - encouraging challenge and innovation - continuous suggestions for improvement - UK Pounds 1 million savings and three months programme reduction.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2020

Start-up of Silo 130 Waste Retrieval at La Hague: first Step Towards Reducing Legacy Inventory - 20020

On June 25, 2019, the first grapple of waste and debris was lifted from Silo 130, one of the most challenging legacy waste storage silos at La Hague. This was the achievement of more than ten years of studies and efforts focused on solving some very unique technical and safety challenges, and on designing an innovative, efficient solution. The waste is from de-cladding materials from past Gas-Cooled Reactor fuel reprocessing operations. It is an unsorted mixture of magnesium cladding pieces, graphite debris, and various other metallic waste types. These materials can be chemically reactive and therefore need specific dispositions for handling and storing. The building is more than 40 years old and does not meet modern standards. French safety authorities have required the silo to be emptied. After about three years of operation, the bulk of this waste will be removed and placed in safe storage, pending the selection of a final conditioning solution. Removal of bottom debris will then be possible. When finished, this operation will bring a conclusion to a significant legacy-related hazard on the site. The silo will then be available for final cleaning and de-activation. This paper will describe the technical, safety, and economical challenges, and the various decisions and optimizations that led to the definition of the process and technology to be implemented. Several innovative features were developed and implemented, in all sections of the project: project organization, progressive approach for the waste disposition strategy, light building design, customized and robust retrieval technology, processing technologies involving the most modern robotic and sorting techniques, storage method... Several of these first-of-a-kind innovative features have been developed and qualified specifically for this application, using the detailed qualification procedure specified for all La Hague projects. The facility was built in less than five years, overcoming various difficulties along the line. Commissioning is now finished with the combined efforts of the project, engineering, start-up, and operating teams assisted by dedicated suppliers. The facility is now ramping-up. The paper will also report on the commissioning and start-up of the facility and describe the first operational results. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2025

FedCSpc: A Cross-Silo Federated Learning System With Error-Bounded Lossy Parameter Compression

Cross-Silo federated learning is widely used for scaling deep neural network (DNN) training over data silos from different locations worldwide while guaranteeing data privacy. Communication has been identified as the main bottleneck when training large-scale models due to large-volume model parameters and gradient transmission across public networks with limited bandwidth. Most previous works focus on gradient compression, while limited work tries to compress parameters that can not be ignored and extremely affect communication performance during the training. Here, to bridge this gap, we propose FedCSpc: an efficient cross-silo federated learning system with an XAI-driven adaptive parameter compression strategy for large-scale model training. Our work substantially differs from existing gradient compression techniques due to the distinct data features of gradient and parameter. The key contributions of this paper are fourfold. (1) Our designed FedCSpc proposes to compress the parameter during the training using the state-of-the-art error-bounded lossy compressor – SZ3. (2) We develop an adaptive compression error bound adjustment algorithm to guarantee the model accuracy effectively. (3) We exploit an efficient approach to utilize the idle CPU resources of clients to compress the parameters. (4) We perform a comprehensive evaluation with a wide range of models and benchmarks on a GPU cluster with 65 GPUs. Results show that FedCSpc can achieve the same model accuracy as FedAvg while reducing the data volume of parameters and gradients in communication by up to 7.39× and 288×, respectively. With 32 clients on a 4 Gb size model, FedCSpc significantly outperforms FedAvg in wall-clock time in the emulated WAN environment (at the bandwidth of 1 Gbps or lower without loss of generality).

SZ3↗
DOE OSTI2025

FedEFsz: Fair Cross-Silo Federated Learning System With Error-Bounded Lossy Compression

Cross-Silo federated learning systems have been identified as an efficient approach to scaling DNN training across geographically-distributed data silos to preserve the privacy of the training data. Communication efficiency and fairness are two major issues that need to be both satisfied when federated learning systems are deployed in practice. Simultaneously guaranteeing both of them, however, is exceptionally difficult because simply combining communication reduction and fairness optimization approaches often causes non-converged training or drastic accuracy degradation. Here, to bridge this gap, we propose FedEFsz. On the one hand, it integrates the state-of-the-art error-bounded lossy compressor SZ3 into cross-silo federated learning systems to significantly reduce communication traffic during the training. On the other hand, it achieves a high fairness (i.e., rather consistent model accuracy and performance across different clients) through a carefully designed heuristic algorithm that can tune the error-bound of SZ3 for different clients during the training. Extensive experimental results based on a GPU cluster with 65 GPU cards show that FedEFsz improves the fairness across different benchmarks by up to 60.88% and meanwhile reduces the communication traffic by up to 315×.

Cross-Silo Federated Learning Systems↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Breaking Down Data Silos

Siloed schedule data creates barriers to information sharing and collaboration. In short, siloed data is not healthy data. If schedule data isn't easy to find and use in a timely fashion (or can't be trusted when it is found) it isn’t adding value. Many programs, projects, and initiatives are accustomed to working in their own worlds with their own lingo, processes, and challenges. This culture of separation carries over to schedules. This presentation will showcase SCaN’s efforts to break down the silo mentality.

schedule↗
DOE OSTI2018

Combined Assay Systems for the Characterisation of Historical ILW at of the Dounreay Shaft and Silo-18140

In 1955 the Dounreay nuclear power development establishment was created on the northern coast of Scotland primarily to pursue the UK Government policy of developing Fast Breeder Reactor (FBR) technology. The site operated then by the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) saw the development, test and operation of 3 nuclear reactors, two of them FBRs, alongside fabrication and reprocessing facilities for the FBR fuel elements. From the late 1950's until 1977 Intermediate Level radioactive Waste (ILW) generated on site was disposed of into a 65 m deep, 4.6 m diameter shaft. In January 1977, an explosion thought to be caused by hydrogen generated from sodium and potassium wastes reacting with water occurred in the upper part of the shaft, thus stopping any further waste disposal. A second ILW storage facility, the ILW-Silo, started operation in 1971 to deal with the increasing volume of intermediate level waste generated on site in the mid-1960's and continued receiving waste until 1998. The decommissioning of the Shaft and Silo facilities is a challenging engineering task due to the complexity and potential hazards linked with the retrieval and handling of historical waste. Following recovery it is intended to shred the majority of the waste and load it into 200-l assay drums. Sludges would be separated and solidified within a special annulus drum to make them suitable for assay. To support the decommissioning strategies put forward by Dounreay Site Restoration Limited (DSRL), Mirion Technologies Canberra UK Ltd have designed and completed the manufacture of a pair of combined non-destructive waste assay (NDA) systems. The two identical automated ILW counters are intended to provide a means to characterise the waste materials by performing active and passive neutron measurement as well as segmented high resolution gamma spectrometry (HRGS) of 200-l sacrificial waste drums. The active neutron technique is based on the Differential Die Away (DDA) technique using a pulsed Deuterium-Tritium neutron generator to interrogate fissile material present in the waste. The active neutron measurements support, as well as the passive neutron coincidence measurements, a matrix correction capability by use of an Add-a-Source mechanism. The publication will describe in broad lines the approach proposed by DSRL in the processing of the waste retrieved from both the Shaft and Silo facilities. It will also present a description of the overall design of the NDA counters, illustrating how the measurements to be performed will allow DSRL to safely characterise the retrieved waste materials. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Incorporation of Human Risk Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAG) With Mishap Investigations to Un-Silo Knowledge

NASA’s Human System Risk Board (HSRB) has been a central driver in efforts to understand, mitigate, and communicate the 29 human systems risks monitored by the board. As a result of the collaboration between research, operations, and technical authorities, large bodies of knowledge have been collected and digested to represent the current understanding of the risks. As a part of these bodies of knowledge, directed acyclic graphs (DAGs) have been developed to communicate the current understanding of the causal relationship of the hazards, contributing factors, countermeasures, other risks, and outcomes that contribute to the overall risk. This risk knowledge is applied in a theoretical sense for potential incidents during exploration even while informed by surveillance data. However, there have been mishaps and close calls during past space exploration that intersect with one or more of the Human System Risks DAGs and knowledge bases. The purpose of this exercise was to un-silo this risk knowledge and connect it to the close call of EVA 23 through the development of a DAG representing the intersection of the HSRB Risks and the events of the close call. The development of the DAG occurred through an iterative process, with each iteration expanding and/or refining the nodes and connections described by the source materials. In addition to the risk documentation developed by the HSRB, lessons learned and other mishap investigation documents were utilized to understand the events that led to water entering the helmet of a crewmember on the EVA. New nodes specific to the events of EVA 23 were interconnected with existing HSRB DAG nodes and edges. Nodes within the DAG were defined within a “DAG-tionary” with any updates to a definition that may have previously existed from the HSRB DAGs, and edges were recorded in a matrix. Both the DAG-tionary and matrix describe where nodes and edges are present across the Risk and Mishap DAG. This DAG will then be reviewed by experts outside of HSRB and HRP to confirm that interpretations of the non-health related events (such as the engineering nodes) are represented accurately. DISCUSSION This process highlighted a method by which the knowledge generated among the contributing members of the HSRB Risks can be effectively adapted and utilized through the tools employed by the Risk Custodian teams. By leveraging these tools, new context and insights to the information at hand can be brought forward to address current spaceflight challenges. Moreover, un-siloing this knowledge through future DAGs and other efforts can drive interprofessional collaboration and foster communication. This will enable teams to work together more effectively, leveraging their diverse expertise to tackle the complex challenges of space exploration and human research. Ultimately, this collaboration will bring NASA closer to achieve agency goals and contribute to the overall shared mission and vision.

Samuel Jacobs↗
DOE OSTI2018

The DISTINCTIVE University Consortium: Legacy Ponds and Silo Wastes - 18135

The UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) sponsored DISTINCTIVE consortium (Decommissioning, Immobilisation and Storage Solutions for Nuclear Waste Inventories) is undertaking 22 science and engineering projects across 11 universities related to the decommissioning of the Legacy Ponds and Silos at Sellafield. These are grouped into three work packages that focus on wasteform durability, effluent treatment and pond and silo sludges. Specific challenges include understanding the durability of intermediate level waste (ILW) glass-ceramic waste forms, studying thermally treated Pu-containing materials, producing and testing new inorganic ion exchange materials including derivatized magnetic nanoparticles for Cs, Sr and U removal from effluent, developing micro- and ultra-filtration methods, providing improved modelling and simulation of sludge disturbance, mobilisation and transport, developing a better understanding of gas hold-up in sludges, exploring methods for sludge characterisation including the use of acoustic backscatter and quartz crystal microbalance techniques and Raman spectroscopy and computer modelling of the interaction of cations with brucite surfaces. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2024

Using the power of secure Generative AI to eliminate data silos

Over time, multiple information repositories, access controls, and management practices created disparate information silos. Gaining accurate insights from lab information had become overly burdensome especially for new employees and collaborators

Purcell, Kevin↗
NASA NTRS1992

Generation of 3-D surface maps in waste storage silos using a structured light source

Surface contours inside the large waste storage tanks typical of the Department of Energy (DOE) complex are, in general, highly irregular. In addition to pipes and other pieces of equipment in the tanks, the surfaces may have features such as mounds, fissures, crystalline structures, and mixed solid and liquid forms. Prior to remediation activities, it will be necessary to characterize the waste to determine the most effective remediation approaches. Surface contour data will be required both prior to and during remediation. The use is described of a structured light source to generate 3-D surface contour maps of the interior of waste storage silos at the Feed Materials Production Center at Fernald, OH. The landscape inside these large waste storage tanks bears a strong resemblance to some of the landscapes that might be encountered during lunar or planetary exploration. Hence, these terrestrial 3-D mapping techniques may be directly applicable to extraterrestrial exploration. In further development, it will be demonstrated that these 3-D data can be used for robotic task planning just as 3-D surface contour data of a satellite could be used to plan maintenance tasks for a space-based servicing robot.

Burks, B. L.↗
DOE OSTI2018

Dounreay (UK) Shaft and Silo Decommissioning - Remote Handling in an Extreme and Uncertain Environment - 18420

DSRL is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Cavendish Dounreay Partnership Ltd, a consortium of Cavendish Nuclear, CH2M and AECOM. It is funded by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) to deliver the site closure programme. Today, Dounreay is a site of construction, demolition and waste management, all of it designed to return the site to an interim end state. Dounreay is recognised as the most complex nuclear site closure project in Europe. The experimental nature of many of the sites redundant facilities means the clean-up and demolition requires innovation as well as great care. It is driving innovation in the approach to remote handling and robotics in the highly complex, hazardous and uncertain environment, all within tight financial constraints by UK Government. Veolia Nuclear Solutions (VNS) is instrumental in delivery of the overall solutions for the shaft and silo decommissioning project working with other members of industry and directly for DSRL to deliver the overall concept design for waste treatment as well as specialised equipment to recover highly hazardous and uncertain materials in this unique project. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2015

Breaking the silos: The art documentation suite

The art event-processing framework is used by almost all new experiments at Fermilab, and by several outside of Fermilab. All use art as an external product in the same sense that the compiler, ROOT, Geant4, CLHEP and boost are external products. The art team has embarked on a campaign to document art and develop training materials for new users. Many new users of art have little or no knowledge of C++, software engineering, build systems or the many external packages used by art or their experiments, such as ROOT, CLHEP, HEPPDT, and boost. To effectively teach art requires that the training materials include appropriate introductions to these topics as they are encountered. Experience has shown that simply referring readers to the existing native documentation does not work, too often a simple idea that they need to understand is described in a context that presumes prerequisites that are unimportant for a beginning user of art. There is the additional complication that the training materials must be presented in a way that does not presume knowledge of any of the experiments using art. Finally, new users of art arrive at random times throughout the year and the training materials must allow them to start to learn art at any time. This presentation will explain the strategies adopted by the art team to develop a documentation suite that complies with these boundary conditions. It will also show the present status of the documentation suite, including feedback the art team has received from pilot users.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2023

Skewering the silos: using Brick to enable portable analytics, modeling and controls in buildings

Nearly all large commercial buildings have heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, lighting systems, safety and other systems controlled by a computer—a dedicated server with a building energy management system (BMS). However, these BMSs are proprietary with each building’s assets (that is, fans, valves, pumps, and their setpoints) named and coded uniquely by the BMS vendor or engineer; building analytics and control algorithms are written specific to the assets and the building. Thus, any control updates or analytics to improve building performance—especially critical to reduce greenhouse emissions or improve load flexibility—are labor intensive and costly. The Brick schema was developed so the same analysis or control algorithms can work on a variety of buildings if each is digitally represented in a Brick data model. The goal of this project was to further the development of Brick to extend it beyond an academic project with demonstrated success in a small field study, to a practical choice for industrial and commercial stakeholders seeking to realize value from building data. To do this, we executed four objectives: (1) expand the Brick schema including its modeling capabilities and vocabulary, (2) develop tools for integrating Brick with existing digital technologies and representations in buildings, (3) develop an open-source analytics platform to facilitate use of Brick in delivering data value, and (4) demonstrate Brick-driven analytics and controls in real settings.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2024

From Silos to Synergy: Identifying a Roadmap for Cross-Sector Research to Accelerate the Clean Energy Transition

The U.S. Department of Energy's blueprints for the transportation, buildings, and electricity sectors call for substantial reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050. These plans focus on zero-emission vehicles, investments in transit, energy-efficient buildings, and the widespread adoption and deployment of renewable energy technologies like solar photovoltaics (PV), energy storage and energy-efficient appliances. However, these sectors are often studied and modeled in isolation, overlooking how household decisions to adopt clean technologies in one sector influence others. This study, led by an interdisciplinary team at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), explores opportunities for cross-sector collaboration to drive more effective and equitable decarbonization. Through discussions with 22 NREL researchers across transportation, building, solar, and grid sectors, the study highlights the need for integrated tools and models that capture interactions between these sectors. Key insights include the need for data standardization and interoperability to enable cross-sector analysis and decision-making. Strengthening utility partnerships is also critical to align energy policies with decarbonization goals and manage the increased demand for renewable energy. The study also emphasizes the importance of equity in the clean energy transition, calling for targeted incentives and support to ensure that low-income and underserved communities benefit from clean technologies like electric vehicles and energy-efficient appliances. To support these efforts, innovative funding mechanisms must be expanded to facilitate interdisciplinary research, such as city-specific decarbonization plans and federal projects like DOE"s Standard Scenarios. By encouraging collaboration and integrating cross-sector insights, this study aims to provide a roadmap to accelerate the clean energy transition and ensure it is both sustainable and inclusive.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗