Engineering topics

Benz, Jacob M.

Publications and source records attributed to Benz, Jacob M..

7 records

DOE OSTI2022

Examining Autonomous Inspection of Geologic Repositories

Geological repositories for nuclear waste, including spent nuclear fuel, present a significant challenge for traditional International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards tools due to their inaccessibility and demanding operational conditions. The IAEA has been working closely with Member State organizations currently involved in repository construction and planning including Euratom, the Finnish and Swedish regulatory authorities, and relevant facility operators. However, the verification challenge remains unsolved, and there persists an out-standing need for tools and approaches that will help the IAEA verify that no nuclear material is diverted from a repository environment. The challenge is also not static as activities must encompass verification of the design prior to and during the construction/operation phase, and post backfill. Throughout these various phases, it is imperative that the IAEA maintains a continuity of knowledge (CoK) of all material, including information on material inventory and flow. This paper highlights these challenges and outlines how they might be addressed by using remote or autonomous vehicles. Specifically, it discusses the current state of the art in robotic autonomy for known or partially known environment mapping and patrolling, as well as shared autonomy, where humans collaborate with closed loop autonomation to complete tasks. The feasibility of using rovers for these verification tasks is explored, along with the challenges associated with system implementation. Hardware and software suggestions are provided based on the adoption of similar technologies in other comparable areas and ability to close technical gaps. Finally, human-robotic interactions are considered based on the challenges of the environment of the repository and effective deployment and continued operation of the robot system

autonomous monitoring↗

DOE OSTI2020

Autonomous Inspection of Geologic Repositories: Current State of the Art and Future Directions

Geological repositories for nuclear waste, including spent nuclear fuel, present a significant challenge for traditional International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards tools due to their inaccessibility and demanding operational conditions. The IAEA has been working closely with Member State organizations currently involved in repository construction and planning, including Euratom, the Finnish and Swedish regulatory authorities, and relevant facility operators. However, the verification challenge remains unsolved, and there persists an out- standing need for tools and approaches that will help the IAEA verify that no nuclear material is diverted from a repository environment. The challenge is also not static. Activities must encompass verification of the design, prior to and during the construction/operation phase, and post backfill. Throughout these various phases, it is imperative that the IAEA maintains a continuity of knowledge (CoK) of all material including information on material inventory and flow. This paper highlights these challenges and outlines how they might be addressed by using remote or autonomous vehicles. Specifically, we discuss the current state of the art in robotic autonomy for known or partially known environment mapping and patrolling, as well as shared autonomy, where humans collaborate with closed loop autonomation to complete tasks. We explore the feasibility of using rovers for these verification tasks, along with the challenges associated with system implementation. Hardware and software suggestions are provided based on the adoption of similar technologies in other comparable areas and ability to close technical gaps. Lastly, human-robotic interactions are considered based on the challenges of the environment of the repository and effective deployment and continued operation of the robot system.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

DOE OSTI2020

Autonomous Monitoring of Nuclear Repositories: Current State of the Art and Future Directions

Geological repositories for nuclear waste, including spent nuclear fuel, present a significant challenge for traditional International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards tools due to their inaccessibility and demanding operational conditions. The IAEA has been working closely with Member State organizations currently involved in repository construction and planning, including Euratom, the Finnish and Swedish regulatory authorities, and relevant facility operators. However, the verification challenge remains unsolved, and there persists an out- standing need for tools and approaches that will help the IAEA verify that no nuclear material is diverted from a repository environment. The challenge is also not static. Activities must encompass verification of the design, prior to and during the construction/operation phase, and post backfill. Throughout these various phases, it is imperative that the IAEA maintains a continuity of knowledge (CoK) of all material including information on material inventory and flow. This paper highlights these challenges and outlines how they might be addressed by using remote or autonomous vehicles. Specifically, we discuss the current state of the art in robotic autonomy for known or partially known environment mapping and patrolling, as well as shared autonomy, where humans collaborate with closed-loop autonomation to complete tasks. We explore the feasibility of using rovers for these verification tasks, along with the challenges associated with system implementation. Hardware and software suggestions are provided based on the adoption of similar technologies in other comparable areas and ability to close technical gaps. Lastly, human-robotic interactions are considered based on the challenges of the environment of the repository and effective deployment and continued operation of the robot system.

geologic repository, safeguards, IAEA, Robotics↗

DOE OSTI2019

Highlights of the Quad Multilateral Nuclear Arms Control Research Initiative LETTERPRESS Simulation

The US, UK, Sweden and Norway have formed the Quad Nuclear Verification Partnership and have been working together as the ‘Quad’ to ensure non-nuclear weapon states (NNWS) and nuclear weapon states (NWS) participate to overcome the challenge of nuclear arms control verification. The Quad aims to complement and inform the work of other multinational initiatives such as the International Partnership for Nuclear Disarmament Verification (IPNDV). The initial engagement of the Quad was the development and execution of a role-playing, in-field verification simulation, named LETTERPRESS. A benefit of role-playing events is the capacity they have to allow researchers to engage critically with a challenge from multiple perspectives. This paper will introduce LETTERPRESS and the process the Quad followed to develop and execute the multilateral simulation. The paper will highlight the in-play objectives of the verification regime, the site hosting the on-site inspection, and the verification technologies and their roles with respect to the objectives. The paper will include lessons learned from LETTERPRESS, focusing on the in-play objectives and technologies and their contribution to a successful monitoring result. The paper will conclude by highlighting the in-play success of a multilateral verification body and the ability of both NNWS and NWS to contribute to the verification process within LETTERPRESS.

arms control, Quad, LETTERPRESS↗

DOE OSTI2018

CRITERIA FOR COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS OF TREATY VERIFICATION MONITORING SYSTEMS

In 2017, a team of subject matter experts from across the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratory developed a framework to assess and compare monitoring systems implemented to support treaty verification. Drawing on principles and techniques from multi-criteria decision making, the project team developed a set of evaluation criteria to serve as a decision support tool to understand and evaluate competing options. These criteria, which focus on monitoring systems designed to maintain chain of custody, were developed to be unambiguous, independent from each other, collectively exhaustive, measurable (whether this is quantitative or by a systematic subjective evaluation) and to help identify and prioritize factors of importance considering the perspectives of both a Host and Monitor. When used in the evaluation of options, criteria help to create a consistent framework that can assist in selecting the optimal solution among a set of competing alternatives.

decision making, Arms Control, decision analysis, ↗

DOE OSTI2017

Cyber Deterrence and Stability

Throughout the 20th and early 21st centuries, deterrence and arms control have been cornerstones of strategic stability between the superpowers. However, the weaponization of the cyber realm by State actors and the multipolar nature of cyber conflict now undermines that stability. Strategic stability is the state in which nations believe that if they act aggressively to undermine U.S. national interests and the post-World War II liberal democratic order, the consequences will outweigh the benefits. The sense of lawlessness and lack of consequences in the cyber realm embolden States to be more aggressive in taking actions that undermine stability. Accordingly, this paper examines 1) the role of deterrence and arms control in securing cyber stability, and 2) the limitations and challenges associated with these traditional national security paradigms as applied to this emerging threat domain. This paper demonstrates that many 20th-century deterrence and arms control concepts are not particularly applicable in the cyber realm. However, they are not entirely irrelevant. The United States can distill lessons learned from this rich deterrence and arms control experience to develop and deploy a strategy to advance cyber stability.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

DOE OSTI2017

Maintaining Continuity of Knowledge over Spent Fuel Pools- IR Imaging

This report covers the experiments performed by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Oregon State University at their Testing, Research, Isotope, and General Atomic (TRIGA) test reactor. These experiments fall under a larger goal to maintain Continuity of Knowledge (CoK) over a spent fuel pool in the absence of light. During FY 17, PNNL was tasked with investigating the ex-pool solutions to this investigation. Preliminary analysis done in FY 16 resulted in the identification of IR and UV cameras as a viable option. One experiment conducted that year yield results showing that a pure IR camera would not function to image thermal objects through water due to the large absorption cross section of IR light within water. This experiment lead PNNL to investigate cameras that ranged from UV to IR in the hopes that the cameras would be able to image the objects more efficiently with cameras that ranged across these spectra. This constraint lead us to being conversations with Phoenix Engineering based out of Georgia as they have cameras that sample UV-IR and Vis – IR light spectra. The two cameras identified and eventually used for this experiment were the HAWK-216 and OWL 640 cameras. The specific QE curves of these cameras can be found in subsequent sections. The results discussed in this report pertain to the images captured at the OSU TRIGA reactor under varying power levels to see what thresholds and minimum detectable thermal output could be detected by these cameras.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗