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Cooley, Jason Christopher

Publications and source records attributed to Cooley, Jason Christopher.

9 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

Development of Material Studies at the LANL UCN Facility Focusing on Actinide Hydriding and Fission Damage

The aging of as-built actinide surfaces in static and dynamic environments is a complex problem of high importance to LANL’s core mission. Many standard material science tools used to study this problem are ideal for highly controlled, lab-made samples. The goal of this work is to use ultracold neutrons to bridge the gap between lab made and as-built surface aging studies. This capability is unique to LANL and will support our core mission.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2022

Container Evaluation: Analysis of the Swagelok Knuckle with Viewport as an Approved Hermetically Sealed Inner Container

This report outlines the results from the water ingress test, helium leak test and additional atmosphere testing for the Swagelok knuckle with viewport container further referred to as the SKV. This container is constructed from a standard union vacuum fitting, 1.33” conflat to 0.5” male VCR, a 1.33” conflat fused silica lensed viewport fitting, and a 0.5 inch VCR cap. The primary intended use of this container is to store Pu metal samples in the vault for a time interval exceeding 40 years. The samples need to be contained in an air free environment to ensure that the material does not oxidize over time. The container viewport is a critical design feature that will help the operators visually inspect and evaluate the state of the metal samples prior to opening the container. These containers are advertised as leak tight, but experimental tests were performed to test the water resistant criteria and the gas leaking criteria set forth by the TA-55 Criticality Safety Program. The results of the water ingress test show that the container is water-tight, with no signs of water penetrating the container within the required guidelines outlined in TA55-AP-522. The preliminary He leak test performed demonstrate that the conflat window port and VCR cap are able to maintain a hermetic seal. Additionally, all containers will be He leak tested independently by the manufacturer prior to shipping to LANL. A third voluntary test was added to assess the container’s ability to hold atmosphere, with successful results indicating the container is able to hold inert atmosphere to prevent lanthanum metal oxidation. It is the conclusion of the authorsthat there is enough evidence through the test conducted and outlined within this document that the proposed container meets the definition of a water-tight container, and it is able to provide a hermetic seal.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2022

The temperatures of ejecta transporting in vacuum and gases

In this work, we measure continuous thermal radiance from evolving clouds of liquid metal fragments ejected into vacuum, nonreactive, and reactive gas. We implement a model for the thermalization of the ejecta and gas and use this to constrain the absolute temperature of the ejecta cloud. This model enables further analyses of ejecta thermal behavior under a variety of conditions.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Intentional Uranium Tagging for Material Provenance and Pathway Forensics (LA19-Intentional-Forensics-NDD3Bb): Final Project Report

This report summarizes the outcomes of a 3-year NA-22 exploratory project to research the feasibility of tagging uranium materials, especially nuclear fuels, for nuclear nonproliferation purposes. The experimental focus was on metallic uranium forms under prospective surface and bulk tagging manufacturing and detection scenarios. This study showed that a large number of tags (drawn from an even larger menu of options) could be successfully imparted and detected in both as-built and degraded conditions. These results pave the way for additional R&D studies of surface and bulk tagging of metallic forms of uranium.

98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL P↗
DOE OSTI2019

Microstructure Development of 308L Stainless Steel During Additive Manufacturing

$In$ $situ$ high-energy X-ray diffraction measurements were completed during deposition of 308L stainless steel wire onto a 304L stainless steel substrate. Attempts were made to extract microstructural features such as phase fraction and internal stress, as well as temperature evolution immediately following the deposition. The limited data that could be collected during deposition and rapid solidification are critically examined. High-energy X-rays coupled with relatively slow detectors were utilized to enable determination of orientation-dependent lattice parameters accurately enough to comment on phase strain evolution between austenite and ferrite. Here, information about the hydrostatic and deviatoric stress states of the constituent phases was determined on time scales that are relevant to their development. However, the time resolution of the technique was insufficient to monitor phase evolution during the solid–solid phase transformation and, more so, during solidification. Moreover, the accurate and absolute determination of inherently statistical parameters, such as phase fraction, depends critically on the ability to sample a statistically significant numbers of grains in the microstructure.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2017

Ejecta transport, breakup and conversion

Here, we report experimental results from an initial study of reactive and nonreactive metal fragments—ejecta—transporting in vacuum, and in reactive and nonreactive gases. We postulate that reactive metal fragments ejected into a reactive gas, such as H 2 , will break up into smaller fragments in situations where they are otherwise hydrodynamically stable in a nonreactive gas such as He. To evaluate the hypothesis we machined periodic perturbations onto thin Ce and Zn coupons and then explosively shocked them to eject hot, micron-scale fragments from the perturbations. The ejecta masses were diagnosed with piezoelectric pressure transducers, and their transport in H 2 and He was imaged with visible and infrared (IR) cameras. Because Ce + H 2 → CeH 2 + ΔH, where ΔH is the enthalpy of formation, an observed increase of the relative IR (radiance) temperature T R between the Ce–H 2 and Ce–He gas systems can be used to estimate the amount of Ce that converts to CeH 2 . As a result, the experiments sought to determine whether dynamic chemical effects should be included in ejecta-transport models.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2017

Additive Manufacturing at LANL: Advanced Characterization to Explore the Science of a New Manufacturing Method

Additive manufacturing (AM), or three-dimensional (3D) printing as it is more commonly known, is defined as the process of joining materials and creating objects by melting, sintering, or fusing material in a layer-by-layer fashion coordinated via 3D model data.1 Subtractive, or traditional, manufacturing methodologies often consist of machining/removing material—like a sculptor—or forming material through the application of pressure—like a potter. Conversely, in an AM process, material is added in individual volume elements and built up in a way similar to interlocking building blocks, but with volume elements that are typically the size of a grain of sand. The additive process often involves less waste when compared to subtractive techniques because material is only added when and where it is needed. Adjustments to the final structure are relatively straightforward and can be simply achieved by adjusting the 3D computer model. This makes the technology much more flexible than traditional, subtractive techniques where new tooling or forming equipment is usually needed to accommodate design changes. Also, the AM processes are beneficial because they permit the fabrication of unique geometries, such as miniaturized metal lattice structures, that cannot be achieved using traditional techniques. An example of a metal lattice structure is the Eiffel Tower with its Figure 1. Schematic showing required linkages between experimental and modeling thrusts in order to achieve science-based qualification. Arrows showing linkages are color-coded according to the funded projects listed. geometric, interconnecting struts that reduce the overall weight of the tower while maintaining strength. In AM, the size of the struts can be made smaller than the diameter of a human hair, which further reduces weight while maintaining strength—a combination of properties that can benefit many applications.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗