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DHS National Technical Nuclear Forensics Program FY 10 Summary Report: Graduate Mentoring Assistance Program (GMAP)

This program provides practical training to DHS graduate fellows in the DOE laboratory complex. It involves coordinating students, their thesis advisors, and their laboratory project mentors in establishing a meaningful program of research which contributes to the graduate student's formation as a member of the nuclear forensics community. The summary report details the student/mentor experience and future plans after the first summer practicum.

07 ISOTOPE AND RADIATION SOURCES↗

Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program Integrated Program Plan

Nuclear power has safely, reliably, and economically contributed almost 20% of electrical generation in the United States over the past two decades. It remains the single largest contributor (more than 70%) of non-greenhouse-gas-emitting electric power generation in the United States. Domestic demand for electrical energy is expected to experience a 31% growth from 2009 to 2035. At the same time, most of the currently operating nuclear power plants will begin reaching the end of their initial 20-year extension to their original 40-year operating license for a total of 60 years of operation. Figure E-1 shows projected nuclear energy contribution to the domestic generating capacity. If current operating nuclear power plants do not operate beyond 60 years, the total fraction of generated electrical energy from nuclear power will begin to decline - even with the expected addition of new nuclear generating capacity. The oldest commercial plants in the United States reached their 40th anniversary in 2009. The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy's Research and Development Roadmap (Nuclear Energy Roadmap) organizes its activities around four objectives that ensure nuclear energy remains a compelling and viable energy option for the United States. The four objectives are as follows: (1) develop technologies and other solutions that can improve the reliability, sustain the safety, and extend the life of the current reactors; (2) develop improvements in the affordability of new reactors to enable nuclear energy to help meet the Administration's energy security and climate change goals; (3) develop sustainable nuclear fuel cycles; and (4) understand and minimize the risks of nuclear proliferation and terrorism. The Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) Program is the primary programmatic activity that addresses Objective 1. This document summarizes the LWRS Program's plans.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program Integrated Program Plan

Nuclear power has safely, reliably, and economically contributed almost 20% of electrical generation in the United States over the past two decades. It remains the single largest contributor (more than 70%) of non-greenhouse-gas-emitting electric power generation in the United States. Domestic demand for electrical energy is expected to experience a 31% growth from 2009 to 2035. At the same time, most of the currently operating nuclear power plants will begin reaching the end of their initial 20-year extension to their original 40-year operating license for a total of 60 years of operation. Figure E-1 shows projected nuclear energy contribution to the domestic generating capacity. If current operating nuclear power plants do not operate beyond 60 years, the total fraction of generated electrical energy from nuclear power will begin to decline—even with the expected addition of new nuclear generating capacity. The oldest commercial plants in the United States reached their 40th anniversary in 2009. The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy’s Research and Development Roadmap (Nuclear Energy Roadmap) organizes its activities around four objectives that ensure nuclear energy remains a compelling and viable energy option for the United States. The four objectives are as follows: (1) develop technologies and other solutions that can improve the reliability, sustain the safety, and extend the life of the current reactors; (2) develop improvements in the affordability of new reactors to enable nuclear energy to help meet the Administration’s energy security and climate change goals; (3) develop sustainable nuclear fuel cycles; and (4) understand and minimize the risks of nuclear proliferation and terrorism. The Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) Program is the primary programmatic activity that addresses Objective 1. This document summarizes the LWRS Program’s plans.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Integrated Data Collection Analysis (IDCA) Program — IDCA Quarterly Program Review, September 14 and 15, 2010

The IDCA conducted a program review at Los Alamos National Laboratory, September 14 and 15, 2010. The review was divided into three parts: 1) an update on the current status of the program, 2) an information exchange and discussion on technical details for current issues and future planning, and 3) a tour of the SSST testing facilities at LANL. The meeting started with an update from DHS by Laura Parker and a restating of some of the objectives of the Proficiency Test of which the IDCA is currently engaged. This update was followed by a discussion of some high level programmatic issues particularly about ways of communicating the overall goals of the IDCA to non-technical representatives. The final topic focused on the difficulty of releasing information, including the DHS approval process, ITAR, and open publication. Next JGR presented a technical summary of accomplishments, schedule, milestones, and future directions. These key points made were: 1) about 1/3 of the materials have been tested, 2) some participants are behind others causing a lag in report writing, 3) method reports have been assigned to various participants to speed up the process of reporting, 4) the SSST Compendium needs reformatting and restructuring, and 5) the Compendium needs a web site to house with access control. After the technical update, some of the Proficiency Test results were shown comparing data from the various laboratories. These results included comparisons of the RDX standard, KC/sugar mixtures (-100 mesh and as received), KC/dodecane, KP/Al, and KP/C. Impact, friction, ESD, and DSC results were the focus. All the participants were involved in these discussions. This report includes summary notes, presentations, and explanatory information.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Overview and Current Progress of the DOE/NNSA Nuclear Criticality Safety Program Training and Education Program [Slides]

This presentation covers the Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP) training & education program. The presentation details the training courses offered by the NCSP and the NCSP training pipelines. Additionally, the presentation shows the Nuclear Criticality Safety (NCS) Education Training (NCSET) modules along with new capabilities and new courses. This lecture finishes up with some concluding remarks.

96 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND PRESERVATION↗

Work stealing for GPU-accelerated parallel programs in a global address space framework

Task parallelism is an attractive approach to automatically load balance the computation in a parallel system and adapt to dynamism exhibited by parallel systems. Exploiting task parallelism through work stealing has been extensively studied in shared and distributed-memory contexts. In this paper, we study the design of a system that uses work stealing for dynamic load balancing of task-parallel programs executed on hybrid distributed-memory CPU-graphics processing unit (GPU) systems in a global-address space framework. We take into account the unique nature of the accelerator model employed by GPUs, the significant performance difference between GPU and CPU execution as a function of problem size, and the distinct CPU and GPU memory domains. We consider various alternatives in designing a distributed work stealing algorithm for CPU-GPU systems, while taking into account the impact of task distribution and data movement overheads. These strategies are evaluated using microbenchmarks that capture various execution configurations as well as the state-of-the-art CCSD(T) application module from the computational chemistry domain

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

The NINDS Parkinson's disease biomarkers program: The Ninds Parkinson's Disease Biomarkers Program

Background: Neuroprotection for Parkinson Disease (PD) remains elusive. Biomarkers hold the promise of removing roadblocks to therapy development. The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) has therefore established the Parkinson’s Disease Biomarkers Program (PDBP) to promote discovery of biomarkers for use in phase II-III clinical trials in PD. Methods: The PDBP facilitates biomarker development to improve neuroprotective clinical trial design, essential for advancing therapeutics for PD. To date, eleven consortium projects in the PDBP are focused on the development of clinical and laboratory-based PD biomarkers for diagnosis, progression tracking, and/or the prediction of prognosis. Seven of these projects also provide detailed longitudinal data and biospecimens from PD patients and controls, as a resource for all PD researchers. Standardized operating procedures and pooled reference samples have been created in order to allow cross-project comparisons and assessment of batch effects. A web-based Data Management Resource facilitates rapid sharing of data and biosamples across the entire PD research community for additional biomarker projects. Results: Here we describe the PDBP, highlight standard operating procedures for the collection of biospecimens and data, and provide an interim report with quality control analysis on the first 1082 participants and 1033 samples with quality control analysis collected as of October 2014. Conclusions: By making samples and data available to academics and industry, encouraging the adoption of existing standards, and providing a resource which complements existing programs, the PDBP will accelerate the pace of PD biomarker research, with the goal of improving diagnostic methods and treatment.

biofluids↗

A Global View Programming Abstraction for Transitioning MPI Codes to PGAS Languages

The multicore generation of scientific high performance computing has provided a platform for the realization of Exascale computing, and has also underscored the need for new paradigms in coding parallel applications. The current standard for writing parallel applications requires programmers to use languages designed for sequential execution. These languages have abstractions that only allow programmers to operate on the process centric local view of data. To provide suitable languages for parallel execution, many research efforts have designed languages based on the Partitioned Global Address Space (PGAS) programming model. Chapel is one of the more recent languages to be developed using this model. Chapel supports multithreaded execution with high-level abstractions for parallelism. With Chapel in mind, we have developed a set of directives that serve as intermediate expressions for transitioning scientific applications from languages designed for sequential execution to PGAS languages like Chapel that are being developed with parallelism in mind.

Global Domain↗

Core materials development for the fuel cycle R&D program

The Fuel Cycle Research and Development program is investigating methods of burning minor actinides in a transmutation fuel. One of the challenges of achieving this goal is to develop fuels capable of reaching extreme burnup levels (e.g. 40%). To achieve such high burnup levels’ fast reactor core materials (cladding and duct) must be able to withstand very high doses (>300 dpa design goal) while in contact with the coolant and the fuel. Thus, these materials must withstand radiation effects that promote low temperature embrittlement, radiation induced segregation, high temperature helium embrittlement, swelling, accelerated creep, corrosion with the coolant, and chemical interaction with the fuel (FCCI). To develop and qualify materials to a total fluence greater than 200 dpa requires development of advanced alloys and irradiations in fast reactors to test these alloys. Test specimens of ferritic/martensitic alloys (T91/HT-9) previously irradiated in the FFTF reactor up to 210 dpa at a temperature range of 350– 750 °C are presently being tested. This includes analysis of a duct made of HT-9 after irradiation to a total dose of 155 dpa at temperatures from 370 to 510 °C. Compact tension, charpy and tensile specimens have been machined from this duct and mechanical testing as well as SANS and Mossbauer spectroscopy are currently being performed. Initial results from compression testing and Charpy testing reveal a strong increase in yield stress (~400 MPa) and a large increase in DBTT (up to 230 °C) for specimens irradiated at 383 °C to a dose of 28 dpa. Less hardening and a smaller increase in DBTT was observed for specimens irradiated at higher temperatures up to 500 °C. Advanced radiation tolerant materials are also being developed to enable the desired extreme fuel burnup levels. Specifically, coatings are being developed to minimize FCCI, and research is underway to fabricate large heats of radiation tolerant oxide dispersion steels with homogeneous oxide dispersions.

Maloy, S. A.↗

India National Gas Hydrate Program Expedition 02 Summary of Scientific Results: Numerical Simulation of Reservoir Response to Depressurization

The India National Gas Hydrate Program Expedition 02 (NGHP-02) discovered gas hydrate at high saturation in sand reservoirs at several sites in the deepwater Bay of Bengal. To assess the potential response of those deposits to scientific depressurization experiments, comprehensive geologic models were constructed to enable numerical simulation for two sites. Both sites (NGHP-02-09 and NGHP-02-16) feature thick sequences of thinly-interbedded reservoir and non-reservoir facies at sub-seafloor depths less than 300m and sub-sea depths of 2400m or more. These settings pose significant challenges to current modeling capabilities. First, the thinly-interbedded reservoir architecture complicates the determination of basic reservoir parameters from both log and core data due to measurement resolution issues. Secondly, the fine scale variation in sediment properties imparts great contrasts in key parameters over very short distances, creating high gradients at multiple scales and varying orientations that necessitate careful design of high-definition simulation grids. Thirdly, the deposits include internal sources of water, as well as a range of complex boundary conditions, including variable permeability within the overlying mud-rich “seals,” that complicate reservoir depressurization. Lastly, because of the unique combination of great water depth and relatively shallow sub-seafloor depth: models designed to maximize the dissociation rate impose large pressure drawdowns on relatively low-strength sediments. This condition renders the proper evaluation and integration of the geomechanical response to hydrate dissociation critical. In this report, we review the history of gas hydrate reservoir simulation, discuss methods for creating geologic input models, and summarize the key findings and implications of the collaborative NGHP-02 numerical simulation effort. Together, the studies confirm the viability of the modeled accumulations for scientific testing and identify key challenges related to the selection of specific test sites and the design of test wells.

Boswell, Ray↗

The Majorana Demonstrator radioassay program

The Majorana collaboration is constructing the Majorana Demonstrator at the Sanford Underground Research Facility at the Homestake gold mine, in Lead, SD. The apparatus will use Ge detectors, enriched in isotope 76 Ge, to demonstrate the feasibility of a large-scale Ge detector experiment to search for neutrinoless double beta decay. The long half-life of this postulated process requires that the apparatus be extremely low in radioactive isotopes whose decays may produce backgrounds to the search. The radioassay program conducted by the collaboration to ensure that the materials comprising the apparatus are sufficiently pure is described. The resulting measurements from gamma-ray counting, neutron activation and mass spectroscopy of the radioactive-isotope contamination for the materials studied for use in the detector are reported. In conclusion, we interpret these numbers in the context of the expected background for the experiment.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Spin physics program in Jefferson Lab’s Hall C

The nucleon spin structure has been studied at Jefferson Lab’s Hall C in experiments RSS (E01-006) and SANE (E07-003), which measured double spin asymmetries using the U. of Virginia solid polarized target and CEBAF’s 6 GeV polarized electrons. The proton longitudinal spin structure g{sub 1} and transverse structure g{sub 2} have been investigated at kinematics extending from the elastic point to DIS, for four-momenta squared ranging from 0.8 to 5 GeV{sup 2}. The neutron structures have been measured in the region of the nucleon resonances at 1.3 GeV{sup 2} on a deuteron target. Results of both experiments will be highlighted. A brief survey of approved experiments for the 12 GeV program will also be presented.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

The Lick Observatory Supernova Search follow-up program: photometry data release of 70 SESNe

We present BVRI and unfiltered (Clear) light curves of 70 stripped-envelope supernovae (SESNe), observed between 2003 and 2020, from the Lick Observatory Supernova Search follow-up program. Our SESN sample consists of 19 spectroscopically normal SNe Ib, 2 peculiar SNe Ib, six SNe Ibn, 14 normal SNe Ic, 1 peculiar SN Ic, 10 SNe Ic-BL, 15 SNe IIb, 1 ambiguous SN IIb/Ib/c, and 2 superluminous SNe. Our follow-up photometry has (on a per-SN basis) a mean coverage of 81 photometric points (median of 58 points) and a mean cadence of 3.6 d (median of 1.2 d). From our full sample, a subset of 38 SNe have pre-maximum coverage in at least one passband, allowing for the peak brightness of each SN in this subset to be quantitatively determined. We describe our data collection and processing techniques, with emphasis toward our automated photometry pipeline, from which we derive publicly available data products to enable and encourage further study by the community. Using these data products, we derive host-galaxy extinction values through the empirical colour evolution relationship and, for the first time, produce accurate rise-time measurements for a large sample of SESNe in both optical and infrared passbands. By modelling multiband light curves, we find that SNe Ic tend to have lower ejecta masses and lower ejecta velocities than SNe Ib and IIb, but higher 56Ni masses.

Lick Observatory↗

NCRP Program Area Committee 3: Nuclear and Radiological Security and Safety [Update on the Ncrp Program Area Committee 3 Activities: Nuclear And Radiological Security and Safety]

The National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRP) Program Area Committee (PAC) 3 covers the broad subject of nuclear and radiological security and safety and provides guidance and recommendations for response to nuclear and radiological incidents of both an accidental and deliberate nature. In 2017, PAC 3 Scientific Committee 3-1 completed the development of Guidance for Emergency Responder Dosimetry, and began development of a companion commentary on operational aspects of that guidance. PAC 3 members also organized the technical program for the 2017 Annual Meeting of the NCRP on “Assessment of National Efforts in Emergency Preparedness for Nuclear Terrorism: Is There a Need for Realignment to Close Remaining Gaps.” Based on discussions and presentations at the annual meeting, PAC 3 is working to develop a commentary on the subject that could serve as a roadmap for focusing our national efforts on the most pressing needs for preparing the nation for nuclear and radiological emergencies. PAC 3 is also engaged in active discussions, exploring the landscape of priority issues for its future activities. Lastly, an important consideration in this discussion is the extent of NCRP’s present and potential future resources to support the work of its scientific committees.

98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL P↗

Approximate Mixed-Integer Programming Solution with Machine Learning Technique and Linear Programming Relaxation

Security constrained unit commitment (SCUC) is solved in the day-ahead electricity market to determine electricity generation schedule for the following date. The associated mixed integer programming (MIP) problem is known computationally hard. Heuristics like rounding can be computationally efficient for solving large MIP problems however often produces lower quality solutions due to discrepancy between MIP solution and linear programming relaxation (LPR) solution, i.e., variables taking different discrete values between MIP and LPR solutions. In this work, we applied the machine learning-based algorithms—Classification and Regression Tree (CART) model and random forest (RF) model—to obtain an LPR-based approximation that close to an MIP solution without actually solving the MIP problem. By computing feature importance derived from the CART and RF models, we assessed the link between coefficients in the MIP model, the LPR solution, and the optimal solution of the MIP problem. We applied the CART and RF approaches to solve SCUC problems using day-ahead energy market cases from Midcontinent Independent System Operator. The results show that our method is computationally efficient and could achieve an approximation sufficiently close to the SCUC solution with <0.15% error and ~78% reduction in the discrepancies between LPR and MIP solutions.

Lin, Xinming↗