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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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At least 199 records · Page 11
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

Hard disk drive dismantlement for critical material recovery

A system and method for recycling rare earth materials from dissimilar hard disk drives are provided. The system and method generally include scanning each hard disk drive, sorting and aligning each hard disk drive, rapid fastener removal or diversion to a metrology station, and the collection of separated value streams, optionally for formation into new magnetic stock. For each scanned hard disk drive having a match in an inventory database, the method includes the separation of an internal magnet from residual components. For each scanned hard disk drive lacking a match in the inventory database, the method includes generating a metrology data collection record containing the location of each fastener on multiple surfaces of the corresponding hard disk drive. The system and method are commercially scalable with the potential to generate between 600 and 700 metric tons of rare earth elements from a single processing facility annually, including neodymium for example.

McIntyre, Timothy J.↗
DOE OSTI2026

Estimation of Fission Product Transport Parameters for Cesium in the AGR-3/4 TRISO Fuel Experiment

A one-dimensional (1D) finite-element model of fission product transport in the AGR-3/4 experiment has been developed using the Multiphysics Object Oriented Simulation Environment (MOOSE) framework and implemented in the fuel performance code, BISON. The model resolves capsule-specific geometries, materials, and temperature histories and simulates radial migration of fission products from the fuel compact through the inner ring, outer ring, and into the sink ring. Model parameters governing diffusion and sorption were estimated for key fission products – cesium (Cs), and europium (Eu) – by simultaneously fitting modeled isotopic concentration profiles and total ring inventories to a post-irradiation experimental measurement. These data include gamma scanning, liquid scintillation for Sr-90, radial deconsolidation leach-burn-leach analysis, tomographic reconstructions, and destructive physical sampling. A mortar-based interfacial sorption framework was implemented to enforce physically consistent mass transfer and flux conservation across gas gaps. Two classes of parameter sets were derived: a least-squares best-fit, and a safety-oriented conservative-fit, what applies strong penalties for underprediction of sink inventories. Across all twelve capsules, the model successfully reproduces the dominant radial transport trends for Cs, Sr, with decreasing concentrations from the compact outward through successive rings. Cs behavior is captured most consistently, while strontium predictions reveal systematic trade-offs between compact accuracy and conservative sink-ring bounding. The results demonstrate that sink ring weighted calibration provides conservative, safety relevant bounds on low temperature fission product transport, but at the cost of underpredicting compact inventories for Sr isotopes. These discrepancies highlight the need for additional physics, including fast-slow diffusion model, incorporating trapping mechanism in the transport behavior. Overall, this work establishes a robust, capsule-specific modeling framework for AGR-3/4 fission product transport and provides a defensible basis for parameter selection in source-term and fuel performance analyses for high temperature gas-cooled reactors.

11 - NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2021

A comprehensive and synthetic dataset for global, regional, and national greenhouse gas emissions by sector 1970–2018 with an extension to 2019

To track progress towards keeping global warming well below 2 °C or even 1.5 °C, as agreed in the Paris Agreement, comprehensive up-to-date and reliable information on anthropogenic emissions and removals of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is required. Here we compile a new synthetic dataset on anthropogenic GHG emissions for 1970–2018 with a fast-track extension to 2019. Our dataset is global in coverage and includes CO 2 emissions, CH 4 emissions, N 2 O emissions, as well as those from fluorinated gases (F-gases: HFCs, PFCs, SF 6 , NF 3 ) and provides country and sector details. We build this dataset from the version 6 release of the Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR v6) and three bookkeeping models for CO 2 emissions from land use, land-use change, and forestry (LULUCF). We assess the uncertainties of global greenhouse gases at the 90 % confidence interval (5th–95th percentile range) by combining statistical analysis and comparisons of global emissions inventories and top-down atmospheric measurements with an expert judgement informed by the relevant scientific literature. We identify important data gaps for F-gas emissions. The agreement between our bottom-up inventory estimates and top-down atmospheric-based emissions estimates is relatively close for some F-gas species (~ 10 % or less), but estimates can differ by an order of magnitude or more for others. Our aggregated F-gas estimate is about 10 % lower than top-down estimates in recent years. However, emissions from excluded F-gas species such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) or hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) are cumulatively larger than the sum of the reported species. Using global warming potential values with a 100-year time horizon from the Sixth Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), global GHG emissions in 2018 amounted to 58 ± 6.1 GtCO 2 eq. consisting of CO 2 from fossil fuel combustion and industry (FFI) 38 ± 3.0 GtCO 2 , CO 2 -LULUCF 5.7 ± 4.0 GtCO 2 , CH 4 10 ± 3.1 GtCO 2 eq., N2O 2.6 ± 1.6 GtCO 2 eq., and F-gases 1.3 ± 0.40 GtCO 2 eq. Initial estimates suggest further growth of 1.3 GtCO 2 eq. in GHG emissions to reach 59 ± 6.6 GtCO 2 eq. by 2019. Our analysis of global trends in anthropogenic GHG emissions over the past 5 decades (1970–2018) highlights a pattern of varied but sustained emissions growth. There is high confidence that global anthropogenic GHG emissions have increased every decade, and emissions growth has been persistent across the different (groups of) gases. There is also high confidence that global anthropogenic GHG emissions levels were higher in 2009–2018 than in any previous decade and that GHG emissions levels grew throughout the most recent decade. While the average annual GHG emissions growth rate slowed between 2009 and 2018 (1.2 % yr –1 ) compared to 2000–2009 (2.4 % yr –1 ), the absolute increase in average annual GHG emissions by decade was never larger than between 2000–2009 and 2009–2018. Our analysis further reveals that there are no global sectors that show sustained reductions in GHG emissions. There are a number of countries that have reduced GHG emissions over the past decade, but these reductions are comparatively modest and outgrown by much larger emissions growth in some developing countries such as China, India, and Indonesia. There is a need to further develop independent, robust, and timely emissions estimates across all gases. As such, tracking progress in climate policy requires substantial investments in independent GHG emissions accounting and monitoring as well as in national and international statistical infrastructures. The data associated with this article (Minx et al., 2021) can be found at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5566761.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

BRE‐X Emissions Database for End‐of‐Life Scenarios of Selective Building Construction Materials to Enable Circular Economy in Construction

In the United States, construction and demolition debris predominately end up in landfills with minimal end‐of‐life Re‐X (recover, recycle, reuse, etc.) scenarios, resulting in large environmental impacts and lost opportunities for material recovery. Except for concrete and metals, which seem to have a few well‐defined end‐of‐life pathways, there seems to be a lack of well‐documented end‐of‐life scenarios for other construction materials, let alone their emissions data. Hence, there is a need for documented end‐of‐life Re‐X scenarios and end‐of‐life data of more building materials to motivate widespread use of Re‐X strategies in building design. This paper outlines the efforts of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Carbon Leadership Forum, Building Transparency, and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill to (a) create an open‐access BRE‐X (Building Re‐X) end‐of‐life emissions database consisting of greenhouse gas emissions data associated with various end‐of‐life scenarios for a select list of high‐impact building construction materials, and (b) integrate the BRE‐X end‐of‐life emissions database with CAD/BIM/LCA tools for evaluating various end‐of‐life scenarios. The paper also presents a few existing life cycle inventory databases that contain sparse amounts of end‐of‐life data for a few construction materials and their limitations in terms of scaling and data consolidation. Finally, a sample of how the collected data can be ingested into whole‐building LCA tools using open data formats and a public access link to the BRE‐X end‐of‐life emissions database is also included.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2024

Standard Analysis Report INV-SAR-79, Revision 0 Chemical and Cement Components 2023 Inventory Estimates

This standard analysis report provides the estimates for the chemical (oxyanions and complexing agents) and cement components with a data collection cut-off date of December 31, 2023. These estimates will be included in a Performance Assessment Inventory Report developed for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) performance assessment (PA) for the 2026 Compliance Recertification Application (CRA).

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

Life cycle assessment of utilizing freshly cut urban wood: A case study

Large amounts of urban wood resources are generated through tree removals in urban areas. Therefore, there is a growing interest to improve the environmental performance of the urban wood supply chain by quantifying the environmental impacts of creating high-value products from urban tree removals to enhance its utilization. By surveying existing urban wood utilization operations for primary data in two major cities: Baltimore, Maryland, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a new life cycle inventory (LCI) dataset per m 3 of dry urban hardwood lumber and live edge slabs was created. Incorporating the new LCI data into life cycle assessment method, the total global warming (GW) impact of converting urban trees to kiln-dried lumber was estimated to be 122 kg CO 2 eq and 336 kg CO 2 eq per m 3 of lumber produced for Baltimore and Milwaukee, respectively. In both cases, the total environmental impact of the product was dominated by the conversion of urban trees to kiln dried lumber at the sawmill processing stage. Using scenario analysis for the source of heat generation used in kiln (force) drying wood, substituting wood fuel from coproducts for natural gas in a boiler for Milwaukee resulted in a substantial reduction in fossil-derived GW impact. Urban and traditional hardwood lumber production follow similar GW impact trajectories over their life-cycle stages with the lumber processing stage having the highest environmental impacts for both. Finally, increasing the overall lumber yield and decreasing kiln (force) drying would substantially improve the environmental performance of urban hardwood lumber and help make it comparable to traditional lumber.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2026

Nuclear Data Impact Assessment for the HTR-10 Pebble-Bed Reactor Using SCALE

The HTR-10 was used as a representative pebble-bed high-temperature gas-cooled reactor in this assessment of nuclear data’s impact on important reactor and spent fuel metrics, including safety-related quantities such as the effective multiplication factor (k eff ), temperature reactivity feedback, spent fuel inventory, and decay heat. Using the SCALE code system tools and ENDF/B-VII.1 nuclear data libraries, we quantify the effect of nuclear data uncertainties on these key performance metrics for both fresh fuel and equilibrium core configurations. For reactor core key parameters, important contributors to uncertainty include reactions of 235 U [$\bar{v}$, fission, (n, γ)], 238 U [elastic, (n, γ)], and graphite [elastic, (n, γ)]. Additional important contributors for the equilibrium core include reactions of higher actinides ( 239 Pu, 240 Pu) and fission products ( 135 Xe, 149 Sm). For spent fuel analysis, most nuclide inventory uncertainties remain below 5%. Higher uncertainties up to 11% are being observed for minor actinides like 243 Am and 244 Cm. Additionally, fission product uncertainties in 155 Eu and 155 Gd, of 25% and 23% respectively, are also significant and have implications for burnup credit applications. 110m Ag also shows high uncertainty of up to 11%, mainly due to fission product yield uncertainties. Decay heat relative uncertainties remain below 0.6% up to 10 years’ cooling time after fuel discharge. The highest relative uncertainty of 1.5% occurs at 500 years of cooling; however, because the decay heat value is very low at that time, the absolute uncertainty is not significant. This work demonstrates that extending assessments beyond fresh fuel k eff to include irradiated cores, nuclide inventories, and decay heat is essential in understanding the behavior of uncertainties as a function of fuel burnup and can support improvements of safety margins and spent fuel management.

Nuclear data impact↗
DOE OSTI2026

WholeTraveler Anonymized Data Phase 1

Phase 1 of the WholeTraveler Study data collection consisted of an online-only survey. This survey captured data on three categories of observable variation in the population relevant to transportation decisions. First, the survey collected traditional demographic data such as age, gender, income, and education level. Second, it collected data across personality, psychological, and preference categories. This included: 1. The "Big Five" inventory personality traits: openness to new experience, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism; 2. Risk and time preferences; and 3. Environmental preferences. Third, the survey collected data on historical behavior patterns including: 1. Adoption of (as well as interest in) new technologies or innovations (e.g., smartphones, PEVs, solar panels, adaptive cruise control [ACC]); 2. Car ownership history and current car ownership status; 3. Recent mode use across different time scales (e.g., previous week, previous month, previous year); and 4. Timing of major life events such as starting a family as well as overall lifecycle trajectory patterns. Data from Phase 1 and Phase 2 are linked by a unique respondent identifier. Anonymized versions of the Phase 1 and Phase 2 data are both available on Livewire.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2023

Data-Driven Buy Clean: Decarbonization and Beyond

This report was compiled to provide recommendations on the availability of public background data from the U.S. Federal life cycle assessment (LCA) Data Commons to be conformant with the Association for Life Cycle Assessment (ACLCA) 2022 Product Category Rule (PCR) Open Standard to build technical tools that can assist industry in creating more comparable Type II Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for Federal Buy Clean and sustainability initiatives. The Federal LCA Commons is not only a public data source but also a consistently structured, self-referencing mega-repository for data developed by federal agency experts (in agency repositories) and by academia, nonprofit organizations, and industry (via the US Life Cycle Inventory Database). The Federal LCA Commons Technical Working Group is continuously improving the standardization of data documentation, formatting, and nomenclature to ensure lossless data loading and accurate data representation. This report and appendixes include the following: 1) An introduction to data-driven Buy Clean and decarbonization initiatives at the federal level; 2) The current status and associated challenges with LCA data and EPD standards and comparability; 3) Opportunities for the Federal LCA Commons to support conformance with the ACLCA 2022 PCR Open Standard and provide resources to implement the Federal Sustainability Plan, Buy Clean Program, and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) sustainability goals and objectives. To date, the Federal LCA Commons is the result of coordinated work by National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), the Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the Department of Defense (DoD) and the National Institute of Standards and Technologies (NIST). The Federal LCA Commons will continue to combine databases from the collaborating agencies while remaining a public resource. There are several initiatives among the collaborating agencies to expand the Federal LCA Commons and dedicated federal funding and resources could accelerate and strengthen these initiatives.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Evaluation of interactive and prescribed agricultural ammonia emissions for simulating atmospheric composition in CAM-chem

Abstract. Ammonia (NH3) plays a central role in the chemistry of inorganic secondary aerosols in the atmosphere. The largest emission sector for NH3 is agriculture, where NH3 is volatilized from livestock wastes and fertilized soils. Although the NH3 volatilization from soils is driven by the soil temperature and moisture, many atmospheric chemistry models prescribe the emission using yearly emission inventories and climatological seasonal variations. Here we evaluate an alternative approach where the NH3 emissions from agriculture are simulated interactively using the process model FANv2 (Flow of Agricultural Nitrogen, version 2) coupled to the Community Atmospheric Model with Chemistry (CAM-chem). We run a set of 6-year global simulations using the NH3 emission from FANv2 and three global emission inventories (EDGAR, CEDS and HTAP) and evaluate the model performance using a global set of multi-component (atmospheric NH3 and NH4+, and NH4+ wet deposition) in situ observations. Over East Asia, Europe and North America, the simulations with different emissions perform similarly when compared with the observed geographical patterns. The seasonal distributions of NH3 emissions differ between the inventories, and the comparison to observations suggests that both FANv2 and the inventories would benefit from more realistic timing of fertilizer applications. The largest differences between the simulations occur over data-scarce regions. In Africa, the emissions simulated by FANv2 are 200 %–300 % higher than in the inventories, and the available in situ observations from western and central Africa, as well as NH3 retrievals from the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) instrument, are consistent with the higher NH3 emissions as simulated by FANv2. Overall, in simulating ammonia and ammonium concentrations over regions with detailed regional emission inventories, the inventories based on these details (HTAP, CEDS) capture the atmospheric concentrations and their seasonal variability the best. However these inventories cannot capture the impact of meteorological variability on the emissions, nor can these inventories couple the emissions to the biogeochemical cycles and their changes with climate drivers. Finally, we show with sensitivity experiments that the simulated time-averaged nitrate concentration in air is sensitive to the temporal resolution of the NH3 emissions. Over the CASTNET monitoring network covering the US, resolving the NH3 emissions hourly instead monthly reduced the positive model bias from approximately 80 % to 60 % of the observed yearly mean nitrate concentration. This suggests that some of the commonly reported overestimation of aerosol nitrate over the US may be related to unresolved temporal variability in the NH3 emissions.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Targeted curation of the gut microbial gene content modulating human cardiovascular disease

Despite the promise of the gut microbiome to predict human health, few studies expose the molecular-scale processes underpinning such forecasts. We mined over 200,000 gut-derived genomes from cultivated and uncultivated microbial lineages to inventory the gut microorganisms and their gene content that control trimethylamine-induced cardiovascular disease. We assigned an atherosclerotic profile to the 6,341 microbial genomes that encoded metabolisms associated with heart disease, creating the Methylated Amine Gene Inventory of Catabolism database (MAGICdb). From microbiome gene expression data sets, we demonstrate that MAGICdb enhanced the recovery of disease-relevant genes and identified the most active microorganisms, unveiling future therapeutic targets. From the feces of healthy and diseased subjects, we show that MAGICdb predicted cardiovascular disease status as effectively as traditional lipid blood tests. This functional microbiome catalog is a public, exploitable resource, designed to enable a new era of microbiota-based therapeutics and diagnostics

metatranscriptomics↗
DOE OSTI2022

Quantifying Impacts of Renewable Electricity Deployment on Air Quality and Human Health in Southeast Asia Based on AIMS III Scenarios

This study augments the ASEAN Interconnection Masterplan Study III (AIMS III) by quantifying changes to air quality and human health that result from its renewable integration and transmission interconnection scenarios. Performing this analysis requires translation of the changes in projected generation from different power sector fuel sources in the AIMS III scenarios to changes in air pollutant emissions, developing what is known as an emissions inventory for each scenario and year evaluated. An emissions inventory represents who emits air pollutants, from where the pollutants are emitted, when, and how much of which air pollutants are emitted. With the assistance of the ASEAN Centre for Energy and leveraging the best available in-region public data sources, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) team compiled a detailed inventory of power plants in the ASEAN region, mapping their PM 2.5 , sulfur oxides (SOx), and nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions. A new, first-of-its-kind, and user-friendly global air quality model, Global InMAP (Thakrar et al. 2022), is then used to transform the inventory of changes in emissions to changes in concentration of fine particulate matter. Global InMAP then maps the location of human populations in ASEAN countries to calculate humans' exposure to PM 2.5 and estimate excess PM 2.5 -caused mortality attributable to thermal generation sources, as modeled in the AIMS III scenarios.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Generating Emissions Inventory for Carbon Capture and Storage Analysis for Carbon-Intensive Industrial Sectors

Decarbonizing the industrial sector is critical to achieve carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions reductions goals of the Biden Administration. Currently available decarbonization options include electrification, fuel switching to zero carbon fuels like green hydrogen (H2) and carbon capture and storage (CCS). Application of post-combustion carbon capture (PCCC) technology in the power sector, as well as research at the U.S. Department of Energy's Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM) Office has shown that its application in the industrial sector could have co-benefits in the form of emissions reductions of non-CO2 regulated pollutants. For example, solvent based PCCC systems require pre-conditioning of flue gas to remove sulfur and particulate matter (PM) upstream of the CO2 absorber. However, there is a lack of understanding about the type of non-CO2 pollutants which can be captured and the amount of reduction possible. PCCC application differs across industrial sectors as it depends on the availability of decarbonization options, characteristics of industrial processes and the amount and composition of pollutant flows. Certain facilities can also have multiple effluent flows with or without a CO2 stream. As such, understanding industrial processes and their effluent flows in detail is required to quantify the co-benefits opportunities presented by PCCC. Considering this requirement, the goal of this analysis is to develop a high-resolution inventory of effluent flows from facilities of 8 industrial sectors in the U.S. These industrial sectors - ethanol, ammonia, cement, steel, natural gas processing, hydrogen, petroleum refining and wood and pulp products - have carbon-intensive effluent flows, and thus are prime candidates for PCCC applications. In this study, we map the composition of pollutant flow from flue stacks across the identified facilities. Using data available in three Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) databases - the Green House Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP), the National Emissions Inventory (NEI) and the Toxic Release Inventory (TRI), we create a combined inventory which lists the type, amount, and concentration of pollutant flows. Using total weight of the pollutant flow back calculated from observed data for CO2 concentrations in flue gas for individual sectors, we calculate the concentration of each pollutant in the flue gas stream. Thus, the resultant emissions inventory includes the following details for each facility in the sector: facility-level and if possible, process-level pollutant flows, concentrations of pollutants in the flue gas, and geographical coordinates of the facilities. A detailed statistical analysis and summary allows us to search for erroneous data and remove them from the final inventory. The generation of the inventory is achieved using a python-based framework which can recreate this inventory for other industrial sectors as well as using newer releases of emission inventories from EPA. The statistical analysis performed on the inventory is also calibrated and automated to identify outliers efficiently.

air pollutants↗
DOE OSTI2022

Life Cycle Assessment for Closed-Loop Pumped Hydropower Energy Storage in the United States

The federal government has initiated an aggressive set of policies to achieve a net-zero carbon emission goal for the electricity sector by 2050. As a result, rapid growth in deployment of renewable energy technologies is expected. Most commercially mature technologies are temporally variable and do not provide grid inertia, while renewable technologies with high projected deployment have intermittent generation methods. Energy storage technologies are needed to both dispatch power on-demand and help provide the needed grid inertia. Pumped storage hydro (PSH) is a well-established technology that has gained renewed interest in recent years offering energy-balancing, grid stability, control of electrical network frequency, and large-scale storage capacity. For widespread adoption of PSH, more information is needed regarding its current life cycle environmental impacts. The objective of this study is to perform a full life cycle assessment (LCA) of new closed-loop PSH in the U.S. The functional unit for this study is 1 kWh of electrical power delivered to the grid and the base case project lifetime is 80 years. The life cycle inventory for this project accounts for all material and energy flows associated with the green-field construction, operation, maintenance, and decommissioning of a closed-loop PSH plant in the U.S. Collected data represents a range of potential PSH specifications and geographic locations coming from all prospective closed-loop PSH installations in the U.S. with data available. In addition, existing PSH installations are used to provide assumptions for inventory inputs. Results presented will include the global warming potential (GWP IPCC 100a) and Energy Return on Investment (EROI) from our base case (average PSH installation) as well as from scenario analyses and model sensitivity. These results will be compared to the impacts from existing PSH sites and alternate storage technologies. Methods align with the assumptions and guidelines put in place by previous PSH LCAs to ensure an accurate comparison with the results from this report.

ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY,HYDRO ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

High-Burnup Spent Fuel Data Project: Sister Rod Final Phase II Test Plan

The Sibling Pin test campaign is a Department of Energy (DOE) research activity within the Spent Fuel and Waste Science and Technology (SFWST) program that is tasked with characterization of high burnup (HBU) fuel in support of the High Burnup Spent Fuel Data Project. Of the 25 fuel rods in the Sibling Pin inventory, approximately 9 rod lengths have been consumed during the first phase (Phase I) of the test campaign leaving approximately 16 rod lengths for the second phase (Phase II) of testing. This plan outlines the Phase II testing and the motivations for performing these tests. Priorities for Phase II testing are based on previously identified knowledge gaps, lessons-learned from Phase I work, the original objectives of the High Burnup Spent Fuel Data Project and the Sibling Pin test campaign, and input from external stakeholders. The priorities for Phase II testing are to obtain data to characterize the effects of annealing on cladding mechanical properties and fuel rod performance, to quantify the creep behavior of cladding materials and fuel rods and the effects of creep deformations on the performance of cladding and fuel rods, and to gather data to support the final closure of the hydride reorientation and radial hydride induced embrittlement gap for HBU fuel rods.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Natural Resources Assessment for the SNS Second Target Station, Oak Ridge, Tennessee

The US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is a leading institution in advanced materials, supercomputing, neutrons, and nuclear science. As a research laboratory managed by UT-Battelle, LLC for DOE, ORNL has national priorities in energy, security, and scientific discovery that necessitate facility improvements and expansions. DOE is also committed to environmental stewardship. The laboratory is located on the ~32,000-acre Oak Ridge Reservation (ORR), much of which is categorized as a National Environmental Research Park and a state Wildlife Management Area. DOE works with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA), Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC), US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), US Department of Agriculture, and other agencies to serve as an effective steward of the ORR. Accordingly, project managers must conform to environmental regulations, agreements, and policies at the federal, state, and institutional levels. Per 40 CFR (Code of Federal Regulations) 1508.14, potential effects on research and science education on the National Environmental Research Park represent potential impacts of federal actions. Moreover, federal actions that affect the quantity and quality of hunting opportunities and deer reduction harvest on the Oak Ridge Wildlife Management Area must be considered whenever other aspects of the human environment (as defined by NEPA) are affected. The Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) is a premiere facility at ORNL that provides advanced capabilities in neutron scattering to promote new discoveries and research opportunities in material sciences, physics, chemistry, biological sciences, and others. A conceptual design for a Second Target Station (STS) has been in consideration for several years. The STS is intended to complement and enhance existing ORNL capabilities, notably research and exploration of complex materials. The proposed STS will involve development of existing natural areas on the ORR, which might contain sensitive resources that require mitigation or avoidance in accordance with existing policies and regulation. This report summarizes current knowledge of natural and cultural resources within the STS project area. At the time of this report, the proposed STS project consisted of an operations area comprising 55.4 acres (22.4 ha) and a total review area for potential construction comprising ~224 acres (90.6 ha). The review area is located primarily within forested natural areas of the ORR with minor development in the form of power-line rights-of-way and secondary/graveled roads (Figure 1). The primary goal was to evaluate potential effects on sensitive resources that might result from development of the STS. In addition to onthe-ground surveys during summer 2009 and fall 2019 to summer 2020 by ORNL Natural Resources Management Program and Aquatic Ecology Group staff, this report makes use of historical (pre-1995) and contemporary (1995 to present) data from additional confirmed sources (e.g., TDEC). Likewise, forest conditions were compiled primarily from a 2013 forest inventory effort for Forest Management Compartment 17 and supplemented with limited ground observations in 2019. The individuals who obtained and compiled the data that are presented here are familiar with and routinely assess sensitive resources on the ORR.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Tonian Carbonates Record Phosphate-Rich Shallow Seas

The early-middle Neoproterozoic is thought to have witnessed significant perturbations to marine P cycling, in turn facilitating the rise of eukaryote-dominated primary production. However, with few robust constraints on aqueous P concentrations, current understanding of Neoproterozoic P cycling is generally model-dependent. To provide new geochemical constraints, we combined microanalytical data sets with solid-state Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, synchrotron-based X-ray Absorption Near Edge Structure spectroscopy, and micro-X-ray Fluorescence imaging to characterize the speciation and distribution of P in Tonian shallow-water carbonate rocks. These data reflect shallow water phosphate concentrations 10–100× higher than modern systems, supporting the hypothesis that tectonically-driven influxes in P periodically initiated kinetically-controlled CaCO 3 deposition, in turn destabilizing marine carbonate chemistry, climate, and nutrient inventories. Alongside these observations, a new compilation and statistical analysis of mudstone geochemistry data indicates that, in parallel, C org and P burial increased across later Tonian continental margins until becoming decoupled at the close of the Tonian, implicating widespread N-limitation triggered by increasing atmospheric O 2 .

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Evaluation of Ocean Biogeochemistry and Carbon Cycling in CMIP Earth System Models With the International Ocean Model Benchmarking (IOMB) Software System

Abstract The International Ocean Model Benchmarking (IOMB) software package is a new community resource that we use here to evaluate surface and upper ocean biogeochemical variables and integrated anthropogenic carbon uptake from earth system models (ESMs) contributing to the 5th and 6th phases of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5 and CMIP6). IOMB generates graphics and tables for systematically comparing model predictions against multiple datasets. Our analysis reveals some improvement in the multi‐model mean from CMIP5 to CMIP6 for most of the variables we examined. Compared to data‐constrained estimates of ocean anthropogenic carbon uptake for the 1994–2007 period, negative biases exist for many models between 30 and 50°S. Global model estimates of anthropogenic carbon uptake for the same period do not change significantly from CMIP5 to CMIP6, with the combined ensemble mean estimate of 27.8 ± 0.5 Pg C lower than a data‐constrained estimate of 33.0 ± 4.0 Pg C. At the same time, the change in the natural carbon inventory from CMIP is estimated to be a source of 0.7 ± 0.3 Pg C, which is considerably smaller in magnitude than a data‐constrained estimate of 5.0 ± 3.0 Pg C. With chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) predictions available for several models, we demonstrate that negative anthropogenic dissolved inorganic carbon biases coincide with negative biases in CFC concentration, highlighting the importance of weak exchange between the surface and interior ocean in regulating rates of anthropogenic carbon uptake. To examine the robustness of this attribution across the CMIP models, we calculate the global vertical temperature gradient between 200 and 1,000 m as a metric for global stratification and exchange between the surface and deeper waters. We find a linear relationship between the bias of the vertical temperature gradients and the bias in global anthropogenic carbon uptake, consistent with the hypothesis that model biases in anthropogenic carbon uptake are related to biases in surface‐to‐interior exchange by physical processes.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗