Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “STOCKPILE STEWARDSHIP”

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 217 records · Page 12

Health Assessment and Performance Monitoring of Large Machine Diagnostics

Diagnostic machines are a crucial component of the Stockpile Stewardship Program for data collection, toward the ultimate goal of improving our understanding of nuclear physics. These systems consist of interactions between many complex components, and require regular maintenance for acceptable performance. The Cygnus X-ray diagnostic located at the Nevada National Security Site's U1a underground facility which provides radiographic data for subcritical experiments, is a prime example of these systems. Component degradation and failures within Cygnus can result in system downtime and data loss, affecting schedules and increasing experiment costs. To evade such failures, years worth of data on machine performance has been collected on the two Cygnus axes in the form of voltage and current measurements of Cygnus' various components. Using these as input, we have developed machine learning techniques for assessing the health of Cygnus, with the ultimate goal of predicting declining performance and machine failure.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

The DOE Criticality safety support group - A retrospective perspective - 14580

The Department of Energy (DOE) Nuclear Criticality Safety Support Group (CSSG) came into being as a response to the DNFSB recommendation 1997-2 'Criticality Safety' which dealt with the continuation of criticality safety at defense nuclear facilities in the Department of Energy Enterprise. The DNFSB was concerned over the lack of capability management of practical experience pertinent to avoiding a criticality accident in non-reactor environments. One of the specific recommendations of 1997-2 was to 'Identify a core group of criticality experts experienced in the theoretical and experimental aspects of neutron chain reactions to advise on the above steps and assist in resolving future technical issues'. The CSSG, a group of 10 recognized experts in criticality safety, was chartered in late 1997 to address the recommendation. Members of the CSSG are drawn from DOE employees and contractor staff to provide advice and technical support to help meet the criticality safety needs of DOE missions, including stockpile stewardship, materials stabilization, transportation, storage, facilities life cycle (design through decommissioning), and waste disposal. The CSSG is an integral part of the DOE Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP) developed to maintain and enhance the operational and technical criticality safety expertise and capability within the Department of Energy Enterprise. This paper outlines the history, purpose and continuing contribution of the CSSG as well as providing an understanding of the interfaces between the DOE CSSG, the DOE Criticality Safety Coordinating Team (CSCT), the ANS Nuclear Criticality Safety Division and the EFCOG Criticality Safety Subgroup. (authors)

42 ENGINEERING↗

Fusion Ignition and the Path to Inertial Fusion Energy

The achievement of fusion ignition at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's (LLNL) National Ignition Facility (NIF) in December 2022 was the culmination of more than 60 years of research and development in laser-driven inertial confinement fusion at LLNL. That historic scientific, engineering, and technological accomplishment, a prime example of the value of ingenuity and commitment in the face of a grand scientific challenge, marked a significant advance in LLNL's support of the National Nuclear Security Administration's science-based Stockpile Stewardship Program to maintain the reliability and security of the nation's nuclear deterrent without underground testing. It also furthered Livermore's research in high energy density science and established the fundamental scientific basis for inertial fusion energy (IFE), emboldening further public and private research into the development of IFE as a potential source of abundance clean, safe, and reliable energy. Finally, the U.S. government has funded a multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional program that LLNL is now leading to make inertial fusion energy a reality.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

STEM Professional Development Program for Nuclear Security Science and Technology Consortium

This oral presentation captures the technical and developmental aspect of the program in support of UNLV. The goal of this project is to develop a steady pipeline of STEM educated professionals in area of national and international nuclear security. The goal is to train university students at NNSS laboratories in studies motivated by global nuclear security topics ranging from nuclear emergency response and management to physics experiments for stockpile stewardship program.

96 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND PRESERVATION↗

Materials Data Science Ontology(MDS-Onto): Unifying Domain Knowledge in Materials and Applied Data Science

Ontologies have gained popularity in the scientific community as a way to standardize terminologies in organizations’ data. Although certain cohorts have created frameworks with rules and guidelines on creating ontologies, there exist significant variations in how Materials Science ontologies are currently developed. We seek to provide guidance in the form of a unified automated framework for developing interoperable and modular ontologies for Materials Data Science that simplifies the ontology terms matching by establishing a semantic bridge up to the Basic Formal Ontology(BFO). This framework provides key recommendations on how ontologies should be positioned within the semantic web, what knowledge representation language is recommended, and where ontologies should be published online to boost their findability and interoperability. Two fundamental components of the MDS-Onto framework are the bilingual package called FAIRmaterials for ontology creation and FAIRLinked, for FAIR data creation. To showcase the practical capabilities of FAIRmaterials, we present two exemplar domain ontologies of MDS-Onto: Synchrotron X-Ray Diffraction and Photovoltaics.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

FAIRmaterials: Ontology Tools with Data FAIRification in Development

The bilingual FAIRmaterials package simplifies the creation and visualization of materials and data science ontologies. FAIRmaterials, available in the Python and R languages, addresses the complexities associated with traditional ontology editors based on manual user input such as Protege with an intuitive workflow and easy-to-use templates, making it accessible to users both experienced and inexperienced with ontologies. The FAIRmaterials package is its ability to programatically convert simple and structured CSV inputs into rich, well-defined ontologies. This capability is designed to support the findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability (FAIR) of research data and serve as a tool in the process of data FAIRification. Its additional features, such as automated ontology merging, static visualizations, and comprehensive documentation for outputs extend its utility, making it a valuable tool for any researcher engaged in knowledge management.

Bradley, Alexander Harding [Case Western Reserve U↗

FAIRLinked: Data FAIRification Tools for Materials Data Science

FAIRLinked is a software package created to support the FAIRification of materials science data, ensuring proper alignment with FAIR principles: Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable. It is built to be compatible with MDS-Onto, an ontology designed to capture the semantics of various types of materials data, enabling integration and sharing across different research workflows. The package is subdivided into three subpackages: InterfaceMDS, RDFTableConversion, and QBWorkflow. The first subpackage, InterfaceMDS allows users to search for terms using either string search or various filters, explore different domains and subdomains, and add terms to MDS-Onto. RDFTableConversion is used for serialization and deserialization of data from CSV into JSONLDs and vice versa in a way that captures the semantics of the data using MDS-Onto. Lastly, QBWorkflow is a serialization and deserialization workflow that incorporates RDF Data Cube vocabulary, useful for working with multidimensional datasets. By offering these packages, FAIRLinked lowers the barrier of creating FAIR, machine-actionable data for researchers in the materials science community.

FAIR↗

Effect of temperature and radiation damage on the local atomic structure of metallic plutonium and related compounds

This focused review provides an overview and a framework for understanding local structure in metallic plutonium (especially the metastable fcc $δ$-phase alloyed with Ga) as it relates to self-irradiation damage. Of particular concern is the challenge of understanding self-irradiation damage in plutonium-bearing materials where theoretical challenges of the unique involvement of the 5f electrons in bonding limit the efficacy of molecular dynamics simulations and experimental challenges of working with radioactive material have limited the ability to confirm the results of such simulations and to further push the field forward. The main concentration is on extended X-ray absorption fine-structure measurements of $δ$-phase Pu, but the scope is broadened to include certain studies on plutonium intermetallics and oxides insofar as they inform the physics of damage and healing processes in elemental Pu. Here, the studies reviewed here provide insight into lattice distortions and their production, damage annealing and defect migration, and the importance of understanding and controlling sample morphology when interpreting such experiments.

38 RADIATION CHEMISTRY, RADIOCHEMISTRY, AND NUCLEA↗

Nevada National Security Site Environmental Report Summary 2016

This document is a summary of the full 2016 Nevada National Security Site Environmental Report (NNSSER) prepared by the U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration Nevada Field Office (NNSA/ NFO). This summary provides an abbreviated and more readable version of the full NNSSER. NNSA/NFO prepares the NNSSER to provide the public an understanding of the environmental monitoring and compliance activities that are conducted on the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) to protect the public and the environment from radiation hazards and from potential nonradiological impacts. It is a comprehensive report of environmental activities performed at the NNSS and offsite facilities over the previous calendar year. The NNSS is currently the nation’s unique site for ongoing national security–related missions and high-risk operations. The NNSS is located about 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The approximately 1,360-square-mile site is one of the largest restricted access areas in the United States. It is surrounded by federal installations with strictly controlled access as well as by lands that are open to public entry. In 2016, National Security Technologies, LLC (NSTec), was the NNSS Management and Operations Contractor accountable for ensuring work was performed in compliance with environmental regulations. NNSS activities in 2016 continued to be diverse, with the primary goal to ensure that the existing U.S. stockpile of nuclear weapons remains safe and reliable. Other activities included weapons of mass destruction first responder training; the controlled release of hazardous material at the Nonproliferation Test and Evaluation Complex (NPTEC); remediation of legacy contamination sites; characterization of waste destined for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in Carlsbad, New Mexico, or the Idaho National Laboratory in Idaho Falls, Idaho; disposal of low-level and mixed low-level radioactive waste; and environmental research. Facilities and centers that support the National Security/Defense mission include the U1a Facility, Big Explosives Experimental Facility (BEEF), Device Assembly Facility (DAF), National Criticality Experiments Research Center (NCERC) located in the DAF, Joint Actinide Shock Physics Experimental Research (JASPER) Facility, Dense Plasma Focus (DPF) Facility located in the Los Alamos Technical Facility (LATF), and the Radiological/ Nuclear Countermeasures Test and Evaluation Complex (RNCTEC). Facilities that support the Environmental Management mission include the Area 5 Radioactive Waste Management Complex (RWMC) and the Area 3 Radioactive Waste Management Site (RWMS), which has been in cold standby since 2006.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

LANL Workforce Reporting Tool

The LANL Workforce Reporting Tool compiles and analyzes workforce demographics and attributes as presented in the annual Stockpile and Stewardship Management Plan (SSMP) over FY15-21 using MicroStrategy, a data analytics and visualization software. There are three major employee populations included in the tool: 1) LANL’s regular (permanent) employees; 2) LANL’s entire workforce (regular, craft, contractors, students, post doctorate students, limited term employees, and lab associates); 3) The Nuclear Security Enterprise’s (NSE) permanent career employees (combined and site-by-site).

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Cavemen Animations for Nuclear Weapons Exhibit: Templates for VISIBLE Team

We use a couple of cavemen to explain the concept of deterrence, which has been with humans from the beginning. The interaction between the two cavemen will demonstrate how deterrence can discourage violence by instilling doubt and fear of the consequences escalating such violence further.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

Uncrackable code for nuclear weapons

Mark Hart, a scientist and engineer in Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's (LLNL) Defense Technologies Division, has developed a new approach for ensuring nuclear weapons and their components can't fall prey to unauthorized use. The beauty of his approach: Let the weapon protect itself. "Using the random process of nuclear radioactive decay is the gold standard of random number generators," said Mark Hart. "You’d have a better chance of winning both Mega Millions and Powerball on the same day than getting control of IUC-protected components."

45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEF↗

"Forward" Projects Boost U.S. Leadership in Advanced Computing and Artificial Intelligence

High-performance computing (HPC) has been an indispensable research tool for accessing physical realms difficult, or impossible, achieve with experiment alone. For several decades, the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Science has deployed sophisticated HPC systems for solving the nation’s most pressing grand challenge problems in energy, climate change, and human health. In addition, DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has adeptly applied HPC in support of key national security objectives, such as nuclear science and stockpile modernization and stewardship. Over time, HPC systems have become increasingly more complex and capable, and as each new machine has come online, scientists and engineers have taken advantage of vast increases in compute power to accelerate scientific discoveries and engineering innovation.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Multi-shock design tools in double shell models

The essence of the project was to implement a program in python that demonstrated certain models put forth by fusion physicists. Across the time spent at Los Alamos National Laboratory, much was spent programming. Though fundamentally programmatical in nature, the task contained considerable difficulty hid within mathematically deriving and manipulating the models while maintaining data discretization. The result of solving these complications gave invaluable experience in applied mathematics. The final product, a piece of lengthy code, ended up having the full range of desired capabilities, with plans for more. Given the laser power history from a pulse shot on NIF, Omega, or any other Inertial Confinement Fusion facility, the code maps the terrain of radiation temperature inside the hohlraum throughout the period of the shot. Additionally, shock wave convergence prediction was implemented as additional capability. As the name of the project suggests, this tool acts as a compass of direction for researchers designing laser power profiles. Further development of this tool will undoubtedly assist in the research conducted on single and double-shell indirect ICF, consequently expanding the capabilities of operating stewardship over the national nuclear stockpile.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗