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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 217 records · Page 12
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2002

Digital Avionics

The field of digital avionics experienced another year of important advances in civil aviation, military systems, and space applications. As a result of the events of 9/11/2001, NASA has pursued activities to apply its aerospace technologies toward improved aviation security. Both NASA Glenn Research Center and Langley Research Center have performed flight research demonstrations using advanced datalink concepts to transmit live pictures from inside a jetliner, and to downlink the contents of the plane's 'black box' recorder in real time. The U.S. Navy and General Electric demonstrated survivable engine control (SEC) algorithms during engine ground tests at the Weapons Survivability Laboratory at China Lake. The scientists at Boeing Satellite Systems advanced the field of stellar inertial technology with the development of a new method for positioning optical star trackers on satellites.

Koelbl, Terry G.↗
DOE OSTI2021

Remote Target Engagement System (RTES) Generation 4 ("Gen 4")

RTES is designed to provide teleoperation of remote weapon platform capability at defensive physical protection locations requiring active lethal capabilities for final access denial. Multiple operator consoles allow for coordinated engagement of many weapon platforms by one or more operator consoles. This results in faster response times, increased effectiveness, and increased survivability from removing response force from harm's way increasing survivability. This software is developed against DoD requirements and has been safety and functionally reviewed and approved for operational use. Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA0003525. SAND2021-1935 O

Klingler, KristopherR.↗
DOE OSTI2020

ARIES team achieves major milestone in support of nonproliferation

The Advanced Recovery and Integrated Extraction System (ARIES) Program is a great example of LANL’s Weapons and Global Security programs working together to achieve important nuclear security mission goals. Executed at PF-4, a facility better known for its pit production mission, the ARIES Program is helping the nation meet its nonproliferation commitments by preparing surplus weapons-grade plutonium for final disposition. ARIES recently met a major milestone of producing 1 metric ton of plutonium oxide from material removed from surplus pits. The milestone was celebrated in an awards ceremony at LANL on January 28.

98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL P↗
DOE OSTI2024

Weapon Material Program: FY24 Annual Report

The Weapon Material Program (WMP) framework was started in July of Fiscal Year (FY) 2022, along with other Mission Support organizations. The first year was about building the organization with the right people, identifying needs, and developing a vision for expectations. It was also a year to move forward with new equipment and technology for weapon material processes. With numerous improvements, WMP is building world-class systems for production, warehousing, and analytical testing. FY 2023 was a year of development. The WMP was a new organization defining its identity, its focus, and its mission. At the end of FY 2023, WMP evaluated its current position and its immediate needs along with its future goals. The entire organization set out on this FY 2024 journey to success. The lack of funding, staffing, and visibility dramatically impacted weapon material operations, testing, and qualifications. This neglect required numerous areas to be addressed and improvement plans to be developed and implemented. WMP processes, procedures, and overall business operations were dramatically in need of updating, revision, and formal documentation. This included all areas: technology, equipment, facility modifications/upgrades, and testing improvements. To ensure organizational improvement and forward momentum in FY 2024, WMP executed a multi-faceted strategic vision. Action items included the following: • Filling open positions with capable personnel who would contribute to a more robust organization • Establishing more formal operations and problem-solving techniques • Improving departmental procedures to align with expanding scope • Improving training • Establishing collaboration meetings with other departments/organizations • Focusing on the importance of identifying and mitigating concerns with At-Risk Materials (@RM) • Leading modernization eff orts for Blending and Packaging (B&P) We are on the verge of a transformational improvement in all of our processes in support of the mission. The following area achievements outlined in this report reflect the hard work toward achieving the goal of “being the material Subject Matter Experts in the nuclear enterprise”.

45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEF↗
DOE OSTI2020

Genetic algorithm optimization of tin–copper graded shielding for improved plutonium safeguards measurements

Plutonium nuclear material safeguards is essential to ensure that states do not divert plutonium to clandestine nuclear weapons programs. Traditional safeguards methods rely on correlated neutron measurements. Detection systems based on organic scintillators, which are sensitive to fast neutrons and photons, are gaining support for use in safeguards applications due to increased capabilities and shorter measurement times compared to the current state-of-the-art. A drawback of organic scintillators in plutonium measurements is data throughput limitations; 241 Am builds up in plutonium samples and emits 60-keV gamma rays with a high specific activity. In this work, a genetic algorithm is used to design graded shielding made of tin and copper to attenuate the 60-keV gamma rays. The shield is designed to limit the attenuation of the higher-energy, fission photons, because fission photons can be used as a signature. The genetic algorithm optimization takes days to run, while a complete search space exploration would take years. The genetic algorithm was run for different levels of 60-keV gamma-ray attenuation, and the thickness of the required shielding layers was determined at each level. Tin–copper shielding was placed in front of an array of organic scintillation detectors for a measurement of approximately 4.5 kg of alpha-phase, weapons-grade plutonium, an AmLi source, and a 252 Cf source. We show that the shield successfully attenuated low-energy, non-fission gamma rays, which significantly improved the organic scintillator performance.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
NASA NTRS1984

Attack helicopter (AH-1T) cockpit systems integration

This discussion summarizes the effort conducted by the BHTI Human Factors and Cockpit Arrangement group for a study and design of the integration of a cockpit control system for the AH 1T (TOW). The resulting design is a culmination of studies that were conducted using the existing configuration as a baseline and complementing it with new equipment and subsystems that fulfill the attack helicopter requirements for the foreseeable future. Of primary concern was the requirement to add a missile control system, with secondary considerations for improved NOE and night operations. In addition, growth capabilities for improved target acquisition, weapons delivery, and precise navigation was considered. Along with the addition of new equipment, the aircraft was assumed to have a central multiplex data bus system for information transfer throughout the aircraft and its subsystems.

Graf, V. A.↗
NASA NTRS1980

A mathematical representation of an advanced helicopter for piloted simulator investigations of control system and display variations

A mathematical model of an advanced helicopter is described. The model is suitable for use in control/display research involving piloted simulation. The general design approach for the six degree of freedom equations of motion is to use the full set of nonlinear gravitational and inertial terms of the equations and to express the aerodynamic forces and moments as the reference values and first order terms of a Taylor series expansion about a reference trajectory defined as a function of longitudinal airspeed. Provisions for several different specific and generic flight control systems are included in the model. The logic required to drive various flight control and weapon delivery symbols on a pilot's electronic display is also provided. Finally, the model includes a simplified representation of low altitude wind and turbulence effects. This model was used in a piloted simulator investigation of the effects of control system and display variations for an attack helicopter mission.

Aiken, E. W.↗
DOE OSTI2024

Effects on Structure’s Electromagnetic Shielding Effectiveness Considering Penetrating Cables Coupling Energy from HEMP Event

The threat of weaponized electromagnetic pulse (EMP) is a serious factor in defining power system resilience. Without adequate knowledge regarding the interaction between EMP and power system infrastructure, system personnel may be unable to plan for and operate during an EMP event and major blackouts could occur. This work studies the interaction between EMP and structures, specifically analyzing the shielding effectiveness of buildings emulating power generation facilities. The main focus is to determine how penetrating cables affect the structure’s shielding effectiveness. Several cable parameters including height above ground, radius, termination configuration, and length are analyzed via computational electromagnetic simulations. Results demonstrated penetrating cables can significantly diminish a structure’s shielding effectiveness, especially the electric field. Length of cable is the most influential parameter.

Mignardot, David↗
NASA NTRS1969

Radiation tolerant silicon nitride insulated gate field effect transistors

Metal-Insulated-Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor /MISFET/ device uses a silicon nitride passivation layer over a thin silicon oxide layer to enhance the radiation tolerance. It is useful in electronic systems exposed to space radiation environment or the effects of nuclear weapons.

Newman, P. A.↗
NASA NTRS1991

A-2000: Close air support aircraft design team

The US Air Force is currently faced with the problem of providing adequate close air support for ground forces. Air response to troops engaged in combat must be rapid and devastating due to the highly fluid battle lines of the future. The A-2000 is the result of a study to design an aircraft to deliver massive fire power accurately. The low cost A-2000 incorporates: large weapons payload; excellent maneuverability; all weather and terrain following capacity; redundant systems; and high survivability.

Carrannanto, Paul↗
NASA NTRS1992

Integration of tools for the Design and Assessment of High-Performance, Highly Reliable Computing Systems (DAHPHRS), phase 1

Systems for Space Defense Initiative (SDI) space applications typically require both high performance and very high reliability. These requirements present the systems engineer evaluating such systems with the extremely difficult problem of conducting performance and reliability trade-offs over large design spaces. A controlled development process supported by appropriate automated tools must be used to assure that the system will meet design objectives. This report describes an investigation of methods, tools, and techniques necessary to support performance and reliability modeling for SDI systems development. Models of the JPL Hypercubes, the Encore Multimax, and the C.S. Draper Lab Fault-Tolerant Parallel Processor (FTPP) parallel-computing architectures using candidate SDI weapons-to-target assignment algorithms as workloads were built and analyzed as a means of identifying the necessary system models, how the models interact, and what experiments and analyses should be performed. As a result of this effort, weaknesses in the existing methods and tools were revealed and capabilities that will be required for both individual tools and an integrated toolset were identified.

Scheper, C.↗
DOE OSTI2021

Laser ablation spectrometry for studies of uranium plasmas, reactor monitoring, and spent fuel safety

Nuclear security is one of the defining challenges of our time. Nuclear threats range from deliberate dispersal of radioactive material to contaminate the vital infrastructure to diversion and smuggling of special nuclear material for clandestine nuclear programs and nuclear terrorism, respectively. There is an associated need to develop and sustain the nuclear forensics capabilities, which requires the understanding of complex processes that occur in plasmas of nuclear materials. The area of nuclear safety has seen a resurgence of public interest, and there is a concomitant need to safely store used nuclear fuel and detect structural material failure in nuclear power systems, especially in innovative reactor designs envisioned for future adoption. Laser-produced plasmas are complicated extreme environments that can generate intense and rich, highly specific signatures of nuclear and radiological materials, which can then be explored in a wide range of applications. They include interdiction and rapid detection of nuclear materials, including their isotopic composition, detection over long distances, laboratory simulation of weapons effects, monitoring the condition of structural materials in dry cask storage containers, and novel instrumentation for nuclear power systems. We present a compilation of recent representative examples of the application of laser spectroscopy, and laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy in particular, to nuclear safety and security problems. A case is made that spectroscopic techniques based on laser-produced plasmas offer complementary, and sometimes unique, capabilities that motivate the continued exploration of their efficient production and understanding of the signatures they produce

(020.3260) Isotope shifts, (140.3440) Laser-induce↗
DOE OSTI2020

The Contact Stress Sensor _ Proposal to the FY2020 Technology Tech Mat Grants Program

The technology to be advanced is a very small and thin Contact Stress Sensor (CSS) that measures the contact stress between two contacting surfaces. It will be used to monitor the internal condition of a weapon in the stockpile over periods of decades. Monitoring the load path of a complex weapon assembly offers an important verification of the weapon’s mechanical state in both quasi-static or dynamic environments. Concurrently, the sensor can be used to measure temperature. This is useful for sensor calibration while installed in a system, as well as thermal monitoring in regions of the system that are difficult to access. Thus, the CSS is one way to monitor the internal “health” of a weapon. A sensor is shown below with each sensor being less then 2mm in width and 125 microns in thickness.

45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEF↗
DOE OSTI2021

Quantitative imaging and automated fuel pin identification for passive gamma emission tomography

Compliance of member States to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons is monitored through nuclear safeguards. The Passive Gamma Emission Tomography (PGET) system is a novel instrument developed within the framework of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) project JNT 1510, which included the European Commission, Finland, Hungary and Sweden. The PGET is used for the verification of spent nuclear fuel stored in water pools. Advanced image reconstruction techniques are crucial for obtaining high-quality cross-sectional images of the spent-fuel bundle to allow inspectors of the IAEA to monitor nuclear material and promptly identify its diversion. In this work, we have developed a software suite to accurately reconstruct the spent-fuel cross sectional image, automatically identify present fuel rods, and estimate their activity. Unique image reconstruction challenges are posed by the measurement of spent fuel, due to its high activity and the self-attenuation. While the former is mitigated by detector physical collimation, we implemented a linear forward model to model the detector responses to the fuel rods inside the PGET, to account for the latter. The image reconstruction is performed by solving a regularized linear inverse problem using the fast-iterative shrinkage-thresholding algorithm. We have also implemented the traditional filtered back projection (FBP) method based on the inverse Radon transform for comparison and applied both methods to reconstruct images of simulated mockup fuel assemblies. Higher image resolution and fewer reconstruction artifacts were obtained with the inverse-problem approach, with the mean-square-error reduced by 50%, and the structural-similarity improved by 200%. We then used a convolutional neural network (CNN) to automatically identify the bundle type and extract the pin locations from the images; the estimated activity levels finally being compared with the ground truth. The proposed computational methods accurately estimated the activity levels of the present pins, with an associated uncertainty of approximately 5%.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS1990

Tunable Quantum-Well Submillimeter-Wave Oscillators

Tunable submillimeter-wave generator is layered (AI/Ga)As device. Frequencies adjusted via applied voltages. New device concept offers potential to make relatively compact, efficient local oscillators for heterodyne mixers in submillimeter radar and imaging systems, nondestructive testing, diagnosis of plasmas, airborne spectroscopy of atmosphere, detection of weapons and other contraband, and communications.

Maserjian, Joseph↗
DOE OSTI2024

Why the US Needs an Enduring Plutonium Critical Assembly

Jezebel (operated from 1954-1977) has been the primary experiment for fast 239 Pu nuclear data validation for the last 70 years. Validation has included not only k eff , but also spectral indicies, Rossi-α, reactivity coefficients, and neutron leakage spectra. While this has been incredibly valuable to the community, there are three major issues. The first issue is that documentation on many of these experiments were lacking, leading to large uncertainties or (even worse) incorrect assumptions. The second issue is that while there have been many advances in research, there is no way to test those new advances today. The last issue is that since the assembly only operated for 23 years (and at time when 30 other critical assemblies were operating at the same facility and nuclear weapons testing was occurring), there were limited opportunities to observe how any system parameters changed as a function of time. Note that this work is not suggesting that a "Jezebel re placement" used for a limited experiment campaign would have great value. A new enduring (100 year target) plutonium (Pu) assembly with simple geometry and low uncertainties, however, would be extremely valuable. Such a capability would have a transformative impact on many research areas including nuclear data validation, analytical methods validation, dosimetry, reactor kinetics, and materials. The need for a new plutonium assembly is not new: it has been in the DOE Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP) Mission and Vision for over 10 years and was also the top priority established at the 2022 National Criticality Experiments Research Center (NCERC) Futures meeting. This work will discuss how such a new capability would help ensure that the US retains international leadership in plutonium research. Last, a brief overview of Lilith, a project aimed to design a new enduring plutonium assembly for operation at the NCERC will be given.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Ceci N’est Pas Une Bombe: Lessons from a Field Experiment Using Neutron and Gamma Measurements to Confirm the Absence of Nuclear Weapons

In March 2023, the UN Institute for Disarmament Research held a verification experiment that included a mockup onsite inspection at a former military facility in the municipality of Menzingen, Switzerland. The experiment included a visit to the site by an inspection team, accompanied by the host team. Among other activities, radiation measurements were used to confirm the non-nuclear nature of selected items stored onsite. In this paper, we discuss the neutron and gamma measurement systems used during the experiment and the inspection protocols followed to confirm the absence of nuclear weapons. Furthermore, results from the experiment and a laboratory reproduction are presented, before concluding with lessons learned for how absence-confirmation measurements can help support verification of future arms control agreements.

98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL P↗