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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

FGMS-poster

Idaho National Laboratory (INL) performs post irradiation examination (PIE) of tri-structural isotropic (TRISO)-coated particle fuel to help qualify it for high temperature gas cooled reactors. TRISO fuel compacts are re-irradiated in the Neutron Radiography Reactor (NRAD) to generate the short lived fission products needed for fission product release testing. The Fuel Accident Condition Simulator (FACS) furnace and newly added Screen Neutron Irradiated Fuel for Failure (SNIFF) furnace heat the compacts in helium to temperatures of up to 2,000°C, prompting fission product release—predominantly gaseous xenon and krypton isotopes and condensable products such as cesium—from failed particles. These released isotopes are transported to a fission gas monitoring system (FGMS 1 or FGMS 3), where they accumulate in cryogenic cold traps and are quantified using high-purity germanium (HPGe) detectors. The addition of SNIFF and FGMS 3 increases throughput by enabling simultaneous testing of multiple compacts. Furthermore, automated INL developed software provides continuous, near-real time monitoring of fission product inventories and manages the liquid nitrogen cooling of the traps. These system enhancements improve the efficiency, data quality, and testing capacity of TRISO fuel performance evaluations.

07 - ISOTOPES AND RADIATION SOURCES↗

Elucidating Photoinduced Processes of Photosystem I Via Multidimensional Electronic and Vibrational Spectroscopies

This project was motivated by an overarching goal to elucidate the mechanism of energy and electron transfer that governs the efficient charge separation in photosystem I (PSI) complexes. PSI is a natural light harvesting complex that drives oxygenic photosynthesis in plants, algae, and cyanobacteria. It uses ~300 tightly packed chlorophylls (Chls) to absorb photons, transfer the excitation energy to the reaction center (RC), and generate a charge separated state with near unity quantum efficiency (QE). A better understanding of the mechanism of energy transfer and charge separation in PSI is required for understanding the high QE of natural light harvesting complexes, and it could lead to the further development of artificial photosynthetic systems for solar energy conversion and modification of light harvesting complexes to improve crop yields. We applied two-dimensional optical spectroscopies to different cyanobacterial photosystem I complexes, including PSI complexes that contain Chl f molecules, to map energy transfer pathways and gain insight into the efficient light harvesting of PSI. We used two-dimensional electronic spectroscopies (2DES) to map energy transfer in Chl a and Chl f containing PSI complexes. To investigate the Chl f PSI complexes, we modified our spectrometer to probe the lower energy states associated with Chl f molecules. We interpreted the 2DES spectra through global analysis procedures to generate maps of energy transfer. We also constructed a two-dimensional electronic vibrational (2DEV) spectrometer that will be used to investigate charge transfer transitions and dynamics within PSI complexes. Measurements were performed on model systems to establish general data analysis procedures for interpreting 2D spectra and gain insight into protein cofactor interactions.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

The GREEN ‘omics of Nutrient Feedbacks to Soil Warming

The GREEN ‘omics of Nutrient Feedbacks in Soil project advanced the DOE Biological and Environmental Research (BER) mission by developing and applying isotope-enabled ’omics tools to understand how soil microbes regulate carbon and nutrient cycling. Guided by the Growth Rate, growth Efficiency, and stoichiometry of Essential Nutrients (GREEN ’omics) framework, the project aimed to build a predictive, systems-level understanding of microbial traits that control ecosystem biogeochemistry. In a collaboration among Northern Arizona University (lead), West Virginia University, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, we combined quantitative stable isotope probing (qSIP), Chip-SIP, NanoSIMS, and genome-resolved metagenomics across long-term experiments in Arctic, boreal, temperate, and tropical ecosystems. The project produced three key outcomes: 1) We showed that community-weighted temperature sensitivities of bacterial growth (Q10) can predict ecosystem-scale soil respiration responses across diverse soils. 2) We provided the first in situ evidence for density-dependent population dynamics in soil bacteria and demonstrated that nutrient additions intensify competition, concentrating carbon use into fewer taxa. 3) We improved and extended isotope-enabled ’omics methods by quantifying qSIP measurement error to guide experimental design and coupling SIP with genome-resolved metagenomics to reveal cross-kingdom interactions among bacteria, fungi, and viruses. Together, these results show that a small number of microbial traits and taxa exert disproportionate control over soil carbon and nutrient cycling, providing critical data and methods to improve representation of microbial processes in Earth system models.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Ensemble Simulations on Leadership Computing Systems

Scientific productivity can be enhanced through workflow management tools, relieving large High Performance Computing (HPC) system users from the tedious tasks of scheduling and designing the complex computational execution of scientific applications. This paper presents a study on the usage of ensemble workflow tools to accelerate science using the Summit and Frontier supercomputing systems. The research aims to connect science domain simulations using Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF) supercomputing platforms with ensemble workflow methods in order to accelerate HPC-enabled discovery and boost scientific impact. We present the coupling, porting and optimization of Radical-Cybertools on three applications: Chroma, NAMD and LAMMPS. The tools augment traditional HPC monolithic runs with a pilot scheduler. Lessons-learned are discussed for physics, biology and materials science applications. We discuss intrinsic limitations of coupling and porting ensemble workflow tools to applications that run on large HPC systems. The origins of technical challenges and their solutions developed during the implementation process are discussed. Data management strategies, OLCF’s policies for ensembles, and natively supported workflow tools are also summarized.

Georgiadou, Antigoni [ORNL] (ORCID:000000020977631↗

Lessons Learned from Ecosystem-Scale Experimental Field Studies (Workshop Report)

Efforts to understand and predict ecosystem responses to environmental change require long-term, large-scale, spatially representative experiments and observations that capture natural variability, test predictive models, and generate transferable knowledge. Such studies are indispensable for unraveling the complexities of terrestrial ecosystems and their responses to disturbances and evolving environmental conditions, while generating the data necessary for developing mechanistic models and predictive tools that inform decision-making processes. Having a rich history of designing and executing large-scale ecosystem experiments, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Environmental System Science program convened a workshop in January 2025 that brought together leaders in the field to distill critical lessons from decades of experience in large-scale experiments. The workshop aimed to (1) provide an ecosystem experiment primer for best practices, thus ensuring a high scientific return on investment for funding agencies, and (2) offer a robust framework for the design and management of future research initiatives. This report synthesizes insights and experiences from workshop participants and is structured to capture the entire research life cycle, from goal setting and design to operations, adaptive management, team dynamics, collaborations, and the often overlooked aspect of decommissioning. By synthesizing decision-making and lessons learned across diverse research approaches, the report aims to provide a template of essential factors to consider when designing successful long-term, large-scale ecosystem experiments.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Identifying Opportunities at the Interface of Chemistry and Quantum Information Science (Final Technical Report)

This project convened a National Academies committee to identify opportunities and research priorities at the interface of chemistry and quantum information science (QIS). The work culminated in a consensus study report that (1) articulates three fundamental research areas to advance QIS (design and synthesis of molecular qubits; measurement and control of molecular quantum systems; and experimental and computational scaling of qubit design and function), and (2) underscores the importance of cross-disciplinary collaboration, access to facilities and instrumentation, FAIR-aligned data infrastructure, and workforce development initiatives to sustain U.S. leadership in QIS. The report and all other material associated with this project can be downloaded on the project webpage: https://www.nationalacademies.org/projects/DELS-BCST-21-01 .

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Sensitivity of Regional WRF‐Chem Air Quality and Weather Simulations to Biomass‐Burning Emission Data Sets: A Case Study of the Impact of Canadian Wildfire on the US°

This study focuses on the period from June 26 to 29, 2023, when record‐breaking Canadian wildfires severely impacted air quality in the Midwest United States. Using the Weather Research and Forecasting Model with Chemistry (WRF‐Chem) and four biomass‐burning data sets (Fire Inventory from NCAR version 1, Fire Inventory from NCAR version 2.5, Quick Fire Emissions Data set [QFED], and Regional ABI‐VIIRS Emission), we analyzed aerosol transport from Canada to the US and assessed the model's accuracy in predicting PM 2.5 , O 3 , CO and aerosol weather feedback. Model simulations were compared with ground‐based and remote sensing observations as well as field measurements from the Community Research on Climate and Urban Science (CROCUS) project. Our findings show that the movement of a low‐pressure system from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic, combined with the high‐pressure system over the Atlantic, caused the transport of aerosols from Canadian wildfires to the US. Results show WRF‐Chem significantly underestimated key atmospheric components: aerosol optical depth (AOD) by over 50%, PM 2.5 by 65%–90% and peak O 3 concentrations by 50%–55% across four biomass burning data sets. Additionally, CO and NO 2 concentrations were underpredicted. The substantial underestimation of PM 2.5 led to an overestimation of temperature by up to 3.6 °C primarily due to excessive downward shortwave radiation, which resulted from the underestimation of direct aerosol effects and an increase in sensible heat flux. Among the biomass‐burning data sets, QFED produced the most accurate AOD and PM 2.5 predictions due to improved wildfire emission estimates, leading to a 1.0 to 1.5 °C reduction in temperature overestimation during the daytime. These findings underscore the need for improving wildfire emission estimates for trace gases and aerosols to enhance air quality and weather feedback predictions.

WRF-chem model↗

Rapid Adaptation of Chemical Named Entity Recognition Using Few-Shot Learning and LLM Distillation

Named entity recognition (NER) has been widely used in chemical text mining for the automatic identification and extraction of chemical entities. However, existing chemical NER systems primarily focus on scenarios with abundant training data, requiring significant human effort on annotations. This poses challenges for applications in the chemical field, such as catalysis, where many advancements have traditionally relied on trial-and-error investigations and incremental adjustment of variables. This hinders catalysis science and technology progress in addressing emerging energy and environmental crises. In this work, we propose a few-shot NER model that can quickly adapt to extract new types of chemical entities by using only a limited number of annotated examples. Our model employs a metric-learning approach to transfer entity similarity knowledge from high-resource chemical domains (with abundant annotations) to enable effective entity recognition in low-resource specialized domains (limited annotation). We validate the effectiveness of our model on a few-shot chemical NER benchmark built based on six existing chemical NER data sets. Experiments show that the proposed few-shot NER model can achieve reasonable performance with only 5 examples per entity type and shows consistent improvement as the number of examples increases. Furthermore, we demonstrate how the proposed model can be trained with large language model (LLM) annotated data, opening a new pathway for rapid adaptation of NER systems. Furthermore, our approach leverages the knowledge broadness of large language models for chemistry while distilling this knowledge into a lightweight model suitable for efficient and in-house use.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗