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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 235 records · Page 13

Hydrogen Production and Hydrogen Shot: Options for Producing Low-Carbon Hydrogen at Scale

Comprehensive, concerted efforts supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office (HFTO) are advancing research and development to demonstrate water splitting pathways to large-scale, low-cost hydrogen from diverse domestic resources. These pathways enable an economically competitive and environmentally beneficial future energy system across sectors and can address specific applications that are difficult to decarbonize.

advanced water-splitting technologies↗

Comparative Study of Commercial-Scale CO2 Storage Options in Single and Stacked Saline Formations in Managing Reservoir Pressure Buildup

Presentation at American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) Carbon, Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) held in Houston, Texas, April 25–27, 2023. The presentation emphasizes the importance of coordination among CO2 storage projects as CCUS deployment needs to be scaled up. The presentation focuses on findings from reservoir simulation studies in which different configurations of injection zones (a single saline formation and a stacked sequence of saline formations) are targeted for CO2 storage to accommodate the amplified storage volume needed while managing reservoir pressure buildup and interference induced by multi-well injection operations.

Wijaya, Nur↗

Thin Triples Expand the Affordable High-Performance Window Options For Retrofit

Sales of high-performance triple-pane windows make up only a small fraction (~3%) of total window sales in the United States with relatively stagnant market growth over the past 20 years. High costs have been the most commonly cited barrier to adoption. The emergence of thin triples that can fit into the glazing pocket of existing double pane windows has the potential to revolutionize the high-performance window market in particular the retrofit market by enabling glass only upgrades for situations where the frames are still in good condition. The retrofit market has other unique challenges not found in new construction that can be solved or reduced by thin triple pane windows. Insert replacements are often pursued instead of full frame replacement, in retrofits, this method reduces the net free area of a window and can turn an egress window into one that no longer meets the net free area requirements for egress. Thin frames minimize such occurrences. However, these thin frames can often not accommodate the weight of a traditional triple pane, thin triples can bring high performance to this situation. Thicker frames can also increase retrofit labor costs because the interior drywall and/or trim molding needs to be cut back to accommodate a thicker frame while thin triples can fit into frames that match the thickness of the existing window. This paper presents information about field test experiences the highlight these retrofit advantages from experiencing the challenges associated with retrofitting a thick frame as well as the supply chain, purchasability, material and labor costs, and real-world energy and non-energy performance associated with the IGU only replacement method.

window retrofits, thin triple-pane windows, high p↗

Freewheeling: What Six Locations, 61,000 Trips, and 242,000 Miles in Colorado Reveal about How E-Bikes Improve Mobility Options

Personal micromobility modes such as bicycles, e-bikes and scooters offer low- or zero-emission transportation alternatives to single occupancy vehicles (SOVs). However, the lack of supporting data has led to a dearth of data-driven research on the usage of personally owned e-bikes, including variations due to weather, geography and demographics. In this paper, we present an overview of the longitudinal findings from the CanBikeCO program, focused on e-bike adoption and use rates across different demographics, trip characteristics, and geographies. The CanBikeCO program recorded travel survey data from late July 2021 to December 31, 2022, from low-income Colorado households who were provided with e-bikes for personal use by the Colorado Energy Office (CEO). This data was collected in six different communities across Colorado following the mini-pilot program that was conducted in Fall 2020. To collect data for the survey, the program used the NREL OpenPATH application, which combines passive data collection with semantic information such as trip mode and purpose labels. To the best of our knowledge, there is no prior travel survey data on personally owned e-bikes with this range and scope. This unique dataset yielded several insights. One is that commute trips among participants had nearly 17% higher shares of e-bikes than all trips combined. E-bikes were stated to most often replace cars (34% of e-bike trips) and personal micromobility (22%). Participants favored walking for trips less than 1 mile, e-bikes for trips 1-3 miles, and e-bikes, cars or shared rides for trips 3-20 miles. Seasonality accounted for a 10% decrease and subsequent recovery in e-bike mileage on a per user basis. E-bikes are also appealing across age groups, even among older individuals, and see decreased utilization similar to regular bikes or walking during winter months. We also find that e-bike use may be related to characteristics of land use and urban form, occupation and income as well as household car ownership. We conclude that, for this population, who are mainly part of low-income households, the emissions added by the use of e-bikes (in the case of replacement of non-motorized modes) are outweighed by the strong single occupancy vehicle (SOV) travel replacement. As a whole, our findings suggest a considerable potential for energy savings and emissions reductions from personal e-bike ownership.

ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗

Cigeo Design Options, Risks and Opportunities Management: A Continuous Project Management Goal - 20015

Andra is currently completing the detailed engineering phase of the stepwise design development of Cigeo, the French HLW and IL-LLW Deep Geological Repository. If licensed in the coming years, Cigeo's progressive construction, industrial operation and closure will last over more than a century. Such a duration, associated with the requirements in terms of reversibility, lead to the choice of an incremental design that allows, for next operator generations, to integrate improvements derived from scientific and technical progress as well as from experience feedback from its operation. This incremental design approach, associated with a permanent risks and opportunities management process, will continue after licensing of Cigeo as a tool for the governance of the reversibility. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

Evaluating Remediation Options for a Perched-Water Unit at the Hanford Site - 20378

At the U.S. Department of Energy's Hanford Site, liquid-phase waste was discharged using surface disposal features such as ponds, trenches, and cribs. These practices distributed contaminants in the subsurface, some of which are currently in the vadose zone above the groundwater. At the 200-DV-1 operable unit (OU) at the Hanford Site, a key feature is a perched-water zone. This perched-water zone contains several million liters of water contaminated with high concentrations of uranium, technetium-99 (Tc-99), and nitrate that serves as a continuing source of contamination to the underlying aquifer. Currently, a pumping system is used to remove contaminant mass from the perched-water zone. However, water extraction will become more challenging as the perched unit dewaters. As a result, residual contaminants remaining after pumping is no longer effective needs to be addressed with post-extraction mitigation approaches, appropriate monitoring, and selection of suitable remediation endpoints. Thus, a remedy evaluation needs to include the unique conditions of this perched-water zone. As part of the initial evaluation, a set of technologies have been preliminarily identified as potentially applicable to the perched-water zone, including in situ remediation technologies to sequester uranium and Tc-99 and to degrade nitrate. While there is sufficient information available for direct consideration of some of the reviewed technologies in a feasibility study, five in situ remediation technologies were identified as needing additional information on their effectiveness under the geochemical and contaminant conditions of the perched-water zone. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

Co-Disposal Waste Package Loading Options for DOE SNF and HLW - 20331

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is responsible for managing spent nuclear fuel (SNF) that is currently in, or will in the future come into, its possession. DOE must continue to safely store that SNF, transport it to an interim storage site or a repository, and dispose of it. These fuels come from a wide range of reactor types with various cladding materials and enrichments. Many of these reactors, now decommissioned, had unique design features, such as core configuration, fuel element and assembly geometry, moderator and coolant materials, operational characteristics, and neutron spatial and spectral properties, resulting in a large diversity of reactor and fuel designs. Because of the wide variety and conditions of SNF, a robust DOE Standard Canister was proposed that would confine radionuclides and preclude moderator. The DOE Standard Canister had four variations: 3.05-meter (10-foot) or 4.57-meter (15-foot) length, and 45.7-cm (18-inch) or 61.0-cm (24-inch) diameter. For ultimate disposal in the Yucca Mountain Repository, these canisters were to be grouped with 61.0-cm (24-inch) diameter high level waste (HLW) canisters in a 2.13-meter (84-inch) diameter co-disposal waste package. The smaller 45.7-cm (18-inch) diameter DOE Standard Canister could be placed in the middle of five HLW canisters. The larger 61.0-cm (24-inch) diameter DOE Standard Canister would take the place of one of the five HLW canisters on the outer ring in the co-disposal waste package. No DOE Standard Canisters have been loaded. A preliminary evaluation has estimated the number of elements of a fuel type that can fit into the different sizes of the DOE Standard Canister, but no definitive loading configuration has been selected. Changing the loading configuration could impact the number of loadable DOE Standard Canisters and the number of co-disposal waste packages needed for eventual disposition. This paper conveys the ranges of DOE Standard Canisters and HLW canisters that may be produced under certain conditions. It also examines the differences in the estimated number of co-disposal waste packages produced for eventual disposal when using different loading strategies in the DOE Standard Canister for Advanced Test Reactor (ATR), Peach Bottom, and High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) SNF. Changing the loading configurations of ATR, Peach Bottom, and HFIR SNF slightly impacted the number of co-disposal waste packages that may be needed for ultimate disposal. The change in loading configuration was more impactful when a different canister was used, as opposed to varying the number of elements that could fit inside the same size canister. In one case, a reduction of co-disposal waste packages could be achieved by allowing mixing of short HLW canisters with long DOE Standard Canisters. The main conclusion from this analysis is that the ratio between HLW canisters and DOE Standard Canisters will drive the total number of co-disposal waste packages. If too many HLW canisters (i.e., more than five times the number of 18-inch DOE standard canisters) or DOE Standard Canisters are produced, some co-disposal waste packages may not have all positions filled. A co-disposal waste package may be filled with all HLW with no DOE Standard Canister, or a co-disposal waste package could be filled with a single DOE Standard Canister. A ratio that does not closely align to optimum could allow for the design of waste packages that hold just HLW canisters or just DOE SNF canisters. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

HBU R and D Cask Transportation Options - 20436

The TN-32B HBU Demonstration Cask was successfully loaded in November 2017 with 32 high burnup (HBU) fuel assemblies at Dominion's North Anna Nuclear Plant and is collecting thermal data as intended. The first two phases of this very successful project sponsored by DOE and EPRI was designed to collect thermal data of HBU fuel to support extended storage. The next phase of the project requires the cask be licensed for transportation so the cask can be relocated to a site (to be determined by DOE) to facilitate long term monitoring and additional research on the fuel. This is a unique challenge given the constraints that exist for this particular bolted metal cask. The TN-32B cask is a 234,288 lb. (storage configuration) dry storage system that was selected for this project and it was modified to provide thermal data and the ability to collect gas samples after loading. Several major issues must be addressed to obtain the transport license including protecting the seven lid penetrations that were made to allow for the insertion of the thermocouples into the selected fuel assemblies after the cask was loaded. In order to protect the integrity of the research, the payload must remain as is. Therefore, the cask system must be placed into the transportation configuration without rewetting the fuel, replacing the lid and without removing the thermocouple instrumentation that is currently installed. A critical portion of the design and engineering that was performed in the first two phases of the project was to ensure that future transportation of the cask was integrated into the approach. Efforts were made to accommodate requirements such as containment boundary leakage testing, installation of impact limiter brackets and lid bolts suitable for transportation. Due to the science requirements of the project, the fuel selected was intended to yield the highest payload temperatures permitted to provide the greatest value for the researchers. This resulted in higher than usual external dose rates and surface temperatures that warranted performing as much preparatory work prior to cask loading to ensure ALARA and personnel safety to the greatest extent practical rather than working on a loaded cask. In addition to the work performed prior to cask load, there are remaining challenges such as protecting the modified lid, design and fabrication of impact limiters that accommodate the modified cask lid and preserving the thermocouple connections for continued monitoring. The project team is currently performing the necessary calculations, engineering, and design to support the licensing as required by the US NRC. Pre-application meetings have been held to inform the regulator of the planned technical approach to ensure compliance with the applicable regulations. The current plan is to obtain the transportation C of C by the end of 2021. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

Options, Initial Design Requirements, Estimated Costs, Reactor Commitments, and Potential Uses of a Graphite Leadout Type Experiment Supporting Various Commercial HTR Vendors

Multiple commercial High Temperature Reactor (HTR) vendors and nuclear graphite suppliers would benefit by collaborating on a new irradiation capsule(s) that would include graphite grades not included within the AGC Experiment. This new irradiation capsule(s) would provide data to answer vendor graphite licensing issues. Rather than spending money (and especially) time in designing separate irradiation capsules for each designer, the capsule(s) would be used for multiple graphite and composite designs to maximize efficiency and promote multiple HTR designs. However, the primary motivation for assisting vendors with this new irradiation capsule(s) is lack of availability in the existing Material Test Reactors (MTRs). Cost reduction is a secondary goal. A common, collaborative, capsule design can be achieved for graphite and composites due to the similarity of different grades. Irradiation, disassembly, shipping, and PIE costs would be cost-shared by all users. It is anticipated that interest would extend across all DOE campaigns (micro-Rx, SMR, GCR, MSR, etc.) due to the similar requirements for all graphite grades.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Grid-Constrained Electric Vehicle Fast Charging Sites: Battery-Buffered Options

This case study summarizes recent Joint Office of Energy and Transportation technical assistance work performed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory which involved helping a state department of transportation analyze the feasibility of a battery energy storage system solution at a grid-constrained EV charging location.

ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗

Options for Achieving Cost Reduction in Advanced Reactors through Open Architecture

A key contributor to high capital costs and schedule overruns for new nuclear power plants is lack of standardization, driven by site-specific customization and construction of multiple designs by competing vendors rather than commitment to a single standardized program. While advanced reactor vendors typically individually target repeat construction of standardized units, the many competing designs could exacerbate the problem. “Open Architecture”, the open specification of requirements and interfaces for structures, systems and components (SSCs), has been proposed as a means of promoting standardization, by facilitating existing non-nuclear suppliers to enter the industry and/or allowing SSCs to be configured for more than one reactor within the same technology type. Contracting mechanisms that facilitate information sharing and alignment of incentives between stakeholders may complement such an approach. A preliminary scheme is presented for selection of SSCs for which such strategies could be adopted, based on a vendor make/buy decision model and stakeholder interviews. SSCs are categorized according to number of suppliers and their contribution to the reactor’s competitive edge. SSCs with many potential suppliers and a high contribution to competitive edge may be attractive for widening the supply chain via open specification of system requirements and interfaces, e.g., SSCs in the power island. SSCs with few suppliers and low contribution to competitive edge may be potential avenues for common system specification between vendors, e.g., some of the auxiliary SSCs. Potential cost reductions from such strategies will depend upon the size of the build program and the reactor type.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗