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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 289 records · Page 16
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2016

Steady state thermal-hydraulic analyses of the MITICA cooling circuits

Megavolt ITER Injector Concept Advancement is the full scale prototype of the heating and current drive neutral beam injectors for ITER, to be built at Consorzio RFX (Padova). The engineering design of its components is challenging: the total heat loads they will be subjected to (expected between 2 and 19 MW), the high heat fluxes (up to 20 MW/m{sup 2}), and the beam pulse duration up to 1 h, set demanding requirements for reliable active cooling circuits. In support of the design, the thermo-hydraulic behavior of each cooling circuit under steady state condition has been investigated by using one-dimensional models. The final results, obtained considering a number of optimizations for the cooling circuits, show that all the requirements in terms of flow rate, temperature, and pressure drop are properly fulfilled.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2019

Final Report – Cooperative Research and Development Agreement between National Energy Technology Laboratory and Solar Turbines Incorporated

The National Energy Technology Laboratory is developing the Raman Gas Analyzer (RGA) to be a fast, non-destructive instrument for on-line measurement of gas composition. The RGA prototype has been demonstrated to have an extremely fast response (<1 second) multi-gas analysis capability. All but the noble gases are Raman active, but Raman interaction is weak with gas phase substances. The RGA uses a reflectively lined capillary as the optical cell in a patented configuration, providing both a small sample volume for fast gas exchange, and a much greater Raman signal collection than traditional instrument configurations. This allows very fast measurement of fuel gases (hydrogen, methane, ethane, propane) as well as other common industrial gases (including CO, CO2, N2, O2, H2O). The RGA provides a new enabling technology for faster, smarter process control based on the chemical composition of the gases in the process, such as improving fuel flexibility and efficiency for power generation systems. NETL has constructed a field prototype of the RGA to test the instrument performance in various applications in fossil energy. Through this CRADA, the RGA prototype operation was tested using hydrocarbon mixtures and hydrogen on a combustor test rig for potential use in gas turbine engine testing. The testing was performed at the Solar Turbines Incorporated Harbor Drive facility in downtown San Diego, CA on December 3-7, 2018. The RGA was installed outside a combustor test bay, with a ¼" sample line connected from a point shortly upstream of the test combustor. The combustion test building online gas chromatograph reported analysis of a sample every 6 minutes. During testing, seven test conditions of pure gas or gas mixtures were supplied to a pressurized combustion test rig. A sample of the fuel gas was continuously analyzed using the RGA with a 1 second measurement and reporting time. For each test condition, once the steady condition was reached, the composition of the gas from the RGA measurements is reported, along with the expected composition from the flow meters, and the composition reported by the online gas chromatograph (GC). During this testing, the real-time measurement capability of the RGA was readily apparent. The composition changes occurring in real-time could be followed and observed to correspond to combustion behavior changes on the video monitor at the operator station. The largest concentration species were tracked well through the tests; however, from comparison of the RGA one-second data with the GC steady-state points, it appears the RGA had some difficulty with quantifying hydrocarbon mixtures, especially when some of the hydrocarbons were at low concentration. The difficulty was particularly noted for ethane and butane in these tests. The NETL team intends to address this in 2019. Moderate concentrations of nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen (>10%) were readily observed in the spectral data and quantified closely to the GC measurements. While calibration data for propylene was collected in preparation for this testing, it was not observed during the testing, even when the test conditions had high concentrations of propane.

Source record↗
DOE OSTI2020

Materials Development and Advanced Process Simulation for Additive Manufacturing with Fiber-Reinforced Thermoplastics (Final Technical Report)

DuPont, Local Motors, and the Composites Manufacturing and Simulation Center (CMSC) at Purdue worked together to advance process simulation capabilities for Additive Manufacturing (AM) and develop printable short fiber reinforced semi-crystalline engineering thermoplastics suitable for vehicle components. DuPont provided one candidate thermoplastic material, which was evaluated against the following three criteria: 1) Printability using extrusion additive manufacturing processes. 2) Suitability for vehicle applications based on mechanical coupon screening tests. 3) Predictive capability of process simulations. Indiana Manufacturing Institute provided modeling and simulation technology and access to Purdue’s lab scale AM printer. Local Motors provided mechanical property requirements and printed demonstration prototype components using their Thermwood Large Scale Additive Manufacturing (LSAM) printer. To meet the performance and cost requirements of the automotive industry, high fiber content semi-crystalline engineering materials are required. Printing experience and property data for a 50% by weight short glass fiber reinforced material were gathered. Further, material properties required for simulating the printing process with the glass-fiber reinforced material were characterized. Knowledge was acquired with regards to the processability and performance of this thermoplastic material. Predictions of part deformation and crystallinity level were verified against experimental observations. Any significant results other than verification of simulation, e.g., novel material identified here would be impactful.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2018

Development of Thermoacoustic Sensors for Sodium-cooled Fast Reactors

This Final Report refers to the project “Development of Thermoacoustic Sensors for Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor Systems”, which was led by Westinghouse Electric Company (Westinghouse) and carried out in collaboration with Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) and University of Pittsburgh. Thermo-acoustic Power Sensors (TAPS) are self-powered, wireless sensors envisioned for measuring key parameters, such as local temperature and neutron flux, in a nuclear reactor core. This project was intended to specifically investigate their applicability to Sodium-cooled Fast Reactors (SFR). TAPS are non-invasive (wireless) and passive (self-powered) devices. The passivity derives from their ability to use conditions that “naturally” exist in a nuclear reactor, such as gamma and neutron flux, as power sources. They generate oscillating pressure waves (i.e., sound waves) which, with a frequency and amplitude dependent upon these conditions, can travel through the core and associated structures, and reach the outside of the reactor vessel where a properly designed network of receivers can detect and interpret them. These receivers require a very small amount of power which, during loss of power events, can be provided for example by harvesting gamma radiation energy, thus resulting in a monitoring system that can function both during normal operation and during loss of power events. The project aimed at TAPS development through a series of tasks which are listed and briefly discussed as follows. TASK 1 – Sensor hardware design Subtask 1a: Assessment of sensor applications to SFRs Subtask 1b: Development of sensor functional requirements Subtask 1c: Definition of sensor hardware design specifications Task description: TAPS design was informed by considerations on their application (Subtask 1a), both the ultimate one in an SFR and the actual one in the ANL testing facilities that was intended to be used in support of the project. Considerations were made to identify optimum sensor design features that optimize the sensor size, materials, and output signal, for installation inside an SFR core. These considerations led to the development of Functional Requirements (Subtask 1b) and Design Requirements (Subtask 1c). TASK 2 – Sensor Hardware Manufacture Subtask 2a: Sensor hardware construction drawing development Subtask 2b: Sensor manufacture and assembly Task description: TAPS technical drawings were developed (Subtask 2a) using the Design Requirements established under Task 1. Subsequently, in spite of some problems which ultimately caused the program to be delayed, TAPS manufacturing was completed based on drawings (Subtask 2b). TASK 3 – Development of TAPS Signal Measurement System and TAPS Testing in Water Subtask 3a: Design, assembly and testing of signal measurement system, and TAPS testing in water Subtask 3b: Signal prediction-correction methodology development Task description: An assessment was performed on the techniques that can potentially be used to detect the signals emitted by the TAPS, e.g. a fiber-optic based acoustic signal measurement system, a laser vibrometer system, or an accelerometer-based system. The most suited technology, i.e. the accelerometer-based system, was developed further, and tested in water (Subtask 3a). Moreover, efforts were made to develop the methodology required to determine the actual system temperature and neutron flux distribution using differences between the measured and predicted TAPS responses (Subtask 3b). TASK 4 – Sensor System Testing in Sodium Subtask 4a: Test plan development Subtask 4b: Design, assembly and testing in small-scale sodium facility Subtask 4c: Design, assembly and testing in large-scale sodium and structures facility Task description: Upon proper test plan development (Subtask 4a), the fabricated TAPS was planned to be tested in sodium, by using two sodium facilities at ANL having different size and different purpose. The Under Sodium Viewing (USV) small-scale facility was intended to be used to investigate the effect of sodium on the sensor and its performance (Subtask 4b). The Mechanism Engineering Test Loop (METL) large-scale facility was instead intended to be used to assess the additional effect of prototypical SFR structures, such as fuel assembly mockup or parts of the core restrain structure, on sensor performance (Subtask 4c). As discussed in Section 3.2.2.7, unexpected issues during the TAPS manufacturing process resulted in some activities being delayed, with the TAPS and USV facility developed to the point to be ready for testing in sodium, however without the possibility to actually perform such testing (including the testing in METL) due to the end of the program’s performance period. Overall, through the development and testing (in water only) of two TAPS devices (a First-Generation TAPS followed by an optimized Second-Generation TAPS), the project confirmed the capability of this technology to generate acoustic signals proportional to temperature, which can be detected through a network of accelerometers identified as the best-suited type of receivers for acoustic signal detection. Moreover, the project also developed a computational model to predict the characteristics of the acoustic signals being generated, which combines thermal analysis of the TAPS with Finite Element Modeling (FEM)-aided acoustic characterization of the system. This model was benchmarked against experimental data collected during the project and, although general agreement was obtained, some limitations of the modeling methods were identified, which require additional development. Additional testing is needed in order to assess the effect, on TAPS operation and performance, of environmental changes resulting from the transition from water to liquid sodium. Such testing, which is suggested to be performed in the future, should look specifically at 1) both the effect resulting from the different thermoacoustic behavior of sodium (relative to water) and the effects of higher temperature on TAPS performance, and 2) the performance of the sensor-receiver system when multiple TAPS are used simultaneously and prototypical reactor structures are positioned in the testing environment. The latter testing is needed to assess the effects that potential signal attenuation/ distortion phenomena, as well as potential interference between signals emitted simultaneously, have on the performance of the technology for ultimate application in a nuclear reactor.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Engineering Ultrathin Alloy Shell in Au@AuPd Core-Shell Nanoparticles for Efficient Plasmon-Driven Photocatalysis

Bimetallic core-shell nanoparticles (NPs) possessing a synergetic coupling of plasmonic and catalytic metals have emerged as promising prototypes for efficient plasmon-driven photocatalysis. Here, Au@AuPd core-shell NPs composed of Au core NP and ultrathin AuPd shell are introduced to acquire improved light utilization efficiency in photocatalytic selective oxidation. With systematical control of the composition of the ultrathin alloy shell, it reveals that the Au@AuPd core-shell NPs with 10 at% Pd (in the single-atom alloy regime) is an effective nanostructure capable of maximizing the quantum yield of plasmon-induced light absorption and optimizing the surface electronic structure for catalytic reactions. This controlled system provides new insights into shell engineering for enhancing photocatalytic performance via the regulation of energy funneling processes in core-shell nanocatalysts.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2020

The ABC130 barrel module prototyping programme for the ATLAS strip tracker

For the Phase-II Upgrade of the ATLAS Detector [1], its Inner Detector, consisting of silicon pixel, silicon strip and transition radiation sub-detectors, will be replaced with an all new 100% silicon tracker, composed of a pixel tracker at inner radii and a strip tracker at outer radii. The future ATLAS strip tracker will include 11,000 silicon sensor modules in the central region (barrel) and 7,000 modules in the forward region (end-caps), which are foreseen to be constructed over a period of 3.5 years. The construction of each module consists of a series of assembly and quality control steps, which were engineered to be identical for all production sites. In order to develop the tooling and procedures for assembly and testing of these modules, two series of major prototyping programs were conducted: an early program using readout chips designed using a 250 nm fabrication process (ABCN-250) [2,2] and a subsequent program using a follow-up chip set made using 130 nm processing (ABC130 and HCC130 chips). This second generation of readout chips was used for an extensive prototyping program that produced around 100 barrel-type modules and contributed significantly to the development of the final module layout. This paper gives an overview of the components used in ABC130 barrel modules, their assembly procedure and findings resulting from their tests.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2017

Ordnance News

Since July of 2016 I have been assigned as a Guest Scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory under the Training With Industries (TWI) Program. Los Alamos National Laboratory has proven to be a challenging and rewarding assignment in which I have found myself at the cutting edge of technologies pertinent to the Explosive Ordnance Disposal career field. In the last 7 months I have had the pleasure of working in an applications group that conducts research at the DOE “Q” and SCI levels. The group “uses a broad range of engineering and scientific expertise to support nuclear counter proliferation (NCP), nuclear counter terrorism (NCT), and nuclear emergency response (ER) missions. The Group contributes to national programs intended to protect, deter, and respond to weapons of mass destruction through tailored training and by using specialized applied electromagnetic solutions, rapid prototyping, designing/building/testing/delivering tools and trainers along with novel safing technologies, RF solutions, and cyberphysical applications”. While the specifics of the work performed are classified, the groups “core expertise includes pulsed power; EMP effects; nuclear weapons engineering; weapons effects and materials; predictive/hydrodynamic modeling and testing; firing and penalty systems; x-ray and non-destructive evaluation of threat devices; applied physics; advanced RF systems; powerline communications; novel electronics; 3-D printing of specialized components and cyber assessment/response technologies”. (int.lanl.gov/org/padgs/threat-identification-response/analytics-intelligencetechnology/ a-3/index.shtml)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2014

Interband Cascade Photovoltaic Cells

In this project, we are performing basic and applied research to systematically investigate our newly proposed interband cascade (IC) photovoltaic (PV) cells [1]. These cells follow from the great success of infrared IC lasers [2-3] that pioneered the use of quantum-engineered IC structures. This quantum-engineered approach will enable PV cells to efficiently convert infrared radiation from the sun or other heat source, to electricity. Such cells will have important applications for more efficient use of solar energy, waste-heat recovery, and power beaming in combination with mid-infrared lasers. The objectives of our investigations are to: achieve extensive understanding of the fundamental aspects of the proposed PV structures, develop the necessary knowledge for making such IC PV cells, and demonstrate prototype working PV cells. This research will focus on IC PV structures and their segments for utilizing infrared radiation with wavelengths from 2 to 5 μm, a range well suited for emission by heat sources (1,000-2,000 K) that are widely available from combustion systems. The long-term goal of this project is to push PV technology to longer wavelengths, allowing for relatively low-temperature thermal sources. Our investigations address material quality, electrical and optical properties, and their interplay for the different regions of an IC PV structure. The tasks involve: design, modeling and optimization of IC PV structures, molecular beam epitaxial growth of PV structures and relevant segments, material characterization, prototype device fabrication and testing. At the end of this program, we expect to generate new cutting-edge knowledge in the design and understanding of quantum-engineered semiconductor structures, and demonstrate the concepts for IC PV devices with high conversion efficiencies.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2024

Inferring Reliability Model Parameters from Expert Opinion

Here, we propose a method for constructing bathtub models of reliability from opinion. The method is intended for reliability studies early in the design and prototyping of a new system, before data concerning reliability has become available. A stylized bathtub curve is presented for soliciting best engineering judgement from technical experts. By pooling these stylized curves, we produce data that can be used to infer parameters for a piece-wise Weibull model of reliability. A numerical example demonstrates the practicality of the method while also highlighting potential pitfalls when working with subjective data.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2017

Increasing Mission Impact Through Exploratory Target Shots

Through the prototype’s use, the concept’s potential was proven. Use of the prototype also provided insight to the prototypical shortcomings. This document describes the efforts related to addressing the needs of all stakeholders and developing the “Gatling 1.0” prototype capability into a mature product referred to as “Gatling 2.0.”

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2023

Surface Roughness Effects from Additive Manufacturing in High Efficiency Gas Turbine Combustion Systems

In the past, clean combustion systems were characterized by high system development costs due to growing complexity and escalating manufacturing costs from conventional manufacturing processes. As a result, high efficiency concepts are difficult to design and more difficult to be cost-effectively manufactured. In recent years, with the introduction of additive manufacturing (AM) technologies, the rapid prototyping and mass production processes of clean combustion systems are promising to be significantly simplified with significant reduction in terms of engine manufacturing cost and engine energy cost. Compared with conventional manufacturing built parts, the AM process enabled a simpler design to be adopted for the nozzle, reducing the number of required braze and weld joints from twenty-five to just five. The resulting nozzle was 25% lighter and five times more durable and contributed to a 15% reduction in fuel burn in comparison with the previous model produced. Applying these improvements to a fleet of 5,000 turbofan engines at 150 kN thrust would result in fuel cost savings of $ \$ $6B annually (at $ \$ $5/gallon Jet-A fuel price, 700 gallon/hour fuel consumption rate, and 2,300 operational hours per year), and reduce CO2 emissions by more than 25 million tons per year. These advances support core Department of Energy (DOE) missions in energy efficiency, improving productivity, and environmental sustainability. Maximizing the benefit of these new capabilities will require high prediction capability of high speed turbulent flow with wall modeled Large Eddy Simulation (LES). GE Aviation maintains that advanced simulation technology and supercomputing is required in order to provide the appropriate boundary conditions to realize the maximum potential of AM and Ceramic Matrix Composite to reduce cooling flow, a first order penalty on the Brayton cycle. The algorithm developed using the ANSYS/Fluent software would provide the foundation for entirely new avenues of research and development with potential multi-billion dollar impact to the US economy, and significant reduction in carbon based emissions across the aerospace and power generation industries. The formulation of this iWLES (integral wall model for LES) is generic and allows to capture the changes in flow dynamics that have a significant impact on the wall bounded flow characteristics, such as swirler effective area, bulk swirl number, local pressure distribution, exit velocity profile, and turbulence kinetic energy profile. A periodic channel flow with rough flat plate is simulated using LES (Wall-Adapting Local Eddy-viscosity) model to verify the implementation of iWLES in the Fluent User Defined Function (UDF). As the flow fields are highly sensitive due to surface roughness of the wall bounded flows in the combustion systems, there is significant potential to conduct further LES studies focusing on the turbulence boundary layer interaction. Accurately capturing near wall physics will elucidate the impact of rough surfaces on combustor flow and aero-thermal interactions.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2023

Surface Roughness Effects from Additive Manufacturing in High Efficiency Gas Turbine Combustion Systems

In the past, clean combustion systems were characterized by high system development costs due to growing complexity and escalating manufacturing costs from conventional manufacturing processes. As a result, high efficiency concepts are difficult to design and more difficult to be cost-effectively manufactured. In recent years, with the introduction of additive manufacturing (AM) technologies, the rapid prototyping and mass production processes of clean combustion systems are promising to be significantly simplified with significant reduction in terms of engine manufacturing cost and engine energy cost. Compared with conventional manufacturing built parts, the AM process enabled a simpler design to be adopted for the nozzle, reducing the number of required braze and weld joints from twenty-five to just five. The resulting nozzle was 25% lighter and five times more durable and contributed to a 15% reduction in fuel burn in comparison with the previous model produced. Applying these improvements to a fleet of 5,000 turbofan engines at 150 kN thrust would result in fuel cost savings of $6B annually (at $5/gallon Jet-A fuel price, 700 gallon/hour fuel consumption rate, and 2,300 operational hours per year),and reduce CO2 emissions by more than 25 million tons per year. These advances support core Department of Energy (DOE)missions in energy efficiency, improving productivity, and environmental sustainability. Maximizing the benefit of these new capabilities will require high prediction capability of high speed turbulent flow with wall modeled Large Eddy Simulation (LES). GE Aviation maintains that advanced simulation technology and supercomputing is required in order to provide the appropriate boundary conditions to realize the maximum potential of AM and Ceramic Matrix Composite to reduce cooling flow, a first order penalty on the Brayton cycle. The algorithm developed using the ANSYS/Fluent software would provide the foundation for entirely new avenues of research and development with potential multi-billion dollar impact to the US economy, and significant reduction in carbon based emissions across the aerospace and power generation industries. The formulation of this iWLES (integral wall model for LES) is generic and allows to capture the changes in flow dynamics that have a significant impact on the wall bounded flow characteristics, such as swirler effective area, bulk swirl number, local pressure distribution, exit velocity profile, and turbulence kinetic energy profile. A periodic channel flow with rough flat plate is simulated using LES (Wall-Adapting Local Eddy-viscosity) model to verify the implementation of iWLES in the Fluent User Defined Function (UDF). As the flow fields are highly sensitive due to surface roughness of the wall bounded flows in the combustion systems, there is significant potential to conduct further LES studies focusing on the turbulence boundary layer interaction. Accurately capturing near wall physics will elucidate the impact of rough surfaces on combustor flow and aero-thermal interactions.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2021

A Study of Integrated Signal and Power Transfer for Compact Isolated SiC MOSFET Gate-Drivers

This work discusses a novel set of alternate implementations of isolated gate driver circuits for power electronic transistors. The proposed topologies for the driver have been designed specifically for SiC power MOSFET. Three different solutions are discussed, all of them providing the required gate turn-on and turn-off command signal with galvanic isolation, but also supplying power to the secondary side of the driver by means of magnetic transformers. The resulting solutions, all of them implemented with simple circuitry, enable the integration of the driver into the power cell, allowing for theoretical higher power density values in the final system. The principle of operation of the different solutions is discussed, and then the main relevant implementation details are presented. After that, the operation of the circuits is demonstrated experimentally, by testing a set of prototypes of these drivers. This provides a comprehensive design example that assesses the feasibility of the proposed solutions. Finally, the main results of the performance of the three gate drivers, on an SiC MOSFET-based prototype are presented and compared.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2024

LES simulations of a vacuum membrane distillation channel with geometric alterations

3D LES simulations were carried out to study the performance of a vacuum membrane distillation module. A wiggly wall profile with/without embedded stiffeners was considered to alleviate axial and radial temperature polarization, the cause of performance decrease in membrane distillation. Results of the flow field show the wiggles create unsteady vortex shedding inducing intense mixing in the channel. Vortex shedding intensity increases as the Reynolds number increases or stiffeners are added. 3D results show a 56% improvement in flux when moving from a flat sheet membrane to a wiggly membrane with stiffeners at a constant Reynolds number, corresponding to an improvement from 11.7 to 41.7 in the Nusselt number, showing that the alterations improved the flux performance by enhancing the heat transfer along the membrane surface and therefore alleviating temperature polarization, a critical bottleneck in membrane distillation systems. Further, a merit criterion was defined based on the Nusselt number and friction factor, and a 40% increase in merit was shown switching from a flat to a wiggly channel, while a 97% merit increase was seen going from flat to wiggly with stiffeners. A 42% enhancement in the flux was also seen moving from a straight channel to a wiggly channel at a higher Reynolds number which highlights the importance of strategically choosing the mass flow rate, as well as inducing flow separation and vortex shedding in the channel to promote mixing and dissipate the thermal boundary layer. The variation in results between the wiggly module with stiffeners and the wiggly module at high Reynolds numbers suggests enhancing mixing structures can be more impactful on flux for this geometry than increasing the flow rate to a turbulent/transitional regime. However, both are preferable for peak system flux performance. Furthermore, a 2D approximation was used to perform simulations on more extended channels to examine the length degradation. The modules with wiggly channels performed at the same flux level with a doubling of the length. On the other hand, the flat sheet modules experienced length degradation by temperature polarization and dropped in flux yield by around 13% of the short-channel value. This work illustrates that modeling the system and understanding how the performance decreases as the membrane surface area increases are critical for a larger module (scaling up from a lab to a prototype module) to maintain high flux performance.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2019

INL WTB Overview Capabilities Future v14_040419

INL Wireless Test Bed Mission Provide highly-regarded cellular, wireless and communications technical expertise, systems and environment to enable: Test & Demonstrate full scale wireless systems and equipment With and without controlled interference Terrestrial, Subterranean and Airborne Demonstrate new & emerging wireless technologies Develop and Train to Tactics, Techniques and Procedures (TTPs) for wireless systems In a real world environment and configurations at real frequencies and real power levels to make informed decision State-of-the-Art INL WTB Assets and Capabilities Instrumentation: RF waveform analyzers, generators Protocol analyzers Noise generators for controlled interference Established Services & Processes: Spectrum approval & monitoring Safety, Medical, Fire, Security (physical) Resource management - personnel, networks, configuration control Secure, IP protected multi-user facility Broadband data access – entire INL Range Hardware prototyping, scientific labs Visitor – US citizen & foreign national

2G↗
DOE OSTI2023

Mobile Hot Cell Digital Twin: End-of-life Management of Disused High Activity Radioactive Sources – 23598

Sealed radioactive sources are utilized for a wide range of applications across nuclear facilities, universities, hospitals, and industry. When these sources reach the end of serviceable life, they become waste. As waste, this radioactive material then goes through a process of recapture and then transfer to long term storage. With the advancement of technology in conjunction with better accessibility of technology, industries are exploring the use of digital automation to enhance productivity, efficiency, and safety while minimizing operation and maintenance costs, health and environmental risks, and uncertainty in the project life cycles. One area for exploration is the use of a digital twin to help design a robust, versatile, and safe solution for recapturing spent sources. We believe this avenue can also provide further advantages in the operations aspect of end-of-life management of spent radioactive sources by reducing the deployment time, increasing operator safety, and reducing operation & maintenance cost. We present a novel digital twin framework for end-of-life management of disused high activity radioactive sources. We have designed and developed a framework that houses a digital twin for visualizing and monitoring the recapture process to inform the engineering and design of a new Mobile Hot Cell. Furthermore, we demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed framework by providing a prototypical implementation, supporting the Mobile Hot Cell and human-machine interface's virtual replication.

61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY↗
DOE OSTI2016

Neutronics Code Benchmark for Fluoride-Salt-Cooled Reactors

The fluoride-salt-cooled high-temperature reactor (FHR) is an advanced reactor design that aims to improve on the efficiency, cost, safety and non-proliferation security of nuclear energy, while exploiting existing technologies to minimize the design and licensing burden. FHRs share many design features with the high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR), namely using the same fuel form: a bed of graphite spheres, each with thousands of small coated fuel particles (TRISO) dispersed throughout it. However, rather than using a gas as a coolant, the FHR uses a molten salt which changes the behavior of the system; in particular, from a neutronics perspective, the coolant is no longer effectively transparent to neutrons, but rather contributes both to neutron moderation and absorption. It is difficult to perform exploratory reactor physics experiments for new reactor concepts, as the regulation and cost surrounding a fuel experiment is often highly restrictive and prohibitive. As such, researchers and design engineers must rely heavily on simulation capability to develop a working knowledge for how the reactor physics of a pre-prototypical reactor might behave. It is then essential to have confidence that simulation codes provide credible results. As there are no instances of FHRs deployed to date, nor are there any experimental data available on neutron behavior of pebble fuel immersed in salt, the first step is to perform a code-to-code verification of idealized scenarios that capture the physics involved with an FHR system. This summary describes the development of a code-to-code benchmark for FHR with the purpose of code verification and presents preliminary results. (authors)

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗