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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 325 records · Page 18

Measurement of the cross section of $$ {e}^{+}{e}^{-}\to {\Xi}^{-}{\overline{\Xi}}^{+} $$ at center-of-mass energies between 3.510 and 4.843 GeV

Abstract Usinge + e − collision data corresponding to a total integrated luminosity of 12.9 fb −1 collected with the BESIII detector at the BEPCII collider, the exclusive Born cross sections and the effective form factors of the reaction$$ {e}^{+}{e}^{-}\to {\Xi}^{-}{\overline{\Xi}}^{+} $$ e + e − → Ξ − Ξ ¯ + are measured via the single baryon-tag method at 23 center-of-mass energies between 3.510 and 4.843 GeV. Evidence for the decay$$ \psi (3770)\to {\Xi}^{-}{\overline{\Xi}}^{+} $$ ψ 3770 → Ξ − Ξ ¯ + is observed with a significance of 4.5σby analyzing the measured cross sections together with earlier BESIII results. For the other charmonium(-like) statesψ(4040),ψ(4160),Y(4230),Y(4360),ψ(4415), andY(4660), no significant signal of their decay to$$ {\Xi}^{-}{\overline{\Xi}}^{+} $$ Ξ − Ξ ¯ + is found. For these states, upper limits of the products of the branching fraction and the electronic partial width at the 90% confidence level are provided.

Physics↗

Technological and optical methods for increasing the spatial resolution of thermochemical laser writing on thin metal films

Various techniques, effects, and factors are examined that enable one to increase the spatial resolution of thermochemical direct laser writing on thin metal films. A few specific conditions of experimental laser processing with the focused beam of a CW green laser are investigated therewith. One of the goals of this work was to find a suitable metal and its thickness that would make it possible to implement the through-oxidation regime. When properly adjusting a value of laser exposure, this regime was found to be very useful for increasing the spatial resolution of the laser writing. This is due to bleaching of an oxidized film near the peak of a focused laser spot. Apart from the experimental results concerning the technology of laser processing of the metal films, in this work, there are also considered some ways of reducing a focused spot size used for the direct laser writing.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Allometric relationships between primary size measures and sapwood area for six common tree species in snow-dependent ecosystems in the Southwest United States

High-elevation, snow-dependent, semiarid ecosystems across southwestern United States are expected to be vulnerable to climate change, including drought and fire, with implications for various aspects of the water cycle. To that end, much less is known about the dynamics of transpiration, an important component of the water cycle across this region. At the individual-tree scale, transpiration is estimated by scaling mean sap flux density by the hydroactive sapwood area (SA). SA also remains a key factor in effectively scaling individual tree water-use to stand level. SA across large spatial scales is normally established by relating SA of a few trees to primary size measures, e.g., diameter at breast height (DBH), tree height ( H ), or canopy diameter (CD). Considering the importance of SA in scaling transpiration, the primary objective of this study was therefore to establish six species-specific (aspen, maple, white fir, ponderosa pine, Douglas fir, Englemann spruce) allometric relationships between SA and three primary size measures (DBH, CD, or H ) across two high-elevation, snow-dependent, semiarid ecosystems in New Mexico and Arizona. Based on multiple statistical criteria (coefficient of determination, index of agreement, Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency) and ease of measurement in the forest, we identified DBH as the primary independent variable for estimating SA across all sites. Based on group regression analysis, we found allometric relationships to be significantly ( p < 0.05) different for the same species (ponderosa pine, Douglas-fir) across different sites. Overall, our allometric relationships provide a valuable database for estimating transpiration at different spatial scales from sap flow data in some of our most vulnerable ecosystems.

Forestry↗

Crystal Plasticity Modeling of Void Growth on Grain Boundaries in Ni-Based Superalloys

In this study, we explore the effect of misorientation angles of crystal orientations between two grains along the grain boundary (GB) on void growth behavior in polycrystalline Ni-based superalloys by using a crystal plasticity finite element method. Quantitative analysis is conducted to study the coupled roles of the crystal orientation and stress triaxiality in void growth in bicrystals. Based on our simulation results, we find that, as the main loading axis perpendicular to the GB, voids grow more slowly on tilt GBs in bicrystals than those in single and bicrystal samples with twist GBs, while the void growth in single- and bicrystal samples with twist GBs exhibited almost the same rate and increased with the stress triaxiality levels. The interaction between two crystals bonded with the GB activates the effective Schmid factors in each crystal, which results in asymmetric distribution of the equivalent plastic strain around the void and induces distinct irregularly shaped voids during deformation.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Comprehensive review of 2 β decay half-lives

Here, the double-beta (2 β )-decay is the rarest nuclear physics process, and its experimental half-lives (T 1/2 ) exceed the age of the Universe from nine to fourteen orders of magnitude. Double-beta decay was observed, and its half-life was measured in 14 parent nuclei using direct, radiochemical, and geochemical methods. The decay observables are analyzed using the Evaluated Nuclear Structure Data File (ENSDF) procedures, and the recommended T 1/2 were deduced. Using the calculated values of phase factors, the effective nuclear matrix elements were extracted and compared with available data. Thousands of theoretical and experimental works have been dedicated to these topics in the last 85 years, and we present two data sets of recommended values to encapsulate the results.

2β-decay↗

Strategies for thorium fuel cycle transition in the SD-TMSR

Liquid-fueled Molten Salt Reactor (MSR) systems represent advances in safety, economics, and sustainability. The MSR has been designed to operate with a Th/ 233 U fuel cycle with 233 U used as startup fissile material. Since 233 U does not exist in nature, we must examine other available fissile materials to start up these reactor concepts. This work investigates the fuel cycle and neutronics performance of the Single-fluid Double-zone Thorium-based Molten Salt Reactor (SD-TMSR) with different fissile material loadings at startup: High Assay Low Enriched Uranium (HALEU) (19.79%), Pu mixed with HALEU (19.79%), reactor-grade Pu (a mixture of Pu isotopes chemically extracted from Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) spent nuclear fuel (SNF) with 33 GW d/tHM burnup), transuranic elements (TRU) from Light Water Reactor (LWR) SNF, and 233 U. The MSR burnup routine provided by SERPENT-2 is used to simulate the online reprocessing and refueling in the SD-TMSR. The effective multiplication factor, fuel salt composition evolution, and net production of 233 U are studied in the present work. Additionally, the neutron spectrum shift during the reactor operation is calculated. The results show that the continuous flow of reactorgrade Pu helps transition to the thorium fuel cycle within a relatively short time (≈ 4.5 years) compared to 26 years for 233 U startup fuel. Finally, using TRU as the initial fuel materials offers the possibility of operating the SD-TMSR for an extended period of time (≈ 40 years) without any external feed of 233 U.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Progress on the reevaluation and validation of the n+233U neutron cross sections

The set of 233 U resonance parameters of the ENDF/B-VIII.0 nuclear data library was adopted from the previous ENDF/B-VII.1 evaluation using the external levels to update the thermal values. Adoption of IAEA 2017 thermal standards ( &#x3C3; f = 533.0 &#xB1; 2.2 b, &#x3C3; c = 44.9 &#xB1; 0.9 b, and &#x3BD; &#x203E; tot = 2.487 &#xB1; 0.011 ) and of the IAEA-recommended thermal-neutron induced prompt fission neutron spectrum (PFNS) with average PFNS energy of 2.030 &#xB1; 0.013 MeV requires a re-evaluation of 233 U neutron cross sections in the resolved resonance region. A newly produced evaluation is being tested on benchmarks carefully selected from the Handbook of International Criticality Safety Benchmark Experiments (ICSBEP) which are highly sensitive to 233 U data. An important goal of this work was to eliminate the strong negative gradient of the calculated effective multiplication factors with respect to the epithermal fission fraction observed in the validation of the ENDF/B-VIII.0 library for those assemblies. A significant improvement in integral performance of critical 233 U solutions is observed for the newly proposed evaluation. Further work addressing the fast neutron region is needed.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Thermal hydraulic characteristics of liquid sodium and supercritical CO 2 in a diffusion bonded heat exchanger

Compact heat exchangers are being examined for use in advanced, high-temperature nuclear or concentrated solar power plants to improve thermal efficiencies and reduce capital costs. At the time of this work, no experimental investigation of liquid sodium in the popular diffusion-bonded heat exchanger design had been performed. Herein this paper describes the thermal-hydraulic and overall operations performance observed during testing of a 316/L stainless steel “zig-zag” microchannel heat exchanger operating between a (0.5 kg/s) sodium loop and a (0.3 kg/s) recuperated supercritical CO 2 system with outlet conditions up to 550 °C at 16 MPa. Observed pressure drop is presented in the form of an effective friction factor correlation which aligns closely with recent experimental data. The thermal performance of this heat exchanger, measured by its overall conductance under various flow conditions, was decomposed to examine the independent convection behaviors of both the CO 2 and sodium streams. These results are presented in the form of Nusselt correlations fitted to the experimental data. The sodium heat transfer correlation aligns closely with the widely accepted Lubarsky-Kaufman correlation, while the CO 2 heat transfer correlation lies between previous correlations developed by computational and experimental methods. This was the first long-duration use of sodium in a microchannels (~1.8 mm hydraulic diameter) heat exchanger. The use of an oxide control system enabled trouble-free operation of the heat exchanger for over 150 h of high-temperature operation. This first-of-a-kind demonstration using liquid sodium and supercritical carbon dioxide shows great promise for further application of this technology in advanced nuclear or solar power plants.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Integrating terrestrial and aquatic processes toward watershed scale modeling of dissolved organic carbon fluxes

Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) is not only a critical component of global and regional carbon budgets, but also an important precursor for carcinogenic disinfection byproducts (DBP) generated during drinking water disinfection process. The lack of process based watershed scale model for carbon cycling has been a limiting factor impeding effective watershed management to control DOC fluxes to source waters. Here, we integrated terrestrial and aquatic carbon processes into the widely tested Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) watershed model to enable watershed-scale DOC modeling (referred to as SWAT-DOC hereafter). The modifications to SWAT mainly fall into two groups: (1) DOC production in soils and its transport to aquatic environment by different hydrologic processes, and (2) riverine transformation of DOC and their interactions with particular organic carbon (POC), inorganic carbon and algae (floating and bottom). We tested the new SWAT-DOC model in the Cannonsville watershed, which is part of the New York City (NYC) water supply system, using long-term DOC load data (from 1998 to 2012) derived from 1399 DOC samplings. The calibration and verification results indicate that SWAT-DOC achieved satisfactory performance for both streamflow and DOC at daily and monthly temporal scales. The parameter sensitivity analysis indicates that DOC loads in the Cannonsville watershed are controlled by the DOC production in soils and its transport in both terrestrial and aquatic environments. Further model uncertainty analysis indicates high uncertainties associated with peak DOC loads, which are attributed to underestimation of high streamflows. Therefore, future efforts to enhance SWAT-DOC to better represent runoff generation processes hold promise to further improve DOC load simulation. Overall, the wide use of SWAT and the satisfactory performance of SWAT-DOC make it a useful tool for DOC modeling and mitigation at the watershed scale.

Dissolved Organic Carbon, non-point source polluti↗

Nanoadsorbents based on conducting polymer nanocomposites with main focus on polyaniline and its derivatives for removal of heavy metal ions/dyes: A review

Highlights: • Nanoadsorbents based on conductive polymers can remove heavy metal ions/dye. • Contact time, pH, adsorbent dosage and temperature are effective adsorption factors. • Chemical structures of nanoadsorbents play an important role in adsorption. • Adsorption of metal ions on PANI based nanocomposites is of physical type. Water contamination by toxic heavy metal ions and dyes remains a serious public health problem for humans, so attention on specific methods and technologies to remove heavy metal ions and dyes from wastewaters/aqueous solutions are desired. Numerous adsorbents have been reported for the removal of heavy metal ions/dyes from wastewaters/aqueous solutions. Polyaniline (PANI) and its derivatives, as conducting polymers, are good adsorbents to remove various kinds of heavy metal ions and dyes from wastewaters/aqueous solutions. The nanoadsorbents based on PANI and its derivatives have received much consideration, and are extensively reported in literature. This review focuses on the PANI and its derivatives based on nanoadsorbents for water purification. Various types of these nanoadsorbents used for the removal of heavy metal ions/dyes from wastewaters/aqueous solutions are also briefly compared in this review.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Rossi-alpha measurements of fast plutonium metal assemblies using organic scintillators

The reactivity and the k-effective multiplication factor (k eff ) of a fissionable assembly are quantities of widespread interest. These values can be inferred from Rossi-alpha measurements of the prompt neutron decay constant (or the inverse:α -1 ). It has been shown that 3 He-gas proportional counter-based detection systems are insensitive to α -1 of fast assemblies (much faster than tens of microseconds). Therefore, it is of interest to investigate fast detection systems such as those based on organic scintillation detectors. In this work, an array of 12 cylindrical, 5.08 cm x 5.08 cm diameter trans-stilbene organic scintillators was used to measure five subcritical assemblies. One assembly was a sphere of approximately 4.5 kg of alpha-phase, weapons-grade plutonium (k eff = 0.773, α -1 = 11.84 ns) known as the BeRP ball encased in a thin stainless-steel clad. The other assemblies used the same encased sphere and 7.62 cm of iron, nickel, copper, or tungsten reflectors (k eff = 0.884, 0.916, 0.924, 0.939, respectively and α -1 = 36.60, 41.56, 49.60, 70.32 ns, respectively). Finally, this work (1) validates Rossi-alpha measurements with organic scintillators by demonstrating good agreement between measurements and simulations; and (2), demonstrates that organic scintillator-based systems are sensitive to α -1 on the order of 10–100 ns.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Consequence analyses of sabotage-induced radiological releases in sodium-cooled fast microreactors

Analysis of three sodium-cooled fast microreactors (SFMs) with thermal powers of 10, 30, and 50 MWt showed that smaller reactors result in lower radiological consequences during a postulated sabotage-induced event because of their reduced core inventory. All SFMs used U-10Zr metal fuel enriched to 15 wt% high-assay low-enriched uranium and operated until their respective effective multiplication factor (k eff ) reduced to less than 1 or until the end of their operational lifespan. Sabotage scenarios were simulated at this point, when the fuel inventory within the core contains the highest-level of radioactivity. Radionuclide core inventories were calculated using the SCALE code at shutdown and 3 days post-shutdown. Dose consequence analyses were performed for three sabotage scenarios using the RASCAL tool. As microreactor developers plan for minimal on-site or complete off-site emergency response, it remains essential to evaluate their physical protection needs and potential hazards, including assessing postulated sabotage-induced events that could become more relevant. SFM licensees should identify a credible worst-case, major accident, estimate release source terms, and perform dose consequence analyses to evaluate site-specific physical protection measures. In conclusion, this recommendation supports a risk-informed, performance-based approach, aligning with applicable regulatory requirements, i.e., 10 CFR Parts 100 and 53 rulemaking in the United States.

98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL P↗

Consequence analyses of sabotage-induced radiological releases in high-temperature helium-cooled prismatic microreactors

Here, this study analyzes the radiological dose consequences of sabotage-induced accidents at three high-temperature helium-cooled prismatic microreactors (HTPMs) with thermal power ratings of 1, 10, and 50 MWt. Each HTPM employs uranium oxycarbide tristructural isotropic fuel enriched to 19.75 wt% high-assay low-enriched uranium. Simulations were conducted to estimate reactor core inventory at the point of fuel discharge––when the effective multiplication factor reduced to less than 1––representing peak radionuclide inventory. Postulated sabotage scenarios leading to reactor shutdown were analyzed at two intervals: immediately post-shutdown (0 h) and 3 days after shutdown using the SCALE code for radionuclide inventories and the RASCAL tool for dose consequences. Results show that although HTPMs benefit from inherent safety features and robust fuel design, radiological consequences scale with reactor power because of increased source term inventories. Smaller microreactors exhibited proportionally lower dose consequences. To support the economic and regulatory feasibility of microreactor deployment, this study emphasizes the value of a risk-informed, performance-based approach, as supported by regulations like 10 CFR Parts 100 and 53 in the United States. Microreactor developers should perform site-specific assessments of potential sabotage or low-probability, high-consequence events, especially when considering minimal on-site or full off-site emergency response.

Consequence↗

Collisionless zonal-flow dynamics in quasisymmetric stellarators

The linear collisionless plasma response to a zonal-density perturbation in quasisymmetric stellarators is studied, including the geodesic-acoustic-mode oscillations and the Rosenbluth–Hinton residual flow. While the geodesic-acoustic-mode oscillations in quasiaxisymmetric configurations are similar to tokamaks, they become non-existent in quasi-helically symmetric configurations when the effective safety factor in helical-angle coordinates is small. Compared with concentric-circular tokamaks, the Rosenbluth–Hinton residual is also found to be multiplied by a geometric factor $\mathcal {C}$ that arises from the flux-surface-averaged classical polarization. Using the near-axis-expansion framework, we derive an analytic expression for $\mathcal {C}$ , which varies significantly among different configurations. These analytic results are compared with numerical simulation results from the global gyrokinetic particle-in-cell code GTC, and good agreement with the theoretical Rosenbluth–Hinton residual level is achieved when the quasisymmetry error is small enough.

Zhu, Hongxuan (ORCID:0000000198446972)↗

Valley and Zeeman Splittings in Multilayer Epitaxial Graphene Revealed by Circular Polarization Resolved Magneto-infrared Spectroscopy

Circular-polarization-resolved magneto-infrared studies of multilayer epitaxial graphene (MEG) are performed using tunable quantum cascade lasers in high magnetic fields up to 17.5 T. Landau level (LL) transitions in the monolayer and bilayer graphene inclusions of MEG are resolved, and considerable electron–hole asymmetry is observed in the extracted electronic band structure. For monolayer graphene, a four-fold splitting of the $n$ = 0 to $n$ = 1 LL transition is evidenced and attributed to the lifting of the valley and spin degeneracy of the zeroth LL and the broken electron–hole symmetry. The magnetic field dependence of the splitting further reveals its possible mechanisms. The best fit to experimental data yields effective $g$-factors, $g^*_{vs}$ = 6.7 and $g^*_{ZS}$ = 4.8, for the valley and Zeeman splittings, respectively.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗