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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 37 records · Page 2
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

Monocrystalline 1.7-eV MgCdTe solar cells

Monocrystalline 1.7-eV Mg 0.13 Cd 0.87 Te/Mg x Cd 1-x Te (x > 0.13) double-heterostructure (DH) solar cells with varying Mg composition in the barrier layers are grown by molecular beam epitaxy. Furthermore, a Mg 0.13 Cd 0.87 Te/Mg 0.37 Cd 0.63 Te DH solar cell featuring abrupt interfaces between barriers and absorber and the addition of a SiO 2 anti-reflective coating demonstrates open-circuit voltage (V OC ), short-circuit current density (J SC ), fill factor (FF), and device active-area efficiencies up to 1.129 V, 17.3 mA/cm 2 , 77.7% and 15.2%, respectively. The V OC and FF vary oppositely with the Mg x Cd 1-x Te barrier height indicating an optimal design of the MgCdTe DHs as a tradeoff between carrier confinement and carrier transport. Temperature-dependent V OC measurements reveal the majority of carrier recombination in the devices occurs outside the DHs, in the a-Si:H hole-contact layer and at the interface between the a-Si:H layer and the Mg x Cd 1-x Te top barrier at room temperature. Simulation results for the device with the highest efficiency show that the p-type a-Si:H layer and Mg 0.37 Cd 0.63 Te top barrier contribute 1.3 mA/cm 2 and 2.4 mA/cm 2 J SC loss, respectively.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Understanding asymmetries using integrated simulations of capsule implosions in low gas-fill hohlraums at the National Ignition Facility

Current capsule implosions at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) using high-density-carbon ablators and laser energies close to 2 MJ have shown neutron yields in excess of 50 kJ. Improving on this performance requires understanding of the different degradation mechanisms. For many NIF implosions, nuclear diagnostic signatures have inferred residual hot-spot velocities that correlate with fuel areal density variations consistent with a low-order mode-1 asymmetry. A current working hypothesis attributes these asymmetries to a combination of beam to beam variations in the laser delivery and possibly coupling to target features, such as the diagnostic holes needed for x-ray imaging. Recently, a new source has been identified, thickness variation in the ablator shell. To gain better understanding and eventually mitigate the causes of <ρR> asymmetries, 3D integrated simulations using the actual delivered laser powers are needed. To capture the effect of the diagnostic holes (DHs) using direct numerical simulation would require significantly large computational resources. Instead, our 3D simulations make use of a subgrid model developed using highly-resolved 2D simulations that include several details of the DH engineering complexity. Simulations of NIF shots using hohlraums without DHs, to isolate the effect of beam-to-beam variations, reproduce fairly well the observed nuclear diagnostic signatures. Similarly, reasonable agreement between data and simulations is also obtained in the presence of diagnostic holes. To account for the remaining discrepancies a sensitivity study of ablator thickness variation showed that 1% thickness asymmetries are comparable in effect to 1% peak drive mode-1 asymmetries. Furthermore, this study identified sensitivity to variations in the imbedded doped layer (needed to shield the DT ice from the high energy x-rays generated in the hohlraum) thickness even when the inner and outer surface of the ablator are perfectly spherical.

radiation hydrodynamics↗
DOE OSTI2020

Biodefense Knowledge Management System

After the Amerithrax attacks, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recognized the need to link technical scientific information with law enforcement and national security information in the fight against bioterrorism. The Biodefense Knowledge Center (BKC) was formed to provide timely analysis of technical biodefense-related topics to support DHS and its customers in the interagency. The Biodefense Knowledge Management System (BKMS) was created as the backbone for information management within the BKC. It is a scalable, web-based knowledge management system for organizing disparate data sources. By combining information from 35+ data sources, the BKMS provides a searchable repository for technical information including scientific reports, journal articles, news articles, research funding databases, patent databases, and genomic datasets. The current system contains over 58 million documents and 450 million genomic records, and operates at several classification levels.

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

Gamma Spectroscopy Detector Candidates and Radioisotope Identification Algorithms for Use in National Security Applications

In 2006, the United States Congress mandated for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to screen all cargo containers to protect against terrorist acts and ensure the safety and security of the nation. Containers are screened by gamma and neutron detectors to ensure threat material is not smuggled into the country. However, because commerce is radioactive, detecting the presence of radioactive materials is not sufficient in ensuring the safety and security of the nation. Radioactive materials must also be identified in real time, thus distinguishing threat sources (Uranium-235 and Plutonium-230) from non-threat sources (kitty litter, pot ash, medical isotopes). Screening cargo containers can be considered a two-step process (1) alerting to the presence of radioactive material when gamma counts exceed a threshold setting, and (2) once alerted, identifying the type of radioactive material, which is done by collecting a gamma spectra and analyzing it with an analysis tool/algorithm. For this reason, it is important to evaluate not only emerging technology in neutron and gamma detection, but also investigate new advances in algorithm development for radioisotope identification (RIID). New candidates in detection and on-board algorithm analysis might offer opportunities to make the scanning, detection, and identification process more efficient while still ensuring the health and safety of the public. This research will investigate emerging technology in radiation detection focused on gamma spectroscopy capabilities and RIID algorithms for DHS applications.

61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Community Input on the Need, Scope, and Development Roadmap of a Proposed National Virtual Biosecurity for Bioenergy Crops Center (NVBBCC)

Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) was awarded a pilot project in FY22 under the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science Biopreparedness Research Virtual Environment (BRaVE) initiative, to define research priorities, needs, and requirements for a national virtual center devoted to the biosecurity of bioenergy crops. The mission of the proposed center, referred to as the National Virtual Biosecurity for Bioenergy Crop Center (NVBBCC), would be to provide the scientific basis and tools to detect, characterize, model, and mitigate biothreats to bioenergy crops. This function will be essential to ensure the projected increased US reliance over the next few decades on key plant-based energy products, such as biojet fuel. The NVBBCC is envisioned as a distributed, virtual center with multiple national laboratories at its core to maximize the use of existing unique facilities and expertise across the DOE complex. A major goal of the pilot project was to develop a roadmap for establishing NVBBCC through a series of meetings to gather community input. A total of about 150 individuals, drawn from DOE laboratories, the USDA, academia, NIH, DHS and the private sector participated in six planning meetings held in FY23. Four of the meetings were focused on specific research topics (disease detection, dispersion and disease propagation, biomolecular characterization of plant-pathogen interaction, and mitigation strategies). These four meetings were followed by a meeting that focused on computational needs to support collaborative, data-intensive research within a distributed center as well as workforce development. A final meeting focused on establishing and maintaining preparedness within NVBBCC to respond to an emerging disease within bioenergy crops and how it would collaborate and coordinate with USDA and DHS.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Dose Measurement on Microfocus Computed Tomography Scanner

This Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) outlines the steps for measuring dose in x-ray computed tomography (CT) scans [1] on the MicroCT (MCT) system at the High Explosives Application Facility (HEAF) and other systems relevant to the Livermore Explosives Detection Program (LEDP). These systems include: the DHS LLNL MCT in HEAF, aka HEAFCAT, DHS LLNL MCT Testbed (TB) in B327, and the MCTs at TRMG, HEX2, HMEX, CBX, and IPMO, as described in Section 4.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2021

Overview of NNSS Capabilities

This presentation is required for the DHS CWMD T&E week event. Submission to DHS is July 21. Material in this presentation was captured from publicly released information such as NNSS external website, Fact sheets, SDRD annual report.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Emergency Management of Tomorrow Research – Task 3B Research and Development Community Awareness: Eliciting Emergency Management Stakeholder Input

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) is partnering with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) to execute the Emergency Management (EM) of Tomorrow Research (EMOTR) program to identify current EM research, elicit capability needs from EM practitioners, and identify where technology, such as artificial intelligence (AI), may benefit the future of EM and emergency operations centers. This report details the methodology, analysis, and insights of interviews and focus groups conducted as part of the task to elicit stakeholder input.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Monocrystalline CdSeTe/MgCdTe Double‐Heterostructure Solar Cells

This article reports monocrystalline CdSeTe/MgCdTe double‐heterostructure (DH) solar cells with varying Se compositions in the absorber layers that are grown on InSb substrates by using molecular beam epitaxy. The Se composition in the samples studied is determined to be 4%–11% through high‐resolution X‐ray diffraction (XRD) and photoluminescence measurements. Increased Se incorporation induces higher defect density attributed to increased lattice mismatch, and mixed‐phase formation due to the small difference in formation energies between the wurtzite and zinc blende phases of CdSe, which causes stacking faults and grain boundaries. Devices are fabricated by directly depositing an n‐type indium tin oxide (ITO) layer on the CdSeTe/MgCdTe DHs followed by Ag metal contacts. Reduced bandgap is observed in solar cells with increased Se composition. The devices with an absorber containing 4% Se exhibit an average open‐circuit voltage ( V OC ) of 0.925 V, a short‐circuit current density ( J SC ) of 23.4 mA/cm 2 , a fill factor ( FF ) of 0.650 and an efficiency of 14.1% without anti‐reflection coating. Absorbers with higher Se compositions result in poor device performance, mainly attributed to high defect density in the materials.

Ju, Zheng [Center for Photonics Innovation Arizona↗
DOE OSTI2023

Black hole horizon edge partition functions

We extend a formula for 1-loop black hole determinants by Denef, Hartnoll, and Sachdev (DHS) to spinning fields on any (d + 1)-dimensional static spherically symmetric black hole. By carefully analyzing the regularity condition imposed on the Euclidean eigenfunctions, we reveal an unambiguous bulk-edge split in the 1-loop Euclidean partition function for tensor fields of arbitrary integer spin: the bulk part captures the “renormalized” thermal canonical partition function recently discussed in [1]; the edge part is related to quasinormal modes (QNMs) that fail to analytically continue to a subset of Euclidean modes with enhanced fall-offs near the origin. Since the edge part takes the form of a path integral on S d–1 , this suggests that these are associated with degrees of freedom living on the bifurcation surface in the Lorentzian two-sided black hole geometry. For massive higher spin on static BTZ and massive vector on Nariai black holes, we find that the edge partition function is related to the QNMs with lowest overtone numbers.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

National Critical Minerals Data Dashboard

The Critical Minerals (CM) Data Dashboard provides data-driven insights to help unlock the potential of conventional and unconventional CM resources in the United States. The dashboard focuses on 12 CM essential for producing zero-emission transportation and clean power technology. More information about these CM and potential resources is available in our CM Story Map. Dashboard data sets can be filtered geographically using the options provided along the top of the dashboard. Data sets can also be filtered by various attributes using the options in the expandable side panel on the left side of the screen. The data sets in this dashboard were compiled from multiple sources including the USGS, USEPA, OSMRE, and DHS., Users are encouraged to provide feedback/suggestions on the function and content of the dashboard, as well as any issues that may arise.

Conventional Resources↗
DOE OSTI2021

Evolution and Trends of Industrial Control System Cyber Incidents since 2017

The industrial control systems (ICSs) that manage our critical infrastructure are increasingly converging with corporate networks and the Internet as technology and businesses prioritize digital connectivity. These connections make them more vulnerable and available to malicious cyber actors who traditionally targeted the companies’ more public-facing information technology (IT) networks. This paper will review select publicly reported cyber incidents to highlight the continued and growing threat to ICS devices and operational technology (OT) environments. It will summarize the incident and when available, will provide information on the cyber actors, the vulnerabilities they exploited, and any publications the U.S. Government (USG) provided in response. Data belonging to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will be used to highlight quantitative trends concerning ICS incidents. This paper builds on “History of Industrial Control System Cyber Incidents” (Hemsley & Fisher 2018), a paper that highlighted select noteworthy threats and incidents to ICS systems up to 2017. This paper will similarly review select incidents occurring after the last previously reviewed incident, Triton/HatMan, December 2017, and will note ICS incident trends including IT/OT convergence and advances in cyber-threat actors’ capabilities in observed in the examined incidents.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Sequim Campus Master Plan

Based in Richland, Washington, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is one of ten U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science (SC) national laboratories. PNNL is DOE’s premier chemistry, earth sciences, and data analytics laboratory, delivering vital mission impacts in energy resiliency and national security. PNNL has 19 core capabilities, each a powerful combination of world-class staff, state-of-the- art equipment, and mission-ready facilities. These capabilities represent a collective set of skills and a body of world-leading scientific and engineering work that provides exceptional value and mission delivery to DOE, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and other federal agencies and industry through strategic partnership projects on a not-to-interfere basis. Currently operated by Battelle Memorial Institute, PNNL occupies more than 2.3 million gross square feet (GSF) of buildings and employs approximately 4,700 staff members. PNNL has implemented a rolling 10-year campus strategy, initiated in fiscal year 2013, designed to deliver the foundation for the multidisciplinary science and engineering expertise, equipment, instrumentation, facilities, and infrastructure required to continue providing exceptional value and mission delivery. This strategy is incorporated into PNNL’s annual Laboratory Plan, which serves as DOE-SC’s equivalent of the Five- Year Site Plan required by DOE Order 430.1C Chg. 1, Real Property Asset Management. The PNNL Sequim Campus is located in Clallam County, just outside of Sequim, Washington. PNNL Sequim builds upon a rich history of research related to marine and coastal resources, environmental chemistry, water resources modeling, ecotoxicology, biotechnology, and national security. Facilities at the PNNL Sequim Campus were designed to take advantage of two unique locational assets: the pristine coastal ocean water in Sequim Bay and the region’s exceptionally clean air. Research facilities on the waterfront are supplied with up to 200 gallons per minute (gpm) of seawater and/or groundwater that enables research on aquatic systems ranging from fully seawater to fresh water, with an onsite water treatment system that removes all biological and hazardous chemical residues prior to discharge. Multiple large seawater tanks outside the waterfront laboratories, along with a boat ramp, pier, and floating dock, enable lab-to-field research. The uplands facility takes advantage of the amazing air quality and is built and operated to enable ultratrace chemical/radiological analytical chemistry. This combination of capabilities is not available at any other marine laboratory in the nation.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2020

Automated Threat Recognition For Aviation Security Applications

We have developed a framework for automated threat recognition (ATR) of explosive threat materials for both single-energy and dual-energy X-ray CT systems. Under this framework, two different types of ATR have been developed. The first type of ATR employs supervised machine learning with statistical characterization of target materials for threat identification training. The reliance only on statistical characterization information for threat training uniquely enables this style of ATR to adapt quickly to evolving threats. The second type of ATR employs deep learning through convolutional neural networks. Convolutional neural networks are attractive due to their human-like capacity for learning and strong ability to identify trends and patterns. Although this method is more powerful than the first type, it requires large amounts of training data and therefore is less agile. Each ATR performs threat characterization at the voxel neighborhood level. This approach avoids the use of threat shape as a detection criterion, which is prohibited by DHS and TSA guidelines.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2020

System-Independent X-Ray Characterization

We have developed a method for image reconstruction and analysis of dual-energy X-ray scans that has been demonstrated to yield a physically intuitive characterization of materials (by electron density and effective atomic number) in a system-independent way. Our methodology stands in contrast to common practice of reconstructing images to yield linear attenuation coefficients, which depend strongly on system spectral response. At the core of our method, a technique called dual-energy decomposition is used to generate spectral energy-independent characterizations of the attenuation properties of a material. Inputs to this decomposition include system spectral response estimates and dual-energy X-ray projection data. X-ray cross-section tables are used to convert decomposition results to physical feature estimates (electron density, effective atomic number). Our method currently works best for materials with atomic numbers below 22 (titanium). In prior work for DHS, we demonstrated in a controlled, no-clutter environment that the decomposition technique could be applied to scans of a well-characterized materials on multiple systems with different X-ray spectral responses. In cases where LAC values showed a standard deviation of as much as 20% of mean value, application of our method yielded results with standard deviations as low as 1–3% of mean value.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2020

CUAS Regulatory Authority in the United States [Slides]

Slides describing: (1) How the United States (U.S.) Passes Federal Laws, (2) Initial Actions in Regulatory Space for CUAS, (3) Department of Justice (DOJ): Flow-down Authority, (4) Department of Homeland Security (DHS): Flow-down Authority, (5) CUAS Authority Granting Timeline, (6) CUAS Regulations, (7) Defining UAS Threats, (8) CUAS actions permitted pursuant to 50 USC 2661 for the Department of Energy, (9) Penalties

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Resilient U.S. Land Ports of Entry

The continued operation of Land Ports of Entry (LPOE), managed by the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and General Services Administration% is vital to the U.S. economy and security. Border faculties are included in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Government Facilities Sector2, one of the 16 critical infrastructures "whose assets, systems, and networks, whether physical or virtual, are considered so vital to the United States that their incapacitation or destruction would have a debilitating effect on security, national economic security, national public health or safety, or any combination thereof.'" Specifically, disruptions to the flow of border crossing traffic, in the form of closures or increased border crossing wait times, impact the economy and security of all countries involved. This paper describes a process for analyzing and improving the resilience of U.S. Land Ports of Entry. For LPOE, the team believes that energy resilience is the primary objective due to the complete reliance on the e-manifest system and the increasing use of Multi-Energy Portals (MEPs). Emanifests are part of CPB's Automated Commercial Environment (ACE). They document several key pieces of information about cargo vehicles wishing to cross the border into the United States and are submitted before arriving at the port. Vehicles can be flagged for more invasive inspection based on the content of the e-manifest. MEPs are a non-intrusive inspection (NII) technology used to scan the contents of the cargo. Together MEPs and ACE serve an important role in aiding CBP with their mission to protect "the public from dangerous people and materials", and "enabling legitimate trade and travel.'" To analyze resilience of a port, the team would need to understand the port's current energy usage, which systems depend on energy and what backup systems exist, and any emergency operation plans that dictate how systems are operated in the event of a power outage. The team would also need to determine the design basis threats (DBTs) for the LPOE which could include natural disasters, manmade events, and accidents. The magnitudes of the DBTs are calculated and are then translated to expected impacts on the infrastructure and systems at the port. With this information gathered, existing LPOE models developed here at Sandia National Laboratories could be extended to support decisions about resilience. Current models are implemented in FlexSim, a 3rd party discrete event simulator. FlexSim provides 3-D visuals of physical layout that can reveal valuable insights, allows input to be variable (e.g. time it takes to interact with the CBP officer at primary inspection can vary) so that a whole range of possibilities can be captured in the results, and can be used to collect user-defined output metrics. Current LPOE models focus on cargo vehicle traffic, and process changes caused by the installation of new drive-through MEPs. Extending them to address resilience questions would require the addition of key pieces of information learned during the resilience analysis including critical systems, failure rates, and process changes for when failures occur. The primary output metric for current models is border crossing wait time. Additional metrics would also be added to the model to gain a more complete understanding of impacts related to resilience, for example, MEP scan rate. Once complete, the model could be used to analyze the effectiveness of mitigation strategies representing some future state.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Bridge Seismic Screening Tool (BSST), Version 2.0

The Regional Resiliency Assessment Program (RRAP) is a cooperative assessment of specific critical infrastructure within a designated geographic area and a regional analysis of the surrounding infrastructure that addresses a range of infrastructure resilience issues that could have regionally and nationally significant consequences. In 2018, DHS’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) sponsored the Oregon Transportation Systems RRAP project in coordination with the Office of the Governor (under the oversight of the state resilience officer), the Oregon Office of Emergency Management (OEM), the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT), and other regional stakeholders (CISA 2021). This project focuses on assessing the impacts of a Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ) earthquake on state transportation systems and, in particular, how those impacts may affect the ability of emergency response efforts to move supplies into the region. The intended outcome of this analysis is the prioritization of transportation routes and modes for additional planning, investment, hardening, or other activities to enhance their resilience—and therefore, to enhance their ability to support response and recovery efforts following a CSZ earthquake. An important part of this transportation system-level assessment has been to assess the seismic vulnerability of the state highway system. In doing so, the RRAP project team used the Bridge Seismic Screening Tool (BSST) to assess, at a system-level, the potential impacts that a CSZ earthquake could have on state highway bridges (Bergerson et al. 2019).1 Argonne National Laboratory (Argonne), in collaboration with the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT), originally developed the BSST as part of the 2017 Washington State Transportation Systems RRAP project, a sister project to the 2018 Oregon Transportation Systems RRAP project. Argonne updated the BSST during this more recent project in Oregon based on feedback from stakeholders and subject matter experts (SMEs) on the original version of the tool. The first step in the BSST is to assess the seismic vulnerability of roadway bridges following a CSZ earthquake to determine a projected or potential damage state. Damage states then help determine approximate reopening times for bridge crossings.2 This document provides details on the BSST methodology, the implementation of that tool to analyze the projected damage incurred in a CSZ earthquake scenario, and the determination of corresponding reopening times of interstate, state highway, and local bridges following such an event.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗