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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 433 records · Page 24
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2017

Los Alamos National Laboratory: Request for Information (RFI) – Call for Commercialization Partners on behalf of the Department of Energy’s Fuel Cell Technologies Office (FCTO) L’Innovator Pilot Program

The purpose of the L’Innovator is to assemble unique, state-of-the-art IP bundles developed at the national labs that aggregate synergistic technologies in furtherance of the emerging hydrogen and fuel cell market. The first L’Innovator IP bundle consists of Oxygen Reduction Reaction (ORR) Catalyst technology developed at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), combined with Membrane Electrode Assembly (MEA) technology developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL).

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION↗
DOE OSTI2014

Los Alamos Explosives Performance Key to Stockpile Stewardship

As the U.S. Nuclear Deterrent ages, one essential factor in making sure that the weapons will continue to perform as designed is understanding the fundamental properties of the high explosives that are part of a nuclear weapons system. As nuclear weapons go through life extension programs, some changes may be advantageous, particularly through the addition of what are known as "insensitive" high explosives that are much less likely to accidentally detonate than the already very safe "conventional" high explosives that are used in most weapons. At Los Alamos National Laboratory explosives research includes a wide variety of both large- and small-scale experiments that include small contained detonations, gas and powder gun firings, larger outdoor detonations, large-scale hydrodynamic tests, and at the Nevada Nuclear Security Site, underground sub-critical experiments.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2015

Los Alamos Discovers Super Efficient Solar Using Perovskite Crystals

State-of-the-art photovoltaics using high-purity, large-area, wafer-scale single-crystalline semiconductors grown by sophisticated, high temperature crystal-growth processes offer promising routes for developing low-cost, solar-based clean global energy solutions for the future. Solar cells composed of the recently discovered material organic-inorganic perovskites offer the efficiency of silicon, yet suffer from a variety of deficiencies limiting the commercial viability of perovskite photovoltaic technology. In research to appear in Science, Los Alamos National Laboratory researchers reveal a new solution-based hot-casting technique that eliminates these limitations, one that allows for the growth of high-quality, large-area, millimeter-scale perovskite crystals and demonstrates that highly efficient and reproducible solar cells with reduced trap assisted recombination can be realized.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2017

Studies of fission fragment properties at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE)

Nuclear data related to the fission process are needed for a wide variety of research areas, including fundamental science, nuclear energy and non-proliferation. While some of the relevant data have been measured to the required accuracies there are still many aspects of fission that need further investigation. One such aspect is how Total Kinetic Energy (TKE), fragment yields, angular distributions and other fission observables depend on excitation energy of the fissioning system. Another question is the correlation between mass, charge and energy of fission fragments. At the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE) we are studying neutron-induced fission at incident energies from thermal up to hundreds of MeV using the Lujan Center and Weapons Neutron Research (WNR) facilities. Advanced instruments such as SPIDER (time-of-flight and kinetic energy spectrometer), the NIFFTE Time Projection Chamber (TPC), and Frisch grid Ionization Chambers (FGIC) are used to investigate the properties of fission fragments, and some important results for the major actinides have been obtained.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Benched: Upgrading and Updating the Los Alamos Benchmark Suite for the 21st Century [Slides]

The presentation begins by stating that most organizations make choices to handle specific things when preparing input files for validation, such as which elemental abundance data to use, how to decompose specific elements, and setting calculation precision. It also discusses the consequences, which include differing calculation results between different organizations for the same case, even when using the same code. This is illustrated by the intercomparison exercise and input files that are prepared by one organization and are not necessarily correct for another. The presentation explains that the Los Alamos Benchmark Suite is a centralized repository of high-quality benchmark models currently under development at LANL. The objectives of the new repository are to remain up to date with the latest ICSBEP revision, to have a formal review and revision process, to (eventually) be an open-source repository, and to provide new tools for improved input and output file generation and review.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Los Alamos National Laboratory Hazardous Waste Facility Permit Community Relations Plan

The requirements of the Hazardous Waste Facility Permit are fulfilled through execution of LANL's fourth strategic goal: “Enabling mission delivery through next-generation facility, infrastructure, and operational excellence.” With input from our stakeholders, we will continue to fulfill those requirements and to improve our waste operations. In 2015, the Laboratory purpose statement focused waste management efforts by directing delivery of mission success through operational effectiveness and scientific excellence. This Plan advances that purpose through community involvement. In the process of achieving our national security mission, Los Alamos National Laboratory generates some hazardous and mixed waste. Hazardous waste is solid waste that is dangerous or potentially harmful to human health or the environment. Hazardous wastes can be liquids, solids, gases, or sludges. They can be discarded as commercial products, such as cleaning fluids or pesticides, or as the byproducts of operations. Specific substances are listed in 40 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Part 261: 40 CFR Part 261. Hazardous waste management activities are regulated by the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency and the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) pursuant to New Mexico Hazardous Waste Act (HWA; Chapter 74, Article 4 NMSA 1978) and regulations under the Act. In 1989, NMED issued the Hazardous Waste Facility Permit (EPA ID Number NM0890010515-1) that established standards for the Laboratory to manage, store, and treat hazardous wastes on-site and to undertake the closure, post closure care, and cleanup as necessary, of permitted waste management units. On November 30, 2010, NMED renewed the Hazardous Waste Facility Permit (the Permit). In June 2020 the Permittees submitted a permit renewal application to the NMED for their review and approval. The Hazardous Waste Facility Permit Community Relations Plan (CRP) describes the scope of public involvement in the activities of the Permit. The CRP is specifically designed to facilitate the community outreach, engagement, and relations activities concerning the Laboratory’s Hazardous Waste Facility Permit and coordinates with but does not include public involvement for other Laboratory programs, initiatives, or environmental activities.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
NASA NTRS2000

Alterations in dose and lineal energy spectra under different shieldings in the Los Alamos high-energy neutron field

Nuclear interactions of space radiation with shielding materials result in alterations in dose and lineal energy spectra that depend on the specific elemental composition, density and thickness of the material. The shielding characteristics of materials have been studied using charged-particle beams and radiation transport models by examining the risk reduction using the conventional dose-equivalent approach. Secondary neutrons contribute a significant fraction of the total radiation exposure in space. An experiment to study the changes in dose and lineal energy spectra by shielding materials was carried out at the Los Alamos Nuclear Science Center neutron facility. In the energy range of about 2 to 200 MeV, this neutron spectrum is similar in shape within a factor of about 2 to the spectrum expected in the International Space Station habitable modules. It is shown that with a shielding thickness of about 5 g cm(-2), the conventional radiation risk increases, in some cases by as much as a factor of 2, but decreases with thicknesses of about of 20 g cm(-2). This suggests that care must be taken in evaluating the shielding effectiveness of a given material by including both the charged-particle and neutron components of space radiation.

NASA Discipline Radiation Health↗
DOE OSTI2017

The Tragic Bazooka Accident at Los Alamos on July 14, 1962

In recent years the Laboratory has made information (documents, photographs, and perspectives) regarding the occupational explosives accidents that killed seven men in the late 1950s more accessible to the public. While pursuing this effort, we were reminded of similar tragedies that occurred to children of the community. The purpose of this paper is to make information that has come into our hands more available to the public regarding these accidents. Following this introduction, a brief synopsis is provided for each accident. The appendices contain source documents for the 1962 accident that are not generally available. The community of Los Alamos, New Mexico was born out of a military post created to support the secret Manhattan Project during World War II. Security was provided by military police and some training exercises were conducted using live ordnance. In two instances unexploded ordnance (UXO) from this era was found “in the field” by residents hiking in the local area and brought into town. Tragically, handling these “bazooka” rounds as “dud” munitions resulted in death for one child and injury to several others. The first accident occurred on Saturday, September 6, 1947, which resulted in injuries to two boys, ages 5 and 12. The second accident occurred on Saturday, July 14, 1962 and resulted in the death of one five-year-old boy, and injuries to four other children, ages 6 to 10 years-old. The latter accident is the primary focus of the paper.

45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEF↗
DOE OSTI2014

Los Alamos - A Short History

At 5:45 am on the morning of July 16, 1945, the world’s first atomic bomb exploded over a remote section of the southern New Mexican desert known as the Jornada del Muerto, the Journey of Death. Three weeks later, the atomic bombs known as Little Boy and Fat Man brought World War II to an end. Working literally around the clock, these first atomic bombs were designed and built in just thirty months by scientists working at a secret scientific laboratory in the mountains of New Mexico known by its codename, Project Y, better known to the world as Los Alamos.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Nuclear Criticality Experiments Research Center Futures: A Report of a Workshop held September 6-9, 2022, Los Alamos, NM, November, 2022

Experiments and training with critical assemblies and fissionable material (at or near the critical state) that explore reactivity phenomena are central to a number of national security challenges. From fission energy to nuclear weapons to a broad suite of scientific challenges, it is clear that additional capacity and capability are needed. The National Criticality Experiments Research Center (NCERC) marked 10 years of operations in 2021. This anniversary was an opportune time to celebrate our successes and progress, and to evaluate the remaining and emergent challenges. Against this backdrop, a workshop of approximately 140 national and international leaders in nuclear research was convened in Los Alamos, New Mexico to explore “NCERC Futures.” Therefore, the present workshop focused specifically on needed capabilities and tools to meet the research challenges in eight topical mission areas served by NCERC. As each Topical Group summarized their discussions in the out brief, it was recognized that key challenges could be met through enabling infrastructure investments and new critical assemblies. Enabling infrastructure includes staffing, additional space/buildings, developing an agile bounding safety basis, the ability to keep pace with technological advances in detectors and data acquisition systems (allowing use of those with Bluetooth™ and similar technologies), an expanded set of materials options (especially plutonium), a “Plug and Play” design and implementation mindset, and a facility that enabled free-field measurements. The new critical assemblies that were identified as having the most impact were a bare plutonium (Pu) Critical Assembly, a Horizontal Split Table (HST), a Super Comet, and a Uranium Solution Burst Assembly. NECRC is a unique, one-of-a-kind facility in the United States. If all the improvements were to be made, NCERC would enable the United States and its partners to address many important research questions related to criticality. These include but are not limited to: (1) Covering the entire neutron energy spectrum for both highly enriched uranium (HEU) and Pu in configurations for virtually all conceivable applications; (2) Performing multi-physics solution experiments and irradiations with a Uranium Solution Burst Assembly, which more closely resembles actual criticality accidents; (3) Conducting free-field experiments to make basic fission physics measurements and much cleaner benchmarks with various experimental observables; and (4) Providing more training classes and more experiments annually at greater cost efficiency enabled by additional buildings and machines and an agile, bounding, risk-balanced Safety Basis. In the end, workshop attendees enthusiastically concluded that NCERC Futures are bright and the workshop helped to identify a roadmap of capability gaps that need to be addressed. This report documents the results of those efforts.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Floodplain Assessment for the Upper Cañon de Valle Watershed Enhancement Project in Technical Area 16 at Los Alamos National Laboratory

This floodplain assessment was prepared in accordance with 10 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 1022 Compliance with Floodplain and Wetland Environmental Review Requirements, which was promulgated to implement the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) requirements under Executive Order 11988 Floodplain Management and Executive Order 11990 Wetlands Protection. According to 10 CFR 1022, a 100-year floodplain is defined as “the lowlands adjoining inland and coastal waters and relatively flat areas and flood prone areas of offshore islands.” In this action, DOE is proposing to control the run-on of storm water by slowing water velocity and managing sediments from the upper portions of the Cañon de Valle watershed on Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) property with a number of new watershed controls near and within the 100-year floodplain (hereafter floodplain). The proposed work will comply with requirements under the Settlement Agreement and Stipulated Final Compliance Order (Settlement Agreement) Number HWB-14-20.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2016

“Internal Dosimetry is Multidisciplinary, Challenging, and Exciting” An interview with John Klumpp, Ph.D., Los Alamos National Laboratory

Here we want to give our student readers a good picture of what it is like to work in various types of organizations and possibly aid them in choosing a career that’s a good fit for them, we have introduced a new series in this section of the newsletter. We will be chatting with young professionals working in different settings— national laboratories, academia, hospitals, and industries—about their back - ground, their responsibilities, what they like about working for their employer, and what suggestions they have for students aspiring to a similar career. In the first installment of the series, I talked to John Klumpp of Radiation Protection Services Group at Los Alamos National Laboratory about his experiences.

61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY↗
DOE OSTI2024

LATTE: Los Alamos TravelTime package based on Eikonal equation

This Fortran code focuses on traveltime computation and tomography based on eikonal equation. Specifically, the package provides three major functionalities: (1) forward modeling of traveltime from single-point or ensemble source based on factorized eikonal equation, (2) adjoint-state first-arrival traveltime tomography based on picked first arrival traveltime using steepest descent, conjugate gradient, or limited-memory BFGS inversion scheme, and (3) adjoint-state joint transmission-reflection tomography based on picked first-arrival and reflection traveltimes. The package applies to forward modeling and tomography based on traveltime in 2D and 3D isotropic regular-grid models. We name this package LATTE – Los Alamos TravelTime package based on Eikonal equation. * The code is for accompanying a journal paper under preparation. The paper will be submitted via LA-UR separately later.

Gao, Kai↗
DOE OSTI2012

Population Files for Use With CAP88 at Los Alamos

CAP88 (Clean Air Act Assessment Package 1988) is a computer model developed for the US Environmental Protection Agency to assess the potential dose from radionuclide emissions to air and to demonstrate compliance with the Clean Air Act. It has options to calculate either individual doses, in units of mrem, or a collective dose, also called population dose, in units of person-rem. To calculate the collective dose, CAP88 uses a population file such as LANL.pop, that lists the number of people in each sector (N, NNE, NE, etc.) as a function of distance (1 to 2 km, etc.) out to a maximum radius of 80 km. Early population files are described in the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) Environmental Reports for 1985 (page 14) and subsequent years. LA-13469-MS describes a population file based on the 1990 census. These files have been updated several times, most recently in 2006 for CAP88 version 3. The 2006 version used the US census for 2000. The present paper describes the 2012 updates, using the 2010 census.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Application of New Los Alamos OPLIB Opacities in Solar Modeling Using the Mesa Code

The Sun provides the only local laboratory to test our understanding of stellar physics. The production, then, of valid dynamical models of the Sun is critical to how we think about other stars. Despite improvements in modeling methodologies and abundance measurements, solar models continue to reproduce errors in convection zone depth and surface helium abundance compared to helioseismic observations. Using the 1D stellar evolution code MESAstar, this work first evaluates the effect of changes to timestep resolution and mixing length theory on model outputs. A standard test case is then constructed with both GS98 and AGSS09 abundances using OP and OPAL opacities before implementing the new Los Alamos OPLIB opacities. It is shown that, when using GS98 abundances, OPLIB opacities improve agreement with helioseismic inference of the convection zone base radius, R czb , by 1.68-σ and 1.19-σ compared to OP and OPAL, respectively, while worsening agreement with the inferred envelope helium mass fraction, Y surf , by 0.63-σ and 0.98-σ for OP and OPAL.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗