SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “Regulatory Development”

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.

SourceResearch connectionFrom yearThrough year

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 451 records · Page 25

All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

DOE OSTI2026

Stakeholder Questionnaire on Fish Passage Facilities at U.S. Hydropower Developments

To mitigate the environmental impacts of hydropower dams on fish populations in rivers, fish passage infrastructure may be required by regulatory authorities or recommended by state or federal agencies to allow migratory fish to pass hydropower barriers and complete their life histories. However, information on the location, types, and characteristics of fish passage infrastructure is incomplete at the national scale. This lack of information limits understanding of current fish passage capabilities and hinders efforts to anticipate future passage requirements during project licensing or relicensing. To address this knowledge gap, researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory partnered with federal agency and industry stakeholders to create the first national-scale database of fish passage infrastructure at U.S. hydropower developments. As part of this effort, a stakeholder questionnaire was created and deployed to solicit information on fish passage infrastructure, including engineering characteristics, operational schedules, targeted species, and costs. This online questionnaire was designed to allow respondents to provide highly detailed information regarding fish passage capabilities at U.S. hydropower developments as efficiently as possible. The questionnaire improved database coverage and accuracy by providing valuable development- or passage-specific stakeholder knowledge that is not otherwise publicly available. However, questionnaire response rates were low, and stakeholders showed a preference for providing data via the spreadsheet template. This is likely because most stakeholders had high-level knowledge about fish passage existence and type at many features, and few stakeholders had highly detailed, feature-specific knowledge of fish passage infrastructure, cost, operational scheduling, and capabilities. Nonetheless, the development and deployment of the stakeholder questionnaire advanced the project in several fundamental ways, and a similar questionnaire may be valuable for future database expansion via targeted dissemination to stakeholders with confirmed knowledge of detailed fish passage information at specific hydropower projects.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2026

Evolution of storage monitoring – update in response to commercial and regulatory drivers

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is in transition from first-of-a kind projects and research-orientated pilots to commercially-motivated applications. Monitoring results from many newly developed and planned large scale commercial projects are limited; however, it is worthwhile to assess their evolution and consider new strategies as part of an effort to assess and document best practices. Commercial monitoring is targeted to activities that comply with regulatory drivers and de-risk investments. Commercial monitoring also supports accounting that storage has occurred and is tied to project financing. It deals with long time frames and large volumes injected into multiple wells and multiple projects in favorable areas. We see developing trends toward reproducible workflows that systematically reduce risks and clarify expectations for oversight and long-term surveillance. Monitoring techniques showing increasing trends include injection zone pressure as a history-matching and compliance tool. To reduce cost and environmental impact of time-lapse seismic data collection, deploying new approaches and tools, such as use of fibre and installed sources are increasingly applied. Concern over the risk of induced seismicity by regulatory bodies and the general public has increased, which has also resulted in increased monitoring. Some techniques used in the early research phases have been sidelined or used only in restricted applications. For example, geochemical analyses in the injection zone as well as the environment are now being deployed less than it was in research-oriented programs, except in the US where it is required by the permitting process. Expectations of frequent area-wide near surface monitoring have also decreased.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

DOE OSTI2022

Progress on Near-Term Tasks for the Development of Advanced Reactor Mechanistic Source Term Modeling and Simulation Tools

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

DOE OSTI2023

Progress on Long-Term Objectives for the Development of Advanced Reactor Mechanistic Source Term Modeling and Simulation Tools

To assist both the advanced reactor industry and U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in the pursuit of reactor design and licensing, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) program has established a mechanistic source term (MST) research project under the auspices of the Multiphysics Applications technical area. MST analysis is central to the reactor licensing process and a focus of the NRC regarding their mission to provide reasonable assurance of adequate protection of public health and safety and environment. The MST research project is a collaboration between Argonne National Laboratory (Argonne) and Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) with a high-level objective to coordinate the development of comprehensive advanced reactor MST mod/sim capabilities to support risk-informed design and licensing decisions. As part of this effort, an MST mod/sim development pathway was developed in FY21, which outlines the high-level objectives and near-term tasks necessary to achieve the project objectives. Since publication of the development pathway, Argonne and SNL have focused initial efforts on addressing the “near-term tasks” outlined in the report, and the current work provides a status update of the progress achieved in FY22. This report is a progress update on 6 tasks supporting molten salt reactor (MSR) and sodium fast reactor (SFR) MST analyses which were initiated in FY22 as recommended high priority near-term tasks. These tasks were continued into FY23 as they also support previously recommended long-term development objectives to advance MST analyses for these advanced reactors.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

DOE OSTI2020

Selective Enrichment Coupled with Proteomics to Identify S-Acylated Plasma Membrane Proteins in Arabidopsis

Protein S-acylation, predominately in the form of palmitoylation, is a reversible lipid post-translational modification (PTM) on cysteines that plays important roles in protein localization, trafficking, activity, and complex assembly. The functions and regulatory mechanisms of Sacylation have been extensively studied in mammals, owing to remarkable development of the high-resolution proteomics and the discovery of the S-acylation-related enzymes. However, the advance of S-acylation studies in plants lags farther behind than that in mammals, mainly due to the lack of knowledge about proteins responsible for this process, such as protein acyltransferases (PATs) and their substrates. In this article, a systematic protocol to study global S-acylation in Arabidopsis seedlings is described. The procedures are presented in detail, including preparation of Arabidopsis seedlings, enrichment of plasma membrane (PM) proteins, followed by enrichment of S-acylated proteins/peptides based on the acyl-biotin exchange (ABE) method, and large-scale identification of S-acylated proteins/peptides via mass spectrometry. This approach enables researchers to study S-acylation of PM proteins in plants in a systematic and straightforward way. Basic protocol 1: Preparation of Arabidopsis seedling materials Basic protocol 2: Isolation and enrichment of plasma membrane proteins Support protocol 1: Determination of protein concentration using BCA assay Basic Protocol 3: Enrichment of S-acylated proteins by ABE method Support protocol 2: Protein precipitation by methanol/chloroform method Basic Protocol 4: Trypsin digestion and proteomic analysis Alternate protocol 1: Pre-resin digestion and peptide level enrichment.

S-acylation, palmitoylation, plasma membrane prote↗

DOE OSTI2021

The challenges of achieving a 100% renewable electricity system in the United States

Not Available

Denholm, Paul↗

DOE OSTI2026

A Review and Outlook on Experimental Advances and Innovations in Geological CO 2 Storage: Insights from Depleted Gas Reservoirs and Saline Aquifers

Geological storage of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) in depleted gas reservoirs and deep saline aquifers is a key part of global decarbonization efforts. As carbon capture and storage advances toward commercial-scale deployment, the credibility and scalability of laboratory experiments are increasingly vital for guiding safe and effective field implementation. This review offers a comprehensive, cross-scale evaluation of experimental methodologies, including core flooding, high-pressure, high-temperature systems, microfluidic visualization, and emerging systems such as multilayer commingled/compartmentalized core flooding, 3D-printed micromodels, and AI-powered digital twins. These innovations are demonstrated to enhance representativeness, reproducibility, and real-time insight, thereby addressing the limitations of conventional workflows. A critical analysis of methodological gaps, such as inconsistent pressure–temperature conditions, oversimplified brine chemistry, and a lack of standardization, reveals experimental sources of scale translation errors and performance uncertainty. By comparing the unique challenges of depleted gas reservoirs (such as low water saturation and legacy well leakage) to those of saline aquifers (including pressure buildup and caprock integrity), this review identifies formation-specific priorities for experimental design. Novel contributions include a synthesis of best practices, integration strategies for model calibration, and recommendations for standardizing core handling, saturation procedures, and reporting protocols. Furthermore, this work serves as a guide for developing robust, field-relevant experimental strategies that can increase the deployment and regulatory acceptance of CO 2 storage technologies at scale.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2025

Review of Reactor Facilities without Main Control Rooms

Small, advanced reactors may require few, if any, safety-related human actions (HAs) and fewer HAs to monitor and control the plant. In comparison to large light water reactors, these are significant changes that have implications for many aspects of an applicant's human factors engineering (HFE), including control room design, plant staffing, and the management of safety functions. To support the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) ability to evaluate these changes, information needs to be developed addressing the characteristics and potential issues. The objectives of our research were to (1) identify when a traditional main control room (MCR) may not be necessary, (2) identify workplace design alternatives to traditional MCRs, and (3) develop guidance for reviewing an applicant's workplace designs with and without a MCR. We determined that the safety question isn't so much justifying why a design has no MCR, but rather verifying that important human actions can be accurately and reliably performed under a range of challenging conditions using the HSIs provided regardless of their location. We developed guidance to review alternatives to MCRs based on HFE analyses for determining workplace location and design.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

DOE OSTI2024

Cybersecurity Baselines for Electric Distribution Systems and DER

The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) has partnered with the Department of Energy (DOE) to develop a set of cybersecurity baselines for electric distribution systems and the distributed energy resources (DERs) that connect to them. Cybersecurity is an integral underpinning of power system resilience, and this initiative builds on work that states have undertaken over the last decade to mitigate cybersecurity risk across their critical infrastructures.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

DOE OSTI2020

A PROVEN APPROACH FOR EFFECTIVE COMPUTER SECURITY SELF-ASSESSMENTS AT NUCLEAR FACILITIES

A proven method for conducting cybersecurity self-assessments at nuclear power plants is now available for international use. This method was originally developed by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, under the sponsorship of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), for use at U.S. nuclear power plants. The “Method,” described in NUREG/CR-6847 “Cyber Security Self-Assessment Method for U.S. Nuclear Power Plants,” was originally a limited release document that was withheld from public disclosure but is now publicly available. The Method provides a systematic, phased, and risk-informed approach to help decision makers and security specialists understand their relative cybersecurity posture. Completed Method assessments may be used to support or validate selection of computer security controls to mitigate cyber threats as well as demonstrate compliance with regulations or statutes enacted by competent authorities. The Method assesses the cybersecurity posture of key systems at a nuclear facility with a focus on protection of design base functions. It considers both physical and digital elements of system vulnerabilities and the resulting potential consequences from exploitation. It is well-suited for addressing blended cyberattacks. A semi-quantitative analytical approach is used in the evaluation of potential vulnerabilities, consequences, and risks and provides a technical basis for the selection of security controls to mitigate cyberattacks. The Method’s application at U.S. nuclear power plants has been very encouraging. The only nuclear plant in the United States that did not have adverse findings during its initial NRC computer security inspection prepared for inspection through the diligent application of this self-assessment method and the implementation of recommendations that came out of that self-assessment. Nuclear facilities around the world might find application of the Method extremely helpful for making cost-effective, risk-based decisions regarding computer security and for preparing to pass computer security inspections by their competent authorities.

Cyber security, Nuclear security, Self-assessment↗

DOE OSTI2022

Nurturing the Industrial Accelerator Technology Base in the US

The purpose of this white paper is to discuss the importance of having a world class domestic industrial vendor base, capable of supporting the needs of the particle accelerator facilities, and the necessary steps to support and develop such a base in the United States. The paper focuses on economic, regulatory, and policy-driven barriers and hurdles, which presently limit the depth and scope of broader industrial participation in US accelerator facilities. It discusses the international competition landscape and proposes steps to improve the strength and vitality of US industry.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

DOE OSTI2022

The Publication and Endorsement of the ASME/ANS Probabilistic Risk Assessment Standard for Advanced Non-Light Water Reactor Nuclear Power Plants

Due to growing interest in non-light water reactor (NLWR) concepts, the predecessor to the American Nuclear Society (ANS)/American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Joint Committee on Nuclear Risk Management (JCNRM) initiated development of a NLWR probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) standard in 2006. The developed standard, released for trial use in 2013, was the first integral PRA standard created by the JCNRM, containing requirements ranging from the development of initiating events to the analysis of offsite radiological consequence. Based on feedback from pilot applications of the trial standard, a revised version of the standard was developed and balloted in 2020, with unanimous passage by the JCNRM and formal publication as an American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standard in 2021. The paper provides an overview of the standard and its development process. In addition, the paper reviews the latest status of U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission endorsement efforts through Regulatory Guide 1.247.

Fleming, K.↗

DOE OSTI2024

Pre-hypertrophic chondrogenic enhancer landscape of limb and axial skeleton development

Chondrocyte differentiation controls skeleton development and stature. Here we provide a comprehensive map of chondrocyte-specific enhancers and show that they provide a mechanistic framework through which non-coding genetic variants can influence skeletal development and human stature. Working with fetal chondrocytes isolated from mice bearing a Col2a1 fluorescent regulatory sensor, we identify 780 genes and 2'704 putative enhancers specifically active in chondrocytes using a combination of RNA-seq, ATAC-seq and H3K27ac ChIP-seq. Most of these enhancers (74%) show pan-chondrogenic activity, with smaller populations being restricted to limb (18%) or trunk (8%) chondrocytes only. Notably, genetic variations overlapping these enhancers better explain height differences than those overlapping non-chondrogenic enhancers. Finally, targeted deletions of identified enhancers at the Fgfr3, Col2a1, Hhip and, Nkx3-2 loci confirm their role in regulating cognate genes. This enhancer map provides a framework for understanding how genes and non-coding variations influence bone development and diseases.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2022

Development of Training Materials for Pathologists to Provide Machine Learning Validation Data of Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocytes in Breast Cancer

The High Throughput Truthing project aims to develop a dataset for validating artificial intelligence and machine learning models (AI/ML) fit for regulatory purposes. The context of this AI/ML validation dataset is the reporting of stromal tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (sTILs) density evaluations in hematoxylin and eosin-stained invasive breast cancer biopsy specimens. After completing the pilot study, we found notable variability in the sTILs estimates as well as inconsistencies and gaps in the provided training to pathologists. Using the pilot study data and an expert panel, we created custom training materials to improve pathologist annotation quality for the pivotal study. We categorized regions of interest (ROIs) based on their mean sTILs density and selected ROIs with the highest and lowest sTILs variability. In a series of eight one-hour sessions, the expert panel reviewed each ROI and provided verbal density estimates and comments on features that confounded the sTILs evaluation. We aggregated and shaped the comments to identify pitfalls and instructions to improve our training materials. From these selected ROIs, we created a training set and proficiency test set to improve pathologist training with the goal to improve data collection for the pivotal study. We are not exploring AI/ML performance in this paper. Instead, we are creating materials that will train crowd-sourced pathologists to be the reference standard in a pivotal study to create an AI/ML model validation dataset. The issues discussed here are also important for clinicians to understand about the evaluation of sTILs in clinical practice and can provide insight to developers of AI/ML models.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2022

An overview of the evolving jurisdictional scope of the U.S. Clean Water Act for hydrologists

Abstract The Clean Water Act (CWA) is the primary federal mechanism by which the physical, chemical, and biological integrity of streams, lakes, and wetlands are protected in the United States. The CWA has evolved considerably since its initial passage in 1948, including explicit expansions and contractions of jurisdictional scope through a series of legislative actions, court decisions, and agency rules. Here, we provide a practical summary of the CWA's evolution, detailing the major updates or revisions and their circumstances. Additionally, we identify the jurisdictional scope of the law for rivers and streams, lakes, and wetlands based on the language used and implementation by the agencies during the same time period. While the rulemaking process commonly uses language that will be abstract to many hydrologists, understanding the on‐the‐ground implications, quantifying regulatory (un)certainties, and assessing the magnitude of changes through time is important to understanding the implications of environmental regulation development, litigation, and enforcement. Thus, we translate the enforcement norms and definitions into quantitative estimates for Clean Water Act scope in the Wabash River Basin (Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, USA) as a demonstration of the spatial consequences of changing regulatory language. This article is categorized under: Engineering Water > Planning Water Human Water > Water Governance Water and Life > Conservation, Management, and Awareness

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2025

Insights from Surrogate Industries on Remote Operations for Advanced Reactors

With development of advanced reactors, understanding the human factors considerations related to remote operations remains an important topic. This work presents insights captured from reviewing relevant surrogate industries with remote operations, as they may apply to advanced reactor development. This work provides insights into important human factors considerations for remote operations to ensure safe and reliable adoption of these prospective reactor technologies.

99 - GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

DOE OSTI2020

Optimization of Energy Flow through Synthetic Metabolic Modules and Regulatory Networks in a Model Photosynthetic Eukaryotic Microbe

Photosynthetic organisms have recently gained considerable attention for a role in development of renewable energy sources. Genome-enabled systems biology methods, coupled with functional and synthetic genomics, present opportunities to develop sustainable and economical applications such as fuel production within the next 10 to 15 years. However, optimization of light-driven metabolism for biomass or biofuel production will require a detailed systems biology understanding of photosynthetic processes and cellular metabolism. Genome-scale metabolic models (GEMs) are at the core of systems analysis of cellular processes and form a common organizational framework for analyses of data resulting from functional genomics experimental work and computational studies. Therefore, there is a clear demand for high quality photosynthetic model organisms and the appropriate computational tools that enable systems analysis of light-driven metabolism. Through research conducted we expanded the currently available repertoire of photosynthetic GEMs to include the commercially valuable model diatom Phaeoctylum tricornutum. Diatoms have a peculiar and distinct evolutionary footprint and represent a major eukaryotic lineage that is taxonomically and functionally distinct from green and red algae and vascular plants. Therefore, the true potential for light-driven metabolism aimed at biofuel production remains poorly understood at a systems level for a large subset of the global diversity of photosynthetic organisms. The metabolic capabilities of P. tricornutum were comparatively modeled with those from other photosynthetic groups in order to elucidate the occurrence of metabolic traits within and between phototrophs. Additionally, this research resulted in significant extension of the COnstraints Based Reconstruction and Analysis (COBRA) Toolbox to accommodate the crucial need for infrastructure required for ‘omics data integration and analysis in the context of genome-scale models. Therefore, the proposed research achieved two important goals. First, within the broad scope of photosynthetic organisms, we functionally compared and, as a result, identified cellular processes that require optimization in order to enable deployment as biofuel feedstock. Second, the proposed research resulted in development of key computational infrastructure, which can be further extended to other biological systems, that is currently lacking but necessary for multiple ‘omics data integration.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2022

The Promise of Emergent Nanobiotechnologies for In Vivo Applications and Implications for Safety and Security

Nanotechnology, the multi-disciplinary field based on the exploitation of the unique physicochemical properties of nanoparticles (NPs) and nanoscale materials, has opened a new realm of possibilities for biological research and biomedical applications. The development and deployment of mRNA-NP vaccines for COVID-19, for example, may revolutionize vaccines and therapeutics. However, regulatory and ethical frameworks that protect the health and safety of the global community and environment are lagging, particularly for nanotechnology geared towards biological applications (i.e., bio-nanotechnology). Considering this, the following review, while not comprehensive, attempts to illustrate the breadth and promise of bionanotechnology developments, and how they may present future safety and security challenges. Specifically, we address current advancements to streamline the development of engineered NPs for in vivo applications and provide discussion on nano-bio interactions, NP in vivo delivery, nano-enhancement of human performance, nanomedicine, and the impacts of NPs on human health and the environment.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗