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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 451 records · Page 25

Nuclear Safety [Vol. 30, No. 3, July-September 1989]

Nuclear Safety is a review journal that covers significant developments in the field of nuclear safety. Its scope includes the analysis and control of hazards associated with nuclear energy, operations involving fissionable materials, and the products of nuclear fission and their effects on the environment. Primary emphasis is on safety in reactor design, construction, and operation; however, the safety aspects of the entire fuel cycle, including fuel fabrication, spent-fuel processing, nuclear waste disposal, handling of radioisotopes, and environmental effects of these operations, are also treated. Table of Contents for this issue follows. GENERAL SAFETY CONSIDERATIONS: 325 Safety of Framatome Advanced Nuclear Steam Supply Systems Designs by J. A. Charles and D. Lange, 333 Book Review of Nuclear Accidents: Intervention Levels for the Protection of the Public by H. B. Piper; ACCIDENT ANALYSIS: 335 Living PRA Computer Systems by S. C. Dinsmore and H.-P. Balfanz, 343 Summary of ICAP Assessments of RELAP5/MOD2 by W. E. Driskell and R. G. Hanson; CONTROL AND INSTRUMENTATION: 352 Thermal Performance Monitoring System at Maanshan Nuclear Power Plant by H.-J. Chao, Y.-P. Lin, G.-H. Jou, L.-Y. Liao, and Y.-B. Chen; DESIGN FEATURES: 358 Warning Systems for Nuclear Power Plant Emergencies by J. H. Sorensen and D. S. Mileti; WASTE AND SPENT FUEL MANAGEMENT: 371 Activities Related to Waste Management Compiled by E G. Silver; OPERATING EXPERIENCES: 382 Steam Generator Tube Performance: Experience with Water-Cooled Nuclear Power Reactors During 1985 by O. S. Tatone and R. L. Tapping, 400 Systems Interaction Analyses: Concepts and Techniques (Part II) by M. D. Muhlheim and G. A. Murphy, 413 Reactor Shutdown Experience Compiled by J. W. Cletcher, 416 Operating U.S. Power Reactors Compiled by E G. Silver; RECENT DEVELOPMENTS: 440 General Administrative Activities Compiled by E G. Silver, 460 Reports, Standards, and Safety Guides by D. S. Queener, 466 Status of Power-Reactor Licensing Activities Compiled by E G. Silver, 470 Proposed Rule Changes as of Mar. 31, 1989; ANNOUNCEMENTS: 334 Proceedings Published, 351 CEC Seminar on Methods and Codes for Assessing the Off-Site Consequences of Nuclear Accidents, 357 Short Course on Multiphase Flow and Heat Transfer: Bases and Applications in A: The Nuclear Power Industry B: The Process Industries, 357 International Conference on Probabilistic Safety Assessment and Management, 478 International Topical Meeting on the Safety, Status, and Future of Non-Commercial Reactors and Irradiation Facilities, 475 The Authors.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Demonstration of neutron time-of-flight diffraction with an event-mode imaging detector

Neutron diffraction beamlines have traditionally relied on deploying large detector arrays of 3 He tubes or neutron-sensitive scintillators coupled with photomultipliers to efficiently probe crystallographic and microstructure information of a given material. Given the large upfront cost of custom-made data acquisition systems and the recent scarcity of 3 He, new diffraction beamlines or upgrades to existing ones demand innovative approaches. This paper introduces a novel Timepix3-based event-mode imaging neutron diffraction detector system as well as first results of a silicon powder diffraction measurement made at the HIPPO neutron powder diffractometer at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center. Notably, these initial measurements were conducted simultaneously with the 3 He array on HIPPO, enabling direct comparison. Data reduction for this type of data was implemented in the MAUD code, enabling Rietveld analysis. Results from the Timepix3-based setup and HIPPO were benchmarked against McStas simulations, showing good agreement for peak resolution. With further development, systems such as the one presented here may substantially reduce the cost of detector systems for new neutron instrumentation as well as for upgrades of existing beamlines.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Spectral Properties and Coding Transitions of Haar-Random Quantum Codes

A quantum error-correcting code with a nonzero error threshold undergoes a mixed-state phase transition when the error rate reaches that threshold. We explore this phase transition for Haar-random quantum codes, in which the logical information is encoded in a random subspace of the physical Hilbert space. We focus on the spectrum of the encoded system density matrix as a function of the rate of uncorrelated, single-qudit errors. For low error rates, this spectrum consists of well-separated bands, representing errors of different weights. As the error rate increases, the bands for high-weight errors merge. The evolution of these bands with increasing error rate is well described by a simple analytic ansatz. Using this ansatz, as well as an explicit calculation, we show that the threshold for Haar-random quantum codes saturates the hashing bound, and thus coincides with that for random stabilizer codes. For error rates that exceed the hashing bound, typical errors are uncorrectable, but postselected error correction remains possible until a much higher detection threshold. Postselection can in principle be implemented by projecting onto subspaces corresponding to low-weight errors, which remain correctable past the hashing bound.

decoherence↗

Fracture Intersections under Stress: Laboratory Data and Code [Data set]

The connectivity of natural and induced fractures governs the injection and withdrawal of fluids from subsurface reservoirs. Connectivity depends on intersections that control how fluids mix and move through the entire system. Here, we present data sets from 3D X-ray microscopy measurements of simple fracture networks under stress. 3D printing was used to create prismatic blocks that formed fracture networks composed of 2 orthogonal fractures. The network orientation was either "x" or "+" relative to an applied vertical stress. 3D data sets were collected for normal loads of 25, 100 and 200 Newtons for samples with fracture surfaces with either correlated or uncorrelated asperity distributions. The file contains data from the 12 samples analyzed along with an example code used to extract the intersection geometry. Additional experimental details can be found in the manuscript "Geologic Stress Modulates Fluid Mixing at Fracture Intersections" (10.1038/s43247-026-03525-9)and supplemental information to appear in Communications Earth & Environment in 2026.

02 PETROLEUM↗

Reproducibility of fixed-node diffusion Monte Carlo across diverse community codes: The case of water–methane dimer

Fixed-node diffusion quantum Monte Carlo (FN-DMC) is a widely trusted many-body method for solving the Schrödinger equation, known for its reliable predictions of material and molecular properties. Furthermore, its excellent scalability with system complexity and near-perfect utilization of computational power make FN-DMC ideally positioned to leverage new advances in computing to address increasingly complex scientific problems. Even though the method is widely used as a computational gold standard, reproducibility across the numerous FN-DMC code implementations has yet to be demonstrated. This difficulty stems from the diverse array of DMC algorithms and trial wave functions, compounded by the method’s inherent stochastic nature. Here, this study represents a community-wide effort to assess the reproducibility of the method, affirming that yes, FN-DMC is reproducible (when handled with care). Using the water–methane dimer as the canonical test case, we compare results from eleven different FN-DMC codes and show that the approximations to treat the non-locality of pseudopotentials are the primary source of the discrepancies between them. In particular, we demonstrate that, for the same choice of determinantal component in the trial wave function, reliable and reproducible predictions can be achieved by employing the T-move, the determinant locality approximation, or the determinant T-move schemes, while the older locality approximation leads to considerable variability in results. These findings demonstrate that, with appropriate choices of algorithmic details, fixed-node DMC is reproducible across diverse community codes—highlighting the maturity and robustness of the method as a tool for open and reliable computational science.

Della Pia, Flaviano [Univ. of Cambridge (United Ki↗

Building Performance Standards and Energy Code Alignment: Technical Brief

Building energy codes focus on building design, construction and renovation and have significantly increased building efficiency since the first national energy code was published in 1975. Most jurisdictions have energy codes based on ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard 90.1 (hereto referred to as Standard 90.1) and the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC). Compliance options available in these model energy codes include a prescriptive path, whole building performance paths – including IECC Total Building Performance (TBP), Standard 90.1 Energy Cost Budget (ECB) method and Performance Rating Method (PRM) – and system performance paths for envelope and heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning systems. Building performance standard (BPS) policies are an emerging policy tool used by jurisdictions to reduce the operational energy use or greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of the existing commercial building stock. BPS policies vary widely between jurisdictions and are tailored to each location’s climate and energy goals. Intuitively, projects that met a recent edition of the energy code should comply with the BPS targets.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Exploring the effect of ELM and code-coupling frequencies on plasma and material modeling of dynamic recycling in divertors

Abstract Integrated modeling of plasma-surface interactions provides a comprehensive and self-consistent description of the system, moving the field closer to developing predictive and design capabilities for plasma facing components. One such workflow, including descriptions for the scrape-off-layer plasma, ion-surface interactions and the sub-surface evolution, was previously used to address steady-state scenarios and has recently been extended to incorporate time-dependence and two-way information flow. The new model can address dynamic recycling in transient scenarios, such as the application presented in this paper: the evolution of W samples pre-damaged by helium and exposed to ELMy H-mode plasmas in the DIII-D DiMES. A first set of simulations explored the effect of ELM frequency. This study was discussed in detail in this conference’s proceedings and is summarized here. The 2nd set of simulations, which is the focus of this paper, explores the effect of code-coupling frequency. These simulations include initial SOLPS solutions converged to the inter-ELM state, ion impact energy ( E in ) and angles ( A in ) calculated by hPIC2, and an improved heat transfer description in Xolotl. The model predicts increases in particle fluxes and decreases in heat fluxes by 10%–20% with the coupling time-step. Compared with the first set of simulations, the less shallow impact angle leads to smaller reflection rates and significant D implantation. The higher fraction of implanted flux (and deeper), in particular during ELMs, increases the accumulated D content in the W near-surface region. Future expansion of the workflow includes coupling to hPIC2 and GITR to ensure accurate descriptions of E in and A in , and W impurity transport.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Particle-in-cell simulations of expanding high energy density plasmas with laser ray tracing

The design and analysis of high energy density (HED) laser experiments typically rely on radiation hydrodynamics simulations. However, some laser–plasma interaction regimes are not collisional and cannot be adequately modeled with hydrodynamics. For example, strongly driven magnetic reconnection and magnetized collisionless shock experiments possess extended hydrodynamic or even kinetic properties, necessitating first-principles kinetic simulations. In this paper, we present the benchmarking and first results obtained with a laser-ray-tracing and inverse bremsstrahlung absorption module implemented in the particle-in-cell code PSC. The simulation results are compared to radiation hydrodynamic simulations using the FLASH code as well as analytical estimates. We successfully benchmark the energy deposition model and overall hydrodynamic evolution of the systems. We also consider possible kinetic effects that may be expected from laser-target ablation in the HED regime, including non-local transport and two-temperature effects.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Software Control Program For Transportable Microgrid State-of-charge Balancing And Frequency Stability Controls

A deterministic state-of-charge (SOC) balancing approach software control code is introduced as an integral secondary management to primary control layer of an islanded small microgrid or nanogrid system made up of multiple grid-forming inverter/battery/solar combination systems, where each set of batteries with each inverter are on independent DC buses (i.e. non-paralleled on the DC sides). A DERMS-level control approach, algorithm and automation controller program was developed to improve coordination and enable microgrid asset compliance and SOC balancing, enabling provision of a system-level power stability support architecture, load support, and asset scalability. The architecture is configured to treat each unit or micro/nano-grid as a node in a microgrid network, allowing for autonomous DERMS control regarding load and SOC balancing and power stability. As the network grows with the addition of units, greater coordination efforts may be required. The ideal small network microgrid ranges from 2-10 inverter/battery units before additional control parameters must be considered in the existing architecture. The control approach focuses on a deterministic state-of-charge analysis as the primary level control process followed by a secondary control loop using a forced frequency-watt droop strategy to conform off-the-shelf components into behaving under a leader-follower configuration. Adopting this control scheme has been shown to allow for a balanced, unit-coordinated microgrid network, enabling stable power flow. The deterministic state-of-charge approach is introduced as an integral primary control layer of an islanded small network microgrid. A standard strategy for SOC balancing is implementing a battery management system (BMS) to control SOC on the DC side. An alternative approach is to determine how to coordinate sending and receiving power on the AC side with multiple units. The latter approach assesses all the integrated units in the microgrid network. Once the individual units are identified, further system data is required to calculate each unit's total kWh, provided information about its capability to supply or consume kWh and availability. The secondary control layer in the multi-layered small network microgrid methodology uses the primary layer’s decision to initiate frequency setpoint changes, initializing the SOC balancing. The secondary control layer considers numerous system-dependent variables to enable a charging and discharging profile based on adjustable frequency setpoints. The combined architecture will result in stable, coordinated power flow enhancing an AC microgrid's functionalities.

Myers, KurtS [Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Ida↗

ON THE LANGUAGE OF RELIABILITY: A SYSTEM ENGINEER PERSPECTIVE

In its classical definition, risk is defined by three elements: what can go wrong, what are its consequences and how likely is it to occur. While this definition makes sense in a regulatory based framework to estimate risk associated to power plants (in terms of core damage frequency and large early release frequency), this approach does not provide a useful snapshot of the health of the plant. A possible alternate path can start by redefining the word “risk” to a broader meaning that better reflects the needs of a system health and asset management decision making process. Rather than asking how likely an event can occur (in probabilistic terms), we can ask how far this event is from occurring. We will show how, given the data available from plant equipment reliability and monitoring/diagnostic/prognostic centers, a margin can be described and determined for all type of maintenance approaches (e.g., corrective or predictive maintenance). We will show how to link SSC margin-based reliability models to system reliability models (i.e., fault trees) in order to assess system/plant health and how to perform margin-based system calculations. These calculations are not solved using classical probabilistic calculations applied to sets (as performed by any PRA code) but, instead, through metric spaces operations (i.e., distance/margin based approach).

97 - MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Ristra Project FY23 L2 Milestone Report, Rev.1: MRT #8541: Multiphysics Scaling on EAS-3

The findings of this report were used to close out the ATDM milestone MRT# 8541, which was designed to demonstrate readiness of ATDM multiphysics codes for mission-relevant work on ATS-4, El Capitan. To this end, the closure criteria were to run a 3D shaped charge problem at scale up to 50% of the El Capitan early-access system, RZVernal (AMD Trento CPUs and AMD MI-250X GPUs), demonstrate scalability, and document challenges with the software stack and environment. LANL’s approach to this milestone was to test our modular software capability by developing an entirely new code, Moya, built upon our FleCSI framework. The physics capability and the GPU infrastructure needed for the shaped charge problem on GPUs was added to Moya, and the required calculations were performed at scale. Moya showed good scaling without any fine-tuning of GPU kernels; there is still significant room for performance enhancements, especially for the Legion backend. Tied up in this L2 milestone was a closeout of KPP-3s for the ECP ST Projects at LANL; this material will be covered in a separate document.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Uncertainty Propagation from Experiment Measurements to Modeling Approaches: A Case for SMR Steam Entrainment Testing

To license new and advanced reactor designs, regulators must be convinced that their unique safety cases—relative to existing large scale reactors—have been adequately addressed by the designed reactor protection systems. In water cooled small modular reactors (SMRs), droplet entrainment in steam flow has significant implications on the progression of accident scenarios due to its compact design features, which requires representative test data applicable to SMR designs. Computer code, modeling and simulation (M&S) tools and models require adequate verification, assessment, and qualification. This includes M&S results validation against scaled empirical data within allowable uncertainty bands to gain regulatory approvals during the various stages of reactor system design, demonstration, and commercialization. However, measurement uncertainty within the empirical datasets and test data applicability ranges requires careful consideration of M&S inputs (i.e., boundary conditions, and initial conditions), and verification and validation efforts. This study focuses on uncertainty quantification in designing scaled test facilities for SMR applications with appropriate measurements and a standard data-reduction method to estimate thermal hydraulics characteristics parameters that incorporate physics phenomena of interest. In addition, this study supports the evaluation model development and assessment process using M&S that interfaces with advanced computing tools and digital twin capabilities. This will allow synchronization between experiment and modeling approaches for droplet entrainment testing and analysis, improving diagnostics, prognostics, and decision-making to accelerate regulatory approval.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗

Drift kinetic electrostatic simulations of the edge localized mode heat pulse

In the present work, electrostatic drift kinetic simulations of parallel plasma transport within the tokamak scrape-off layer (SOL) are conducted using the COGENT code. The SOL configuration is represented in one-dimensional slab geometry, incorporating a heat source localized in the midplane. The heat source parameters correspond to those characterizing edge-localized modes observed in the Joint European Torus (JET) tokamak. The numerical model includes kinetic treatment of both ions and electrons, a simplified model for the gyrokinetic Poisson equation that allows one to step over short time scales associated with fast electrostatic shear Alfvèn waves, and the logical sheath boundary condition (LSBC) that enforces global system quasineutrality. A third-order accurate LSBC is derived to be consistent with the third-order accurate upwind advection scheme utilized in the code, and it was shown to noticeably impact the simulation results, especially parallel heat flux at the target plate. The findings of this study are in agreement with results from preceding fluid and kinetic simulations.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Machine learning at the Spallation Neutron Source accelerator and target

We describe the ongoing efforts to apply Machine Learning techniques to improve the performance of our accelerator and target. Specially, we are looking to minimize halo beam losses in the absence of a proper physics model, automatically detect and log anomalies in the target support systems such as cooling, and detect and prevent errant beam pulses in the linac. We also describe the infrastructure we use to acquire and stream data to the GPU cluster for training, our code development cycle, and edge computing for model inference. To minimize halo beam losses, we use a Reinforcement Learning technique tested on a virtual accelerator. The target anomaly detection is trained on archived data using incomplete physics models and is made part of the existing target reporting system. The errant beam prevention analyzes beam current and beam phase waveforms as well as accelerator configuration data to predict errant pulses. We also develop continual learning to adapt to changes in the accelerator.

Accelerator Physics↗

Classical Non-Markovian Noise in Symmetry-Preserving Quantum Dynamics

In quantum dynamics, symmetries are vital for identifying and assessing conserved quantities that govern the evolution of a quantum system. When promoted to the open quantum system setting, dynamical symmetries can be negatively altered by system-environment interactions, thus, complicating their analysis. Previous work on noisy symmetric quantum dynamics has focused on the Markovian setting, despite the ubiquity of non-Markovian noise in a number of widely used quantum technologies. Here, in this Letter, we develop a framework for quantifying the impact of non-Markovian noise on symmetric quantum evolution via root space decompositions and the filter function formalism. We demonstrate analytically that symmetry-preserving noise maintains the symmetric subspace, while nonsymmetric noise leads to highly specific leakage errors that are block diagonal in the symmetry representation. We support our findings with numerical studies of a transverse-field Ising model and a quantum error detecting code subject to spatiotemporally correlated multiaxis noise. Our results are broadly applicable, providing new analytic insights into the control and characterization of open quantum system dynamics.

decoherence↗

Pulsar Movement Animation and its Corresponding Signal Visualization for Timing Source

The global positioning system, widely used for synchronization in energy systems, faces vulnerabilities, while Pulsars—natural cosmic clocks—offer long-term stability as potential backup timing sources. Existing research lacks sufficient exploration of Pulsar signal animation under astrophysical factors, limiting practical applications. This study establishes a mathematical model based on the rotation dynamics of dual-beam Pulsars and implements dynamic signal visualization through MATLAB. The model dynamically illustrates the relative motion between Pulsar beams and observers via timeline calculations, beam intensity modeling, and rotation matrix derivation. A case study on the millisecond Pulsar J1939+2134 reveals that observer angles influence signal peak timing, while beam widths determine signal duration, highlighting the critical role of parameter calibration for timing accuracy. Open-source code and animation results are publicly shared, providing tools for interdisciplinary research. This study validates the feasibility of Pulsar-based timing in energy systems, offering new insights to enhance synchronization robustness.

Wu, Ori [ORNL] (ORCID:0000000326723410)↗

CI/CD Efforts for Validation, Verification and Benchmarking OpenMP Implementations

Software developers must adapt to keep up with the changing capabilities of platforms so that they can utilize the power of High-Performance Computers (HPC), including exascale systems. OpenMP, a directive-based parallel programming model, allows developers to include directives to existing C, C++, or Fortran code to allow node level parallelism without compromising performance. This paper describes our CI/CD efforts to provide easy evaluation of the support of OpenMP across different compilers using existing testsuites and benchmark suites on HPC platforms. Our main contributions include (1) the set of a Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Development (CD) workflow that captures bugs and provides faster feedback to compiler developers, (2) an evaluation of OpenMP (offloading) implementations supported by AMD, HPE, GNU, LLVM, and Intel, and (3) evaluation of the quality of compilers across different heterogeneous HPC platforms. With the comprehensive testing through the CI/CD workflow, we aim to provide a comprehensive understanding of the current state of OpenMP (offloading) support in different compilers and heterogeneous platforms consisting of CPUs and GPUs from NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel.

Jarmusch, Aaron↗

A review on the state of thermal hydraulics research on air ingress scenarios in High-Temperature Gas-cooled Reactors following a D-LOFC

With the expectation of near-immediate carbon neutrality, widespread implementation of proven High-Temperature Gas-cooled Reactors (HTGRs) embodies a viable solution pathway given their inherent, passive safety features and high thermal efficiency. This study provides an overview of the current state of research involving the thermal hydraulics associated with air ingress from a depressurized loss of forced cooling (D-LOFC) in HTGRs. Accurately characterizing and predicting the physical phenomena underlying air ingress is of paramount concern, as the integrity of the fuel and core graphite support structures are threatened by the presence of oxygen. Broadly speaking, the air ingress scenario can be delineated into three main stages: (1) Depressurization, (2) Density-Driven Flow, and (3) Natural Convection. In tandem with the underlying fundamental theory, this review collates and synthesizes the existing body of contemporary research concerning the air ingress scenario following a D-LOFC. As evinced by this review, our current understanding and predictive abilities have benefited from extensive research, predominantly concentrated on the rate of air ingestion into the core. Here, additional research is necessary to holistically capture the phenomenology of an air ingress scenario following a D-LOFC by considering an additional variable: the oxygen content of the ingressing air. The latter variable requires investigation into the complex interactions of the fully integrated system. Additionally, while numerical tools are evolving domestically through the Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation program, a sufficiently validated code remains absent.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗