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DOE OSTI2017

A Methodology for Succession Planning for Technical Experts

This report describes a methodology for identifying, evaluating, and mitigating the loss of key technical skills at nuclear operations facilities. The methodology can be adapted for application within regulatory authorities and research and development organizations, and can be directly applied by international engagement partners of the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). The resultant product will be of direct benefit to two types of NNSA missions: (1) domestic human capital development programs tasked to provide focused technical expertise to succeed an aging nuclear operations workforce, and (2) international safeguards programs charged with maintaining operational safeguards for developing/existing nuclear power program in nations where minimal available resources must be used effectively. This report considers succession planning and the critical skills necessary to meet an institution’s goals and mission. Closely tied to succession planning are knowledge management and mentorship. In considering succession planning, critical skill sets are identified and are greatly dependent on the subject matter expert in question. This report also provides examples of critical skills that are job specific.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2018

Partnership For Edge Physics Simulation

In this effort, we will extend our prior work as part of CPES (i.e., DART and DataSpaces) to support in-situ tight coupling between application codes that exploits data locality and core-level parallelism to maximize on-chip data exchange and reuse. This will be accomplished by mapping coupled simulations so that the data exchanges are more localized within the nodes. Coupled simulation workflows can more effectively utilize the resources available on emerging HEC platforms if they can be mapped and executed to exploit data locality as well as the communication patterns between application components. Scheduling and running such workflows requires an extended framework that should provide a unified hybrid abstraction to enable coordination and data sharing across computation tasks that run on the heterogeneous multi-core-based systems, and develop a data-locality based dynamic tasks scheduling approach to increase on-chip or intra-node data exchanges and in-situ execution. This effort will extend our prior work as part of CPES (i.e., DART and DataSpaces), which provided a simple virtual shared-space abstraction hosted at the staging nodes, to support application coordination, data sharing and active data processing services. Moreover, it will transparently manage the low-level operations associated with the inter-application data exchange, such as data redistributions, and will enable running coupled simulation workflow on multi-cores computing platforms.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Technology inventory: energy efficiency measures for residential, commercial, and industrial sectors in the United States

Energy efficiency is expected to continue to be one of main levers for governments to address the energy and climate crisis. While a diverse mix of energy efficiency programs has been regarded as an important part of governmental actions, an energy efficiency policy or program needs to identify and assess eligible savings measures, i.e., specific technologies or practices, for designing key features, e.g., target type, target stringency, covered load, and cost recovery. This report briefly discusses U.S. energy efficiency policies and programs, explores publicly available resources of energy efficiency measures for residential, commercial, and industrial sectors in the U.S., and describes how to compile key measures and characteristics into an integrated spreadsheet database. The database in the initial version offers, for more than 1,200 measures, efficiency or improvement potential, technical notes, costs at a given year, where applicable. Energy efficiency measures compiled here could play an important role in determining savings targets and target stringency under a potential energy efficiency policy such as an energy efficiency resource standard in Korea, and offer significant opportunities for energy efficiency improvement.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2018

Enhancement of the Extraction of Uranium from Seawater

Due to the limited uranium resources available for recovery through mining and ore processing and to the environmental problems associated with these operations, the future of nuclear power depends, to a large extent, on the feasibility of recovery of uranium from the ocean. While the amounts of uranium in the ocean are sufficient to fulfill the nuclear industry for many thousands of years, recovery of uranium from the ocean is hampered by its low concentration (3.3 parts per billion) and the presence of many other solutes in seawater at comparable or much higher concentrations. Thus, the only hope for economically viable recovery of uranium from the ocean lies in the development of adsorbents with high capacity and high selectivity for uranium as present in the seawater environment (pH 8.1, U(VI) oxidation state, anionic carbonate complexes). Moreover, it is quite unlikely that economically viable recovery of uranium could be achieved if the adsorbent could be used only once. Thus it is essential to develop adsorbents that can be used through multiple cycles of uranium adsorption followed by elution of the uranium to regenerate the adsorbent without significant degradation of their capacity and selectivity for uranium. Adsorbents used in the large majority of studies aimed at recovery of uranium from seawater are based on the use of radiation grafting to produce polymeric supports, in particular polyethylene, with attached amidoxime groups. This configuration has been concluded to offer the best candidate for use in recovery based on studies which were performed in the early 1980’s. Substantial progress has been made in improving the amidoxime-based adsorbents. The basic approach undertaken by the authors of the proposal, on the other hand, has been to test ligands which have not been included in the scoping studies of the 1980’s or have been developed since then. So far, 18 such ligands have been tested, of which three, including B2MP (an organic phosphate), DAOx (an organic oxalate), and Br-PADAP (an azo compound) have been selected for further investigation. In addition, Winged Nylon 6 has been identified as a promising polymeric support in view of its large surface area and high chemical stability. Furthermore, improved grafting techniques intended to achieve high grafting density under “green chemistry” conditions, i.e., in aqueous media, have been developed. These techniques include the use of surfactants to enhance the solubility of ligands in water and the use of a homopolymerization inhibitor to promote grafting rather than homopolymerization. Furthermore, unlike amidoxime-based adsorbents, which require a chemical treatment step following the radiation grafting to convert a nitrile group to amidoxime, the adsorbents developed by the authors do not require an additional step after grafting. Highly effective regeneration has been demonstrated for the phosphate-grafted polymeric adsorbent over at least 21 adsorption/elution cycles without significant loss of capacity. The currently proposed study is intended to build upon the progress made so far in developing alternative systems for removal of uranium from seawater. It will focus on the following objectives: Continued searches will be conducted for high-capacity, high-selectivity ligands based on systematic characterization of structural features favorable to uranium adsorption. (For instance, phosphates have been found to be much more effective than the corresponding phosphonates). At the same time, development and testing of the three ligands selected so far will continue, focusing on issues such as high grafting densities and effective regeneration. Testing will be conducted in non-spiked sweater (3.3 µg/L U) and lightly spiked seawater (up to 10 µg/L U). The authors have recently been able to refurbish an ICP-MS spectrometer for this purpose. Improved grafting techniques will be developed and refined for specific ligands. These techniques will include the use of surfactants to allow grafting of ligands with low solubility in water, the use of homopolymerization inhibitors, modifying the chemical structure of ligands to introduce C=C bonds, investigating possible modification of the surface of the polymeric support, and mechanistic analysis of the effects of grafting conditions, in particular accumulated dose and dose rate. Improvements in the characterization of adsorbents before and after contact with seawater will be implemented using techniques such as XPS, SEM-EDS, and zeta potential measurements to investigate the mechanism of uranium adsorption. Effective techniques of multi-cycle regeneration of promising adsorbents without degradation of their performance will be developed and refined through testing of mild, preferably near-neutral eluant solutions. The kinetics of adsorption and desorption of uranium will be investigated. This study is of great operational value and it will also greatly contribute to improved understanding of adsorption/desorption mechanism on promising adsorbents.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2019

Program Fuzzing on High Performance Computing Resources

American Fuzzy Lop (AFL) is an evolutionary fuzzer that is strategically implemented as a tool for discovering bugs in software during vulnerability research. This work seeks to understand how to best implement AFL on the High-Performance Computing resources available on the unclassified network at Sandia National Laboratories. We investigate various methods of executing AFL, requesting varying numbers of tasks on single compute nodes with 36 physical cores and 72 total threads. A Python script called Blue Claw is presented as an automated testbed generator tool to assist in the tedious process of creating and executing experiments of any scale and duration.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2017

A Methodology for Succession Planning for Technical Experts

This report describes a methodology for identifying, evaluating, and mitigating the loss of key technical skills at nuclear operations facilities. The methodology can be adapted for application within regulatory authorities and research and development organizations, and can be directly applied by international engagement partners of the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). The resultant product will be of direct benefit to two types of NNSA missions: (1) domestic human capital development programs tasked to provide focused technical expertise to succeed an aging nuclear operations workforce, and (2) international safeguards programs charged with maintaining operational safeguards for developing/existing nuclear power program in nations where minimal available resources must be used effectively. This report considers succession planning and the critical skills necessary to meet an institution’s goals and mission. Closely tied to succession planning are knowledge management and mentorship. In considering succession planning, critical skill sets are identified and are greatly dependent on the subject matter expert in question. This report also provides examples of critical skills that are job specific.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2018

ONRAMP, ORNL Nuclear Resources Analysis and Modeling Portfolio

Many teams from US and international organizations, government, industry, research organizations, and academic institutions have established near-term technical exchanges and long-term partnerships with ORNL, realizing previously unforeseen innovations and efficiencies. Through ONRAMP, we invite you to learn more about the rich resources available at ORNL that can enhance your current approaches. Learn what is possible using customized, advanced techniques.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2018

Mid Atlantic CHP Technical Assistance Partnership (Final Technical Report)

The Mid Atlantic CHP Technical Assistance Partnership (MACHPTAP), managed by The Pennsylvania State University College of Engineering, served the six states in the Mid-Atlantic region (Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia) plus the District of Columbia. The objective of the Combined Heat and Power Technical Assistance Partnerships (CHP TAPs) was to provide essential support to continue the market development of CHP’s suite of technologies to further the installation of highly efficient and cost effective CHP. The MACHPTAP’s work included education and outreach as well as technical assistance to a variety of stakeholders including end-users (commercial, industrial, institutional and more), state decision makers, electric and gas utilities, trade associations and non-profit organizations. This assistance included evaluating the economic, energy, reliability and environmental value of proposed systems. The CHP TAPs represented multi-state regions and are the CHP experts in the region who provide fact-based, un-biased information on CHP, including technologies, project development, project financing, local electric and natural gas utility interfaces, and related State best practice policies. Specifically, the MACHPTAP objectives were accomplished through taskings in four specific areas: Technical Assistance to end Users which involved engaging potential end-users to identify, evaluate, and technically support prospective CHP projects; Engagement and Education of End Users where the MACHPTAP engaged and educated end users about CHP, its benefits, and DOE resources available, and strategically hosted or participated in webinars, workshops and conferences; Policymaker Education where the MACHPTAP hosted or participated in webinars, one-on-one meetings, workshops, and other forums; and Program Administration, Management and Reporting, which included monthly and quarterly reporting, program meetings and coordination of activities with other regional TAPs. Accomplishments in the four specific project areas included providing direct Technical Assistance to 289 prospective CHP end users, conducting or participating in 82 End User Education events and hosting or participating in 73 Policy Maker Education events. During the contract period, 107 CHP installations were commissioned in the Mid Atlantic region, with a total generation capacity of over 160 megawatts, with an additional 34 sites with a capacity of over 100 megawatts currently in the planning/design/construction phase. Programmatically, all monthly metrics reports and quarterly reports were submitted in a timely manner.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2019

Best Practices in Underground Coal Gasification

Underground coal gasification (UCG) converts coal in-situ into a gaseous product, commonly known as synthesis gas or syngas through the same chemical reactions that occur in surface gasifiers. Gasification converts hydrocarbons into a synthesis gas (syngas) at elevated pressures and temperatures and can be used to create many products (electric power, chemical feedstock, liquid fuels, hydrogen, synthetic gas). Gasification provides numerous opportunities for pollution control, especially with respect to emissions of sulfur, nitrous oxides, and mercury. UCG could increase the coal resource available for utilization enormously by gasifying otherwise unmineable deep or thin coals under many different geological settings. A 300-400% increase in recoverable coal reserves in the U.S. is possible. For developing countries undergoing rapid economic expansion, including India and China, UCG also may be a particularly compelling technology. UCG has been tested in many different experimental tests in many countries. The U.S. carried out over 30 pilots between 1975 and 1996, testing bituminous, sub-bituminous, and lignite coals. Before that, the Former Soviet Union executed over 50 years of research on UCG, field tests and several commercial projects, including an electric power plant in Angren, Uzbekistan that is still in operation today after 47 years. Since 1991, China has executed at least 16 tests, and has several commercial UCG projects for chemical and fertilizer feedstocks. In 2000, Australia began a large pilot (Chinchilla) which produced syngas for 3 years before a controlled shut-down and controlled restart. As present, multiple commercial projects are in various stages of development in the U.S., Canada, South Africa, India, Australia, New Zealand, and China to produce power, liquid fuels, and synthetic natural gas.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗
DOE OSTI2020

Improving Gas Reactor Design with Complex Non-Standard Reaction Mechanisms in a Reactive Flow Model

Fluorinated gases are critical to a number of high-technology industries including semiconductor manufacturing and related processes such as flat panel display, LED, and photovoltaic manufacturing. These fluorinated gases have very high global warming potentials (GWPs) and, unfortunately are chemically very stable, in some cases lasting for thousands of years in the atmosphere. For environmental reasons, it is imperative that the release of these gases be minimized, but existing methods to destroy them requires a significant amount of energy. The goal of this project was to develop a more energy efficient method of destroying these high GWP gases using computational fluid dynamics, but the computational requirements are significant. In this project, we bring together resources available at the national labs, including high-performance computing hardware and modern computational methods, in order to explore an industrially important problem with key environmental and economic impact. In this project, we examined the state-of-the-art models for the physical processes involved, and made subtle changes to arrive at alternative formulations considerably better suited for computation and study. We examined several representative scenarios and developed a set of analyses techniques and tools that could be used to explore the systems in much greater detail. This exploratory project has demonstrated to ALZETA that HPC can indeed provide a unique view into their complex engineering problem - one that is simply inaccessible by any other means. The tools allow us to explore the details of the chemical process, and allow one to construct "what-if" scenarios to address shortcomings of the physical device in its current operating modes. However, as with many sources of completely new information, many new questions are illuminated with this capability. It will take considerable time, effort and experience before we learn to probe the solutions, pose operating scenarios and confirm modifications to the device that lead to real engineering advances.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2013

Army Net Zero. Water Balance and Roadmap Programmatic Summary

In 2011, the Department of the Army created the net zero initiative to advance the sustainability of the Army by managing natural resources with the goal of establishing net zero installations. The Net Zero concept is founded upon the idea of consuming natural resources responsibly based upon knowledge of long-term resource availability, creating a sustainable environment to support the installation’s long-term mission. The Army is pursuing net zero programs in energy, water, and waste. To kick off the net zero initiative, the Army selected installations to demonstrate the concept of net zero energy, water, and waste. This document is an overview of assessments performed at the eight net zero water installations. Each assessment included a water balance and a roadmap intended to provide pilot installations with a strategic approach to achieve net zero goals.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2019

Paths to Sustainable Distributed Generation through 2050: Matching Local Waste Biomass Resources with Grid, Industrial, and Community Needs

This project identifies and evaluates current and future organic waste fuel types and matches these wastes with local grid, industrial, building power, and thermal energy needs. The team developed data on organic waste streams and thermal energy needs, and then constructed a techno-economic analysis model that can process the data and compute viable production of electricity, waste heat, biogas, and/or biomethane for a range of energy price points. Scenarios generated by the model include allocation of local organic waste streams to existing or new conversion infrastructure and are evaluated in a life-cycle assessment model to determine local and global environmental impacts. The project’s webbased tool provides rapid evaluation of potential waste-to-energy sites, including retrofits/expansions of existing facilities or entirely new construction, on the basis of resource availability, potential for waste heat use, and economic and environmental metrics.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2020

First Look West (FLoW 2.0) (Final Technical Report for Closeout)

DOE’s Cleantech UP was an annual business plan competition, operating nationally between 2015 and 2018 through eight regional nodes that included Caltech’s FLOW. Cleantech UP focused on supporting university students at all levels creating cleantech startups. FLOW operated nationally with a focus on California. In support of the DOE’s objectives FLOW developed an immersive five point program that targeted major gaps in the educational support and practical resources available to scientists and engineers starting their first cleantech companies that prevented such young innovators from becoming entrepreneurs. Specifically, the FLOW program augmented the number of participants entering the energy entrepreneurship pipeline via the Cleantech UP competition; helped the US remain competitive by increasing the viability and financing potential of these cleantech companies started by young academics; and helped build the regional, state and national infrastructure that spurs and supports entrepreneurship. Each year the FLOW featured two major judging rounds for candidates drawn from as many as 80 applicants annually, providing essential experience and feedback that helped define the direction of these young entrepreneurs. The FLOW winners competed at the DOE’s national event, and FLOW companies took the top prize twice in the total history of the DOE program which was started in 2011.

96 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND PRESERVATION↗
DOE OSTI2015

New Science Opportunities Enabled by LCLS-II X-Ray Lasers

This document attempts to capture the most compelling new science opportunities that are enabled by the unique capabilities of the new LCLS-II X-ray laser facility, namely: soft and tender X-rays (0.25 to 5 keV) at high repetition rates (up to 1 MHz) and hard X-rays (up to 25 keV) at 120 Hz. Many compelling areas of science have been identified by the scientific community, through a series of workshops over the past several years, where LCLS-II offers the potential to significantly advance our understanding. This document is not intended to be comprehensive of all the science to be pursued at the future LCLS facility. In particular, it does not capture important ongoing science that will continue to exploit the existing capabilities of the present LCLS facility. Nevertheless, this document will help to establish a scientific foundation for the new facility (encompassing present LCLS capabilities and new LCLS-II capabilities), and will inform LCLS strategic planning and investments over the next 5-10 years. The emphasis of this document is on identifying broad scientific opportunities, elucidating their potential impact, and providing a first-order link between these opportunities and LCLS-II capabilities. Brief descriptions are provided for various experimental approaches to be used, and novel new approaches to be developed, along with select examples of required optics and instruments. However, this document is not intended to capture all the optics and instrumentation requirements. Similarly it does not provide a detailed plan for instrumentation design or for any associated research and development that might be required. Balancing the scientific opportunities and impact, with instrumentation needs, available resources, and infrastructure, will be part of the LCLS planning process which this document will help to inform.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Sandia National Laboratories Early Career University Faculty Mentoring Program in International Safeguards

Recent years have seen a significantly increased focus in the areas of knowledge retention and mentoring of junior staff within the U.S. national laboratory complex. In order to involve the university community in this process, as well, an international safeguards mentoring program was established by Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) for early career university faculty. After a successful experience during 2019, the program continued into 2020 to include two new faculty members who were paired with SNL subject matter experts based on the topic of their individual projects: one to work on advanced laboratory work for physics, technology, and policy of nuclear safeguards and nonproliferation, and the other to look at machine learning applied to international safeguards and nonproliferation. There is a two-pronged purpose to the program: fostering the development of educational resources available for international safeguards and exploring new research topics stemming from the exchange of mentor and mentee. Further, the program as a whole allows for junior faculty members to establish and expand a relationship network within international safeguards. In addition, programs such as this build stronger connections between the academic and the national laboratory community. Thanks to the junior faculty members that now have new connections into the laboratory community and potential for collaboration projects with the laboratories in the future, safeguards knowledge can actually increase far beyond just individually engaging students using this new and efficient avenue.

96 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND PRESERVATION↗
DOE OSTI2020

Saving Energy: A QuickStart Guide for Small/Medium Manufacturers

The Quick Start Guide aims to serve as an introduction to energy efficiency for small to medium manufacturers, explaining why energy management is important and achievable for all organizations, not just well-resourced, energy-intensive large organizations. It also makes connections to the tools and resources available from DOE to help small to medium manufacturers drive energy savings and sustain the progress. Finally, it provides a list of common energy efficiency opportunities for energy consuming systems such as steam, process heating, and motor-driven systems. Explore the guide to see how smaller manufacturing companies can get started with energy efficiency.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2019

2019 Argonne Leadership Computing Facility Science Report

The Argonne Leadership Computing Facility (ALCF) is a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility that enables breakthroughs in science and engineering by providing supercomputing resources and expertise to the research community. ALCF computing resources - available to researchers from academia, industry, and government agencies - support large-scale computing projects aimed at solving some of the world’s most complex and challenging scientific problems. Through awards of supercomputing time and support services, the ALCF enables its users to accelerate the pace of discovery and innovation across disciplines.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2020

Y-12 Groundwater Protection Program Monitoring Well Inspection and Maintenance Plan

This plan describes the systematic approach for: inspecting the physical condition of monitoring wells at Y-12, determining maintenance needs that extend the life of a well, and identifying those wells that no longer meet acceptable monitoring well design or well construction standards and require plugging and abandonment. The inspection and maintenance of groundwater monitoring wells is one of the primary management strategies of the Y-12 Groundwater Protection Program (GWPP) Management Plan, that is, the “proactive stewardship of the extensive monitoring well network at Y-12" (Consolidated Nuclear Security, L.L.C. [CNS], 2018). Effective stewardship, and a program of routine inspections of the physical condition of each monitoring well, ensures that representative water-quality samples and hydrologic data are obtained from the well network and protects the subsurface environment. In accordance with the Y-12 GWPP Monitoring Optimization Plan (MOP) for Groundwater Monitoring Wells at the Y-12 National Security Complex, Oak Ridge, Tennessee (CNS, 2017), the status designation (active or inactive) for each well determines the scope and extent of well inspections and maintenance activities. This plan, in conjunction with the above document, formalizes the GWPP approach to focus available resources on monitoring wells which provide the most useful data, and for that reason the GWPP inspects and performs maintenance on the wells sampled by the GWPP. This plan applies to groundwater monitoring wells installed at Y-12 and the related waste management facilities located within the three hydrogeologic regimes: (1) the Bear Creek Hydrogeologic Regime (Bear Creek Regime), (2) the Upper East Fork Poplar Creek Hydrogeologic Regime (East Fork Regime), and (3) the Chestnut Ridge Hydrogeologic Regime (Chestnut Ridge Regime). The Bear Creek Regime encompasses the section of Bear Creek Valley (BCV) immediately west of Y-12. The East Fork Regime encompasses most of the Y-12 process, operations, and support facilities in BCV west of Scarboro Road. The Chestnut Ridge Regime is directly south of Y-12 and encompasses a section of Chestnut Ridge that is bounded to the west by a surface drainage feature (Dunaway Branch, located immediately west of Industrial Landfill II) and by Scarboro Road to the east. The GWPP maintains an extensive database of geographic and construction details and related information for the monitoring wells in each hydrogeologic regime in the Updated Subsurface Database for Bear Creek Valley, Chestnut Ridge, and Parts of Bethel Valley on the U.S. DOE Oak Ridge Reservation (CNS, 2019). A detailed description of the hydrogeologic framework at Y-12 can be found in the GWPP Management Plan (CNS, 2018).

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗