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DOE OSTI2022

Development of Plant Reload Optimization Framework Capabilities for Core Design and Fuel Performance Analysis

The United States (U.S.) nuclear industry faces a challenge in maintaining required levels of safety while ensuring economic competitiveness to stay in business. Safety remains a key parameter for all aspects of light water reactor (LWR) nuclear power plant (NPP) operations. Safety can become more economical by using a risk-informed ecosystem, such as the one being developed by the Risk-Informed Systems Analysis (RISA) Pathway under the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) Program. The LWRS Program promotes a wide range of research and development activities with the goal of maximizing both the safety and economic efficiency of NPPs through improved scientific understanding, especially given many plants are now considering second license renewals. The RISA Pathway has two main goals: (1) deploy methodologies and technologies that better represent safety margins and cost and safety factors and (2) develop advanced applications that enable cost-effective plant operation. The Plant Reload Optimization Platform development project aims to build a reactor core design tool that includes reactor safety and fuel performance analyses, and also uses artificial intelligence to support optimization of core design solutions. This report summarizes Fiscal Year 2022 (FY-22) activity in platform capability developments in RAVEN. This platform performs simulations using industry codes for core design (i.e., PARCS) and fuel performance (i.e., TRANSURANUS) which will allow expansion of the capabilities to include advanced fuel designs such as accident-tolerant fuel (ATF)s with high burnup.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

DOE OSTI2024

Optimizing ICEBERG LArTPC Run Configuration for Data Collection

To ensure accurate data collection and diagnostics of the ICEBERG electronics, simulation runs were completed using a pulser to mimic charge deposition on the LArTPC wires and collect data for analysis and calibration. This analysis is essential for optimizing the detector's performance by identifying the optimal range of DAC values that avoid saturation zones and provide the best experimental results for real non-pulser runs.

Ganguly, Neil↗

DOE OSTI2024

Optimization of Membrane-based Carbon Capture using Dimensional Analysis, CFD and Process System Engineering

Carbon capture is a promising option to mitigate CO2 emissions from existing coal-fired power plants, cement and steel industries, and petrochemical complexes. Among the available technologies, membrane-based carbon capture presents the lowest energy consumption, operating costs, and carbon footprint. In addition, membrane processes have important operational flexibil-ity and response times. On the other hand, the major challenges to widespread application of this technology are related to reducing capital costs and improving membrane stability and durability.To upscale the technology into stacked flat sheet configurations, high fidelity computational fluid dynamics (CFD) that describes the separation process accurately are required. High fidelity simulations have been shown to be effective in studying the complex transport phenomena in membrane systems. In addition, obtaining high CO2 recovery percentages and product purity requires a multi-stage membrane process, where the optimal network configuration of the membrane modules must be studied in a systematic way. In order to address the design problem at process scale, we formulate a superstructure for the membrane-based carbon capture, including up to three separation stages. In the formulation of the optimization problem, we include reduced models, based on rigorous CFD simulations of the membrane modules. Numerical results indicate that the optimal design includes three membrane stages, and the capture cost is 45.4 $/t-CO2.

Pedrozo, Hector A.↗

DOE OSTI2021

A Gate-to-Gate Life Cycle Assessment for the CO 2 -EOR Operations at Farnsworth Unit (FWU)

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions related to the Farnsworth Unit’s (FWU) carbon dioxide enhanced oil recovery (CO 2 -EOR) operations were accounted for through a gate-to-gate life cycle assessment (LCA) for a period of about 10 years, since start of injection to 2020, and predictions of 18 additional years of the CO 2 -EOR operation were made. The CO 2 source for the FWU project has been 100% anthropogenically derived from the exhaust of an ethanol plant and a fertilizer plant. A cumulative amount of 5.25 × 106 tonnes of oil has been recovered through the injection of 1.64 × 106 tonnes of purchased CO 2 , of which 92% was stored during the 10-year period. An LCA analysis conducted on the various unit emissions of the FWU process yielded a net negative (positive storage) of 1.31 × 106 tonnes of CO 2 equivalent, representing 79% of purchased CO 2 . An optimized 18-year forecasted analysis estimated 86% storage of the forecasted 3.21 × 106 tonnes of purchased CO 2 with an equivalent 2.90 × 106 tonnes of crude oil produced by 2038. Major contributors to emissions were flaring/venting and energy usage for equipment. Improvements on the energy efficiency of equipment would reduce emissions further but this could be challenging. Improvement of injection capacity and elimination of venting/flaring or fugitive gas are methods more likely to be utilized for reducing net emissions and are the cases used for the optimized scenario in this work. This LCA illustrated the potential for the CO 2 -EOR operations in the FWU to store more CO 2 with minimal emissions.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2015

SU-F-207-02: Use of Postmortem Subjects for Subjective Image Quality Assessment in Abdominal CT Protocols with Iterative Reconstruction

Purpose: New radiation dose reduction technologies are emerging constantly in the medical imaging field. The latest of these technologies, iterative reconstruction (IR) in CT, presents the ability to reduce dose significantly and hence provides great opportunity for CT protocol optimization. However, without effective analysis of image quality, the reduction in radiation exposure becomes irrelevant. This work explores the use of postmortem subjects as an image quality assessment medium for protocol optimizations in abdominal CT. Methods: Three female postmortem subjects were scanned using the Abdomen-Pelvis (AP) protocol at reduced minimum tube current and target noise index (SD) settings of 12.5, 17.5, 20.0, and 25.0. Images were reconstructed using two strengths of iterative reconstruction. Radiologists and radiology residents from several subspecialties were asked to evaluate 8 AP image sets including the current facility default scan protocol and 7 scans with the parameters varied as listed above. Images were viewed in the soft tissue window and scored on a 3-point scale as acceptable, borderline acceptable, and unacceptable for diagnosis. The facility default AP scan was identified to the reviewer while the 7 remaining AP scans were randomized and de-identified of acquisition and reconstruction details. The observers were also asked to comment on the subjective image quality criteria they used for scoring images. This included visibility of specific anatomical structures and tissue textures. Results: Radiologists scored images as acceptable or borderline acceptable for target noise index settings of up to 20. Due to the postmortem subjects’ close representation of living human anatomy, readers were able to evaluate images as they would those of actual patients. Conclusion: Postmortem subjects have already been proven useful for direct CT organ dose measurements. This work illustrates the validity of their use for the crucial evaluation of image quality during CT protocol optimization, especially when investigating the effects of new technologies.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2017

Numerical analysis of downhole heat exchanger designed for geothermal energy production

A traditional way of geothermal energy production implies hot brine extraction from the reservoir to a surface facility. This method is economically profitable only for high enthalpy reservoirs associated with shallow depths and high temperatures. The low enthalpy geothermal (LEG) projects are out of consideration due to the high cost of produced electric power related to expensive drilling, cost of the binary cycle system, and long term installation cost. This paper presents a new zero mass extraction method utilizing downhole heat exchanger (DHE) with no geo-fluid production to the surface. The well design stays as a single horizontal well with coupled production and injection sections. The brine pump is located between the sections providing hot brine circulation through the DHE. The coupled fluid flow and heat transfer mathematical model was developed and simulated using nodal analysis method. The LEG reservoir prototype located in South Louisiana was used to study several cases of the DHE lengths, inclination angles, reservoir permeabilities, and flow rates optimization. According to the analysis, the power unit is able to provide 160 kW of net electric power with CO2 working fluid circulating inside a single lateral well. Increasing the reservoir temperature and the number of laterals, the available power production rises up to 600 kW with an attractive electricity cost of $21.84/MWh at 7000 m well depth. This methods opens a new prospective for the depleted petroleum wells converting them to the electricity production units.

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2024

Optimizing ICEBERG LArTPC Run Configuration for Data Collection

To ensure accurate data collection and diagnostics of the ICEBERG electronics, charge injection runs were completed using a pulser to mimic known charge deposition amounts on the LArTPC wires and collect data for analysis and calibration. This analysis is essential for optimizing the detector's performance by identifying the optimal range of DAC values that avoid saturation zones and provide the best experimental results for non-pulser runs.

Ganguly, Neil↗

DOE OSTI2014

Metabolic Network Discovery by Top-Down and Bottom-Up Approaches and Paths for Reconciliation

The primary focus in the network-centric analysis of cellular metabolism by systems biology approaches is to identify the active metabolic network for the condition of interest. Two major approaches are available for the discovery of the condition-specific metabolic networks. One approach starts from genome-scale metabolic networks, which cover all possible reactions known to occur in the related organism in a condition-independent manner, and applies methods such as the optimization-based Flux-Balance Analysis to elucidate the active network. The other approach starts from the condition-specific metabolome data, and processes the data with statistical or optimization-based methods to extract information content of the data such that the active network is inferred. These approaches, termed bottom-up and top-down, respectively, are currently employed independently. However, considering that both approaches have the same goal, they can both benefit from each other paving the way for the novel integrative analysis methods of metabolome data- and flux-analysis approaches in the post-genomic era. This study reviews the strengths of constraint-based analysis and network inference methods reported in the metabolic systems biology field; then elaborates on the potential paths to reconcile the two approaches to shed better light on how the metabolism functions.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2014

Fast optimization and dose calculation in scanned ion beam therapy

Purpose: Particle therapy (PT) has advantages over photon irradiation on static tumors. An increased biological effectiveness and active target conformal dose shaping are strong arguments for PT. However, the sensitivity to changes of internal geometry complicates the use of PT for moving organs. In case of interfractionally moving objects adaptive radiotherapy (ART) concepts known from intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) can be adopted for PT treatments. One ART strategy is to optimize a new treatment plan based on daily image data directly before a radiation fraction is delivered [treatment replanning (TRP)]. Optimizing treatment plans for PT using a scanned beam is a time consuming problem especially for particles other than protons where the biological effective dose has to be calculated. For the purpose of TRP, fast optimization and fast dose calculation have been implemented into the GSI in-house treatment planning system (TPS) TRiP98. Methods: This work reports about the outcome of a code analysis that resulted in optimization of the calculation processes as well as implementation of routines supporting parallel execution of the code. To benchmark the new features, the calculation time for therapy treatment planning has been studied. Results: Compared to the original version of the TPS, calculation times for treatment planning (optimization and dose calculation) have been improved by a factor of 10 with code optimization. The parallelization of the TPS resulted in a speedup factor of 12 and 5.5 for the original version and the code optimized version, respectively. Hence the total speedup of the new implementation of the authors' TPS yielded speedup factors up to 55. Conclusions: The improved TPS is capable of completing treatment planning for ion beam therapy of a prostate irradiation considering organs at risk in this has been overseen in the review process. Also see below 6 min.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2014

Design of a compact ultrahigh vacuum-compatible setup for the analysis of chemical vapor deposition processes

Optimizing thin film deposition techniques requires contamination-free transfer from the reactor into an ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) chamber for surface science analysis. A very compact, multifunctional Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) reactor for direct attachment to any typical UHV system for thin film analysis was designed and built. Besides compactness, fast, easy, and at the same time ultimately clean sample transfer between reactor and UHV was a major goal. It was achieved by a combination of sample manipulation parts, sample heater, and a shutter mechanism designed to fit all into a NW38 Conflat six-ways cross. The present reactor design is versatile to be employed for all commonly employed variants of CVD, including Atomic Layer Deposition. A demonstration of the functionality of the system is provided. First results of the setup (attached to an Omicron Multiprobe x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy system) on the temperature dependence of Pulsed Spray Evaporation-CVD of Ni films from Ni acetylacetonate as the precursor demonstrate the reactor performance and illustrate the importance of clean sample transfer without breaking vacuum in order to obtain unambiguous results on the quality of CVD-grown thin Ni films. The widely applicable design holds promise for future systematic studies of the fundamental processes during chemical vapor deposition or atomic layer deposition.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

DOE OSTI2016

Evaluating an Exterior Insulation and Finish System for Deep Energy Retrofits

This report provides a case study of a deep energy retrofit using a site-applied exterior insulation and finish system (EIFS). Prefabricated EIFS panels are also discussed as a potential wall insulation retrofit solution. EIFSs are common in new and retrofit commercial construction. Such products typically consist of five layers installed over the top of a water resistive barrier as follows: (1) Adhesive (2) Foam insulation (3) Base coat (4) Reinforcing mesh embedded in the base coat (5) Top or finish coat. They can be applied to new or existing buildings that employ wood or masonry construction, and can utilize an insulation thickness of up to 16 in. However, such systems are rarely used in lowrise residential retrofits. Reasons for this might include a lack of demand for or knowledge of the systems in residential retrofit industry, high cost, and/or lack of suitable distribution channels serving the residential market. While the final appearance of an EIFS installation resembles stucco, it is a distinctly different system. Stucco is a generic cementitious-based material, whereas EIFSs are proprietary synthetic formulations distributed by manufacturers to a network of authorized applicators. An EIFS is composed of polymeric (organic) bonded aggregate and cement reinforced with a glass mesh. Stucco is made of inorganic cement, sand, and lime. In this project, a home was retrofitted using a site-applied 4-in.-thick EIFS. Site-specific details were developed as required for the residential retrofit application. Site work and the costs of the EIFS were documented. The case study home was modeled using version 2 of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory-developed Building Energy Optimization (BEopt) energy and cost analysis software. While a package utilizing the 4-in. EIFS is the optimal retrofit of the options analyzed in terms of annualized energy-related costs, it is higher cost than replacing the siding with midrange vinyl alone. However, compared to high-end vinyl, the EIFS package has a lower annualized energy cost. This held true for both the Islip, New York (climate zone 4) and Boston (climate zone 5) case studies. The report discusses the risks, selection criteria, interactions with other building systems, cost, performance, and other aspects of using an EIFS in a deep energy retrofit. EIFSs do not require special site safety precautions beyond general construction site precautions. Moisture design is important. Trapping moisture between two vapor/air barriers is a risk of all wall systems, including EIFS cladding applications if an interior vapor barrier exists and if there is not adequate ventilation through the drainage plane behind the insulation layer. Face-sealed approaches that rely on exposed sealants do not provide acceptable rain control or durability and are very risky. Generally, fire codes permit EIFSs for most building types and conditions.

airtightness↗

DOE OSTI2016

Needlet estimation of cross-correlation between CMB lensing maps and LSS

In this paper we develop a novel needlet-based estimator to investigate the cross-correlation between cosmic microwave background (CMB) lensing maps and large-scale structure (LSS) data. We compare this estimator with its harmonic counterpart and, in particular, we analyze the bias effects of different forms of masking. In order to address this bias, we also implement a MASTER-like technique in the needlet case. The resulting estimator turns out to have an extremely good signal-to-noise performance. Our analysis aims at expanding and optimizing the operating domains in CMB-LSS cross-correlation studies, similarly to CMB needlet data analysis. It is motivated especially by next generation experiments (such as Euclid) which will allow us to derive much tighter constraints on cosmological and astrophysical parameters through cross-correlation measurements between CMB and LSS.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2019

RetSynth: determining all optimal and sub-optimal synthetic pathways that facilitate synthesis of target compounds in chassis organisms

The efficient biological production of industrially and economically important compounds is a challenging problem. Brute-force determination of the optimal pathways to efficient production of a target chemical in a chassis organism is computationally intractable. Many current methods provide a single solution to this problem, but fail to provide all optimal pathways, optional sub-optimal solutions or hybrid biological/non-biological solutions. Here we present RetSynth, software with a novel algorithm for determining all optimal biological pathways given a starting biological chassis and target chemical. By dynamically selecting constraints, the number of potential pathways scales by the number of fully independent pathways and not by the number of overall reactions or size of the metabolic network. This feature allows all optimal pathways to be determined for a large number of chemicals and for a large corpus of potential chassis organisms. Additionally, this software contains other features including the ability to collect data from metabolic repositories, perform flux balance analysis, and to view optimal pathways identified by our algorithm using a built-in visualization module. This software also identifies sub-optimal pathways and allows incorporation of non-biological chemical reactions, which may be performed after metabolic production of precursor molecules. The novel algorithm designed for RetSynth streamlines an arduous and complex process in metabolic engineering. Our stand-alone software allows the identification of candidate optimal and additional sub-optimal pathways, and provides the user with necessary ranking criteria such as target yield to decide which route to select for target production. Furthermore, the ability to incorporate non-biological reactions into the final steps allows determination of pathways to production for targets that cannot be solely produced biologically. With this comprehensive suite of features RetSynth exceeds any open-source software or webservice currently available for identifying optimal pathways for target production.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2025

Diabatic error and propagation of Majorana zero modes in interacting quantum dots systems

Motivated by recent experimental progress in realizing Majorana zero modes (MZMs) using quantum dot systems, we investigate the diabatic errors associated with the movement of those MZMs. The movement is achieved by tuning time-dependent gate potentials applied to individual quantum dots, effectively creating a moving potential wall. To probe the optimized movement of MZMs, we calculate the experimentally accessible time-dependent fidelity and local density-of-states using many-body time-dependent numerical methods. Furthermore, our analysis reveals that an optimal potential wall height is crucial to preserve the well-localized nature of the MZM during its movement. Moreover, we analyze diabatic errors in realistic quantum-dot systems, incorporating the effects of repulsive Coulomb interactions and disorder in both hopping and pairing terms. Additionally, we provide a comparative study of diabatic errors arising from the simultaneous versus sequential tuning of multiple gates during the MZMs movement. Finally, we estimate the timescale required for MZM transfer in a six-quantum-dot system, demonstrating that MZM movement is feasible and can be completed well within the qubit's operational lifetime in practical quantum-dot setups.

Density of states↗

DOE OSTI2014

LDRD HPC4Energy Wrapup Report - LDRD 12-ERD-074

High-performance computing and simulation has the potential to optimize production, distribution, and conversion of energy. Although a number of concepts have been discussed, a comprehensive research project to establish and quantify the effectiveness of computing and simulation at scale to core energy problems has not been conducted. We propose to perform the basic research to adapt existing high-performance computing tools and simulation approaches to two selected classes of problems common across the energy sector. The first, applying uncertainty quantification and contingency analysis techniques to energy optimization, allows us to assess the effectiveness of LLNL core competencies to problems such as grid optimization and building-system efficiency. The second, applying adaptive meshing and numerical analysis techniques to physical problems at fine scale, could allow immediate impacts in key areas such as efficient combustion and fracture and spallation. By creating an integrated project team with the necessary expertise, we can efficiently address these issues, delivering both near-term results as well as quantifying developments needed to address future energy challenges.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

DOE OSTI2017

Uncertainty Quantification Analysis of Both Experimental and CFD Simulation Data of a Bench-scale Fluidized Bed Gasifier

Adequate assessment of the uncertainties in modeling and simulation is becoming an integral part of the simulation based engineering design. The goal of this study is to demonstrate the application of non-intrusive Bayesian uncertainty quantification (UQ) methodology in multiphase (gas-solid) flows with experimental and simulation data, as part of our research efforts to determine the most suited approach for UQ of a bench scale fluidized bed gasifier. UQ analysis was first performed on the available experimental data. Global sensitivity analysis performed as part of the UQ analysis shows that among the three operating factors, steam to oxygen ratio has the most influence on syngas composition in the bench-scale gasifier experiments. An analysis for forward propagation of uncertainties was performed and results show that an increase in steam to oxygen ratio leads to an increase in H2 mole fraction and a decrease in CO mole fraction. These findings are in agreement with the ANOVA analysis performed in the reference experimental study. Another contribution in addition to the UQ analysis is the optimization-based approach to guide to identify next best set of additional experimental samples, should the possibility arise for additional experiments. Hence, the surrogate models constructed as part of the UQ analysis is employed to improve the information gain and make incremental recommendation, should the possibility to add more experiments arise. In the second step, series of simulations were carried out with the open-source computational fluid dynamics software MFiX to reproduce the experimental conditions, where three operating factors, i.e., coal flow rate, coal particle diameter, and steam-to-oxygen ratio, were systematically varied to understand their effect on the syngas composition. Bayesian UQ analysis was performed on the numerical results. As part of Bayesian UQ analysis, a global sensitivity analysis was performed based on the simulation results, which shows that the predicted syngas composition is strongly affected not only by the steam-to-oxygen ratio (which was observed in experiments as well) but also by variation in the coal flow rate and particle diameter (which was not observed in experiments). The carbon monoxide mole fraction is underpredicted at lower steam-to-oxygen ratios and overpredicted at higher steam-to-oxygen ratios. The opposite trend is observed for the carbon dioxide mole fraction. These discrepancies are attributed to either excessive segregation of the phases that leads to the fuel-rich or -lean regions or alternatively the selection of reaction models, where different reaction models and kinetics can lead to different syngas compositions throughout the gasifier. To improve quality of numerical models used, the effect that uncertainties in reaction models for gasification, char oxidation, carbon monoxide oxidation, and water gas shift will have on the syngas composition at different grid resolution, along with bed temperature were investigated. The global sensitivity analysis showed that among various reaction models employed for water gas shift, gasification, char oxidation, the choice of reaction model for water gas shift has the greatest influence on syngas composition, with gasification reaction model being second. Syngas composition also shows a small sensitivity to temperature of the bed. The hydrodynamic behavior of the bed did not change beyond grid spacing of 18 times the particle diameter. However, the syngas concentration continued to be affected by the grid resolution as low as 9 times the particle diameter. This is due to a better resolution of the phasic interface between the gases and solid that leads to stronger heterogeneous reactions. This report is a compilation of three manuscripts published in peer-reviewed journals for the series of studies mentioned above.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗

DOE OSTI2015

Optimizing 4-Dimensional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Data Sampling for Respiratory Motion Analysis of Pancreatic Tumors

Purpose: To determine the optimum sampling strategy for retrospective reconstruction of 4-dimensional (4D) MR data for nonrigid motion characterization of tumor and organs at risk for radiation therapy purposes. Methods and Materials: For optimization, we compared 2 surrogate signals (external respiratory bellows and internal MRI navigators) and 2 MR sampling strategies (Cartesian and radial) in terms of image quality and robustness. Using the optimized protocol, 6 pancreatic cancer patients were scanned to calculate the 4D motion. Region of interest analysis was performed to characterize the respiratory-induced motion of the tumor and organs at risk simultaneously. Results: The MRI navigator was found to be a more reliable surrogate for pancreatic motion than the respiratory bellows signal. Radial sampling is most benign for undersampling artifacts and intraview motion. Motion characterization revealed interorgan and interpatient variation, as well as heterogeneity within the tumor. Conclusions: A robust 4D-MRI method, based on clinically available protocols, is presented and successfully applied to characterize the abdominal motion in a small number of pancreatic cancer patients.

62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE↗

DOE OSTI2020

Open Source Visualization and Analysis Platform for 3D Reconstructions of Materials by Transmission Electron Microscopy

Three-dimensional characterization of materials at the nano- and meso-scale has become possible with transmission and scanning transmission electron microscopes (S/TEM). Its importance has extended to a wide class of nanomaterials such as hydrogen fuel cells, solar cells, industrial catalysts, new battery materials and semiconductor devices, as well as spanning high-tech industry, universities, and national labs. While capable instrumentation is abundant, this rapidly expanding demand for high-resolution tomography is bottlenecked by software that is instead tailored for lower-dose, biological applications and not optimized for higher-resolution materials applications. Existing tomography fails to utilize the chemical information provided by S/TEM spectrometers. To address this problem, this project delivered a scalable, fully functional, freely-distributable, open Source materials tomography package with a modern user interface that enables automated acquisition, alignment, and real-time reconstruction of raw tomography data, and provides advanced segmentation, three-dimensional chemical visualization and analysis optimized for materials applications. It has established an extendable framework capable of automation for high-throughput for the tomography of materials from data acquisition to visualization. Phase I and II delivered a full-featured, cross-platform, clean and integrated application for S/TEM materials tomography. It can read projection data from the microscope, with graphical tools for alignment of data, tomographic reconstruction, segmentation, and visualization of the reconstructed 3D volume. The entire pipeline can be saved to an XML state file, enabling fully reproducible data processing and analysis with a full Python environment for the development of custom algorithms, processing, and analysis requirements. Phase IIB extended the application to provide real-time tomographic reconstruction, "live updates" as data is processed, analysis of big data, and multi-channel tomography. Here, quantitative assessment of nanomaterials can occur as data is being recorded on a 3D visualization platform that accommodates additional information from multiple channels. We provide unmatched high-throughput tomography, where the complete tomographic pipeline from measurement to 3D visualization can occur rapidly. The project was extended to offer capabilities for micro-CT, X-ray, neutron, focused ion beam, atomic electron tomography and atom probe tomography. With over 600 transmission electron microscopes worldwide and approximately 50 coming online each year, the demand and impact of an open-source tomography tool is large. Significant opportunities exist in high-tech industry, universities, and national labs to enable or enhance three-dimensional imaging at the nanoscale and bring automated high-throughput approaches that will accelerate progress in materials characterization and metrology. The project supports a service based business model by enabling lab-specific acquisition and processing customization and integration-support and development that will be provided into Phase III and beyond.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗