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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 883 records · Page 49
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2013

AGC-3 Graphite Preirradiation Data Analysis Report

This report describes the specimen loading order and documents all pre-irradiation examination material property measurement data for the graphite specimens contained within the third Advanced Graphite Capsule (AGC-3) irradiation capsule. The AGC-3 capsule is third in six planned irradiation capsules comprising the Advanced Graphite Creep (AGC) test series. The AGC test series is used to irradiate graphite specimens allowing quantitative data necessary for predicting the irradiation behavior and operating performance of new nuclear graphite grades to be generated which will ascertain the in-service behavior of the graphite for pebble bed and prismatic Very High Temperature Reactor (VHTR) designs. The general design of AGC-3 test capsule is similar to the AGC-2 test capsule, material property tests were conducted on graphite specimens prior to loading into the AGC-3 irradiation assembly. However, the 6 major nuclear graphite grades in AGC-2 were modified; two previous graphite grades (IG-430 and H-451) were eliminated and one was added (Mersen’s 2114 was added). Specimen testing from three graphite grades (PCEA, 2114, and NBG-17) was conducted at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and specimen testing for two grades (IG-110 and NBG-18) were conducted at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) from May 2011 to July 2013. This report also details the specimen loading methodology for the graphite specimens inside the AGC-3 irradiation capsule. The AGC-3 capsule design requires "matched pair" creep specimens that have similar dose levels above and below the neutron flux profile mid-plane to provide similar specimens with and without an applied load. This document utilized the neutron flux profile calculated for the AGC-3 capsule design, the capsule dimensions, and the size (length) of the selected graphite and silicon carbide samples to create a stacking order that can produce "matched pairs" of graphite samples above and below the AGC-3 capsule elevation mid-point to provide specimens with similar neutron dose levels.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2014

An In-situ materials analysis particle probe (MAPP) diagnostic to study particle density control and hydrogenic fuel retention in NSTX

A new materials analysis particle probe (MAPP) was designed, constructed and tested to develop understanding of particle control and hydrogenic fuel retention in lithium-based plasma-facing surfaces in NSTX. The novel feature of MAPP is an in-situ tool to probe the divertor NSTX floor during LLD and lithium-coating shots with subsequent transport to a post-exposure in-vacuo surface analysis chamber to measure D retention. In addition, the implications of a lithiated graphite-dominated plasma-surface environment in NSTX on LLD performance, operation and ultimately hydrogenic pumping and particle control capability are investigated in this proposal. MAPP will be an invaluable tool for erosion/redeposition simulation code validation.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

A Research Framework for Demonstrating Benefits of Advanced Control Room Technologies

Control Room modernization is an important part of life extension for the existing light water reactor fleet. None of the 99 currently operating commercial nuclear power plants in the U.S. has completed a full-scale control room modernization to date. A full-scale modernization might, for example, entail replacement of all analog panels with digital workstations. Such modernizations have been undertaken successfully in upgrades in Europe and Asia, but the U.S. has yet to undertake a control room upgrade of this magnitude. Instead, nuclear power plant main control rooms for the existing commercial reactor fleet remain significantly analog, with only limited digital modernizations. Previous research under the U.S. Department of Energy’s Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program has helped establish a systematic process for control room upgrades that support the transition to a hybrid control. While the guidance developed to date helps streamline the process of modernization and reduce costs and uncertainty associated with introducing digital control technologies into an existing control room, these upgrades do not achieve the full potential of newer technologies that might otherwise enhance plant and operator performance. The aim of the control room benefits research presented here is to identify previously overlooked benefits of modernization, identify candidate technologies that may facilitate such benefits, and demonstrate these technologies through human factors research. This report serves as an outline for planned research on the benefits of greater modernization in the main control rooms of nuclear power plants.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Kilowatt Reactor Using Stirling TechnologY (KRUSTY) Demonstration. CEDT Phase 1 Preliminary Design Documentation

The intent of the integral experiment request IER 299 (called KiloPower by NASA) is to assemble and evaluate the operational performance of a compact reactor configuration that closely resembles the flight unit to be used by NASA to execute a deep space exploration mission. The reactor design will include heat pipes coupled to Stirling engines to demonstrate how one can generate electricity when extracting energy from a “nuclear generated” heat source. This series of experiments is a larger scale follow up to the DUFF series of experiments1,2 that were performed using the Flat-Top assembly.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Strategy for Migration of Traditional to Hybrid Control Boards in a Nuclear Power Plant

This strategy document describes the NUREG-0711 based human factors engineering (HFE) phases and associated elements required to support design, verification and validation (V&V), and implementation of new digital control room elements in a legacy analog main control room (MCR). Information from previous planning and analysis work serves as the foundation for creating a human-machine interface (HMI) specification for distributed control systems (DCSs) to be implemented as part of nuclear power plant (NPP) modernization. This document reviews ways to take the HMSI specification and use it when migrating legacy displays or designing displays with new functionality. These displays undergo iterative usability testing during the design phase and then an integrated system validation (ISV) in the full-scope control room training simulator. Following successful demonstration of operator performance using the systems during the ISV, the new DCS is implemented at the plant, first in the training simulator and then in the MCR. This document concludes with a sample project plan, including a 15-month timeline from DCS design through implementation. Included is a discussion of how the U.S. Department of Energy’s Human System Simulation Laboratory (HSSL) can be used to support design and V&V activities. This report completes a Level 4 (M4) milestone under the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) Program.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Enhanced INL Power Grid Test Bed Infrastructure – Phase I

Idaho National Laboratory (INL), a Department of Energy (DOE) laboratory, owns, operates, and maintains transmission and distribution power grid infrastructure to support the INL multi program mission. Sections of this power infrastructure, known as the INL Power Grid Test Bed, have been and are being used by government and industry to develop, demonstrate, and validate technologies for the modern grid, including smart grid, on a full scale utility test bed. INL’s power grid includes 61 miles of 140 MW, 138 kV rated electrical power transmission supplying seven main substations, each feeding a separate facility complex (or ‘city’) within the INL’s 890 square mile Site. This power grid is fed by three commercial utilities into the INL’s main control substation, but is operated independently from the commercial utility through its primary substation and command and control center. Within the INL complex, one of the seven complexes, the Critical Infrastructure Test Range Complex (CITRC), has been designated as the INL complex for supporting critical infrastructure research and testing. This complex includes its own substation and 13.8kV distribution network, all configurable and controlled by the INL research and development programs. Through investment partnership with the DOE Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability (DOE OE), INL is enhancing its existing distribution infrastructure to expand the types of testing that can be conducted and increase flexibility for testing configurations. The enhancement of the INL Power Grid Test Bed will enable development and full scale testing of smart-grid-related technologies and smart devices including testing interoperability, operational performance, reliability, and resiliency contribution at multiple distribution voltage classes, specifically 15kV, 25kV, and 35kV. The expected time frame for completion of the Phase I portion of the enhancement would be 4th quarter fiscal year (FY) 2015.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2015

A Pilot Study Investigating the Effects of Advanced Nuclear Power Plant Control Room Technologies: Methods and Qualitative Results

Control room modernization is an important part of life extension for the existing light water reactor fleet. None of the 99 currently operating commercial nuclear power plants in the U.S. has completed a full-scale control room modernization to date. Nuclear power plant main control rooms for the existing commercial reactor fleet remain significantly analog, with only limited digital modernizations. Upgrades in the U.S. do not achieve the full potential of newer technologies that might otherwise enhance plant and operator performance. The goal of the control room upgrade benefits research is to identify previously overlooked benefits of modernization, identify candidate technologies that may facilitate such benefits, and demonstrate these technologies through human factors research. This report describes a pilot study to test upgrades to the Human Systems Simulation Laboratory at INL.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Life-cycle analysis of energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, and water consumption in the 2016 MYPP algal biofuel scenarios

The Department of Energy (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) Multi-year Program Plan (MYPP) describes the bioenergy objectives pursued by BETO, the strategies for achieving those objectives, the current state of technology (SOT), and a number of design cases that explore cost and operational performance required to advance the SOT towards middle and long term goals (MYPP, 2016). Two options for converting algae to biofuel intermediates were considered in the MYPP, namely algal biofuel production via lipid extraction and algal biofuel production by thermal processing. The first option, lipid extraction, is represented by the Combined Algae Processing (CAP) pathway in which algae are hydrolyzed in a weak acid pretreatment step. The treated slurry is fermented for ethanol production from sugars. The fermentation stillage contains most of the lipids from the original biomass, which are recovered through wet solvent extraction. The process residuals after lipid extraction, which contain much of the original mass of amino acids and proteins, are directed to anaerobic digestion (AD) for biogas production and recycle of N and P nutrients. The second option, thermal processing, comprises direct hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) of the wet biomass, separation of aqueous, gas, and oil phases, and treatment of the aqueous phase with catalytic hydrothermal gasification (CHG) to produce biogas and to recover N and P nutrients. The present report describes a life cycle analysis of energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of the CAP and HTL options for the three scenarios just described. Water use is also reported. Water use during algal biofuel production comes from evaporation during cultivation, discharge to bleed streams to control pond salinity (“blowdown”), and from use during preprocessing and upgrading. For scenarios considered to date, most water use was from evaporation and, secondarily, from bleed streams. Other use was relatively small at the level of fidelity being modeled now.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2017

The ARES High-level Intermediate Representation

The LLVM intermediate representation (IR) lacks semantic constructs for depicting common high-performance operations such as parallel and concurrent execution, communication and synchronization. Currently, representing such semantics in LLVM requires either extending the intermediate form (a signi cant undertaking) or the use of ad hoc indirect means such as encoding them as intrinsics and/or the use of metadata constructs. In this paper we discuss a work in progress to explore the design and implementation of a new compilation stage and associated high-level intermediate form that is placed between the abstract syntax tree and when it is lowered to LLVM's IR. This highlevel representation is a superset of LLVM IR and supports the direct representation of these common parallel computing constructs along with the infrastructure for supporting analysis and transformation passes on this representation.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2018

2017 ADEM SSIP Safety Culture 2

The overall purpose of the 2017 SSIP is to improve operational performance by fostering employee involvement in the development of solutions to issues that are important to the organization. While the cornerstone mechanism of our employee involvement is the Worker Safety and Security Teams (WSSTs); active guidance by management is also a key to success.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2018

Configuration Management History Report for the RH LLW Disposal Facility Project

This document outlines and summarized the configuration management process that was used for the RHLLW Disposal Facility design and turnover to operations in support of process readiness reviews. The project was originally solicited as a design-build-operate contract, but awarded as a design-build project only to Areva Federal Services in 2014. The RHLLW requirements were captured in two documents: 1) SPC-1437, Design-Build-Operate Performance Specification for the Remote-Handled Low-Level Waste Disposal Project; and 2) TFR-483, Technical and Functional Requirements for the Remote-Handled Low-Level Waste Disposal Project. TFR-483 and SPC-1437 outlined the requirements for the facility and SPC-1437 documented additional requirements regarding quality, design, and construction. A Code of Record (COR) was generated during conceptual design and updated during final design to document the design-basis codes and standards (INL/EXT-10-20044).

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2014

Baseline Human Factors and Ergonomics in Support of Control Room Modernization at Nuclear Power Plants

As part of control room modernization at a nuclear power plant, a utility should carefully follow the four phases prescribed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in NUREG-0711, Human Factors Engineering Program Review Model . These four phases include Planning and Analysis, Design, Verification and Validation, and Implementation and Operation. While NUREG-0711 is a useful guideline, it is written primarily from the perspective of regulatory review, and it therefore does not provide a nuanced account of many of the steps the utility might undertake as part of control room modernization. The guideline is largely summative—meant to catalog final products—rather than formative—meant to guide the overall modernization process. In this report, we highlight two crucial formative subelements of the Planning and Analysis phase specific to control room modernization that are not covered in NUREG-0711. These two subelements are the usability and ergonomics baseline evaluations. A baseline evaluation entails evaluating the system as-built and currently in use. The usability baseline evaluation provides key insights into operator performance using the control system currently in place. The ergonomic baseline evaluation identifies possible deficiencies in the physical configuration of the control system. Both baseline evaluations feed into the design of the replacement system and help ensure that control room modernization represents the successful evolution of the control system.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2018

The Strategic Value of Human Factors Engineering in Control Room Modernization

Control room modernization is one of the most challenging and complex upgrade projects that a nuclear power plant can undertake. It can have almost as big an impact on operations as, for example, turbine replacement. The challenges of migrating an analog control system to a distributed control system are already well known and a number of nuclear utilities have embarked upon various levels of effort to upgrade some of the systems in the control room. When planning for control room upgrades, plants have to deal with a multitude of engineering, operational, and regulatory impacts. This will inevitably include several human factors considerations, such as workstation ergonomics, viewing angles, lighting, seating, new interaction modalities, new communication requirements, and new concepts of operation. In helping nuclear power utilities to deal with these challenges, the United States Department of Energy researchers located at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) have developed research-based human factors design and evaluation methods to be used in the development of end-state concepts for modernized control rooms and to manage the various phases of the upgrade life cycle. The methodology includes interactive sessions with operators in INL’s Human System Simulation Laboratory, three-dimensional modeling to visualize control board changes and operator-system interaction, and development of human-system prototypes to evaluate various aspects of proposed modifications. This methodology has been applied at a number of U.S. nuclear power plants where modernization projects are underway, including Exelon’s Braidwood and Byron plants, and Arizona Public Service's Palo Verde plant. It was demonstrated that including this methodology in the plant’s engineering process helps to ensure an integrated and cohesive outcome that is consistent with human factors engineering principles and provide substantial improvement in operator performance.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Hierarchical Task-Data Parallelism using Kokkos and Qthreads

This report describes a new capability for hierarchical task-data parallelism using Sandia's Kokkos and Qthreads, and evaluation of this capability with sparse matrix Cholesky factorization and social network triangle enumeration mini-applications. Hierarchical task-data parallelism consists of a collection of tasks with executes-after dependences where each task contains data parallel operations performed on a team of hardware threads. The collection of tasks and dependences form a directed acyclic graph of tasks - a task DAG. Major challenges of this research and development effort include: portability and performance across multicore CPU; manycore Intel Xeon Phi, and NVIDIA GPU architectures; scalability with respect to hardware concurrency and size of the task DAG; and usability of the application programmer interface (API).

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2019

Trinity University Campus-Wide Deep Dive

In May 2019, staff members from the Engagement and Performance Operations Center (EPOC) and the Lonestar Education And Research Network (LEARN) met with researchers and staff at Trinity University for the purpose of a Campus-Wide Deep Dive into research drivers. The goal of this meeting was to help characterize the requirements for five campus research use cases and to enable cyberinfrastructure support staff to better understand the needs of the researchers they support. Profiled use cases included: Physics and Neuroscience, Computer Science and Engineering, Classical Studies and Archeology, Biological Sciences, and Geosciences. Material for this event included the written documentation from each of the research areas at Trinity University, documentation about the current state of technology support, and a write-up of the discussion that took place in person.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2019

The Continuous Readout Stream of the MicroBooNE Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber for Detection of Supernova Neutrinos

The MicroBooNE Continuous Readout Stream is a parallel readout of the MicroBooNE liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) which enables detection of non-beam events such as those from a supernova neutrino burst. The low energies of these neutrinos and the intense cosmic-ray flux due to the near-surface detector location makes triggering on these events very challenging. Instead, MicroBooNE has pioneered a novel approach for detecting supernova neutrinos relying on a delayed trigger generated by SNEWS (the Supernova Early Warning System). The continuous readout of the LArTPC is achieved through the use of real-time compression algorithms (zero suppression and Huffman compression) implemented in an FPGA (field-programmable gate array) in the readout electronics. We present the results of the optimization of the data reduction algorithms, and their operational performance. In order to demonstrate the capability of the continuous stream to detect low-energy electrons, a sample of Michel electrons from stopping cosmic-ray muons is reconstructed and compared to a similar sample from the lossless triggered readout stream.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2019

Purdue University Application Deep Dive

In May 2019, staff members from the Engagement and Performance Operations Center (EPOC) met with researchers at Purdue University for the purpose of a campus-wide Application Deep Dive. The goal of this meeting was to help characterize the requirements for two research labs on campus, and to enable cyberinfrastructure support staff to better understand the needs of the researchers they support. Material for this report includes both written documentation from the 2nd Annual Symposium for Research Data Technology at Purdue University, but also a writeup of the discussion that took place in person on May 31st, 2019. The Case Studies highlighted the ongoing challenges that Purdue University has in supporting aspects of the research community that are relatively new to the available technology support structures.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2019

Great Plains Network - Kansas State University Agronomy Application Deep Dive

In May 2019, staff members from the Engagement and Performance Operations Center (EPOC) and members of the Great Plains Network (GPN) attending their Annual Meeting meeting met with researchers at Kansas State University (KSU) for the purpose of an Application Deep Dive training session. The goal of this training session was to help characterize the requirements for an agronomy application, to enable cyberinfrastructure support staff to better understand the needs of the researchers they support, and to offer training to GPN members to be able to conduct these on their own. Material for this event includes both the written documentation from the agronomy application at KSU, details about the infrastructure setup at KSU, and also a writeup of the discussion that took place in person on May 20, 2019. EPOC, GPN, and KSU recorded a set of action items for this use case, continuing the ongoing support and collaboration. These are a reflection of the case study report, and in person discussion.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗