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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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DOE OSTI2023

Achieving Economy-wide Net-Zero Solutions: The Essential Role of Nuclear Energy

The Biden administration has committed to full decarbonization of the U.S. electricity grid by 2035 and economy-wide net zero emissions by 2050. These aggressive goals demand immediate action if we are to be successful, and they require us to think more holistically about our clean energy options. Programs within the Department of Energy are addressing these holistic solutions. Traditionally, electricity generation and management and meeting energy demands for industry and transportation are considered independently. As we seek to achieve net zero, we need to reassess our energy demands. When we consider overall energy use, only one-third is in the form of electricity. Additional energy demands are in the form of heat or steam for industrial processes, as well as transportation. These sectors are much harder to abate, and electrification may not be the best option. Reducing environmental emissions at an affordable cost, while maintaining grid reliability and resilience, will require us to use all of the clean energy resources that we have available. That means coordinating the use of nuclear, renewables, and fossil fuels with carbon capture to meet growing demands for electricity, industrial applications, and mobility. Various energy applications and product streams beyond electricity are being evaluated, ranging from generation of potable water to production of hydrogen, fertilizers, synthetic fuels, and various chemicals. This presentation will highlight advanced nuclear technologies under development today and will provide a glimpse into the wide array of R&D being conducted across multiple DOE-funded programs.

08 HYDROGEN↗
DOE OSTI2022

Advancing Nuclear Energy to Support Economy-wide Net-zero Solutions: Challenges and Opportunities

Governments and private industry around the world have established aggressive goals to achieve net-zero emissions for the power, industrial, and transportation sectors by 2050. These aggressive goals demand immediate action if we are to be successful, and they require us to think more holistically about our clean energy options. Programs within the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) are addressing these holistic solutions. Traditionally, electricity generation and management and meeting energy demands for industry and transportation are considered independently. As we seek to achieve net-zero, we need to reassess energy demands. When we consider overall energy use, only one-third is in the form of electricity. Additional energy demands are in the form of heat or steam for industrial processes, as well as transportation. These sectors are much harder to abate, and electrification may not be the best option. Reducing environmental emissions at an affordable cost, while maintaining grid reliability and resilience, will require us to use all of the clean energy resources that we have available. That means coordinating the use of nuclear, renewables, and fossil fuels with carbon capture to meet growing demands for electricity, industrial applications, and mobility. The DOE Office of Nuclear Energy (DOE-NE) program on Integrated Energy Systems (IES) is led by researchers at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and work is conducted in partnership with an array of other DOE laboratories, industry, and academia. The primary focus of IES research is to assess the technical and economic potential of IES to enhance the flexibility and utilization of nuclear reactors working alongside renewable generators to meet an array of energy demands—thereby maximizing the utilization of clean energy resources across all energy sectors. Various energy applications and product streams beyond electricity are being evaluated, ranging from generation of potable water to production of hydrogen, fertilizers, synthetic fuels, and chemicals. The DOE-NE program additionally partners with the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office under the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy to jointly fund the development of analysis tools, technologies, and nuclear-integrated hydrogen demonstration projects. This presentation highlights the wide array of R&D being conducted across multiple DOE-funded programs to develop and deploy nuclear-based IES that will be key to achieving our net-zero goals. By working with key collaborators in the nuclear industry, analytical studies are now becoming a reality in demonstration projects. The presentation specifically focuses on motivations for the paradigm shift in how nuclear energy is deployed and used, opportunities for nuclear energy to support an array of non-electric application, integration options, computational tools and experimental systems to support evaluation and to accelerate deployment, and industry partnerships.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Complete Demonstration of a Prototype Version of FORCE User Interface and Conduct Analyst Survey Collecting Feedback on Interface Features and Usability

In 2024 the US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Nuclear Energy (NE) Integrated Energy System (IES) program continued to develop the Framework for Optimization of Resources and Economics (FORCE) analysis ecosystem into a more traditional toolset with simplified software installation, automated workflows, and interactive results visualization. The DOE-NE Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) Workbench continued to be leveraged for user input, application workflow and runtime environment, and interactive results visualization capabilities. This report documents the demonstration of a FORCE User Interface (UI) prototype and the results of a survey of analysts’ using the Holistic Energy Resource Optimization Network (HERON) tool in FORCE with the prototype UI.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2020

The role of nuclear in China’s energy future: insights from integrated assessment

China, the world’s largest electricity consumer, has strong motivations to deploy nuclear power due to increasing electricity demand and environmental concerns. However, there are social, institutional, and technical barriers to future nuclear expansion. This paper provides an updated assessment of nuclear energy potential in China with analyses at both national and provincial levels and compares results with studies previously conducted. Using an integrated assessment model, this paper considers the interactions among different socioeconomic development pathways, technology options, climate policies, and social/political concerns on inland siting. Among all factors explored, climate policies have the most significant impact on accelerating the deployment of nuclear technologies. Inland siting of nuclear power plants increases total capacity, but the impact is limited without climate policy. The amount of annual nuclear generation across scenarios and studies is unlikely to rise above 11% by 2030 and 30% by 2050 of total Chinese electricity generation. A dramatic increase in total Chinese nuclear energy generating capacity – around 3900 TWh of nuclear generation by 2050 – is only possible in scenarios where China sees electricity demand increase substantially, sticks to and tightens its current Paris Accord commitments, achieves low costs of nuclear technologies, and allows inland siting of nuclear power plants.

China, integrated assesment, Nuclear Power Plants↗
DOE OSTI2020

Renewable Energy Technologies and Integrated Energy Systems

As renewable energy deployment expands, its integration into broader energy systems becomes an opportunity for providing clean energy across multiple sectors. This presentation will review statistics about the growth of renewable energy and potential future trends, with an additional focus technologies important to Colorado. It will also present options for integration with other low emissions technologies, such as nuclear energy and storage, and how together they could create an integrated energy system for multiple sectors. The presentation will also include an introduction to the mission and research of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the Joint Institute for Strategic Energy Analysis (JISEA).

ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY,ENVIRONMENTAL↗
DOE OSTI2021

Hybrid Simulation Framework

HYBRID is a modeling toolset to assess the economic viability of Nuclear-Renewable Integrated Energy Systems (N-R IES). The frameworks enabling this toolset are INL’s RAVEN, its CashFlow plugin and the Modelica language. The toolset includes sample RAVEN workflows performing economic assessments. These workflows consist of: generation of stochastic time series and application of probabilistic analysis and optimization algorithms (RAVEN); a library of Modelica models representing the physical behavior of N-R IES; and the CashFlow plugin mapping physical performance to economic performance. The toolset allows assembling existing and new models such as nuclear reactors, renewable energy sources, energy storage, gas turbines, industrial processes, etc. into an N-R IES. The toolset workflows evaluate the dynamics of the N-R IES responding to stochastic conditions (electricity demand, price, etc.) and optimize the dispatch economics as well as N-R IES capacity planning.

Epiney, Aaron↗
DOE OSTI2021

Opportunities and Challenges for Nuclear-Renewable Hybrid Energy Systems

Nuclear-renewable hybrid energy systems (also known as integrated nuclear-renewable systems) are conceptual systems that have two or more energy inputs and produce two or more products. They maximize profitability, and usually equipment utilization, by adjusting between the products depending upon the availability of resources and market value. For example a nuclear-renewable hybrid energy system that produces electricity and hydrogen would maximize sales of electricity when its price is high and shift to hydrogen production when the electricity price is low. This presentation summarizes the results of several economic analyses of nuclear-renewable hybrid energy systems and they key overall conclusions from those analyses.

ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY,ENVIRONMENTAL↗
DOE OSTI2023

Radiation-induced dry reforming: A negative emission process

The reaction between the most abundant greenhouse gases (GHG) to produce hydrogen might represent the most powerful and effective decarbonizing opportunity, if a low-carbon energy source is used to drive it. This is the case of methane (CH 4 ) dry reforming (MDR) where its reaction with carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) produces synthesis gas (syngas, a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen). Here this study explores the feasibility of using ionizing radiation to induce the MDR reaction, at low temperatures and/or less energy demanding conditions. Additionally, the ionizing radiation is proposed to be supplied by nuclear power plants (NPPs), which are low-carbon reliable energy generation sources. Thus, the radiolysis of CO 2 , CH 4 and their mixtures, under ?-irradiation was evaluated in the absence and presence of nickel catalysts. The radiation-induced MDR reaction and radiation-induced catalytic promotion were proven to take place at temperatures close to ambient though at low conversion, with yields below 1%. Since irradiation and heat can be provided by a nuclear power plant, this radiation-induced reaction establishes a connection between nuclear energy to renewable resources and enables a pathway for a decarbonized cleaner chemical industry, for producing green chemicals.

08 HYDROGEN↗
NASA NTRS2005

Development, Integration and Utilization of Surface Nuclear Energy Sources for Exploration Missions

Throughout the past five decades numerous studies have identified nuclear energy as an enhancing or enabling technology for human surface exploration missions. Nuclear energy sources were used to provide electricity on Apollo missions 12, 14, 15, 16, and 17, and on the Mars Viking landers. Nuclear energy sources were used to provide heat on the Pathfinder; Spirit, and Discovery rovers. Scenarios have been proposed that utilize -1 kWe radioisotope systems for early missions, followed by fission systems in the 10 - 30 kWe range when energy requirements increase. A fission energy source unit size of approximately 150 kWt has been proposed based on previous lunar and Mars base architecture studies. Such a unit could support both early and advanced bases through a building block approach.

Houts, Michael G.↗
DOE OSTI2021

Sustainable, Net-Zero Carbon Steelmaking Utilizing Nuclear and Renewable-based Integrated Energy Systems

Decarbonizing Steelmaking: Emissions Background Industrial processes (including power) account for 28% of global CO2 emissions dominated by steel, cement, NH3, ethylene. Steel accounts for 7% of global CO2 emissions (25% of Industrial), 2-3 Gigatonnes annually. Given long asset life and large investments in steel industry, recommend: Detailed analysis, materials R&D and pre-pilot technology integration required by 2030 to position U.S. industry for an investment decision for building first net-zero integrated steel plan Symposium site: https://www.aiche.org/cei/conferences/competitive-energy-systems/2021

08 HYDROGEN↗
DOE OSTI2025

Capacity optimization of nuclear power integration to meet dynamic industrial demand

To decarbonize their industrial facilities, The Dow Chemical Company has collaborated with Idaho National Laboratory (INL) to study the integration of nuclear power with an industrial chemical facility. Using Holistic Energy and Resource Optimization Network developed at INL for optimizing and analyzing integrated energy systems, a nuclear microreactor system was sized and evaluated for dynamic dispatch to Dow Silicones Corporation’s Carrollton, KY (USA) site for iloxane production. It was found that a 180 MW th system (12 × 15MW th ) with 75.1 MWh th of thermal energy storage could provide heat and power to the chemical facilities. In the process, this would reduce electricity imports by 99.9 % and reduce the Scope 1 and 2 emissions of the site by 292,100 tonnes CO 2 /yr (98.8 %). The primary novelty of this work is a first of a kind design and optimization of a microreactor powered integrated energy system to provide heat and power to a chemical plant using real plant data. This analysis will pave the way for future studies using dispatchable clean energy sources to reduce carbon emissions and commodity industries’ reliance on fossil fuels.

22 - GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Outlook on Industrial Requirements for Incorporating Nuclear Energy into Industrial Processes

There is an increasing interest globally and in the U.S. in decarbonizing heavy industrial processes which have large demands for heat and power. Currently these industries primarily use fossil fuels to meet these demands and they include: oil & gas, petroleum refining, chemicals and derivative products manufacturing, iron & steel production, polymers, ammonia and fertilizers, etc. The U.S. DOE Integrated Energy Systems (IES) program seeks to identify and analyze opportunities for integrating and substituting nuclear energy to fulfil these large heat and power demands in a cost competitive and sustainable manner while reducing carbon emissions of the processes by using clean nuclear power. Presently various representatives from a subset of these industrial companies have expressed interest in evaluating the options of integrating future advanced nuclear small modular reactors with their industries. This study is a scoping study to provide an outlook of industrial energy demands and the potential nuclear energy substitution potential. Future work will analyze in a more detailed manner the potential designs for coupling advanced nuclear reactors with various industries. The industrial processes of oil refining, methanol production, pulp and paper, ammonia and chlorine-alkali are described focusing on how heat and power is used within the facilities in the context of identifying nuclear substitution opportunities. The aim is to provide reliable, competitive, and sustainable energy that is clean while reducing carbon emissions and other environmental impacts such as water withdrawals, consumption, and contamination.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Investigation and Demonstration of Reliability Target Allocation to Support Reliability and Integrity Management Program

Nuclear energy is the most reliable and environmentally sustainable energy source available today. In the United States (U.S.), nuclear-generated power accounts for approximately 20% of total electricity and over 55% of clean energy. New advanced reactors have enormous potential to help further decarbonize the energy market, enhance grid resiliency, create new jobs, and build a stronger economy. More than 50 new reactors are being developed in the U.S., and the federal government realizes an urgent need to deploy nuclear technologies to meet the country’s energy, environmental, and national security goals. As such, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) launched multiple programs to support advanced reactor deployment. The research described in this report explores implementation strategies for the Reliability and Integrity Management Program that directly supports the DOE goal to enable the near-term deployment of the advanced reactor technologies. The project is conducted under the Regulatory Development Program for advanced reactors sponsored by the DOE.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Integrated Energy Systems: 2020 Roadmap

This roadmap defines potential industrial scale integrated energy systems (IES) and identifies key technology gaps to achieving commercial deployment of such systems. IES under consideration could include multiple energy generation resources and energy use paths, with a focus on low-emission technologies, such as nuclear and renewable generators. Together these technologies provide affordable, reliable, and resilient energy while simultaneously reducing environmental emission of CO 2 and greenhouse gases (GHGs). System design and optimization would consider both technical performance and economic viability within various deployment markets.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Updating Nuclear Energy Cost Estimates for Net Zero World Initiative

Energy modeling of decarbonized scenarios in integrated energy systems requires nuclear energy parameters that are critical for forecasting, modeling and cost structure analysis. Using updated real-world data has always been a challenge to estimate current nuclear reactors costs and deployment scenarios. Given this, an updated set of parameters for overnight capital costs and operation and maintenance costs are estimated for the Net Zero World initiative using recent reports that provided a vast set of open sources data inputs. This paper follows the methodology developed in the Net Zero World report and applies the new ranges estimated in the Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear report that address many of the current challenges in obtaining accurate cost data for advanced nuclear concepts. The final goal is to provide new estimates of the overnight capital costs and operational costs for different countries. The present paper improves the earlier capital cost estimations, building on recent literature that aims to obtain accurate data for modeling and simulation to enhance energy system evaluations and support decision-making in areas like de-carbonization and capacity expansion. Finally, the paper compares the new cost estimates with the old cost results.

11 - NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Synthetic Electricity Market Data Generation and HERON Use Case Setup of Advanced Nuclear Reactors Coupled with Thermal Energy Storage Systems

This study evaluates and optimizes advanced nuclear reactors coupled with thermal energy storage (TES) systems in an Integrated Energy System (IES) architecture to enable advanced nuclear power plants (A NPP) to participate in multi-commodity markets, thus enhancing their economic competitiveness. Nuclear-TES coupling scenarios studied herein are designed attenuate the nuclear heat dynamics and defer energy delivery to a later time, enabling the nuclear reactor to continue operating at or near steady-state design conditions as usual while also enabling flexible generation. Three A-NPPs, namely, an advanced light-water reactor (A LWR), a high temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) and a liquid-metal fast reactor (LMFR) were selected as the initial use cases for demonstrating the technoeconomic of thermally balanced energy storage coupling design for thermal power extraction. Each of the reactor technologies were evaluated in two different electricity markets. Stochastic optimization approach was adopted which included the evaluation of price signals from the Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland (PJM) market, and Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), using an autoregressive moving average (ARMA) model. Risk Analysis Virtual Environment (RAVEN) tool and its dispatch optimization plugin, the Holistic Energy Resource Optimization Network (HERON), were used to perform dispatch and capacity optimization, using the price data provided by the ARMA models. The results from the Nuclear-TES use cases will be used to design and characterize dynamic integrated system behavior and feedback.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Summary of INL Integrated Energy Systems Research for the Global National Laboratories Consortium on IES

The DOE Office of Nuclear Energy (DOE-NE) program on Integrated Energy Systems (IES) is led by researchers at Idaho National Laboratory (INL), and work is conducted in partnership with an array of other DOE laboratories, industry, and academia. IES research and development activities are additionally complimented by the DOE-NE Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) program, where work under the Flexible Plant Operations & Generation pathway supports analysis of opportunities for non-electric applications of current fleet nuclear plants and collaborates with multiple plants on near-term hydrogen production demonstration opportunities. The DOE-NE programs additionally partner with the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office under the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy to jointly fund the development of analysis tools, technologies, and nuclear-integrated hydrogen demonstration projects. This document provides a brief, high-level summary of IES work as contribution to the annual report for the Global National Laboratories Consortium on IES.

08 HYDROGEN↗
DOE OSTI2026

Integral Nuclear Data and Benchmarking Needs for Fusion Energy Systems

Fusion energy systems are currently being designed and optimized using radiation transport codes. To deal with the unique environment inside a fusion-based system, many of these designs incorporate novel materials able to withstand the high radiation fields, ensure adequate cooling and thermal protection, and produce tritium. Validation plays a vital role in building trust in the predictive power of these models and computational methods. Validation of a code consists of modeling documented real-world experiments and comparing the code-predicted response to the measured response. Adequate validation requires measured responses from real-world experiments, also known as integral data, that mimic the system being designed, including materials, impinging radiation, and temperature, among other variables. The most trusted integral data are experimental responses that have been through a rigorous benchmarking process that develops a recommended computational model and evaluates all experimental uncertainties. Finally, there are a few research groups around the world that have been producing integral data for fusion applications, but a substantial investment is needed to address the unique validation needs of the fusion community.

Fusion↗