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Department of Energy WindSentinel Loan Program Description

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) currently owns two AXYS WindSentinel buoys that collect a comprehensive set of meteorological and oceanographic data to support resource characterization for wind energy offshore. The two buoys were delivered to DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in September, 2014. After acceptance testing and initial performance testing and evaluation at PNNL’s Marine Sciences Laboratory in Sequim, Washington, the buoys have been deployed off the U.S. East Coast. One buoy was deployed approximately 42 km east of Virginia Beach, Virginia from December, 2014 through June, 2016. The second buoy was deployed approximately 5 km off Atlantic City, New Jersey in November, 2015. Data from the buoys are available to the public. Interested parties can create an account and log in to http://offshoreweb.pnnl.gov. In response to a number of inquiries and unsolicited proposals, DOE’s Wind Energy Technologies Office is implementing a program, to be managed by PNNL, to lend the buoys to qualified parties for the purpose of acquiring wind resource characterization data in areas of interest for offshore wind energy development. This document describes the buoys, the scope of the loans, the process of how borrowers will be selected, and the schedule for implementation of this program, including completing current deployments.

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Addendum 2 to the Closure Report for CAU 577 Area 5 Chromium Containing Waste Disposal Cells, NNSS, Nevada

Corrective Action Unit (CAU) 577, “Area 5 Chromium Containing Waste Disposal Cells,” includes five low-level waste cells at the Nevada National Security Site Area 5 Radioactive Waste Management Site where buried waste received from Nuclear Fuel Services, Inc., was subsequently determined to contain chromium that exceeded the toxicity characteristic leaching procedure regulatory limit, which would require the waste to carry hazardous waste code D007. CAU 577 was created to satisfy the requirements of the Settlement Agreement (SA) executed between the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection (NDEP) and the U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration Nevada Field Office (NNSA/NFO) on April 25, 2019 (NDEP 2019). The SA required that the chromium-containing waste received from NFS would be addressed following the closure process laid out in the Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order (FFACO). The FFACO process ensures proper closure of the chromium-containing waste and documentation of that closure through FFACO-type documents. The following three Corrective Action Sites (CASs) were closed, and their closure was documented in the Closure Report for Corrective Action Unit 577: Area 5 Chromium Containing Waste Disposal Cells, Nevada National Security Site, Nevada, DOE/EMNV--0030, dated September 2021 (U.S. Department of Energy [DOE] Environmental Management [EM] Nevada Program 2021a): • CAS 05-21-02, Waste Disposal Cell 12 • CAS 05-21-03, Waste Disposal Cell 15 • CAS 05-21-04, Waste Disposal Cell 17 Closure of the following CAS was previously documented in the Addendum to the Closure Report for Corrective Action Unit 577: Area 5 Chromium Containing Waste Disposal Cells, Nevada National Security Site, Nevada, DOE/EMNV--0030-ADD, dated September 2022 (DOE EM Nevada Program 2022): • CAS 05-21-05, Waste Disposal Cell 20 This second addendum to the Closure Report documents the closure activities that have occurred for CAS 05-21-06, Waste Disposal Cell 21. This is the last CAS in CAU 577. The final waste shipment was placed in the waste disposal cell on November 21, 2022. Following this, closure activities began on November 28, 2022, and were conducted according to the Corrective Action Decision Document/Corrective Action Plan (CADD/CAP) for CAU 577 (DOE EM Nevada Program 2021b). The following closure activities were performed: • Constructing an engineered evapotranspiration cover • Installing two subsidence monuments and vadose zone monitoring equipment • Seeding the cover with a mixture of native plant species • Installing four concrete monuments on the corners of the cover and placing two use restriction (UR) warning signs on each monument These activities fulfill applicable federal and state regulations for closure of CAS 05-21-06 and minimize potential future exposure pathways to buried waste. Completed closure activities are also consistent with closure of the nine historical Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) units included in Section 10.2.2 of the RCRA Permit that governs hazardous waste management activities at the Nevada National Security Site (Permit NEV HW0101) (NDEP 2023). UR documentation for this CAS is included in Appendix B of this report. The post-closure plan is presented in detail in the CADD/CAP for CAU 577 (DOE EM Nevada Program 2021b), and the requirements are summarized in Section 5.2 of this document. In accordance with paragraph 5D of the SA, a request to incorporate the requirements for post-closure monitoring of CAU 577 was included with the permit application for RCRA Permit NEV HW0101 that was submitted in January 2022 (NNSA/NFO 2022). The request included the post-closure requirements for the three CASs that had been closed at the time of submittal of the application as well as requirements that would be implemented upon future approval of closure of the remaining two CASs. All CAU 577 post-closure monitoring requirements have been captured in the April 4, 2023, Revision 7 of the RCRA Permit (NDEP 2023). As the RCRA Permit NEV HW0101 has been revised since the submittal of the original CAU 577 Closure Report (DOE EM Nevada Program 2021a) and Addendum 1 (DOE EM Nevada Program 2022), the post-closure requirements in this Addendum 2 report do not align with the previous documents. Specific changes resulting from the issuance of Revision 7 of the RCRA Permit are discussed in Section 5.2 of this report. The requirements in this report are consistent with the current permit (NDEP 2023) and supersede all requirements listed in the CAU 577 Closure Report and Addendum 1. All CAU 577 post-closure requirements should be conducted in accordance with the version of the RCRA Permit that is current at the time of the activities being performed. The DOE EM Nevada Program is requesting a Notice of Completion from NDEP for closure of CAU 577. Although CAU 577 is not a legacy site, the FFACO process is being followed to ensure proper closure of the chromium-containing waste. Therefore, transfer of CAU 577 from Appendix III of the FFACO to Appendix IV, Closed Corrective Action Units, is requested, as all closure activities have been completed.

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Guam Energy Action Plan

Describes the four near-term strategies selected by the Guam Energy Task Force during action planning workshops conducted in March 2013, and outlines the steps being taken to implement those strategies. Each strategy addresses one of the energy sectors identified in the earlier Guam strategic energy plan as being an essential component of diversifying Guam's fuel sources and reducing fossil energy consumption 20% by 2020. The four energy strategies selected are: (1) expanding public outreach on energy efficiency and conservation, (2) establishing a demand-side management revolving loan program, (3) exploring waste-to-energy options, and (4) influencing the transportation sector via anti-idling legislation, vehicle registration fees, and electric vehicles.

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ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEWS AND CASE STUDIES: The National Park Service Visual Resource Inventory: Capturing the Historic and Cultural Values of Scenic Views

Several United States (US) federal agencies have developed visual resource inventory (VRI) and management systems that reflect specific agency missions and visual resource management objectives. These programs have varied in the degree to which they incorporate historic and cultural elements and values into the scenic inventory process. The recent nationwide expansion of renewable energy and associated transmission development is causing an increase in visual impacts on both scenic and historic/cultural resources. This increase has highlighted the need for better integration of visual and historic/cultural resource assessment and management activities for land use planning purposes. The US Department of the Interior National Park Service (NPS), in response to concerns arising from potential scenic impacts from renewable energy, electric transmission, and other types of development on lands and waters near NPS units, has developed a VRI process for high-value views both within and outside NPS unit boundaries. The NPS VRI incorporates historic and cultural elements and values into the scenic resource inventory process and provides practical guidance and metrics for successfully integrating historic and cultural concerns into the NPS’s scenic resource conservation efforts. This article describes the NPS VRI process and compares it with the VRI processes of the US Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management and the US Department of Agriculture Forest Service, with respect to the incorporation of historic and cultural values. The article discusses why a scenic inventory approach that more robustly integrates the historic and cultural values of the landscape is essential for NPS landscapes, and for fulfillment of NPS’s mission. Inventories are underway at many NPS units, and the results indicate that the VRI process can be used successfully to capture important historic and cultural resource information and incorporate that information into the assessment of the scenic values of views within and outside NPS units. Environmental Practice 18: 166–179 (2016)

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Contaminant Transport Parameters for the Groundwater Flow and Contaminant Transport Model of Corrective Action Units 101 and 102: Central and Western Pahute Mesa, Nye County, Nevada, Revision 1

This document presents a summary and framework of available transport data and other information directly relevant to the development of the groundwater transport model for Central and Western Pahute Mesa (PM) corrective action units (CAU). This model is referred to as the “PM CAU transport model” in this document. Central and Western PM are two areas of the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) that historically were used for underground nuclear testing. These nuclear tests resulted in groundwater contamination in the vicinity of the underground test areas. As a result, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Environmental Management (EM) Nevada Program is currently conducting a corrective action investigation (CAI) of the PM underground test areas. This work is a part of the Underground Test Area (UGTA) Activity in accordance with the Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order (FFACO) (1996, as amended).

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WBS 4.2.1.31 Integrated Life Cycle Sustainability Analysis

The main objective of this project (following the 2017 BETO Program Peer-Review) is to provide BETO with a coherent methodology and modeling framework based on life cycle (LCA) and economic input-output analysis, tested and vetted with stakeholders, to better understand the effects of an expanding U.S. bioeconomy at specific levels including economic dimensions such as jobs, gross domestic product (value added), and environmental criteria such as air pollutant emissions, water and land use, ecotoxicity, and others. This supports a 2019 milestone in the BETO MYP and simultaneously addresses a gap previously identified in the BETO program and highlighted, e.g., by BETO Program Peer Reviewers in 2015 and 2017. To fill in this gap, NREL started collaborating with developers of the national level U.S. Environmentally-Extended Input-Output (USEEIO) model in FY18. This peer-reviewed, open source model is based on publicly available data, and developed and maintained by U.S. EPA where it has been the basis for EPA's Sustainable Material Management analyses and program. Also, USEEIO was initially designed for use with EPA's Tool for the Reduction and Assessment of Chemicals and Other Environmental Impacts (TRACI). It aligns well with similar efforts including the Federal LCA Commons and the Sustainable Acquisition Program at the Department of Defense (DoD). In FY18, NREL convened stakeholders from federal agencies, universities, and private sector entities to identify and form a common understanding of (1) models describing the U.S. economy and how to build off of them, (2) a bioeconomy definition for the next modeling steps, (3) the (sub)sectors that can/should be used in the framework, and (4) opportunities for collaboration and data sharing. NREL then created a first order model by disaggregating, i.e., separating the economic activities associated with and attributed to a selected product of the bioeconomy: corn ethanol. Corn ethanol is well studied and has a significant amount of public, validated economic industry information. This is important as disaggregation is a critical step in creating a representative and accurate framework. Corn ethanol served as a validation test case for the method and framework. By the end of FY18, the team was able to generate several scenarios for corn ethanol on national and selected regional levels providing results on the absolute and relative (Megajoule) effects in several environmental and economic impact categories. A second objective of the project is to inform BETO's strategic decision making, specifically its sustainability research portfolio, by engaging in, evaluating, and synthesizing selected global multi-year activities from the perspectives of a variety of complex multilateral and multi-stakeholder processes that pertain to bioenergy. This helps to (1) identify gaps, barriers, and critical areas for future BETO bioenergy and sustainability assessments; (2) identify opportunities and challenges to a sustainable U.S. bioeconomy; and (3) contribute to and disseminate BETO information to and from major global bioenergy and sustainability efforts. This project's work with multilateral organizations ensures that U.S. science-based viewpoints are considered and helps to balance the influence of the large number of countries with the same centralized philosophy. This engagement builds a more solid foundation for sustainable biomass and bioenergy systems in the U.S. and in the world. Working with multi-lateral, international platforms including IEA Bioenergy, Global Bio-Energy Partnership (GBEP), and their partner organizations also allows engagement with important stakeholders including policy makers, industry, NGOs, and academia.

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End-to-end interoperability and workflows from building architecture design to one or more simulations

An end-to-end interoperability and workflows from building architecture design to one or more simulations, in one aspect, may comprise establishing a BIM enablement platform architecture. A data model defines data entities and entity relationships for enabling the interoperability and workflows. A data definition language may be implemented that defines and creates a table schema of a database associated with the data model. Data management services and/or application programming interfaces may be implemented for interacting with the data model. Web services may also be provided for interacting with the data model via the Web. A user interface may be implemented that communicates with users and uses the BIM enablement platform architecture, the data model, the data definition language, data management services and application programming interfaces to provide functions to the users to perform work related to building information management.

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End-to-end interoperability and workflows from building architecture design to one or more simulations

An end-to-end interoperability and workflows from building architecture design to one or more simulations, in one aspect, may comprise establishing a BIM enablement platform architecture. A data model defines data entities and entity relationships for enabling the interoperability and workflows. A data definition language may be implemented that defines and creates a table schema of a database associated with the data model. Data management services and/or application programming interfaces may be implemented for interacting with the data model. Web services may also be provided for interacting with the data model via the Web. A user interface may be implemented that communicates with users and uses the BIM enablement platform architecture, the data model, the data definition language, data management services and application programming interfaces to provide functions to the users to perform work related to building information management.

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Advancing Grid Resilience through Smart Charge Management: Findings from Maryland’s Pilot

This report presents research findings from a four-year Smart Charge Management (SCM) pilot program conducted by Maryland’s largest electric utilities—Baltimore Gas and Electric (BGE), Potomac Electric Power Company (Pepco), and Delmarva Power & Light (DPL)—to evaluate strategies for optimizing electric vehicle (EV) charging loads and enhancing grid stability. Supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Argonne National Laboratory collaborated with all project partners and examined the effectiveness of Time-of-Use (TOU) and Load Balancing (LB) strategies in managing peak demand, deferring costly infrastructure upgrades, and reducing grid constraints at the feeder level.

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Advancing Grid Resilience through Smart Charge Management: Findings from Maryland’s Pilot

This report presents research findings from a four-year Smart Charge Management (SCM) pilot program conducted by Maryland’s largest electric utilities—Baltimore Gas and Electric (BGE), Potomac Electric Power Company (Pepco), and Delmarva Power & Light (DPL)—to evaluate strategies for optimizing electric vehicle (EV) charging loads and enhancing grid stability. Supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Argonne National Laboratory collaborated with all project partners and examined the effectiveness of Time-of-Use (TOU) and Load Balancing (LB) strategies in managing peak demand, deferring costly infrastructure upgrades, and reducing grid constraints at the feeder level. Using charging data from over 4,600 EV drivers, the study analyzed SCM’s impact on the distribution systems of BGE and Pepco, which consists of over 2000 feeders. Unlike prior research that focused on system-wide trends or synthetic feeders, this analysis offers granular, feeder-level insights based on real-world operational data. It highlights how transformer density, load profiles, and infrastructure constraints influence smart charging performance. Results show feeder-level conditions play a crucial role in SCM effectiveness, with most feeders benefiting more from LB, while TOU-based SCM may be sufficient for others. By 2035, LB reduced peak charging loads by 27% on average, compared to 23% under TOU-based SCM, though some feeders saw reductions exceeding 35%, while others experienced minimal impact. Feeders with higher transformer utilization and limited capacity benefited more from LB, which more effectively distributed charging demand during off-peak hours. Beyond reducing grid constraints, SCM offers long-term operational and financial benefits. By shifting EV charging demand strategically, utilities can optimize asset utilization, delay infrastructure investments, and enhance grid performance. In terms of infrastructure upgrade deferrals, at the feeder level, LB consistently reduced peak charging loads and resulting infrastructure upgrade costs, particularly in high EV enrollment areas, decreasing the number of overloaded transformers by up to 35%, while TOU-based SCM achieved 20-30% reductions depending on feeder characteristics. At the system level, LB has the potential to defer total upgrade costs by $\$$186 million for BGE, compared to $\$$159 million under TOU-based SCM. For Pepco, TOU-based SCM performed slightly better, deferring upgrade costs by $\$$30 million, compared to $\$$29 million under LB. Section 4.5 reviews some of the system differences between BGE and Pepco. However, as EV adoption scales, TOU-based SCM will introduce secondary peak charging loads, reinforcing the need for more advanced, adaptive SCM approaches to prevent new grid challenges. As EV adoption continues to grow, feeder-level managed charging strategies will be essential for mitigating grid stress, improving infrastructure efficiency, and maintaining energy affordability for consumers. This report provides critical insights for utilities, Public Utility Commissions (PUCs), and state agencies on the role of feeder-specific smart charging in infrastructure planning, policy development, and grid modernization. The findings underscore the importance of tailored, data-driven SCM solutions that align with local grid conditions, ensuring a resilient, cost-effective transition to increasing EV adoption while safeguarding distribution system performance.

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Underground Test Area (UGTA) Sampling Plan for Corrective Action Units 101 and 102: Central and Western Pahute Mesa, Nevada National Security Site, Nevada

The purpose of this groundwater sampling plan (referred to herein as “the Plan”) is to describe the approach for collecting and analyzing groundwater samples to meet the objectives of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Environmental Management (EM) Nevada Program’s Underground Test Area (UGTA) Activity. The Plan is focused on the Central and Western Pahute Mesa corrective action units (CAUs 101 and 102). The remaining UGTA CAUs are in the final stage of the UGTA strategy (Closure Report [CR] stage), and monitoring requirements for these CAUs are described in their respective CRs. The Plan supersedes the Nevada National Security Site Integrated Groundwater Sampling Plan and its ensuing Record of Technical Change (ROTC) (DOE/EMNV, 2019b). The Plan is designed to ensure compliance with the UGTA Quality Assurance Plan (QAP) and its ensuing ROTC (DOE/EMNV, 2018), and the Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order (FFACO) (1996, as amended). The Plan is implemented by the Environmental Program Services (EPS) contractor. Implementation of the Plan provides data to complete corrective actions prescribed by the FFACO to protect the public from groundwater contaminated by historical underground nuclear testing. The Plan’s scope comprises sample collection and analysis requirements for assessing the extent of groundwater contamination from underground nuclear testing. Sampling wells located in the communities surrounding the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) is performed by other organizations (e.g., management and operating [M&O] contractor) and is therefore not included within the Plan. The results of the community sampling are presented in the annual NNSS environmental reports.

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Sensor Recommendations for Long Term Monitoring of the F-Area Seepage Basins

In mid-2018, a new paradigm for long-term monitoring was developed after of decade of applied research projects funded by the Department of Energy’s office of Environmental Management Technology Development program. The program at SRNL was focused on transitioning complex environmental waste sites from active to passive remediations strategies. A key result of these studies was that the use of enhanced attenuation approaches at radiologically contaminated sites will result in the creation of secondary source areas in the subsurface that will require monitoring for decades. Alternative monitoring approaches are being developed and tested at the Savannah River Site’s F-Area Hazardous Waste Management Facility, the new paradigm provides innovative solutions that will significantly lower costs of monitoring through the coupling of data collection, machine learning and deterministic groundwater modeling. The foundation of this approach is a well-optimized network of sensors for measuring hydrogeochemical master variables that control, and therefore act as indicators of groundwater contaminant transport. By monitoring changes in the controlling master variables over time arising from geological and environmental shifts, predictive modelling can assist with identifying new strategies for ensuring regulatory requirements are met if trends toward conditions for potential remobilization of attenuated contaminants are detected. In this report, we evaluated commercially available single parameter sensor platforms (e.g., temperature/depth) and configurable multi-parameter sensor platforms (e.g., pH, oxidation-reduction potential, temperature, depth, dissolved oxygen, and conductivity). Each was scored using an optimization function based on how well the system supports the proposed long-term monitoring paradigm, in general, and the site-specific conditions at F-Area, in particular. Several viable sensor systems were identified. Of these, a combined platform including the In-Situ Aqua TROLL 500 multi-parameter sensor platform and the In-Situ temperature/depth sensor had the highest rating and was identified as the most suitable candidate for installation and monitoring of the master variables and potentiometric surface that control groundwater contaminant plumes emanating from the F-Area Seepage Basins. The discussion of recommended potential deployment locations builds upon recommendations made by Denham et al (2019).

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An application of the Analytic Hierarchy Process for prioritizing user preferences in the design of a Home Energy Management System

Most demand response programs focus primarily on commercial and industrial loads. The sheer number of decision-influencing variables combined with a lack of a comprehensive understanding of human behavior make it difficult to develop response programs that encourage greater residential consumer participation. This paper presents a multi-criteria decision making approach using actual survey data for identifying user preferences. The novelty of the work is in considering functionality, cost, and carbon emissions for a given set of home appliances toward energy management. The paper explains the design methodologies used to prioritize the preferences from 1023 survey participants. Furthermore, the results are expected to inform the design of Home Energy Management Systems (HEMS) for participating in demand response programs.

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Underground Test Area (UGTA) Sampling Plan for Corrective Action Units 101 and 102: Central and Western Pahute Mesa, Nevada National Security Site, Nevada, Revision 2

The purpose of this groundwater sampling plan (referred to herein as “the Plan”) is to describe the approach for collecting and analyzing groundwater samples to meet the objectives of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Environmental Management (EM) Nevada Program’s Underground Test Area (UGTA) Activity. The Plan is focused on the Central and Western Pahute Mesa corrective action units (CAUs 101 and 102), which are currently in the Corrective Action Decision Document (CADD)/Corrective Action Plan (CAP) stage of the Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order (FFACO) UGTA Strategy. The remaining UGTA CAUs are in the final stage of the UGTA strategy (Closure Report [CR] stage), and monitoring requirements for these CAUs are described in the Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order Nevada National Security Site Use Restriction Management Plan (DOE/EMNV, 2024a). The Plan supersedes the Nevada National Security Site Integrated Groundwater Sampling Plan and its ensuing Record of Technical Change (ROTC) (DOE/EMNV, 2019b).

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Accuracy of HVAC Load Predictions: Validation of EnergyPlus and DOE-2 using FLEXLAB Measurements

The aim of the project reported here was to better understand the level of accuracy of three building energy simulation (BES) engines (‘engines’) — EnergyPlus™, DOE-2.1e, and DOE-2.2 — by identifying and investigating significant deviations between the performance predicted by these engines and actual performance as measured in the FLEXLAB® test facility at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). The specific test conditions included some of those prescribed in ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 140 - Standard Method of Test for the Evaluation of Building Energy Analysis Computer Programs. Detailed measurements of FLEXLAB performance, including indoor temperatures and heat fluxes and air-flow and water flow rates and temperatures in the Heating, Ventilating and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system, together with hourly weather data, were recorded and used in analyzing the simulation results from EnergyPlus v8.8, DOE-2.2 v3.65 and DOE-2.1e v127. These engines are commonly used in the United States for building energy code compliance, federal, state, and utility incentives programs, as well as energy efficient design of new buildings and energy retrofit of existing buildings. Seven conventional overhead mixing ventilation scenarios were tested and each engine was found to have a similar level of agreement with the measurements of space-level heating and sensible cooling loads. These results provide useful information regarding the accuracy of these engines in predicting the cooling and heating load elements of whole building energy performance. This information is intended for practitioners who are concerned about transitioning between simulation tools with different engines and for managers of utility programs leveraging these tools for evaluating and/or projecting measure savings to be incentivized under their programs. The results of the comparisons of simulated and measured performance indicate that the predictions from all three engines are not significantly different. The 24-hour average value of the absolute mean bias indicates the likely magnitude of the error in any particular case. The average mean bias is reduced by cancelation of overprediction in one case by underprediction in another. The daytime absolute mean biases, which may be more important for both energy performance and occupant comfort, are ~6%, presumably because of the greater complexity involved in simulating in the presence of solar radiation. EnergyPlus typically overpredicts the cooling load and/or underpredicts the heating load by ~1.5% and the DOE-2 engines typically underpredict the cooling load by approximately the same amount. The Root Mean Square Error is relatively more sensitive to shorter term variations in the difference between predicted and measured loads; the three engines have similar values, ~10%, suggesting that the uncertainties in their predictions of peak loads may also be similar in magnitude. The implication of these results is that users, both designers and program analysts, can use EnergyPlus, DOE-2.1e, or DOE-2.2 to model conventional commercial buildings equipped with overhead mixing ventilation with a similar level of confidence. Further work is required to better understand the variability in the level of agreement between the engine predictions and FLEXLAB measurements, where a particular engine will agree well with FLEXLAB in some cases and not so well in others and another engine will agree or disagree in different cases. As the sources of this variability are identified and eliminated or reduced significantly, it is recommended that the experimental capabilities and methods developed in the study reported here should be applied to validating heating and cooling load calculations for spaces with different types of furniture and miscellaneous loads. These methods should then be applied to low energy space conditioning systems in EnergyPlus including, in particular, radiant slab and radiant ceiling panel cooling and heating systems and ‘mixed mode’ systems that combine mechanical cooling and natural ventilation systems, focusing on controls, including control of thermal mass. The work reported here addresses the conventional method of heating and cooling occupied spaces; other methods, such as the use of radiant heating and cooling systems have the potential to provide equivalent occupant comfort, or better, with lower energy consumption. These systems are addressed more explicitly in EnergyPlus but there is a need for empirical validation to give users the same level of confidence in modeling these systems that they have, or should have, in modeling conventional systems, based on the results presented here.

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IRIS: A Performance-Portable Framework for Cross-Platform Heterogeneous Computing

From edge to exascale, computer architectures are becoming more heterogeneous and complex. The systems typically have fat nodes, with multicore CPUs and multiple hardware accelerators such as GPUs, FPGAs, and DSPs. This complexity is causing a crisis in programming systems and performance portability. Several programming systems are working to address these challenges, but the increasing architectural diversity is forcing software stacks and applications to be specialized for each architecture. As we show, all of these approaches critically depend on their software framework for discovery, execution, scheduling, and data orchestration. To address this challenge, we believe that a more agile and proactive software framework is essential to increase performance portability and improve user productivity. To this end, we have designed and implemented IRIS: a performance-portable framework for cross-platform heterogeneous computing. IRIS can discover available resources, manage multiple diverse programming platforms (e.g., CUDA, Hexagon, HIP, Level Zero, OpenCL, OpenMP) simultaneously in the same execution, respect data dependencies, orchestrate data movement proactively, and provide for user-configurable scheduling. To simplify data movement, IRIS introduces a shared virtual device memory with relaxed consistency among different heterogeneous devices. IRIS also adds an automatic kernel workload partitioning technique using the polyhedral model so that it can resize kernels for a wide range of devices. Our evaluation on three architectures, ranging from Qualcomm Snapdragon to a Summit supercomputer node, shows that IRIS improves portability across a wide range of diverse heterogeneous architectures with negligible overhead.

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Transitioning from Construction to Startup for the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant's Low-Activity Waste Facility - 17284

The original design of the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) required all waste be processed through the Pretreatment (PT) Facility in order to separate the low-activity waste and high-level waste streams. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of River Protection (ORP) has developed a sequenced approach to completing the WTP Project, beginning with delivering some liquid waste directly to the Low-Activity Waste (LAW) Facility, bypassing the PT Facility. This operating configuration is referred to as direct-feed LAW (DFLAW). The primary driver for the DFLAW approach is to enable startup and commissioning of the LAW Facility for low-activity waste processing prior to the completion and availability of the PT and High-Level Waste facilities. In March 2016, a federal judge amended the Consent Decree between DOE and the State of Washington to require completion of hot commissioning for the LAW Facility no later than December 31, 2023. During the next few years ORP and the WTP contractor will transition the project from completion of construction to the startup and commissioning phase for the LAW Facility and the associated support facilities. The WTP contractor has developed an integrated management process to successfully conduct facility startup testing for the WTP facilities required to support DFLAW. The WTP contractor will also develop a commissioning plan and facility transition plan. These plans will describe the strategy; schedule; and requirements for safe, efficient, and sequential startup, commissioning, and transfer of the WTP facilities to an operations contractor. The WTP contractor has also established a strategy to achieve operational readiness for the facilities required to support DFLAW consistent with DOE O 425.1D, Verification of Readiness to Start Up or Restart Nuclear Facilities and DOE O 413.3B, Program and Project Management for the Acquisition of Capital Assets. ORP has established a strategy for oversight of the WTP contractor's startup, commissioning, and readiness activities. The strategy also encompasses ORP's own activities to achieve readiness. (authors)

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Underground Test Area October 1, 2015, to December 31, 2016 Quality Assurance Report Nevada National Security Site, Nevada

This report is required by the Underground Test Area (UGTA) Activity Quality Assurance Plan (QAP) (NNSA/NFO, 2015) and identifies the UGTA quality assurance (QA) activities from October 1, 2015, through December 31, 2016 (hereafter, called “the reporting period”). This expanded reporting period allows this report to be converted to a calendar-year (CY) reporting cycle. This change is being made to better align this report with the annual UGTA sampling and the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) environmental reports. All UGTA organizations—U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Environmental Management (EM) Nevada Program; Desert Research Institute (DRI); Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL); Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL); National Security Technologies, LLC (NSTec); Navarro Research and Engineering, Inc. (Navarro); and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)—conducted QA activities in the reporting period. The activities included conducting oversight assessments for QAP compliance, identifying findings and completing corrective actions, evaluating laboratory performance, reviewing technical work, and publishing documents.

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