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DOE OSTI2016

Transient performance of accident tolerant fuel in design basis accidents

A set of transient analysis has been performed to assess the performance of candidate accident tolerant fuel (ATF) against reference UO{sub 2} fuel with Zircaloy cladding under design basis accident (DBA) conditions. This study examined two ATF options, U{sub 3}Si{sub 2} fuel with SiC cladding and UO{sub 2} fuel with APMT cladding. The accident analyses were conducted using the system code TRACE for a three-loop PWR plant. PARCS standalone full-core calculations were done for each fuel/cladding combination to provide inputs to the TRACE point-kinetics model. The design basis accidents analyzed were a reactivity insertion accident (RIA) and a large break loss-of-coolant accident (LBLOCA). The RIA was simulated by the insertion of a reactivity ramp of $1 (one dollar) in 0.1 s at hot full power (HFP) condition. The LBLOCA was a simulation of a double-ended pipe break in one of the cold legs of the primary loops. Differences in thermal responses of the fuel and the cladding are attributed to their thermal properties. The U{sub 3}Si{sub 2} fuel with its lower volumetric heat capacity and higher thermal conductivity (i.e. higher thermal diffusivity) generally results in a lower fuel temperature than the UO{sub 2} fuel and a correspondingly faster thermal response. Additional calculations for the U{sub 3}Si{sub 2} fuel shows that in a RIA the cladding material, SiC versus Zr, has little impact on the maximum fuel centerline temperature and the PCT (peak cladding temperature). An increase in the hot rod power factor is shown to raise the centerline fuel temperature in a RIA but has little impact on the PCT. The analysis results show that for a relatively fast decay heat driven transient, such as the LBLOCA, the thermal-hydraulics and fuel/cladding thermal properties dictate the overall response more so than the reactivity feedback. The results show that the PCTs in a LBLOCA are similar for all fuel/cladding combinations considered in this study. The LBLOCA analysis also notes the impact of the asymmetry in the system response. The fuel rods in the sector of the core connected to the hot leg of the broken loop (Sector 1 in the PWR model) is shown to have a much lower PCT than fuel rods in the other five sectors of the core. Results of this study indicate that for the two DBAs considered (RIA and LBLOCA) the transient behavior and the resulting peak cladding temperature of the two ATF options (U{sub 3}Si{sub 2} fuel with SiC cladding and UO{sub 2} fuel with APMT cladding) are similar to the standard light-water reactor fuel (UO{sub 2} fuel with Zircaloy cladding). (authors)

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

DOE OSTI2014

Comparing deflection measurements of a magnetically steerable catheter using optical imaging and MRI

Purpose: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is an emerging modality for interventional radiology, giving clinicians another tool for minimally invasive image-guided interventional procedures. Difficulties associated with endovascular catheter navigation using MRI guidance led to the development of a magnetically steerable catheter. The focus of this study was to mechanically characterize deflections of two different prototypes of the magnetically steerable catheterin vitro to better understand their efficacy. Methods: A mathematical model for deflection of the magnetically steerable catheter is formulated based on the principle that at equilibrium the mechanical and magnetic torques are equal to each other. Furthermore, two different image based methods for empirically measuring the catheter deflection angle are presented. The first, referred to as the absolute tip method, measures the angle of the line that is tangential to the catheter tip. The second, referred to the base to tip method, is an approximation that is used when it is not possible to measure the angle of the tangent line. Optical images of the catheter deflection are analyzed using the absolute tip method to quantitatively validate the predicted deflections from the mathematical model. Optical images of the catheter deflection are also analyzed using the base to tip method to quantitatively determine the differences between the absolute tip and base to tip methods. Finally, the optical images are compared to MR images using the base to tip method to determine the accuracy of measuring the catheter deflection using MR. Results: The optical catheter deflection angles measured for both catheter prototypes using the absolute tip method fit very well to the mathematical model (R{sup 2} = 0.91 and 0.86 for each prototype, respectively). It was found that the angles measured using the base to tip method were consistently smaller than those measured using the absolute tip method. The deflection angles measured using optical data did not demonstrate a significant difference from the angles measured using MR image data when compared using the base to tip method. Conclusions: This study validates the theoretical description of the magnetically steerable catheter, while also giving insight into different methods and modalities for measuring the deflection angles of the prototype catheters. These results can be used to mechanically model future iterations of the design. Quantifying the difference between the different methods for measuring catheter deflection will be important when making deflection measurements in future studies. Finally, MR images can be used to reliably measure deflection angles since there is no significant difference between the MR and optical measurements.

62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE↗

DOE OSTI2016

Considering the Role of Natural Gas in the Deep Decarbonization of the U.S. Electricity Sector. Natural Gas and the Evolving U.S. Power Sector Monograph Series: Number 2

Natural gas generation in the U.S. electricity sector has grown substantially in recent years, while the sector's carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions have generally declined. This relationship highlights the concept of natural gas as a potential enabler of a transition to a lower-carbon future. This work considers that concept by using the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Renewable Energy Deployment System (ReEDS) model. ReEDS is a long-term capacity expansion model of the U.S. electricity sector. We examine the role of natural gas within the ReEDS modeling framework as increasingly strict carbon emission targets are imposed on the electricity sector. In addition to various natural gas price futures, we also consider scenarios that emphasize a low-carbon technology in order to better understand the role of natural gas if that low-carbon technology shows particular promise. Specifically, we consider scenarios with high amounts of energy efficiency (EE), low nuclear power costs, low renewable energy (RE) costs, and low carbon capture and storage (CCS) costs. Within these scenarios we find that requiring the electricity sector to lower CO2 emissions over time increases near-to-mid-term (through 2030) natural gas generation (see Figure 1 - left). The long-term (2050) role of natural gas generation in the electricity sector is dependent on the level of CO2 emission reduction required. Moderate reductions in long-term CO2 emissions have relatively little impact on long-term natural gas generation, while more stringent CO2 emission limits lower long-term natural gas generation (see Figure 1 - right). More stringent carbon targets also impact other generating technologies, with the scenarios considered here seeing significant decreases in coal generation, and new capacity of nuclear and renewable energy technologies over time. Figure 1 also demonstrates the role of natural gas in the context of scenarios where a specific low-carbon technology is advantaged. In 2030, natural gas generation in the technology scenarios is quite similar to that in the reference scenarios, indicating relatively little change in the role of natural gas in the near-to-mid-term due to advancements in those technology areas. The 2050 natural gas generation shows more significant differences, suggesting that technology advancements will likely have substantial impacts on the role of natural gas in the longer-term timeframe. Natural gas generation differences are most strongly driven by alternative natural gas price trajectories--changes in natural gas generation in the Low NG Price and High NG Price scenarios are much larger than in any other scenario in both the 2030 and 2050 timeframes. The only low-carbon technology scenarios that showed any increase in long-term natural gas generation relative to the reference case were the Low CCS cost scenarios. Carbon capture and storage technology costs are currently high, but have the potential to allow fossil fuels to play a larger role in low-carbon grid. This work considers three CCS cost trajectories for natural gas and coal generators: a baseline trajectory and two lower cost trajectories where CO2 capture costs reach $40/metric ton and $10/metric ton, respectively. We find that in the context of the ReEDS model and with these assumed cost trajectories, CCS can increase the long-term natural gas generation under a low carbon target (see Figure 2). Under less stringent carbon targets we do not see ReEDS electing to use CCS as part of its electricity generating portfolio for the scenarios considered in this work.

03 NATURAL GAS↗

DOE OSTI2026

Automatic Volume Balancing for Online Refueling in Molten Salt Reactor Simulations with SCALE

This work introduces recently implemented capabilities in the SCALE code system’s TRITON reactor physics sequence that improve molten salt reactor (MSR) modeling: (1) a volume balancing option, which automatically balances the volumes of the fed material with a corresponding material removal to maintain fixed mixture volumes in the neutron transport model and accurate densities, and (2) continuous feed from mixtures, which enables users to define material feed streams directly from salt mixture definitions rather than individual nuclides. The new capabilities were demonstrated via SCALE/TRITON simulations of two representative MSR concepts. Simulations of the 180 MWth molten chloride fast reactor—a system with a fixed fuel salt volume in the reactor core—applied continuous refueling with fresh fuel salt. The results confirm approximately constant reactivity when the new volume balancing capability is used. Additionally, excellent agreement with a manual feed-and-drain method for volume balancing further verified the new implementation. Simulations of the 400 MWth EIRENE reactor, an integral MSR in which the salt volume may grow over time within the reactor core, demonstrated the capability to represent growing salt volume within the TRITON depletion calculation. Compared with reference solutions, the results show consistent trends in reactivity and isotopic evolution, confirming that these new user-friendly capabilities provide accurate, physically consistent approaches for modeling MSRs in SCALE.

Elzohery, Rabab [ORNL] (ORCID:0000000160043633)↗

DOE OSTI2020

Getting a THUMP from a WIMP

Producing an acceptable thermal relic abundance of dark matter with masses >> 10 2 TeV is a challenge. We propose a novel mechanism where GeV-scale states establish a tiny thermal relic abundance for dark matter, which is later promoted to ultra massive status by a very light scalar. We refer to this dark matter as a THermal Ultra Massive Particle (THUMP). Direct detection of THUMPs can be naturally expected due to large scattering cross sections mediated by low mass states that couple THUMPs to the Standard Model. Our model generically leads to signals for the associated GeV-scale states at accelerator experiments.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2019

Predicting octane number from microscale flame dynamics

The standard method for measuring the octane number of fuels requires large sample volumes (~1L) and access to a Cooperative Fuel Research (CFR) engine. This method reliably quantifies the knock resistance of fuels in spark ignition engines, however the large sample volume requirement prevents testing of new experimental fuels (often produced in quantities of just ~1 mL), and the large equipment size impedes mobile, decentralized testing of remote fuel supplies. When direct measurements of octane number are impractical, other methods are needed. Micro flow reactors have shown promise in measuring ignition characteristics that are sensitive to octane number, and they are compact and operate on small volumes (~1 mL). This study uses simulations to demonstrate that measurements of the unsteady flame dynamics in a micro flow reactor can provide valuable data for accurate octane number predictions. Simulations of the flow reactor are used to obtain ignition characteristics for over 200 ethanol-toluene primary reference fuels (ETPRF) and 21 biofuel blends. A feed forward neural network is trained using the micro flow reactor ignition characteristics, fuel properties, and known research octane number (RON) and motor octane number (MON) for the ETPRF fuels. Here, the neural network is able to predict the RON and MON of the biofuel blends to within 2 octane number on average. Prediction results are compared to other methods available in the literature. Additional neural network models are trained that show improved prediction accuracy as additional fuel training data becomes available.

02 PETROLEUM↗

DOE OSTI2013

Numerical study of the effect of the shape of the phase diagram on the eutectic freezing temperature

To evaluate the reliability of metal-carbon eutectic systems as fixed points for the next generation of high-temperature standards the effect of thermodynamic properties related to the shape of eutectic phase diagram on the freezing temperature is investigated within the context of the numerical multi-phase-field model. The partition coefficient and liquidus slopes of the two solids involved in the eutectic reaction are varied deliberately and independently. The difference between the eutectic temperature and the freezing temperature is determined in dependence of the solid/liquid (s/l) interface shape and concentration. Where appropriate reference is made to the Jackson-Hunt analytical theory. It is shown that there are mainly two typical conditions to decrease the undercooling: 1) a small liquidus slope and 2) the associated difference between the eutectic composition and the liquid composition during solidification.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

DOE OSTI2014

On the applicability of the standard kinetic theory to the study of nanoplasmas

Kinetic theory applies to systems with a large number of particles, while nanoplasma generated by the interaction of ultra–short laser pulses with atomic clusters are systems composed by a relatively small number (10{sup 2} ÷ 10{sup 4}) of electrons and ions. In the paper, the applicability of the kinetic theory for studying nanoplasmas is discussed. In particular, two typical phenomena are investigated: the collisionless expansion of electrons in a spherical nanoplasma with immobile ions and the formation of shock shells during Coulomb explosions. The analysis, which is carried out comparing ensemble averages obtained by solving the exact equations of motion with reference solutions of the Vlasov-Poisson model, shows that for the dynamics of the electrons the error of the usually employed models is of the order of few percents (but the standard deviation in a single experiment can be of the order of 10%). Instead, special care must be taken in the study of shock formation, as the discrete structure of the electric charge can destroy or strongly modify the phenomenon.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

DOE OSTI2014

Communication: Orientational self-ordering of spin-labeled cholesterol analogs in lipid bilayers in diluted conditions

Lipid-cholesterol interactions are responsible for different properties of biological membranes including those determining formation in the membrane of spatial inhomogeneities (lipid rafts). To get new information on these interactions, electron spin echo (ESE) spectroscopy, which is a pulsed version of electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), was applied to study 3β-doxyl-5α-cholestane (DCh), a spin-labeled analog of cholesterol, in phospholipid bilayer consisted of equimolecular mixture of 1,2-dipalmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine and 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine. DCh concentration in the bilayer was between 0.1 mol.% and 4 mol.%. For comparison, a reference system containing a spin-labeled 5-doxyl-stearic acid (5-DSA) instead of DCh was studied as well. The effects of “instantaneous diffusion” in ESE decay and in echo-detected (ED) EPR spectra were explored for both systems. The reference system showed good agreement with the theoretical prediction for the model of spin labels of randomly distributed orientations, but the DCh system demonstrated remarkably smaller effects. The results were explained by assuming that neighboring DCh molecules are oriented in a correlative way. However, this correlation does not imply the formation of clusters of cholesterol molecules, because conventional continuous wave EPR spectra did not show the typical broadening due to aggregation of spin labels and the observed ESE decay was not faster than in the reference system. So the obtained data evidence that cholesterol molecules at low concentrations in biological membranes can interact via large distances of several nanometers which results in their orientational self-ordering.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

DOE OSTI2026

IRMA

IRMA (In)elastic Representation of Materials As S(α,β) evaluations IRMA turns one phonon model into three outputs that usually require three separate tool chains: an evaluated nuclear-data file, predicted neutron-scattering spectra, and scattering kernels for Monte Carlo transport. The three outputs draw on a single, consistent description of the material, so the evaluation, the spectroscopy that can validate it, and the transport that uses it always agree about the physics. Nuclear data. IRMA writes ENDF-6 File 7 thermal scattering evaluations on automatically constructed (α, β) grids. This part reimplements and generalizes NJOY's LEAPR: the classic kernels reproduce freshly generated NJOY2016 tapes digit for digit and published reference tapes to about 1e-4, and the generalized paths add the exact coherent one-phonon term, anisotropic Debye-Waller tensors, coherent elastic for arbitrary crystals, and a per-species partition for polyatomic materials. The tapes feed NJOY, AMPX, FUDGE, and every transport code downstream of them. Neutron spectroscopy. The irma.spectra forward model projects the same physics onto an instrument's kinematics and resolution: INS spectra for VISION and generic indirect geometries, and 2-D S(Q,E) powder maps for direct-geometry spectrometers, from a phonopy model or straight from a phonon DOS. It can be used to predict a proposed measurement before beam time; in analysis, it supplies the calculated single-scattering counterpart of a measured spectrum, from the same material description the evaluation was built from. Monte Carlo transport. The irma.ncrystal exporter writes per-temperature scattering kernels for the companion NCrystal plugin, so McStas, OpenMC, and other NCrystal-aware codes sample the same physics. The exported kernels carry the per-site anisotropic Debye-Waller tensors, keeping directional coherent-elastic physics that NCrystal's standard scalar treatment does not represent. With the same physics inside a transport code, an entire beamline becomes a virtual experiment: IRMA's end-to-end validation ran a custom McStas implementation of the ARCS spectrometer, assembled from the existing McVine and McStas models, against measured data. From a bare crystal structure. The irma mlip front end builds the phonon model itself: a structure file and a choice of potential are enough. Nine pretrained machine-learned interatomic potentials are supported, on a laptop CPU, with no first-principles calculation; an approximate phonon model for a new material costs minutes, not a DFT campaign, and the build emits prefilled inputs for all three outputs. The result is a good starting point rather than a finished evaluation: survey-quality physics with every parameter exposed for review. A converged atomistic calculation enters the same way, as a phonopy model, when higher fidelity is needed.

Ramic, Kemal [Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)↗

DOE OSTI2018

Integrated Computational Study of Radiation Damage Effects in Grade 92 Steel and Alloy 709

Radiation resistance of austenitic alloy 709 (named as A709) and ferritic-martensitic steel Grade 92 (G92) were investigated in this project using 316H and Grade 91 (G91) as references, respectively. In the meantime, a model 709 (M709) alloy (Fe-20Cr-24Ni) was prepared to study the matrix response to irradiation. Samples machined from the tab section of three creep-ruptured A709 samples, i.e., 17,106 h at 600 °C, 12,014 h at 650 °C, and 16,448 h at 700 °C, were included in this work to evaluate radiation effect on the long-term “thermally aged” samples. Primarily Fe 2+ ion irradiation was conducted at 350, 600 and 670 °C for up to 75 displacements per atom (dpa), together with a few proton irradiation experiments at 380–670 °C for up to 1.5 dpa. Additionally, four neutron-irradiated NF709 samples (3.22–8 dpa at ~430–469 °C) were examined. The samples were examined by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS) for microstructures and nanoindentation for radiation-hardening. Unlike the negligible hardening after irradiation at 670 °C, irradiation to nominal 2.5–50 dpa at 350 °C resulted in radiation-hardening of 13.5±5.4 % for A709, which was comparable to that of 13.4±6.2 % for M709 and moderately lower than that of 20.1±5.6 % for 316H. The radiation-hardening induced by the same irradiation condition to the “thermally aged” samples was comparable to A709, which were hardened by 15.0±8.2 %, 13.5±6.0 %, and 10.1±6.1 % for the 600, 650, and 700 °C aged samples, respectively. The radiation-hardening of A709 is significantly lower than that (~94±9 %) of neutron-irradiated NF709 to 8 dpa at ~430 °C.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2018

Integrated Computational Study of Radiation Damage Effects in Grade 92 Steel and Alloy 709

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2022

Muon to Positron Conversion

Lepton-flavor violation (LFV) has been discovered in the neutrino sector by neutrino oscillation experiments. The minimal extension of the Standard Model (SM) to include neutrino masses allows LFV in the charged sector (CLFV) at the loop level, but at rates that are too small to be experimentally observed. Lepton-number violation (LNV) is explicitly forbidden even in the minimally extended SM, so the observation of an LNV process would be unambiguous evidence of physics beyond the SM. The search for the LNV and CLFV process μ−+N(A,Z)→e++N′(A,Z−2) (referred to as μ−→e+) complements 0νββ decay searches, and is sensitive to potential flavor effects in the neutrino mass-generation mechanism. A theoretical motivation for μ−→e+ is presented along with a review of the status of past μ−→e+ experiments and future prospects. Special attention is paid to an uncertain and potentially dominant background for these searches, namely, radiative muon capture (RMC). The RMC high energy photon spectrum is theoretically understudied and existing measurements insufficiently constrain this portion of the spectrum, leading to potentially significant impacts on current and future μ−→e+ work.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2017

Optical and Near-infrared Spectra of σ Orionis Isolated Planetary-mass Objects

We have obtained low-resolution optical (0.7–0.98 μ m) and near-infrared (1.11–1.34 μ m and 0.8–2.5 μ m) spectra of 12 isolated planetary-mass candidates ( J = 18.2–19.9 mag) of the 3 Myr σ Orionis star cluster with the aim of determining the spectroscopic properties of very young, substellar dwarfs and assembling a complete cluster mass function. We have classified our targets by visual comparison with high- and low-gravity standards and by measuring newly defined spectroscopic indices. We derived L0–L4.5 and M9–L2.5 using high- and low-gravity standards, respectively. Our targets reveal clear signposts of youth, thus corroborating their cluster membership and planetary masses (6–13 M {sub Jup}). These observations complete the σ Orionis mass function by spectroscopically confirming the planetary-mass domain to a confidence level of ∼75%. The comparison of our spectra with BT-Settl solar metallicity model atmospheres yields a temperature scale of 2350–1800 K and a low surface gravity of log g ≈ 4.0 [cm s{sup −2}], as would be expected for young planetary-mass objects. We discuss the properties of the cluster’s least-massive population as a function of spectral type. We have also obtained the first optical spectrum of S Ori 70, a T dwarf in the direction of σ Orionis. Our data provide reference optical and near-infrared spectra of very young L dwarfs and a mass function that may be used as templates for future studies of low-mass substellar objects and exoplanets. The extrapolation of the σ Orionis mass function to the solar neighborhood may indicate that isolated planetary-mass objects with temperatures of ∼200–300 K and masses in the interval 6–13 M {sub Jup} may be as numerous as very low-mass stars.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

NASA NTRS1996

Visualizing Infrared (IR) Spectroscopy with Computer Animation

IR Tutor, an interactive, animated infrared (IR) spectroscopy tutorial has been developed for Macintosh and IBM-compatible computers. Using unique color animation, complicated vibrational modes can be introduced to beginning students. Rules governing the appearance of IR absorption bands become obvious because the vibrational modes can be visualized. Each peak in the IR spectrum is highlighted, and the animation of the corresponding normal mode can be shown. Students can study each spectrum stepwise, or click on any individual peak to see its assignment. Important regions of each spectrum can be expanded and spectra can be overlaid for comparison. An introduction to the theory of IR spectroscopy is included, making the program a complete instructional package. Our own success in using this software for teaching and research in both academic and industrial environments will be described. IR Tutor consists of three sections: (1) The 'Introduction' is a review of basic principles of spectroscopy. (2) 'Theory' begins with the classical model of a simple diatomic molecule and is expanded to include larger molecules by introducing normal modes and group frequencies. (3) 'Interpretation' is the heart of the tutorial. Thirteen IR spectra are analyzed in detail, covering the most important functional groups. This section features color animation of each normal mode, full interactivity, overlay of related spectra, and expansion of important regions. This section can also be used as a reference.

Charles B. Abrams↗

DOE OSTI2015

5D quantum dynamics of the H{sub 2}@SWNT system: Quantitative study of the rotational-translational coupling

The dynamics of the dihydrogen molecule when confined in carbon nanotubes with different chiralities and diameters are studied by using a 5 dimensional model considering the most relevant degrees of freedom of the system. The nuclear eigenstates are calculated for an (8,0) and a (5,0) carbon nanotubes by the State-Average Multiconfigurational Time-dependent Hartree, and then studied using qualitative tools (mapping of the total wave functions onto given subspaces) and more rigorous analysis (different kinds of overlaps with reference functions). The qualitative analysis is seen to fail due to a strong coupling between the internal and translational degrees of freedom. Using more accurate tools allows us to gain a deeper insight into the behaviour of confined species.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

DOE OSTI2014

Adaptive multiconfigurational wave functions

A method is suggested to build simple multiconfigurational wave functions specified uniquely by an energy cutoff Λ. These are constructed from a model space containing determinants with energy relative to that of the most stable determinant no greater than Λ. The resulting Λ-CI wave function is adaptive, being able to represent both single-reference and multireference electronic states. We also consider a more compact wave function parameterization (Λ+SD-CI), which is based on a small Λ-CI reference and adds a selection of all the singly and doubly excited determinants generated from it. We report two heuristic algorithms to build Λ-CI wave functions. The first is based on an approximate prescreening of the full configuration interaction space, while the second performs a breadth-first search coupled with pruning. The Λ-CI and Λ+SD-CI approaches are used to compute the dissociation curve of N{sub 2} and the potential energy curves for the first three singlet states of C{sub 2}. Special attention is paid to the issue of energy discontinuities caused by changes in the size of the Λ-CI wave function along the potential energy curve. This problem is shown to be solvable by smoothing the matrix elements of the Hamiltonian. Our last example, involving the Cu{sub 2}O{sub 2}{sup 2+} core, illustrates an alternative use of the Λ-CI method: as a tool to both estimate the multireference character of a wave function and to create a compact model space to be used in subsequent high-level multireference coupled cluster computations.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2018

Development of Defenses against False Data Injection Attacks for Nuclear Power Plants

With the recent successful attempts against the digital control systems of critical infrastructures, there is a need to develop new defense strategies that recognize two important realities, 1) state- sponsored attackers can rely on a number of techniques including espionage, social engineering, and brute force techniques, etc. to gain access to the raw data used to control system behavior, 2) attackers can falsify operational data in manners that do not trigger conventional outlier/anomaly detection techniques in order to go undetected, which is referred to as false data injection attacks. Therefore, there is a strong need to explore another class of defense measures, referred to as physical process defense, serving as a new line of defense in the event existing defenses relying on information protection measures are breached. This physical process defenses utilize the physics and engineering models of the system to build unique signatures for genuine system behavior. If successful, the signatures would be able to detect attacks that falsify the operational data and render them harmless before they can inflict physical damage on the system. This report is focused on exploring the feasibility of physical process defenses for nuclear reactors, and their associated functional requirements to maximize their resiliency against state-sponsored, or equivalent, attackers.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗