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At least 1,171 records · Page 65

Analysis techniques for background rejection at the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR

The MAJORANA Collaboration is constructing the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR, an ultra-low background, 40- kg modular HPGe detector array to search for neutrinoless double beta decay in {sup 76}Ge. In view of the next generation of tonne-scale Ge-based 0νβ β-decay searches that will probe the neutrino mass scale in the inverted-hierarchy region, a major goal of the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR is to demonstrate a path forward to achieving a background rate at or below 1 count/tonne/year in the 4 keV region of interest around the Q-value at 2039 keV. The background rejection techniques to be applied to the data include cuts based on data reduction, pulse shape analysis, event coincidences, and time correlations. The Point Contact design of the DEMONSTRATOR’s germanium detectors allows for significant reduction of gamma background.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Phycobilisome core architecture influences photoprotective quenching by the Orange Carotenoid Protein

Photosynthetic organisms rely on sophisticated photoprotective mechanisms to prevent oxidative damage under high or fluctuating solar illumination. Cyanobacteria, which have evolved a unique, water-soluble light-harvesting complex—the phycobilisome—achieve photoprotection through a photoactivatable quencher called the Orange Carotenoid Protein (OCP). Phycobilisomes are highly symmetric and modular, formed by hierarchical assembly of conserved subunits into diverse geometries ranging from simple bundles to elaborate fan- or bouquet-like macromolecular architectures. Although OCP is known to provide photoprotection across species of cyanobacteria with different phycobilisome structures, it is not known whether or how these structural variations relate to changes in the photoprotective function of OCP. For example, OCP was recently discovered to bind as a dimer at two specific instances of an abundant structural motif on the tricylindrical phycobilisome of Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803, yet these sites are sterically inaccessible on a more common pentacylindrical phycobilisome ( Anabaena sp. PCC 7120). To understand how structural modularity and binding specificity contribute to conservation of OCP binding sites and function across different phycobilisome architectures, here we compare experimentally measured photophysical states accessible to these prototypical tricylindrical and pentacylindrical phycobilisomes, with and without OCP, at the single-molecule level. Together with Monte Carlo simulations of exciton transfer in OCP-quenched phycobilisomes, our results suggest that OCP binds at distinct and specific sites in each type of phycobilisome, yet provides nearly identical quenching strength to both phycobilisomes. Our findings highlight the utility of modular phycobilisome structures in balancing robust conservation of photoprotective function with adaptability of site-specific binding across species.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Design of a Multi-Chemistry Battery Pack System for Behind-the-Meter Storage Applications

Battery management systems (BMS) are essential for a battery pack's safe operation and longevity. This paper presents an active balancing method-based BMS for different cell chemistry structures to be used in behind-the-meter storage (BTMS) applications. The proposed system utilizes modular isolated dual active bridge (DAB) DC/DC converters to actively balance the battery pack through a low voltage (LV) bus. A supervisory controller monitors all the cell voltage, current, and state of charge (SOC) values. Based on the estimation of the SOCs, reference currents for the DAB converters are generated by the supervisory controller. Detailed modeling and the control approach of the modular DAB converters are presented in the paper. Moreover, the control strategy of the supervisory control is also analyzed. The proposed method and structure can be extended to any combination of the number of cells to design the battery pack. Simulation results are provided for a system consisting of three cells in parallel to form a cell block and three cell blocks in series to form the battery module. Experimental results are provided for three modular DAB converters operating with a LiFeMnPO4 prismatic cell with 3.2V, 20Ah rated values.

battery management systems↗

Distributed Louvain Algorithm for Graph Community Detection

In most real-world networks, the nodes/vertices tend to be organized into tightly-knit modules known as communities or clusters, such that nodes within a community are more likely to be “related” to one another than they are to the rest of the network. The goodness of partitioning into communities is typically measured using a well known measure called modularity. However, modularity optimization is an NP-complete problem. In 2008, Blondel, et al. introduced a multi-phase, iterative heuristic for modularity optimization, called the Louvain method. Owing to its speed and ability to yield high quality communities, the Louvain method continues to be one of the most widely used tools for serial community detection. In this paper, we present the design of a distributed memory implementation of the Louvain algorithm for parallel community detection. Our approach begins with an arbitrarily partitioned distributed graph input, and employs several heuristics to speedup the computation of the different steps of the Louvain algorithm. We evaluate our implementation and its different variants using real-world networks from various application domains (including internet, biology, social networks). Our MPI+OpenMP implementation yields about 7x speedup (on 4K processes) for soc-friendster network (1.8B edges) over a state-of-the-art shared-memory multicore implementation (on 64 threads), without compromising output quality. Furthermore, our distributed implementation was able to process a larger graph (uk-2007; 3.3B edges) in 32 seconds on 1K cores (64 nodes) of NERSC Cori, when the state-of-the-art shared-memory implementation failed to run due to insufficient memory on a single Cori node containing 128 GB.

High performance computing, graph algorithms, Dist↗

Quantum Computing for AI-based Design and Optimization of Electric Motors

Knowledge-based artificial intelligence and hierarchical fuzzy logic offer an interpretable framework for electricvehicle motor preliminary design, but their computational burden grows with linguistic granularity and coupled design-space size. This paper presents a reduced quantum reformulation of the hierarchical fuzzy inference of air-gap flux density, a representative level-one motor-design parameter. Starting from the published electric-vehicle motor-design framework, a three-term fuzzy prototype is constructed from the original inference structure. The reduced model is then reformulated as a modular quantum register-oracle system, in which each hierarchical subrelation is encoded as a block oracle and evaluated through superpositionbased candidate-label testing. The proposed modular quantum formulation reproduces the reduced classical prototype after block fusion. A resource analysis shows that the reduced modular system requires seven qubits per block and twenty-two qubits in a straightforward four-block implementation. Finally, a crossovercomplexity model is derived to identify the regime in which quantum candidate search may become favorable relative to hierarchical fuzzy inference. The results show that no quantum advantage should be claimed for the present one-output reduced benchmark, but that a plausible crossover emerges for larger joint candidate spaces and higher linguistic granularity. The work therefore establishes a technically consistent starting point for future quantum-assisted electric-vehicle motor-design optimization.

Kumar, Praveen [ORNL] (ORCID:0000000291877857)↗

Robustness of trait connections across environmental gradients and growth forms

Abstract Aim Plant trait databases often contain traits that are correlated, but for whom direct (undirected statistical dependency) and indirect (mediated by other traits) connections may be confounded. The confounding of correlation and connection hinders our understanding of plant strategies, and how these vary among growth forms and climate zones. We identified the direct and indirect connections across plant traits relevant to competition, resource acquisition and reproductive strategies using a global database and explored whether connections within and between traits from different tissue types vary across climates and growth forms. Location Global. Major taxa studied Plants. Time period Present. Methods We used probabilistic graphical models and a database of 10 plant traits (leaf area, specific leaf area, mass‐ and area‐based leaf nitrogen and phosphorous content, leaf life span, plant height, stem specific density and seed mass) with 16,281 records to describe direct and indirect connections across woody and non‐woody plants across tropical, temperate, arid, cold and polar regions. Results Trait networks based on direct connections are sparser than those based on correlations. Land plants had high connectivity across traits within and between tissue types; leaf life span and stem specific density shared direct connections with all other traits. For both growth forms, two groups of traits form modules of more highly connected traits; one related to resource acquisition, the other to plant architecture and reproduction. Woody species had higher trait network modularity in polar compared to temperate and tropical climates, while non‐woody species did not show significant differences in modularity across climate regions. Main conclusions Plant traits are highly connected both within and across tissue types, yet traits segregate into persistent modules of traits. Variation in the modularity of trait networks suggests that trait connectivity is shaped by prevailing environmental conditions and demonstrates that plants of different growth forms use alternative strategies to cope with local conditions.

Flores‐Moreno, Habacuc↗

Status of the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR

The MAJORANA Collaboration is constructing the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR, an ultralow background, 40-kg modular high purity Ge (HPGe) detector array to search for neutrinoless double-beta decay (0νββ-decay) in 76 Ge. The goal of the experiment is to demonstrate a background rate at or below 3 counts/(t-y) in the 4 keV region of interest (ROI) around the 2039 keV Q-value for 76 Ge 0νββ-decay. In this study, the status of the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR, including its design and measurements of properties of the HPGe crystals is presented.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Grappolo

Community detection has become a fundamental operation in numerous graph-theoretic applications. It is used to reveal natural divisions that exist within real world networks without imposing prior size or cardinality constraints on the set of communities. Despite its potential for application, there is only limited support for community detection on large-scale parallel computers, largely owing to the irregular and inherently sequential nature of the underlying heuristics. In this paper, we present parallelization heuristics for fast community detection using the Louvain method as the serial template. The Louvain method is an iterative heuristic for modularity optimization. Originally developed by Blondel et al. in 2008, the method has become increasingly popular owing to its ability to detect high modularity community partitions in a fast and memory-efficient manner. However, the method is also inherently sequential, thereby limiting its scalability. Here, we observe certain key properties of this method that present challenges for its parallelization, and consequently propose heuristics that are designed to break the sequential barrier. For evaluation purposes, we implemented our heuristics using OpenMP multithreading, and tested them over real world graphs derived from multiple application domains (e.g., internet, citation, biological). Compared to the serial Louvain implementation, our parallel implementation is able to produce community outputs with a higher modularity for most of the inputs tested, in comparable number of iterations, while providing real speedups of up to 8x using 32 threads. In addition, our parallel implementation was able to exhibit weak scaling properties on up to 32 threads.

Halappanavar, Mahantesh↗

Photosynthetic conversion of CO2 to farnesyl diphosphate-derived phytochemicals (amorpha-4,11-diene and squalene) by engineered cyanobacteria

Background: Metabolic engineering of cyanobacteria has enabled photosynthetic conversion of CO2 to value added chemicals as bio-solar cell factories. However, the production levels of isoprenoids in engineered cyanobacteria were quite low, compared to other microbial hosts. Therefore, modular optimization of multiple gene expressions for metabolic engineering of cyanobacteria is required for the production of farnesyl diphosphate-derived isoprenoids from CO2. Results: Here, we engineered Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942 with modular metabolic pathways consisting of the methylerythritol phosphate pathway enzymes and the amorphadiene synthase for production of amorpha-4,11-diene, resulting in significantly increased levels (23-fold) of amorpha-4,11-diene (19.8 mg/L) in the best strain relative to a parental strain. Replacing amorphadiene synthase with squalene synthase led to the synthesis of a high amount of squalene (4.98 mg/L/OD730). Overexpression of farnesyl diphosphate synthase is the most critical factor for the significant production, whereas overexpression of 1-deoxy-d-xylulose 5-phosphate reductase is detrimental to the cell growth and the production. Additionally, the cyanobacterial growth inhibition was alleviated by expressing a terpene synthase in S. elongatus PCC 7942 strain with the optimized MEP pathway only (SeHL33). Conclusions: This is the first demonstration of photosynthetic production of amorpha-4,11-diene from CO2 in cyanobacteria and production of squalene in S. elongatus PCC 7942. Our optimized modular Over MEP strain (SeHL33) with either co-expression of ADS or SQS demonstrated the highest production levels of amorpha-4,11-diene and squalene, which could expand the list of farnesyl diphosphate-derived isoprenoids from CO2 as bio-solar cell factories.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Scalable Light Module for Low-Cost, High-Efficiency Light- Emitting Diode Luminaires

During this two-year program Cree developed a scalable, modular optical architecture for low-cost, high-efficacy light emitting diode (LED) luminaires. Stated simply, the goal of this architecture was to efficiently and cost-effectively convey light from LEDs (point sources) to broad luminaire surfaces (area sources). By simultaneously developing warm-white LED components and low-cost, scalable optical elements, a high system optical efficiency resulted. To meet program goals, Cree evaluated novel approaches to improve LED component efficacy at high color quality while not sacrificing LED optical efficiency relative to conventional packages. Meanwhile, efficiently coupling light from LEDs into modular optical elements, followed by optimally distributing and extracting this light, were challenges that were addressed via novel optical design coupled with frequent experimental evaluations. Minimizing luminaire bill of materials and assembly costs were two guiding principles for all design work, in the effort to achieve luminaires with significantly lower normalized cost ($/klm) than existing LED fixtures. Chief project accomplishments included the achievement of >150 lm/W warm-white LEDs having primary optics compatible with low-cost modular optical elements. In addition, a prototype Light Module optical efficiency of over 90% was measured, demonstrating the potential of this scalable architecture for ultra-high-efficacy LED luminaires. Since the project ended, Cree has continued to evaluate optical element fabrication and assembly methods in an effort to rapidly transfer this scalable, cost-effective technology to Cree production development groups. The Light Module concept is likely to make a strong contribution to the development of new cost-effective, high-efficacy luminaries, thereby accelerating widespread adoption of energy-saving SSL in the U.S.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

IAEA Cooperative Research Project (CRP) Status Report

This report provides an end of year summary that reflects the progress and status of United States (U.S.) activities supporting the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Cooperative Research Project (CRP) effort to develop Modular High Temperature Reactor (HTGR) Safety Design Criteria. These U.S. activities are being managed by the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and it is noted that this summary reflects progress during the second year of this planned three year activity. This status summary addresses Level 3 milestone M3AT 17IN2001083 in work package AT 17IN200108. U.S. contributions to this CRP effort in FY2017 are reflected in Enclosures A, B, and C, and include (1) a summary description of the modular HTGR’s approach to defense in depth, (2) a summary discussion of how the implementation of the proposed safety design process addresses the key lessons learned from the events at Fukushima, and (3) a brief summary of modular HTGR research and development gap and analysis methods needs.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Resource Aware Intelligent Network Services (RAINS) Final Technical Report

The Resource Aware Intelligent Network Services (RAINS) project conducted research and developed technologies in the area of cyber infrastructure resource modeling and computation. The goal of this work was to provide a foundation to enable intelligent, software defined services which spanned the network AND the resources which connect to the network. A Multi-Resource Service Plane (MRSP) was defined, which allows resource owners/managers to locate and place themselves from a topology and service availability perspective within the dynamic networked cyberinfrastructure ecosystem. The MRSP enables the presentation of integrated topology views and computation results which can include resources across the spectrum of compute, storage, and networks. The RAINS project developed MSRP includes the following key components: i) Multi-Resource Service (MRS) Ontology/Multi-Resource Markup Language (MRML), ii) Resource Computation Engine (RCE), iii) Modular Driver Framework (to allow integration of a variety of external resources). The MRS/MRML is a general and extensible modeling framework that allows for resource owners to model, or describe, a wide variety of resource types. All resources are described using three categories of elements: Resources, Services, and Relationships between the elements. This modeling framework defines a common method for the transformation of cyber infrastructure resources into data in the form of MRML models. In order to realize this infrastructure datification, the RAINS project developed a model based computation system, i.e. “RAINS Computation Engine (RCE)”. The RCE has the ability to ingest, process, integrate, and compute based on automatically generated MRML models. The RCE interacts with the resources thru system drivers which are specific to the type of external network or resource controller. The RAINS project developed a modular and pluggable driver system which facilities a variety of resource controllers to automatically generate, maintain, and distribute MRML based resource descriptions. Once all of the resource topologies are absorbed by the RCE, a connected graph of the full distributed system topology is constructed, which forms the basis for computation and workflow processing. The RCE includes a Modular Computation Element (MCE) framework which allows for tailoring of the computation process to the specific set of resources under control, and the services desired. The input and output of an MCE are both model data based on MRS/MRML ontology and schema. Some of the RAINS project accomplishments include: Development of general and extensible multi-resource modeling framework; Design of a Resource Computation Engine (RCE) system which includes the following key capabilities; Absorb a variety of multi-resource model types and build integrated models; Novel architecture which uses model based communications across the full stack for all Flexible provision of abstract or intent based user facing interfaces; Workflow processing based on model descriptions; Release of the RCE as an open source software; Deployment of RCE in the University of Maryland/Mid-Atlantic Crossroad ScienceDMZ in prototype mode with a plan under way to transition to production; Deployment at the Argonne National Laboratory DTN Facility in prototype mode; Selection of RCE by the DOE SENSE (SDN for End-to-end Networked Science at the Exascale) project as the basis for their orchestration service.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

DISTINCT: Diversity in Solar Talent Through INnovative Curriculum and Training: An Integrated Research and Education Approach towards Creating Diversity and Advancing Utility-Scale Solar Technology

The DISTINCT project research objective is to develop an innovative N-port power converter for a utility-scale PV system that is modular, compact and cost-effective and that will enable the integration of a high-frequency, high-voltage solid-state transformer. The novelty of the proposed research is the electrical power conversion architecture using an N-port converter system that replaces the output 60Hz transformer with an integrated high-frequency low-weight solid-state transformer reducing power electronics and BOS costs to meet SunShot goals through modularity and direct high-voltage interconnection. A challenge in direct integration with a 13.8kV line is the high voltage handling capacity of the converters combined with high efficiency operation. The front-end converter for each port is a Neutral-Point Clamped (NPC) Multi-Level dc-dc Dual-Active Bridge (ML-DAB) which allows Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT). The integrated high frequency transformer provides the galvanic isolation between the PV and grid side and also steps up the low dc voltage from PV source. Following the ML-DAB stage, in each port, is an inverter with H-bridge configuration or NPC configuration. N number of NPC inverters’ outputs are cascaded to attain the per-phase line-to-neutral voltage to connect directly to the distribution grid (i.e. 13.8 kV). The cascaded inverters have the inherent advantage of using lower rated devices, smaller filters and low Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) required for PV grid interconnection. Our analysis and simulation results show improved performance on cost, efficiency, service life with zero downtime and THD. A comprehensive control scheme is presented to ensure the maximum power from each port and each phase are sent to the grid. A functional prototype of a 2-port converter with ML-DAB and cascaded H-bridges has been designed, built, and tested in a laboratory setup to verify the target technical metrics. The N-port converter system due to its modular structure with individual control per port can be easily adapted to integrate functionalities that go well beyond the conventional grid support functions and mitigates impacts of forecasted fast ramp downs or ramp ups and single-fault conditions by automatic reconfiguration of the output.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Analysis of Supply Chains and Advanced Manufacturing of Small Hydropower Systems

Clean energy manufacturing is a sector of increasing importance both in the United States and worldwide. In the United States, it has been presented as an engine for job creation in a sector of the U.S. economy that was hit hard by the 2008-2009 recession. The Clean Energy Manufacturing Analysis Center (CEMAC), sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), conducts credible, objective, industry-relevant, recurring, and consistent analyses of clean energy technologies. In this project, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) collaborated in a hydropower manufacturing and supply chain analysis primarily for U.S. small hydropower (SHP) market to provide insights on supply chain constraints, manufacturing cost, location factors, and opportunities for hydropower using advanced manufacturing technologies. The goal of the project is to improve understanding of the manufacturing opportunities in the U.S. hydropower supply chain, specific competitive advantages, and factors for manufacturing location decisions for SHP. These insights could be used to inform investment and research strategies, policy, and other decisions that could promote economic growth and strengthen U.S. manufacturing capabilities. The project scope included a design for manufacturing and assembly (DFMA) costs analysis and a levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) sensitivity analysis of modular, representative SHP turbines. A representative SHP system was chosen to be made up of two 5 megawatt (MW) turbines, as these Kaplan style turbines could be useable for many non-powered dams (NPDs) across the U.S. The sensitivity analysis used the Integrated Design and Assessment (IDEA) tool, which has helped highlight the impact of the turbine equipment cost on the potential capital expenditure (CAPEX) and LCOE of the installed, representative system. In addition, the project team analyzed international tradeflows (e.g., export and import of hydropower turbines and the parts used in hydropower systems). As part of this project, hydropower stakeholder interviews were undertaken to help identify insights related to hydropower manufacturing opportunities for U.S. players in SHP, the country-specific manufacturing advantages in the United States and threats, and key factors behind manufacturing location decisions made by the SHP industry. Key opportunities for the US SHP market and industry include: Foreign export markets such as Chile, China, Columbia, India and Japan, have an estimated 71,795 MW of technical potential that could be serviced with SHP installations. Utilization of existing manufacturing capacity and expertise, along with economies of scale benefits, could result in increased global competitiveness through lower investment requirements and component costs, which could lead to increased U.S. strength in the export of SHP systems and components. Technology advances such as modular turbine designs, standardized units for conduit systems, precast systems, and improved powertrain technologies could help reduce costs, particularly for manufacturing a small number of units. The DOE is also exploring modular hydropower designs, which would integrate standard independently-produced components, validated to meet multiple specifications. Using modules in product design simplifies manufacturing activities such as inspection, testing, assembly, and purchasing, may increase economies of scale to lower total system cost. There are significant opportunities for the use of composites and Additive Manufacturing (AM) for hydropower components, when design changes are made to hydropower systems. By taking advantage of the corrosion resistance, light-weighting and structural benefits, composites and AM could help significantly alter hydropower structures and installations.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗

Design and Manufacture of Tunable Permanent Magnet Based Quadrupole for Next Generation Electron-Ion Colliders [Slides]

The goal of this project is to design and construct of a prototype of quadrupole permanent magnet for the magnet transport lattice for an electron-ion collider. The technical objectives are not only to achieve the field gradient of 34.42T/m in the region of interest, at a radius 16.0mm, relative to the quadrupole axis (z-axis), but also lower the unwanted field harmonics below one unit out of 10,000, especially for Sextupole, Octupole, and Decapole components. The innovation is 1) modular design for cost saving, and 2) adjusting mechanism of each modular magnet for field tuning. The 300-mm long, quadrupole magnet assembly consists of 12 modules of 100-mm long magnet. The magnetic field tuning was implemented by two ways: first, adjusting mechanically the pole tip position for a majority of field tuning, and second, applying the passive shims for a fine field tuning. The magnetic design and optimization of the quadrupole magnet was performed using finite element analysis. The permanent magnet choice was EEC-N44SH grade with the minimum coercivity of 987kA/m (12.4kOe), which has enhanced resistance to demagnetization due to the radiation. The 3D computer-aided design of quadrupole magnet assembly was created based on the magnetic design results. The overall dimensions are 514x500x300mm and its weight is ~470kg (1,050lbs). The weight and volume were minimized through the optimization. Electron Energy Corporation’s vertically integrated manufacturing capability and over 48-years magnet production experience enabled us to implement a “fast prototyping” process and build two quadrupole magnets. Using wire EDM machines, the pole tip profile was precisely fabricated within ±25µm tolerance. The field gradient 34.22T/m was measured using the real time data acquisition system and a 3D Hall probe mounted on the precision XYZ station with the resolution of 1µm (0.00004”). The magnetic field harmonics were measured using a harmonic coil at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY. Faro® laser tracker was used to track the position of each quadrupole while adjusting the pole location mechanically. The normal harmonics were measured up to 20-poles. Overall the 2 nd magnet test data is better than the 1st magnet because of a better symmetry. The adjusting pole technique was proved effective to lower the Sextupole harmonics from -3.14 to -0.71 unit. The Octupole harmonics was improved from -5.67 to -3.45 unit, still not satisfactory. It is found that the proposed approach is not practical and efficient in terms of the mass production although the modular concept can save the manufacturing cost. Another finding is in reality it is hard to adjust mechanically due to the limit of laser tracker resolution .001” and tweak magnetically the field due to the limited harmonics data. Importantly the Brookhaven National Laboratory’s harmonics data doesn’t indicate where the strong/weak field position, which requires another field map test at each measurement. To resolve these, two alternative solutions are introduced; 1) electromagnet correcting coils and 2) 8-pieces quadrupole magnet.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Initial DOE SNF Standardized Canister Storage Configuration Alternatives Study

This study looks at storage configuration alternatives for United States Department of Energy (DOE) Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF) Standardized Canisters loaded with DOE-owned SNF. The focus of the study is for the DOE SNF Standardized Canisters that would be packaged in the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center (INTEC) area at Idaho National Laboratory (INL), but its general findings are useful across the DOE Complex. The study considered storage in existing facilities, modified existing facilities, new facilities, and new modular systems. The existing INTEC facilities considered in the study include the CPP-603 Irradiated Fuel Storage Facility (IFSF), the CPP-749 Underground Fuel Storage Facility (UFSF), the CPP-666 SNF Wet Storage Basin Facility, CPP-1774 Three Mile Island (TMI) Independent Spent Fuel Storage Facility (ISFSF), and the CPP-2707 Cask Pad Facility. The new facilities considered in the study include the Foster Wheeler designed Idaho Spent Fuel (ISF) Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation (ISFSI) and some conceptual designs. The new modular systems considered in the study include Holtec International’s HI-STAR/HI-STORM, NAC International’s MAGNASTOR/UMS/MPC and Orano TN’s MATRIX/NUHOMS. Based on considerations of various factors, including but not limited to capacity, impact to facility operations, capital costs, expenditure rate, licensing issues, agreements with the State of Idaho, and road ready conditions, new modular storage systems from commercial vendors may have clear advantages over other storage alternatives. This is further supported by recent experience with West Valley Demonstration Project (WVDP) storage project for High Level Waste Glass canisters.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Heat Integration Optimization and Dynamic Modeling Investigation for Advancing the Coal-Direct Chemical Looping Process

The purpose of the project is to address the optimization and startup operation of a modular coal direct chemical looping (CDCL) combustion system integrated with a steam cycle for power generation to reduce the risks involved in further scale-up of the technology. The modular reactor design of the CDCL process provides flexibility in the fabrication of the reactor and in its operating capacity (i.e. turndown ratio) at the cost of a more complex heat exchange network (HEN) design and integration. To address the technology gaps and advance the efficiency and economic feasibility of the CDCL technology, the project will perform a detailed and comprehensive analysis of the integration of a modular CDCL reactor system and a steam cycle system under both static and transient conditions via HEN process performance simulations and system dynamic modeling, respectively. The scope of work consists of 1) Experimental and computational studies of the CDCL combustor reactor 2) Comprehensive static (i.e. steady-state) system HEN design analysis in CDCL 550 MWe commercial unit for power generation and 3) Dynamic modeling of site specific design of 10MWe CDCL large pilot plant. The project team has successfully developed and validated a kinetic model for the oxidation of oxygen carriers in the combustor using the unreacted shrinking core model (UCSM). The model is capable of capturing the oxidation kinetics of fully or partially reduced oxygen carrier particles. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model is developed to simulate the hydrodynamics, heat transfer, and chemical reaction occurring in the CDCL combustor. The model is developed in MFIX and ANSYS Fluent. Key aspects of CDCL combustor operation, including heat transfer, oxygen carrier oxidation, and the transport of oxygen carrier particles, are simulated using this CFD model. The HEN for a commercial scale 550 MWe CDCL power plant is simulated and optimized using ASPEN Plus. Practical design considerations are incorporated based on industrial experiences. The performance and cost for the commercial CDCL plant is updated based on these analyses. A dynamic model for the 10 MWe CDCL pilot plant is developed in ProTRAX simulation software. The model is based on the pilot plant design developed in project DE-FE0027654 “10 MWe CDCL Large Pilot Plang – Pre-FEED Study” and the steam cycle data obtained from Dover Light & Power plant. The transient behaviors during pilot plant load variation are simulated using the dynamic model.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗

The waterSHED Model: User Guide

The ideal design and operation of small hydropower plants is a complex optimization problem with economic, social, and environmental objectives. The waterSHED (Water Allocation Tool Enabling Rapid Small Hydropower Environmental Design) model is a user-friendly tool that allows hydropower stakeholders to model the trade-offs among these objectives using the Standard Modular Hydropower (SMH) framework. The SMH framework employs modular technologies that can be represented as blackbox objects and combined within a river to create a hydropower facility. For a given site, the waterSHED model aims to determine which modules should be placed in a facility and how those modules should be operated. This user guide describes how to use the graphical user interface and related functionalities. This document also summarizes the background research and mathematical formulations that are explained indepth in the accompanying doctoral dissertation. This model is an early step toward a new hydropower design process that employs standardization and modularity to reduce costs, development timelines, and challenges regarding social and environmental mitigation measures for low-head, small hydropower development. The waterSHED model is a Python application that will require the ability to download a GitHub repository, import the necessary packages, and run a set of Python script files using an integrated development environment. The script produces a graphical user interface to coordinate inputs, simulate operation, and visualize results, so no coding experience is needed once the script is running. Additionally, the waterSHED Workbook is a Microsoft Excel file that works with the Python script to facilitate data entry

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗