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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 1,243 records · Page 69

Technologist in Residence for Advanced Manufacturing and Materials in Unconventional Oil and Gas Equipment and Infrastructure

The DOE Technologist in Residence (TIR) program pairs a senior technical staff member from a National Laboratory (Lab Technologist), and a senior technical staff member(s) from a clean energy manufacturing company or consortium of companies (Industry Technologist). Each technologist may represent single or multiple national laboratories, or single or multiple companies. These pairs of Lab and industry technologists work together for a period of 18 to 24 months to accomplish several goals: 1) Identify the participating company’s (or companies’) technical priorities and challenges, and the resources and capabilities in DOE’s National Laboratories that may be highly suitable to address them; 2) Propose collaborative R&D efforts to develop science-based solutions to the company’s (or companies’) most strategic scientific, technological, and business issues; and 3) Develop a general framework agreement and begin developing specific scopes of work for the proposed collaborative R&D efforts. The proposed R&D will then take place outside of the program and will not use TIR program funds. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Pioneer Natural Resources were awarded a TIR project by DOE in late 2016 and the CRADA component of the project was initiated in 2017. This report describes work performed under the CRADA agreement between 2017 and 2020.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

ExaFEL: extreme-scale real-time data processing for X-ray free electron laser science

ExaFEL is an HPC-capable X-ray Free Electron Laser (XFEL) data analysis software suite for both Serial Femtosecond Crystallography (SFX) and Single Particle Imaging (SPI) developed in collaboration with the Linac Coherent Lightsource (LCLS), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and Los Alamos National Laboratory. ExaFEL supports real-time data analysis via a cross-facility workflow spanning LCLS and HPC centers such as NERSC and OLCF. Our work therefore constitutes initial path-finding for the US Department of Energy's (DOE) Integrated Research Infrastructure (IRI) program. We present the ExaFEL team's 7 years of experience in developing real-time XFEL data analysis software for the DOE's exascale supercomputers. We present our experiences and lessons learned with the Perlmutter and Frontier supercomputers. Furthermore we outline essential data center services (and the implications for institutional policy) required for real-time data analysis. Finally we summarize our software and performance engineering approaches and our experiences with NERSC's Perlmutter and OLCF's Frontier systems. This work is intended to be a practical blueprint for similar efforts in integrating exascale compute resources into other cross-facility workflows.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Scientometric methods for identifying emerging technologies

Provided is a method of generating a scientometric model that tracks the emergence of an identified technology from initial discovery (via original scientific and conference literature), through critical discoveries (via original scientific, conference literature and patents), transitioning through Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) and ultimately on to commercial application. During the period of innovation and technology transfer, the impact of scholarly works, patents and on-line web news sources are identified. As trends develop, currency of citations, collaboration indicators, and on-line news patterns are identified. The combinations of four distinct and separate searchable on-line networked sources (i.e., scholarly publications and citation, worldwide patents, news archives, and on-line mapping networks) are assembled to become one collective network (a dataset for analysis of relations). This established network becomes the basis from which to quickly analyze the temporal flow of activity (searchable events) for the example subject domain.

42 ENGINEERING↗

2017 Publications Demonstrate Advancements in Wind Energy Research

In 2017, wind energy experts at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) made significant strides to advance wind energy. Many of these achievements were presented in articles published in scientific and engineering journals and technical reports that detailed research accomplishments in new and progressing wind energy technologies. During fiscal year 2017, NREL wind energy thought leaders shared knowledge and insights through 45 journal articles and 25 technical reports, benefiting academic and national-lab research communities; industry stakeholders; and local, state, and federal decision makers. Such publications serve as important outreach, informing the public of how NREL wind research, analysis, and deployment activities complement advanced energy growth in the United States and around the world. The publications also illustrate some of the noteworthy outcomes of U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) and Laboratory Directed Research and Development funding, as well as funding and facilities leveraged through strategic partnerships and other collaborations.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

Development of Robotic Inspection Systems for In-situ Characterisation Prior to Decommissioning - 20306

The University of Bristol's South West Nuclear Hub is part of two large UK academic research collaborations aiming to reduce the costs of nuclear power by trialing innovative solutions to major decommissioning challenges. Robotics and Artificial Intelligence in Nuclear (RAIN) and the National Centre for Nuclear Robotics (NCNR) are the two collaborations tasked by the UK research councils to coordinate this activity, for the benefit of the nuclear industry. This paper presents a summary of Bristol's research aimed at generating and demonstrating a series of technologies ready for commercialization. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

Quench Simulation and Validation for EIC Direct Wind Magnets

The Electron-Ion Collider (EIC), a new facility to be built in the United States at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory in collaboration with Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility-will be the only new particle collider in the U.S. for the next 10∼20 years. The EIC project will investigate the origin of mass and building blocks of the Universe. It will accelerate and collide beams of electrons with protons and nuclei. Unlike any collider that has ever existed before, both EIC’s particle beams will be polarized, meaning their spins will be aligned in a controlled way to allow for precision measurements. Different types of new superconducting magnets will be required near the interaction region (IR) of EIC. A 6-around-1 NbTi cable will be used for some of those new superconducting magnets. Given the relatively smaller conductors used for those direct wind magnets, the overall engineering current density will be 2–3 times higher in comparison to traditional collared superconducting magnets in other accelerator magnets. This is technically challenging and potentially represents high risks for quench protection. Here, in this paper we use different tools and methods for quench simulation for several EIC direct wind magnets. We also present results of a sensitivity study, exploring different material properties and Jc curves. This paper also discusses and validates the quench simulation results with measurement results from a small-scale serpentine magnet tested at BNL in October 2024.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Distributed Fiber Optic Sensor for On-Line Monitoring of Coal Gasifier Refractory Health

This report summarizes technical progress on the program “Distributed Fiber Optic Sensor for On-Line Monitoring of Coal Gasifier Refractory Health,” funded by the National Energy Technology Laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy, and performed by the Center for Photonics Technology of the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech. The scope of work entails analyses of traveling grating generation technologies in an optical fiber, as well as the interrogation of the gratings to infer a distributed temperature along the fiber, for the purpose of developing a real-time refractory health condition monitoring technology for coal gasifiers. During the project period, which is from 2011-2015, three different sensing principles were studied, including four-wave mixing (FWM), coherent optical time-domain reflectometer (C-OTDR) and Brillouin optical time-domain analysis (BOTDA). By comparing the three methods, the BOTDA was selected for further development into a complete bench-top sensing system for the proposed high-temperature sensing application. Based on the input from Eastman Chemical, the industrial collaborator on this project, a cylindrical furnace was designed and constructed to simulate typical gasifier refractory temperature conditions in the laboratory, and verify the sensor’s capability to fully monitor refractory conditions on the back-side at temperatures up to 1000°C. In the later stages of the project, the sensing system was tested in the simulated environment for its sensing performance and high-temperature survivability. Through theoretical analyses and experimental research on the different factors affecting the sensor performance, a sensor field deployment strategy was proposed for possible future sensor field implementations.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗

Late-Stage Research Development and Demonstration Sub-Activities Updates

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), in collaboration with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), and the Hummingbird Firm (a specialized consulting firm focused on promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion considerations), has initiated a national initiative known as the Heat Pump (HP) and Heat Pump Water Heater (HPWH) Field Validation Partnership. This effort involves active participation from numerous critical entities involved in research and market transformation within the field.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Opportunities and Challenges from Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning for the Advancement of Science, Technology, and the Office of Science Missions

In February 2019, the President signed Executive Order 13859, Maintaining American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence. This order launched the American Artificial Intelligence Initiative, a concerted effort to promote and protect AI technology and innovation in the United States. The Initiative implements a government-wide strategy in collaboration and engagement with the private sector, academia, the public, and like-minded international partners. Among other actions, key directives in the Initiative called for Federal agencies to: Prioritize AI research and development investments, Enhance access to high-quality cyberinfrastructure and data, Ensure that the US maintains an international leadership role in the development of technical standards for AI, and Provide education and training opportunities to prepare the American workforce for the new era of AI. The mission of the Department of Energy (DOE) is to ensure America’s security and prosperity by addressing its energy, environmental, and nuclear challenges through transformative science and technology solutions. In terms of Science and Innovation, the DOE’s mission is to maintain a vibrant US effort in science and engineering as a cornerstone of our economic prosperity with clear leadership in strategic areas. From July to October in 2019, the Argonne, Oak Ridge, and Berkeley National Laboratories hosted a series of four AI for Science Town Hall meetings in Chicago, Oak Ridge, Berkeley, and Washington DC. The four meetings were attended by over 1300 scientists from the 17 DOE Labs, 39 companies, and over 90 universities. The goal of the Town Hall series was ‘to examine scientific opportunities in the areas of artificial intelligence, Big Data, and high-performance computing (HPC) in the next decade, and to capture the big ideas, grand challenges, and next steps to realizing these.’ The discussions at the meetings were captured in the final report of the AI for Science Town Hall meetings.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Advanced Algal Biofoundries for the Production of Polyurethane Precursors

The primary goal of the BEEPs project was to develop a process that could accelerate the development of algae as bioproduction platforms, from initial chemical product concept to an economically viable market supply. Under this program we elected to develop strains of algae that could generate polyurethane precursors, while simultaneously developing basic genetic tools to enable improved algal production systems. This program was specifically designed to incorporate National Laboratories as a means to utilize the expertise and facilities for new bio-production platforms. To that end, we designed a program to collaborate with the Agile BioFoundry at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and computational platforms at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). In addition to these National Laboratory partners, we also had academic partners from UC Davis and Georgia Tech, as well as commercial partners Algenesis Materials and BASF. To achieve these goals, we initially focused on developing the genetic tools and high throughput screening technologies necessary to generate and assess production of polymer precursors (succinic acid) in algae and cyanobacteria, including advanced promoters and biosensors. In parallel, we computationally identified potential production bottlenecks and then used the developed genetic tools to increase production rates and yields. Constant feedback of data was used in conjunction with machine learning, high-throughput cell sorting, and synthetic biology, for additional targeted metabolic engineering. Multiple rounds of tool design, building, testing, and learning were supplied to partners at PNNL and LBNL to develop new models and tools that could expedite bioproduction platform development and increase yield performance. We targeted, and achieved, the FOA requirement yield metric of 20 g/L, as a milestone and deliverable from at least one of our engineered strains for the production of succinic acid.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗

Virtual Inspection of Advanced Manufacturing via Process-Scale Digital Twins (Abbreviated Report)

Inspection and certification comprise the most significant bottlenecks in advanced manufacturing for NNSA applications, often requiring far more time and resources than the fabrication of the parts themselves. Traditional methods, such as manual review and X-ray computed tomography, are not only slow and costly, but also struggle to provide a clear connection between manufacturing instructions and the final performance of critical components. This gap limits both the agility and assurance needed to support the modernization and safety of the United States nuclear stockpile. In response, our Strategic Initiative established a digital twin framework that integrates realtime process monitoring, automated data analysis, and immersive virtual reality collaboration into a unified inspection pipeline. By leveraging data from sensors, machine instructions, and imaging, we created high-fidelity virtual models of manufactured parts that could be rapidly analyzed and certified. This approach was first demonstrated with Direct Ink Write, and then extended to other manufacturing settings, including conventional (or “subtractive”) manufacturing and to predict the end of life performance of parts per the aging and lifetimes programs. The result is a transformational capability: inspection times have been reduced by a factor of 120,000 without loss of accuracy and while simultaneously improving traceability and confidence in part quality. This framework not only streamlines certification for critical applications, but also positions the national security enterprise to respond more flexibly to emerging challenges, supporting agile manufacturing and digital engineering practices across a broad range of mission-relevant domains.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Port Radium Canada's Original Radium/Uranium Mine, The Complete Story of Canada's Historic Radium/Uranium Mine, 1932 to 2012 - 13159

This paper provides the life story of Canada's original radium/uranium mine. In addition to the history of operations, it discusses the unique and successful approach used to identify the key issues and concerns associated with the former radium, uranium and silver mining property and the activities undertaken to define the remedial actions and subsequent remedial plan. The Port Radium Mine site, situated approximately 275 km north of Yellowknife on the east shore of Great Bear Lake, Northwest Territories, was discovered in 1930 and underground mining began in 1932. The mine operated almost continuously from 1932 to 1982, initially for recovery of radium, then uranium and finally, for recovery of silver. Tailings production totaled an estimated 900,000 tons and 800,000 tons from uranium and silver processing operations respectively. In the early days of mining, Port Radium miners were exposed to radon and associated decay product levels (in Working Level Months of exposure - WLM) hundreds of times greater than modern standards. The experience of the Port Radium miners provides important contribution to understanding the risks from radon. While the uranium mine was originally decommissioned in the early 1960's, to the standards of the day, the community of Deline (formerly Fort Franklin) had concerns about residual contamination at the mine site and the potential effects arising from use of traditional lands. The Deline people were also concerned about the possible risks to Deline Dene arising from their work as ore carriers. In the late 1990's, the community of Deline brought these concerns to national attention and consequently, the Government of Canada and the community of Deline agreed to move forward in a collaborative manner to address these concerns. The approach agreed to was to establish the Canada-Deline Uranium Table (CDUT) to provide a joint process by which the people of Deline could have their concerns expressed and addressed. A great deal of work was done through the CDUT, including efforts to assess site environment and safety issues in the context of modern reclamation standards. In addition to the environmental and remediation studies, an assessment of historic exposures of Deline ore carriers to radiation and a follow-up epidemiological feasibility study were performed. SENES Consultants Limited (SENES) carried out the dose reconstruction for the Port Radium miners in the 1990's, was the environmental consultant to the CDUT from 2000 to 2005, developed the Remedial Action Plan (RAP), engineering plans and specifications for decommissioning the Port Radium mine and vicinity sites in 2005/6, supervised the remedial works in 2007 and carried out the long term post closure monitoring from 2008 to 2012. Our firsthand experience from working cooperatively with the CDUT provides insights into effective decommissioning of historic contaminated sites. (authors)

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

The Effects of Electrostatic Discharge Phenomena on Detonator Response: A Framework for Evaluating Parameters Relevant to Quantification of Margins and Uncertainties

Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), and Pantex are collaborating on a Nuclear Safety Research & Development (NSR&D) project to develop a common Quantification of Margins and Uncertainties (QMU) framework for explosive safety analysis. An analysis of electrostatic discharge (ESD) data serves as an initial test case for methodology development. This analysis examines measurements of electrical characteristics of production environments, tests designed to measure ESD response of detonators, and information on interactions between variables drawn from expert knowledge and physics models.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Hillsborough County Clear Sky Assessment Process: Prioritizing Solar + Storage for Resilient Facilities & Communities

The Clear Sky Tampa Bay project was a 15-month collaborative research effort to support solar + storage deployment for community resilience in Florida. The Clear Sky Decision Support Toolkit is a collection of resources designed to support users in conducting solar + storage prioritization and feasibility screening assessments at critical facilities. The Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council worked with four local governments in the region to test and apply the Toolkit. This case study series describes how each partner government used the Toolkit and highlights key insights and lessons learned that other users could follow to replicate the process. Hillsborough County used the Clear Sky Decision Support Toolkit to analyze solar + storage as an additional resiliency feature at its Brandon Support Operation Complex (BSOC). During normal operations, the BSOC houses water utility administration services and workspaces for water and wastewater engineers, facilities maintenance, and environmental management staff. During emergency management activation, the BSOC serves as an emergency hub for Emergency Support Function 3 (ESF-3), which includes public utilities, public works, and engineering staff support members. The BSOC is designated as a critical facility by the County.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

The LSST Camera 500 watt -130 degC Mixed Refrigerant Cooling System

The LSST Camera has a higher cryogenic heat load than previous CCD telescope cameras due to its large size (634 mm diameter focal plane, 3.2 Giga pixels) and its close coupled front-end electronics operating at low temperature inside the cryostat. Various refrigeration technologies are considered for this telescope/camera environment. MMR-Technology’s Mixed Refrigerant technology was chosen. A collaboration with that company was started in 2009. The system, based on a cluster of Joule-Thomson refrigerators running a special blend of mixed refrigerants is described. Both the advantages and problems of applying this technology to telescope camera refrigeration are discussed. Test results from a prototype refrigerator running in a realistic telescope configuration are reported. Current and future stages of the development program are described. (auth)

42 ENGINEERING↗

Wearable Robotics and Exoskeletons for WM Workers: Potential Benefits and Challenges - 18506

Wearable robotic and exoskeleton systems are emerging that have the potential to augment workers and reduce musculoskeletal injury and fatigue. To fully realize this potential, developers and workers should collaborate to ensure that the devices' benefits are realized without inducing secondary side-effects that outweigh the benefits. This paper describes the development of a prototype system for both injury and fatigue reduction. It also provides a summary of several important considerations when integrating wearable robotics with a workforce, such as comfort, fit, and hygiene. We recommend that an integration plan be developed before providing these systems to workers. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

High Temperature Sealants and Gaskets in Nuclear Applications

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has been conducting research to develop and deploy advances in ceramic filter technology to benefit nuclear facilities. There is a need for better materials for High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters, especially those able to withstand moisture and higher temperatures as experienced in fire conditions. One of the next steps in this process is the improvement of the system sealants and gaskets. The LLNL team has reached out to the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) for assistance with the task of identifying potential materials as well as conducting experiments utilizing the testing units developed by LLNL's collaboration with California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly). Current commercial filters use fluid seals and urethane gasket seals. Although these seals are sufficient for the minimum requirements of existing nuclear facilities, they will not be sufficient as improvements in ceramic filters and pre-filters reach their full potential. Currently, HEPA filters can only survive up to 1000 deg. F (exhaust air) and 500 deg. F (supply air) for less than 2 hours. Our research at the University of Texas at El Paso reviewed hundreds of sealant and gasket materials to identify improved sealants and gaskets that can be used in existing filters as well as ceramic HEPA filters and pre-filters. Results of the research will be supplied to support the relevant code, American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) AG-1, in particular Section FO. (authors)

42 ENGINEERING↗

ASME Design Code Rule Changes for Nuclear Graphite

The American Society of Mechanical Engineers Boiler Pressure and Vessel Code (ASME BPVC) Section III, Division 5, Article HHA-3000 outlines graphite core component and graphite core assembly design guidelines. Graphite core components are defined as ?components manufactured from graphite that are installed to form a graphite core assembly within the reactor pressure vessel of a high temperature, graphite moderated fission reactor.? (p. 413) Graphites? inherent defect distributions do not allow for deterministic material reliability. Rather, graphite has variable strength distributions which change by grade. Article HHA-3000 outlines two semi-probabilistic methods, the full and simplified assessments, which set design load limit targets for each of three component structural reliability classes. The Design Task Group was officially recognized as a specialized task group within ASME November of 2023, though we?ve been collaborating since 2022. The purpose of the Design Task Group is to correct, clarify, and make HHA-3000 function as intended. The Design Task Group will sunset once we?ve achieved our objectives. The Design Task Group was specifically told to not write new Code. While there may be more precise and more accurate methods to determine reliability targets, the current methods are conservative, relatively simple to implement, and have thus far been considered satisfactory for setting design reliability targets. Much of the ground-work to write proposal files and background documents for records to make the changes needed to achieve our objective have been completed. The Design Task Group has documented much of their work through papers, presentations, and memorandums. Three memorandums in which INL team members had substantial contributions are found in the Appendices: FEA Modeling for the Baseline Program, Evaluating the Effects on Margin of Updating the Threshold and Shape Parameters in the Full Assessment, and Interpretations of the Full and Simplified Assessments in ASME BPVC. Most of the on-going work to achieve the Design Task Group?s objective will be addressing comments on existing records and moving records through the balloting process. The Design Task Group met bi-weekly mostly through the end of FY2023. Since February 2024, the Design Task Group has mostly been completed with solving and documenting the technical issues associated with the assessments. Unless new tasks are identified, the remaining work of the Design Task Group will be political and editorial.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗