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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 145 records · Page 8
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2020

Development of a Testbed for Pipeline Flushing - 20425

Pipelines which carry high-level waste within the DOE complex should be properly flushed in the cases where stationary or moving beds of solid sediment occur, or lines are prone to hydrogen gas buildup. Present guidelines establish a minimum for the amount of water (flush volume) and flush velocity values used for post-transfer flushing operations to achieve satisfactory cleaning of pipelines. However, further studies are needed to find optimal operating velocity modes/values in order to minimizing the flush volume and consequent downstream waste. These efforts are significantly helpful to DOE waste remediation sites by preserving tank storage, preventing additional waste processing, and minimizing dilution and changes in waste chemistry. An experimental test loop was recently developed for study of non-Newtonian slurry flushing at the Florida International University (FIU). This loop was designed to create sediment beds of various materials and bed heights and investigate parameters that effect the efficiency of flushing operations. The objective is to find flush velocity values/modes which lead to satisfactory cleaning of transport lines with a minimum amount of water usage. A 165 ft experimental test loop made of 3-inch carbon steel pipes was constructed and used in initial testing campaigns. This pipe loop was equipped with real-time monitoring instruments to record variation of pressure, density, mass flow rate, and temperature during testing. Post-flush in-situ no-flow evaluations were performed using ultrasonic, endoscopy, and visual inspection. Additional post-flush evaluations were conducted using filtration and density monitoring of residuals within a designated circulations loop. These provisions enable comparison of pipeline cleanness before the start and after termination of flushing operations for efficiency evaluation. This paper presents efforts associated with flushing of kaolin-water mixtures at different concentrations and with various flush volume and flush velocity values/modes. In initial testing, efforts focused on creating repeatable sediment beds inside the pipeline in both fully-flooded (no pre-flush drainage) and gravity-drained (pre-flush drained) systems. Bed characterization (i.e., measurement of sediment height and solids concentration) was conducted to ensure about consistency of initial conditions between tests. Preliminary results for flushing study of 10% vol. kaolin-water mixtures starting from a fully-flooded initial condition showed that flushing with 1-line volume (65 gallons) could remove up to 72 percent of solids from the pipeline. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2025

Bubbler Design Updates for Nuclear Safeguards Applications

The accurate monitoring of molten salt compositions is crucial for nuclear safeguards, particularly in the context of mixtures used in molten salt reactors as well as pyroprocessing. However, for nuclear material accountancy in actinide bearing molten salts, the solution volume is also needed to determine the total mass of material in the salt. This study explores the effectiveness of two bubbler configurations, triple and single, for density and level measurements within these molten salts for salt volume determinations. The triple bubbler system utilizes three gas dip-tubes strategically positioned at different heights within the molten salt. With this design, the molten salt level, density, and surface tension can be determined simultaneously. The single bubbler configuration, on the other hand, relies on a dynamic single dip-tube to determine the density and level. Both configurations will be tested in aqueous solutions as well as in LiCl-KCl and NaCl-MgCl2 molten salts between 450°C and 750°C. Dip-tube diameters and bubbler inferences will also be explored. A new bubbler is being designed based on results. The findings of this study will provide valuable insights into the optimal bubbler design and configuration for ensuring representative sampling of molten salt compositions in nuclear safeguards applications. This will contribute to enhanced accountability and transparency in the monitoring of actinide bearing molten salts, promoting nuclear safeguards objectives.

11 - NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
NASA NTRS2012

Gamma-Ray Observations of the Orion Molecular Clouds with the Fermi Large Area Telescope

We report on the gamma-ray observations of giant molecular clouds Orion A and B with the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on board the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. The gamma-ray emission in the energy band between approx 100 MeV and approx 100 GeV is predicted to trace the gas mass distribution in the clouds through nuclear interactions between the Galactic cosmic rays (CRs) and interstellar gas. The gamma-ray production cross-section for the nuclear interaction is known to approx 10% precision which makes the LAT a powerful tool to measure the gas mass column density distribution of molecular clouds for a known CR intensity. We present here such distributions for Orion A and B, and correlate them with those of the velocity-integrated CO intensity (W(sub CO)) at a 1 deg 1 deg pixel level. The correlation is found to be linear over a W(sub CO) range of approx 10-fold when divided in three regions, suggesting penetration of nuclear CRs to most of the cloud volumes. The W(sub CO)-to-mass conversion factor, X(sub CO), is found to be approx 2.3 10(exp 20) / sq cm (K km/s)(exp -1) for the high-longitude part of Orion A (l > 212 deg), approx 1.7 times higher than approx 1.3 10(exp 20) found for the rest of Orion A and B. We interpret the apparent high X(sub CO) in the high-longitude region of Orion A in the light of recent works proposing a nonlinear relation between H2 and CO densities in the diffuse molecular gas.W(sub CO) decreases faster than the H2 column density in the region making the gas "darker" to W(sub CO).

Ackermann, M.↗
DOE OSTI2023

SDSS-IV MaNGA: How Galaxy Interactions Influence Active Galactic Nuclei

We present a comparative study of active galactic nuclei (AGN) between galaxy pairs and isolated galaxies with the final data release of the MaNGA integral field spectroscopic survey. We build a sample of 391 kinematic galaxy pairs within the footprint of the survey and select AGN using the survey's spectra. We use the comoving volume densities of the AGN samples to quantify the effects that tidal interactions have on the triggering of nuclear accretion. Our hypothesis is that the pair sample contains AGN that are triggered by not only stochastic accretion but also tidally induced accretion and correlated accretion. With the level of stochastically triggered AGN fixed by the control sample, we model the strength of tidally induced accretion and correlated accretion as a function of projected separation (r p ) and compare the model expectations with the observed volume densities of dual AGN and offset AGN (single AGN in a pair). At r p ~ 10 kpc, we find that tidal interactions induce ~30% more AGN than stochastic fueling and cause ~12% of the offset AGN to become dual AGN because of correlations. The strength of both these effects decreases with increasing r p . We also find that the [O III ] luminosities of the AGN in galaxy pairs are consistent with those found in isolated galaxies, likely because stochastically fed AGN dominate even among close pairs. Our results illustrate that while we can detect tidally induced effects statistically, it is challenging to separate tidally induced AGN and stochastically triggered AGN in interacting galaxies.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Improved thermonuclear rate of 42 Ti( p , γ ) 43 V and its astrophysical implication in the rp process

Context. Accurate 42 Ti(p,γ) 43 V reaction rates are crucial for understanding the nucleosynthesis path of the rapid capture process (rp process) that occurs in X-ray bursts. Aims. We aim to improve the thermonuclear rates of 42 Ti(p,γ) 43 V based on more complete resonance information and a more accurate direct component, together with the recently released nuclear masses data. We also explore the impact of the newly obtained rates on the rp process. Methods. We reevaluated the reaction rate of 42 Ti(p,γ) 43 V by the sum of the isolated resonance contribution instead of the Hauser-Feshbach statistical model. We used a Monte Carlo method to derive the associated uncertainties of new rates. The nucleosynthesis simulations were performed via the NuGrid post-processing code ppn. Results. The new rates differ from previous estimations due to the use of a series of updated resonance parameters and a direct S factor. Compared with the previous results from the Hauser-Feshbach statistical model, which assumes compound nucleus 43 V with a sufficiently high-level density in the energy region of astrophysical interest, large differences exist over the entire temperature region of rp-process interest, up to two orders of magnitude. We consistently calculated the photodisintegration rate using our new nuclear masses via the detailed balance principle, and found the discrepancies among the different reverse rates are much larger than those for the forward rate, up to ten orders of magnitude at the temperature of 10 8 K. Using a trajectory with a peak temperature of 1.95×10 9 K, we performed the rp-process nucleosynthesis simulations to investigate the impact of the new rates. Our calculations show that the adoption of the new forward and reverse rates result in abundance variations for Sc and Ca of 128% and 49%, respectively, compared to the variations for the statistical model rates. On the other hand, the overall abundance pattern is not significantly affected. The results of using new rates also confirm that the rp-process path does not bypass the isotope 43 V. Conclusions. Our study found that the Hauser-Feshbach statistical model is inappropriate to the reaction rate evaluation for 42 Ti(p,γ) 43 V. The adoption of the new rates confirms that the reaction path of 42 Ti(p,γ) 43 V(p,γ) 44 Cr(β + ) 44 V is a key branch of the rp process in X-ray bursts.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Neutron Star Radii, Deformabilities, and Moments of Inertia from Experimental and Ab Initio Theory Constraints of the 208Pb Neutron Skin Thickness

Recent experimental and ab initio theory investigations of the 208Pb neutron skin thickness have the potential to inform the neutron star equation of state. In particular, the strong correlation between the 208Pb neutron skin thickness and the pressure of neutron matter at normal nuclear densities leads to modified predictions for the radii, tidal deformabilities, and moments of inertia of typical 1.4M⊙ neutron stars. In the present work, we study the relative impact of these recent analyses of the 208Pb neutron skin thickness on bulk properties of neutron stars within a Bayesian statistical analysis. Two models for the equation of state prior are employed in order to highlight the role of the highly uncertain high-density equation of state. From our combined Bayesian analysis of nuclear theory, nuclear experiment, and observational constraints on the dense matter equation of state, we find at the 90% credibility level R1.4=12.36−0.73+0.38 km for the radius of a 1.4M⊙ neutron star, R2.0=11.96−0.71+0.94 km for the radius of a 2.0M⊙ neutron star, Λ1.4=440−144+103 for the tidal deformability of a 1.4M⊙ neutron star, and I1.338=1.425−0.146+0.074×1045gcm2 for the moment of inertia of PSR J0737-3039A whose mass is 1.338M⊙.

Lim, Yeunhwan↗
DOE OSTI2024

Constraining Neutron Star Structure with Indirect Nuclear Reaction Studies

There were zero expenditures charged against the DE-SC0019042 account after 31 August 2022, i.e., there were no charges during the reporting period. The remaining graduate student that was supported by DE-SC0019042, Nisha Singh, has been supported by another grant, DE-FG02-88ER40387 (PI: Carl R. Brune), since 1 September 2022. She has continued with the same projects that were supported by DE-SC0019042, the determination of the level density in 28 Si via the 27Al(d; n) 28 Si reaction and development of an Si detector array for measuring charged-particle coincidences with neutrons. She continues to make good progress towards her Ph.D.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Nanoprecipitates to Enhance Radiation Tolerance in High-Entropy Alloys

The growth of advanced energy technologies for power generation is enabled by the design, development, and integration of structural materials that can withstand extreme environments, such as high temperatures, radiation damage, and corrosion. High-entropy alloys (HEAs) are a class of structural materials in which suitable chemical elements in four or more numbers are mixed to typically produce single-phase concentrated solid solution alloys (CSAs). Many of these alloys exhibit good radiation tolerance like limited void swelling and hardening up to relatively medium radiation doses (tens of displacements per atom (dpa)); however, at higher radiation damage levels (>50 dpa), some HEAs suffer from considerable void swelling limiting their near-term acceptance for advanced nuclear reactor concepts. In this study, we developed a HEA containing a high density of Cu-rich nanoprecipitates distributed in the HEA matrix. The Cu-added HEA, NiCoFeCrCu 0.12 , shows excellent void swelling resistance and negligible radiation-induced hardening upon irradiation up to high radiation doses (i.e., higher than 100 dpa). The void swelling resistance of the alloy is measured to be significantly better than NiCoFeCr CSA and austenitic stainless steels. Density functional theory simulations predict lower vacancy and interstitial formation energies at the coherent interfaces between Cu-rich nanoprecipitates and the HEA matrix. The alloy maintained a high sink strength achieved via nanoprecipitates and the coherent interface with the matrix at a high radiation dose (~50 dpa). From our experiments and simulations, the effective recombination of radiation-produced vacancies and interstitials at the coherent interfaces of the nanoprecipitates is suggested to be the critical mechanism responsible for the radiation tolerance of the alloy. Furthermore, the materials design strategy based on incorporating a high density of interfaces can be applied to high-entropy alloy systems to improve their radiation tolerance.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2021

Software for the frontiers of quantum chemistry: An overview of developments in the Q-Chem 5 package

This article summarizes technical advances contained in the fifth major release of the Q-Chem quantum chemistry program package, covering developments since 2015. A comprehensive library of exchange-correlation functionals, along with a suite of correlated many-body methods, continues to be a hallmark of the Q-Chem software. The many-body methods include novel variants of both coupled-cluster and configuration-interaction approaches along with methods based on the algebraic diagrammatic construction and variational reduced density-matrix methods. Methods highlighted in Q-Chem 5 include a suite of tools for modeling core-level spectroscopy, methods for describing metastable resonances, methods for computing vibronic spectra, the nuclear-electronic orbital method, and several different energy decomposition analysis techniques. High-performance capabilities including multithreaded parallelism and support for calculations on graphics processing units are described. Q-Chem boasts a community of well over 100 active academic developers, and the continuing evolution of the software is supported by an "open teamware" model and an increasingly modular design.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2024

Bayesian mixture model approach to quantifying the empirical nuclear saturation point

The equation of state (EOS) in the limit of infinite symmetric nuclear matter exhibits an equilibrium density, $n_0 \approx 0.16 \, \mathrm{fm}^{-3}$, at which the pressure vanishes and the energy per particle attains its minimum, $E_0 \approx -16 \, \mathrm{MeV}$. Although not directly measurable, the nuclear saturation point $(n_0,E_0)$ can be extrapolated by density functional theory (DFT), providing tight constraints for microscopic interactions derived from chiral effective field theory (EFT). However, when considering several DFT predictions for $(n_0,E_0)$ from Skyrme and Relativistic Mean Field (RMF) models together, a discrepancy between these model classes emerges at high confidence levels that each model prediction's uncertainty cannot explain. How can we leverage these DFT constraints to rigorously benchmark nuclear saturation properties of chiral interactions? To address this question, we present a Bayesian mixture model that combines multiple DFT predictions for $(n_0,E_0)$ using an efficient conjugate prior approach. The inferred posterior distribution for the saturation point's mean and covariance matrix follows a Normal-inverse-Wishart class, resulting in posterior predictives in the form of correlated, bivariate $t$-distributions. The DFT uncertainty reports are then used to mix these posteriors using an ordinary Monte Carlo approach. At the 95\% credibility level, we estimate $n_0 \approx 0.157 \pm 0.010 \, \mathrm{fm}^{-3}$ and $E_0 \approx -15.97 \pm 0.40 \, \mathrm{MeV}$ for the marginal (univariate) $t$-distributions. Combined with chiral EFT calculations of the pure neutron matter EOS, we obtain bivariate normal distributions for the nuclear symmetry energy and its slope parameter evaluated at $n_0$: $S_v \approx 32.0 \pm 1.1 \, \mathrm{MeV}$ and $L\approx 52.6\pm 8.1 \, \mathrm{MeV}$ (95\%), respectively. Furthermore, our Bayesian framework is publicly available, so practitioners can readily use and extend our results.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS1977

Competitively priced hydrogen via high-efficiency nuclear electrolysis

A fully dedicated nuclear-electrolytic hydrogen-production facility, based on advanced (1985) technology, has been synthesized and assessed at the conceptual level. The facility integrates an HTGR operating a binary shaftpower-extraction cycle at 980 C top temperature, direct dc electricity generation via acyclic generators, and high-current density high-pressure electrolyzers based on the solid polymer electrolyte approach. All subsystems are close-coupled and optimally interfaced. Pipeline-pressure hydrogen and coproduct oxygen are produced at 6900 kPa. On consistent costing bases, the advanced facility concept was found to provide hydrogen costs that were approximately half those associated with conventional, contemporary-technology nuclear electrolysis. The nuclear heat-to-hydrogen energy conversion efficiency for the advanced system was estimated as 43%, against 25% for the baseline present-day approach.

Escher, W. J. D.↗
DOE OSTI2020

Calibration of energy density functionals with deformed nuclei

Nuclear density functional theory is the prevalent theoretical framework for accurately describing nuclear properties at the scale of the entire chart of nuclides. Given an energy functional and a many-body scheme (e.g., single- or multireference level), the predictive power of the theory depends strongly on how the parameters of the energy functionals have been calibrated with experimental data. Expanded algorithms and computing power have enabled recent optimization protocols to include data in deformed nuclei in order to optimize the coupling constants of the energy functional. The primary motivation of this work is to test the robustness of such protocols with respect to some of the technical and numerical details of the underlying calculations, especially when the calibration explores a large parameter space. To this end, we quantify the effect of these uncertainties on both the optimization and statistical emulation of composite objective functions. We also emphasize that Bayesian calibration can provide better estimates of the theoretical errors used to define objective functions.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Prediction of Redox Potentials for U, Np, Pu, and Am in Aqueous Solution

The redox properties of the actinides in aqueous solution are important for fuel production/reprocessing and understanding the environmental impact of nuclear waste. The redox potentials for U, Np, Pu, and Am in oxidation states from 0 up to VII (as appropriate) in aqueous solutions have been predicted at the density functional theory level with the B3LYP functional, Stuttgart small core pseudopotential basis sets for the actinides, and explicit (30H 2 O molecules)/implicit treatment of the aqueous solvent using the self-consistent reaction field COSMO and SMD approaches for the implicit solvation. The predictions of the structural parameters of clusters incorporating first and second solvation shells are consistent with the available experimental data., Our results are typically within 0.2 V of the available experimental data using two explicit solvation shells with an implicit solvent model. The use of the PW91 functional substantially improved the prediction of the Pu(VI/V) redox couple. The redox couples for An(VI/IV) and An(V/IV) which involve the addition of protons and removal of the actinyl oxygens led to slightly larger differences from experiment. Here, the An(IV/0) and An(III/0) couples were reliably predicted with our approach. Predictions of the unknown An(II/I) redox potentials were negative, consistent with expectations, and predictions for unknown An(VII/VI), An(III/II), and An(II/0) redox couples improve prior estimates.

Actinides↗
NASA NTRS2021

Electrolytic Co-deposition Neutron Production Evaluation

Co-deposition electrochemical cells are a simple means to examine novel nuclear reactions. In this study, palladium and deuterium atoms were co-deposited on a cathode at stoichiometric densities, forming dendritic morphologies. Bubble detector neutron dosimeters were used to measure equivalent dose levels during electrolytic deposition. Standard configuration cells expected to produce excess neutrons were denoted as experimental cells and contained an electrolyte consisting of palladium(II) chloride, lithium chloride, and heavy water. The control cells used copper(II) chloride, lithium chloride, and heavy water electrolyte. Experimental and control cells were supplied current, increasing from 0.1 to 100.0 mA over a period of 20 days. For test days 9 through 20, the standard configuration experimental cells exhibited significantly higher average neutron radiation than the controls at a 99% confidence level. Alternative configurations involving more increasing current over a shortened time scale, substitutions of water in place of heavy water or potassium chloride for lithium chloride, as well as inclusion of depleted uranium near the cell cathodes all resulted in inconclusive evidence for promoting neutron production.

neutron↗
NASA NTRS1988

Evidence for a radio flare in the nucleus of Virgo A

An increase in radio emission has been observed in the nucleus of the galaxy Virgo A by use of VLBI measurements. These 2.29 GHz observations show that the correlated flux density of the milliarcsec structure increased by 30 percent during a four month period in 1977, and eventually returned to the preflare level of about 0.6 Jy. Previous evidence had indicated that the nuclear radio emission was stable, a surprising result for an active galactic nucleus.

Morabito, David D.↗
NASA NTRS1973

Instabilities in fissioning plasmas as applied to the gas-core nuclear rocket-engine

The compressional wave spectrum excited in a fissioning uranium plasma confined in a cavity such as a gas cored nuclear reactor, is studied. Computer results are presented that solve the fluid equations for this problem including the effects of spatial gradients, nonlinearities, and neutron density gradients in the reactor. Typically the asymptotic fluctuation level for the plasma pressure is of order 1 percent.

Source record↗
DOE OSTI2021

High Fidelity Tomographic Density Reconstructions [Slides]

Pressed high explosives have small density variations associated with the pressing process, from a few to sub percent depending on the material. Variations at these levels are known to have an impact on HE performance. Currently, a destructive testing method based on physical sectioning followed by immersion density measurements (slice and dice) is utilized. However, this method has poor spatial resolution limited by the the sectioning size, 1-2 cm. If possible, radiographic methods including Computed Tomography (CT) would be preferred, as they are non-destructive and have higher (less than .1 mm) spatial resolution. However, beam hardening, scattered radiation, and detector effects make density reconstructions at this level extremely challenging.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2022

A theoretical investigation of the hydrolysis of uranium hexafluoride: the initiation mechanism and vibrational spectroscopy

Depleted uranium hexafluoride (UF 6 ), a stockpiled byproduct of the nuclear fuel cycle, reacts readily with atmospheric humidity, but the mechanism is poorly understood. Here we compare several potential initiation steps at a consistent level of theory, generating underlying structures and vibrational modes using hybrid density functional theory (DFT) and computing relative energies of stationary points with double-hybrid (DH) DFT. A benchmark comparison is performed to assess the quality of DH-DFT data using reference energy differences obtained using a complete-basis-limit coupled-cluster (CC) composite method. The associated large-basis CC computations were enabled by a new general-purpose pseudopotential capability implemented as part of this work. Dispersion-corrected parameter-free DH-DFT methods, namely PBE0-DH-D3(BJ) and PBE-QIDH-D3(BJ), provided mean unsigned errors within chemical accuracy (1 kcal mol -1 ) for a set of barrier heights corresponding to the most energetically favorable initiation steps. The hydrolysis mechanism is found to proceed via intermolecular hydrogen transfer within van der Waals complexes involving UF 6 , UF 5 OH, and UOF 4 , in agreement with previous studies, followed by the formation of a previously unappreciated dihydroxide intermediate, UF 4 (OH) 2 . The dihydroxide is predicted to form under both kinetic and thermodynamic control, and, unlike the alternate pathway leading to the UO 2 F 2 monomer, its reaction energy is exothermic, in agreement with observation. Finally, harmonic and anharmonic vibrational simulations are performed to reinterpret literature infrared spectroscopy in light of this newly identified species.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗