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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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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2015

Sequential Detection of Fission Processes for Harbor Defense

With the large increase in terrorist activities throughout the world, the timely and accurate detection of special nuclear material (SNM) has become an extremely high priority for many countries concerned with national security. The detection of radionuclide contraband based on their γ-ray emissions has been attacked vigorously with some interesting and feasible results; however, the fission process of SNM has not received as much attention due to its inherent complexity and required predictive nature. In this paper, on-line, sequential Bayesian detection and estimation (parameter) techniques to rapidly and reliably detect unknown fissioning sources with high statistical confidence are developed.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2015

Heat-activated Plasmonic Chemical Sensors for Harsh Environments

A passive plasmonics based chemical sensing system to be used in harsh operating environments was investigated and developed within this program. The initial proposed technology was based on combining technologies developed at the SUNY Polytechnic Institute Colleges of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) and at the University of Minnesota (UM). Specifically, a passive wireless technique developed at UM was to utilize a heat-activated plasmonic design to passively harvest the thermal energy from within a combustion emission stream and convert this into a narrowly focused light source. This plasmonic device was based on a bullseye design patterned into a gold film using focused ion beam methods (FIB). Critical to the design was the use of thermal stabilizing under and overlayers surrounding the gold film. These stabilizing layers were based on both atomic layer deposited films as well as metal laminate layers developed by United Technologies Aerospace Systems (UTAS). While the bullseye design was never able to be thermally stabilized for operating temperatures of 500oC or higher, an alternative energy harvesting design was developed by CNSE within this program. With this new development, plasmonic sensing results are presented where thermal energy is harvested using lithographically patterned Au nanorods, replacing the need for an external incident light source. Gas sensing results using the harvested thermal energy are in good agreement with sensing experiments, which used an external incident light source. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used to reduce the wavelength parameter space from 665 variables down to 4 variables with similar levels of demonstrated selectivity. The method was further improved by patterning rods which harvested energy in the near infrared, which led to a factor of 10 decrease in data acquisition times as well as demonstrated selectivity with a reduced wavelength data set. The combination of a plasmonic-based energy harvesting sensing paradigm with PCA analysis and wavelength down selection offers a novel path towards simplification and integration of plasmonic-based sensing methods using selected wavelengths rather than a full spectral analysis. Integration efforts were designed and modeled for thermal and mass transport considerations by UTAS which led to the 3D printing of scaled models that would serve as the housing for the alternative energy harvesting plasmonic chemical sensor design developed by CNSE.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2016

Dedicated Searches for Low and High Mass Wimps with the SuperCDMS Soudan iZIP Detectors

Recent cosmological evidence suggests most of the mass of the universe takes the form of a type of particle that we have not been able to directly detect. Nearly 80 years that have elapsed since the rst hints of this dark matter started to appear from astronomers without any direct detection. The high precision era of cosmology and unifying models of particle physics developed in the 20 th century have presented us with an exciting mystery at the intersection of these two elds that needs to be solved. SuperCDMS Soudan operates specialized germanium detectors (iZIPs) that are cooled to milliKelvin temperatures deep underground in the Soudan Underground Laboratory with the hope of detecting a rare collision between dark matter and a nucleus. A search for low-mass dark matter comes with multiple unique challenges since the background discrimination abilities of these detectors becomes less powerful at the low energies needed to probe low-mass dark matter since the signal to noise ratio deteriorates. Using a sophisticated background model via a pulse rescaling technique, SuperCDMS Soudan was able to produce a world leading exclusion limit on low-mass dark matter. Effort is to extend the analysis to higher masses require long running times during which many aspects of the detectors or the environment can change. Additional challenges are offered by the powerful background discrimination ability of the iZIP. The background distributions are well separated from the signal region, meaning most of the leakage arises from low-probability tails of the background distributions. In the absence of an enormous dataset, extrapolations from the bulk of the distribution are required. While attempting to obtain a model of gamma induced electron-recoils leaking into the signal region of the detector from high radius a curious asymmetry between the sides of the detectors was discovered potentially indicating an electronics or detector design problem. This thesis describes the physics behind SuperCDMS Soudan, the numerous tasks involved in a low-mass search and the rst iZIP array science results with these new detectors, as well as the developments towards a high-mass search result.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2017

UCSB High Energy Physics Detector R&D Final Technical Report

The R&D efforts of the UCSB Detector R&D program in the 2015--2017 period are reported. These were to develop a liquid scintillator based detector to be used for characterizing radioactive impurities in samples for rapid and effective screening of low background materials for direct dark matter detection experiments; complete engineering and simulation work investigating the feasibility of constructing large detectors in salt caverns; and provide engineering innovation for development of new ideas.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2021

Canary

CANARY is a wearable environmental sampling device that is small, lightweight, and low-power. CANARY integrates a novel mechanism that uses magnets rather than powered pumps to mimic human breathing. In its current form, CANARY breathes, but sensor integration can easily turn this into a standalone device for use in airborne detection of chemicals, biologicals, viruses, etc. CANARY has a small footprint and requires little power to operate enabling it to be used in various environments. Los Alamos researcher have developed a working prototype of the air intake system and are seeking licensees for the current air intake, validation outside the lab, or further development to integrate biosensors as desired.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2023

Demonstrating and Expanding DRiFT’s Helium-3 Detector Response Capabilities [Slides]

Helium-3 tubes are an efficient way to detect neutrons after they have thermalized by polyethylene. They are often arranged in rings to perform coincidence counting. Applications include nuclear safeguards, treaty verification, and emergency response. DRiFT has the ability to simulate pile-up, room return, and end effects. A new feature determines real and accidental correlated counts. The next steps include DRiFT 2.0 released as executable, continued demonstration of gas module capabilities, and semiconductor module under a development.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2020

Wireless Instrumented RB Experiment Preliminary Design and Analysis

The ability to deploy new nuclear fuels for current or future reactor concepts requires carefully designed experiments to generate data to support fuel qualification. Ideally these experiments would include state of-the-art sensing to maximize the amount of in situ data that can be collected during operation. Furthermore, advanced reactor systems can take advantage of integrated in-core sensing technologies to maximize fuel utilization, reduce unnecessary conservativism in design margins, and improve operator’s understanding of limiting peaking factors. Before any novel sensing technologies can be readily adopted for nuclear applications, they must first demonstrate acceptable performance in test reactors. This report summarizes the preliminary design and analysis of the most highly instrumented irradiation experiment ever performed in the removable beryllium (RB) positions of the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The Wireless Instrumented RB Experiment 2021 (WIRE-21) will test a wide range of sensors including wireless sensors being developed by Westinghouse Electric Company (WEC) that could provide in situ measurements of peak fuel temperatures and fuel rod pressurization due to fission gas release. The ability to wirelessly transmit a signal through the fuel rod’s cladding is critical to improving fuel monitoring capabilities without requiring signal penetrations through the cladding pressure boundary, which would significantly impact fuel fabrication, handling, and operation. Other sensors that will be tested in WIRE-21 include an array of thermocouples, self-powered neutron detectors (SPNDs), and spatially distributed fiber-optic temperature sensors. More generally, WIRE-21 will establish a flexible irradiation vehicle design to allow accelerated, economical testing of advanced sensor technologies while leveraging the extremely high neutron flux that is available in HFIR. This report summarizes the mechanical design for WIRE-21, the experimental test matrix, initial neutronic and thermal design analyses, and the active monitoring and control system enhancements necessary to support testing of advanced sensor technologies. The containment for WIRE-21 is similar to previous RB irradiation vehicles but includes a few modifications, most notably the use of integrated compression seals to pass a larger number of sensor leads through the experiment’s pressure boundary. In addition to the sensor leads, inert gas lines are passed into the experiment to enable active temperature control and the ability to pneumatically actuate a bellows-driven pressure sensor. WIRE-21 is targeting temperatures (300–350°C) and neutron fluence levels (~10 22 n/cm 2 ) relevant to light water reactors (LWRs), but the flexible design of the experiment vehicle allows much higher operating temperatures (>1,100°C). Neutronic calculations determine the neutron flux conditions as well as the nuclear heating within the experiments. These results are used as inputs to detailed thermal finite element calculations, which are required to evaluate the complex, three-dimensional heat transfer that occurs within WEC’s wireless sensor enclosures. Initial results show that the temperatures of the sensors’ enclosures and the metal bellows can be operated near the temperature range of LWR coolants and cladding while simultaneously increasing the temperature of a surrogate fuel material to values in the range of 800–1200°C to simulate centerline fuel temperatures during LWR operation.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Demonstration of the HeRALD superfluid helium detector concept

The SPICE/HeRALD collaboration is performing research and development to enable studies of sub-GeV dark matter models using a variety of target materials. Here we report our recent progress on instrumenting a superfluid 4 He target mass with a transition-edge sensor based calorimeter to detect both atomic signals (scintillation) and 4 He quasiparticle (phonon and roton) excitations. The sensitivity of HeRALD to the critical “quantum evaporation” signal from 4 He quasiparticles requires us to block the superfluid film flow to the calorimeter. We have developed a heat-free film-blocking method employing an unoxidized Cs film, which we implemented in a prototype “HeRALD v0.1” detector of ~10 g target mass. This article reports initial studies of the atomic and quasiparticle signal channels. Here, a key result of this work is the measurement of the quantum evaporation channel’s gain of 0.15±0.01, which will enable 4 He-based dark matter experiments in the near term. With this gain the HeRALD detector reported here has an energy threshold of 145 eV at 5⁢σ, which would be sensitive to dark matter masses down to 220 MeV/c 2 .

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2016

Lessons Learned about Liquid Metal Reactors from FFTF Experience

The Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF) is the most recent liquid-metal reactor (LMR) to operate in the United States, from 1982 to 1992. FFTF is located on the DOE Hanford Site near Richland, Washington. The 400-MWt sodium-cooled, low-pressure, high-temperature, fast-neutron flux, nuclear fission test reactor was designed specifically to irradiate Liquid Metal Fast Breeder Reactor (LMFBR) fuel and components in prototypical temperature and flux conditions. FFTF played a key role in LMFBR development and testing activities. The reactor provided extensive capability for in-core irradiation testing, including eight core positions that could be used with independent instrumentation for the test specimens. In addition to irradiation testing capabilities, FFTF provided long-term testing and evaluation of plant components and systems for LMFBRs. The FFTF was highly successful and demonstrated outstanding performance during its nearly 10 years of operation. The technology employed in designing and constructing this reactor, as well as information obtained from tests conducted during its operation, can significantly influence the development of new advanced reactor designs in the areas of plant system and component design, component fabrication, fuel design and performance, prototype testing, site construction, and reactor operations. The FFTF complex included the reactor, as well as equipment and structures for heat removal, containment, core component handling and examination, instrumentation and control, and for supplying utilities and other essential services. The FFTF Plant was designed using a “system” concept. All drawings, specifications and other engineering documentation were organized by these systems. Efforts have been made to preserve important lessons learned during the nearly 10 years of reactor operation. A brief summary of Lessons Learned in the following areas will be discussed: Acceptance and Startup Testing of FFTF FFTF Cycle Reports

Wootan, David W.↗
DOE OSTI2021

mystic : software for autonomous discovery and design under uncertainty

Throughout the diverse range of science and engineering applications, there is a growing desire to develop computational methods that can reliably predict the behavior of complex systems. Specifically, there is a strategic need for tools that can robustly forecast the behavior of complex physical systems, where data may be high-dimensional, noisy, or sparse, and models of the system may be time-dependent or include uncertainty. We use mystic to build tools that leverage statistical learning, physics-informed learning, and active learning in the efficient generation of reliably predictive surrogates for complex physical systems. mystic is a robust, proven, open-source optimization and uncertainty quantification toolkit with over a decade of use in the design and optimization of neutron instrumentation, solar-powered drones, and gasguns, and in iterative tuning of models for Raman spectroscopy and elastoplastic materials strength. Recent developments have focused on automated learning of statistically robust surrogates under uncertainty, with applications in materials in extreme environments, nanostructures, materials simulations and strength models, and the failure of shielding under particle radiation. In 2020, McKerns demonstrated active learning of optimally robust surrogates with respect to new simulated data for molecular dynamics simulations of materials mixing in warm dense matter, and is currently applying active learning to the automated steering of particle accelerator beams and the optimal design and control of quantum optical sensor instrumentation.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2024

Spatially Resolved Raman Spectroscopic Investigation of Uranyl Fluoride: A Case Study in the Importance of Instrument Optimization

Raman spectroscopy is an emerging technique for rapid and nondestructive analysis of nuclear materials for forensic and nonproliferation applications as it is a powerful tool for distinguishing multiple chemical forms of materials with similar stoichiometries. Recent developments in spectroscopic software have enabled rapid data collection with high-speed Raman spectroscopic mapping capabilities. However, some uranium-rich materials are susceptible to degradation in humid air and/or laser-induced phase transformations. To mitigate environmental or measurement-related sample degradation of potential samples of interest, we have taken a systematic approach to define optimized data collection parameters for high-throughput measurements of uranyl fluoride (UO 2 F 2 ), which is an important intermediate material in the nuclear fuel cycle. First, we systematically describe the influence of optical magnification (5× to 100×), laser power, and exposure time on obtained signal for identical particles of UO 2 F 2 and find that at low laser power and exposure times, comparable signal is obtained regardless of optical magnification. Second, we ensure sample integrity during data collection, and third, collect spectroscopic maps that employ optimized parameters to reduce the time required to obtain spatially resolved spectroscopic information. Reductions of 90% and 99% in measurement times are discussed as they relate to differences in resolving spectroscopic features of particles in identical mapping areas. Finally, during this work, we found that additional data processing options were needed and thus developed a customized Python script for importing, processing, analyzing, and visualizing Raman spectroscopic map data.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2018

Instrumentation for Hanford Direct-Feed Low-Activity Waste Real-Time, In-Line Process Monitoring - 18339

The direct-feed low-activity waste (DFLAW) process will utilize facilities in the Hanford tank farms to stage tank waste feed, a new facility to pretreat the tank waste feed, and facilities in the Hanford Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) to immobilize the low-activity waste (LAW) and disposition effluents from the vitrification process. Process sampling is used extensively throughout the DFLAW process to qualify waste feeds, control the process, and demonstrate compliance with regulatory and contractual commitments. The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of River Protection (ORP) has started a program to evaluate the potential benefits of replacing some sample collection requirements with realtime, in-line monitoring (RTIM). The program will identify, develop, and evaluate technologies that can reduce the number of samples required for WTP operation. Potential benefits of RTIM include elimination of process holds for sample analysis, a reduction in worker exposure to radiation and chemical hazards, decreased secondary waste volume, reducing the cost for sample collection and analysis, an improvement in product quality, and timely indication of process anomalies. In order to incorporate RTIM, the process control strategy for the overall process, as well as each unit operation, was reviewed and revisions to the strategies proposed. The following items were identified for incorporation of RTIM: - Real-time material balance calculations linked to the process control system; - Use of RTIM instruments to validate the material balance for selected analytes; - Anion analysis for determination of selected semi-volatile species (e.g., chlorine, sulfur, and fluorine) in the recycle stream. Based on the proposed process control strategy, a preliminary list of potential analytical equipment was developed. This was followed by a preliminary survey of instrument technologies currently on the market building on surveys performed for ORP, literature reviews, vendor web sites, and subject matter experts from the Savannah River National Laboratory and other U.S. Department of Energy national laboratories. Each technology was evaluated for measurement capability, operations and maintenance requirements, space requirements, and potential for application as process control instrumentation. The instrument technologies were chosen based on the following criteria: - Ability to perform analyses needed; - Potential to be used or adapted for use as process control instruments; - Potential to be adapted to size and operational constraints of standard WTP sample cabinets; - Operational and maintenance requirements. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2021

Discovering the 3D Structure and Dynamics of the Sun-Interstellar Medium System on a Global Scale Los Alamos LDRD Report

We discover the 3D plasma structure of the Sun-interstellar medium interaction region, called the heliosheath. This is enabled by (1) the completion of a full solar cycle of observations of hydrogen energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) emanating from this region and detected by the Los Alamos-led IBEX-Hi ENA imager on NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) mission, and (2) the development of tools to fully exploit all data from the IBEX-Hi imager, leading to a significant increase in the effective instrument sensitivity. This effort prepares us for optimizing the design and data exploitation of the IMAP-Hi imager, the Los Alamos-led next generation imager that will fly on the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) mission, currently under production. This project realized its goals as evidenced by two main outcomes: (1) The publication of the first-ever empirical 3D map of the interstellar boundary, and (2) the development and release of a new validated ENA data set that has tripled the amount of data available for scientific analysis of the outer heliosphere.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2016

Development of a Waste Vault Directional Assay System (VDAS)

The goal of the Waste Vault Directional Assay System is to have a TRL 8 instrument with demonstrated capabilities at the LANL RP-2 facility and is ready for an INSEP field trial in a partner country.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗