Site-Controlled Uniform Ge/Si Hut Wires with Electrically Tunable Spin–Orbit Coupling
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Concern for potential visual effects to historic Manhattan Project–era properties emerged early in the planning and consultation phase for the upcoming Energetic Materials Complex (EMC) construction project. In initial discussions with project managers and design team members, resource managers became aware of the need to consider potential impacts to the viewsheds of two nearby properties that are eligible for inclusion in the Manhattan Project National Historical Park (MAPR). Resource managers recognized that viewshed characteristics important to the integrity of the Concrete Bowl (Technical Area [TA-]06-0037) and the Quonset Hut (TA-22-0001) conceivably faced the prospect of lasting and irreversible visual impacts. A strategy to gather necessary data soon emerged. The approach presented to the New Mexico State Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO) on April 7, 2021, combined gathering baseline information from field visits with a geographic information system (GIS)-supported viewshed analysis. Accordingly, results from the viewshed analysis would help resource managers determine if a more comprehensive visual impact assessment (VIA) would be needed. If necessitated by the outcome of the GIS viewshed analysis, initial consultation with the SHPO specified the production of a VIA that would explore any potential visual adverse impacts to the Concrete Bowl and the Quonset Hut. Cultural resources and GIS specialists with the Laboratory performed a viewshed analysis shortly after consultation with the SHPO. The analysis indicated a high likelihood that at least one of the two Manhattan Project–era properties would experience at least a minimal level of visual impact and that a VIA would be needed. The resulting analysis provides a description of the undertaking, an account of the properties affected along with an evaluation of historical significance, an examination of potential visual impacts, and a determination of effect to the identified historic properties.
We present a domain decomposition method for the solution of the 3D Poisson equation with infinite domain boundary conditions. The method is based on an application of the Barnes-Hut tree particle scheme adapted to gridded data. Long range interactions are computed using the first two terms in the Cartesian multipole expansion of Green’s function convoluted with the charge while short range computations are performed using Hockney’s domain doubling algorithm. A standard domain decomposition strategy requires O(N 2 ) applications of Hockney’s algorithm, where N is the number of subdomains that intersect that charge support, while in the present approach only O(Nlog 2 N) such computations suffice. The discretization scheme employed is a sixth order Mehrstellen approximation of the 3D Laplace opera tor. The method exhibits satisfactory accuracy at a substantially reduced computational cost compared to the full domain decomposition Hockney’s algorithm.
The U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration Nevada Field Office (NNSA/NFO) plans to modernize the town of Mercury at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) in Nye County, Nevada, to meet current and future National Weapons Science, Global and Homeland Security Programs, and Environmental Management mission requirements. These plans—including anticipated demolitions, consolidations, and rebuilding at Mercury—are considered an undertaking subject to review under Title 54 U.S.C. § 306108, commonly known as Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, Title 54 U.S.C. § 300101, et seq., and its implementing regulations, 36 C.F.R. Part 800. Desert Research Institute (DRI) completed an architectural survey of Mercury in 2017. This effort resulted in the identification, recording, and evaluation of the Mercury Historic District, as well as the identification of its contributing components. This district was recommended eligible to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP or National Register) under Criteria A and C, but was unevaluated under Criteria B and D at that time. The Mercury Historic District contains 153 individual landscapes, buildings, and structures. Of these resources, DRI recommends all except one as contributing elements of the historic district during its period of significance corresponding to nuclear testing from 1951 through 1992. During most of the Cold War, the land now called the NNSS was referred to as the Nevada Test Site (NTS). This report evaluates resources dating to the 1950s and 1960s between Jangle and Knothole Streets and south of Ranger Avenue in Mercury prior to the proposed demolition of all resources in that area between Sandstone and Greenhouse Avenues as a phase of the larger modernization program mentioned above. Although the Mercury Historic District as a whole is eligible to the National Register, further evaluation of these properties, as detailed in this report, indicates that none are individually eligible under any of the Secretary of Interior’s Significance Criteria, either at the national or local level.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), in conjunction with the National Nuclear Security Administration Nevada Field Office (NNSA/NFO), proposes to demolish six buildings and three storage areas located at the U12g Tunnel portal area in Area 12 of the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS). The buildings are 12-358 (Signal Vault); 12-201800 (Storage Quonset Hut); 12-202555 (Walker Shack); 12-868 (Pipe Assembly); 12-B100933 (Electrical Shop); 12-B100944 (Conference Room); and Storage Area 1; Storage Area 2; and Storage Area 3. The buildings and storage areas were selected for demolition as part of the DOE’s Real Property Efficiency Plan to reduce the footprint of unused and non-operational facilities on the NNSS. They are all vacant and have no proposed uses for current or upcoming NNSS missions. Demolition activities constitute an undertaking subject to review under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) (54 United States Code [USC] § 306101) and its implementing regulations, 36 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 800. Identification efforts began with resources proposed for demolition in federal Fiscal Year (FY) 23. Four buildings were proposed to be demolished in FY23 (12-358, 12-868, 12-201800, and 12-202555). These buildings and the U12g Tunnel Historic District (SHPO No. D444) were recorded in Identification, Evaluation, and Finding of Adverse Effect for the Proposed Demolition of Five Buildings in Area 12, Nevada National Security Site, Nye County, Nevada (Menocal et al. 2023). Identification efforts indicated three buildings (12-358, 12-201800, and 12-868) supported nuclear testing in the U12g Tunnel. The fourth building post-dated the use of U12g Tunnel for nuclear testing activities. The report recommended that three of the four buildings (12-358, 12-201800, 12-868) and the U12g Tunnel Historic District may be eligible for the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). The report also found that the undertaking would have an adverse effect on the three buildings and on the historic district. The Nevada State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) concurred with the report’s findings (Reed 2023). The U12g Tunnel was determined eligible as a historic district under the Secretary of the Interior’s (SOI) Significance Criterion A, at the local level, in the context of the Cold War as an underground testing environment for the development of nuclear weapons and to assess the effects of a nuclear explosion on materials and equipment with a period of significance from 1959 to 1971. It was also determined eligible under Significance Criterion C for embodying the distinctive characters of a horizontal tunnel complex used for nuclear testing and as a significant and distinguishable entity. The three buildings were determined to be contributing elements of the district. The undertaking was expanded with the addition of two buildings and three storage areas proposed to be demolished and located within U12g Tunnel Historic District in FY24. These five resources (12-B100933, 12-B100944, and Storage Areas 1, 2, and 3) were recorded in Supplemental Identification, Evaluation, and Finding of Effect for Additional Proposed Demolition at U12g Tunnel, Area 12, Nevada national Security Site, Nye County, Nevada (Brannan et al. 2024). Identification efforts indicated that the two buildings and Storage Area 1 supported nuclear testing in the U12g Tunnel. Storage Area 1 and Storage Area 2 post-dated the nuclear testing activities at U12g Tunnel and were not recommended as contributing elements to the district. The report also found that the undertaking would have an adverse effect on the newly identified buildings and one storage area and on the historic district. The SHPO concurred that the expanded undertaking would result in adverse effects to historic properties (Reed 2025). To resolve these adverse effects, NNSA/NFO, in consultation with the SHPO, is following standard mitigation as stipulated in the 2024 Programmatic Agreement DE-GM58-22NA25554 Among the U.S. Department of Energy and the Nevada State Historic Preservation Officer and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation Concerning the Protection of Historic Properties on the Nevada National Security Site, Nye County, Nevada (hereafter referred to as the NNSS PA). The standard mitigation measures are outlined in Appendix D of the NNSS PA. As such, this architectural survey has been prepared in accordance with Appendix D of the NNSS PA and follows the report format outlined in Appendix F. It includes a historic context that describes the district’s origin, history, and support functions, its significance in the context of nuclear testing on the NNSS, and identifies contributing and non-contributing elements within the district. The report is accompanied by Architectural Resource Assessment (ARA) forms for individual resources and a Historic District Resource Assessment (HDRA) for the U12g Tunnel Historic District. In total, this architectural report identified 32 primary resources within the district boundary. Six of the primary resources were previously identified as contributing elements. An additional 17 resources are recommended as contributing elements to the district for a total of 23 contributing elements. The other nine resources identified are recommended as non-contributing elements to the district.
Traditional building envelopes have passive insulation systems that cannot respond to dynamic changes in the environment. An Active Insulation System (AIS) consists of Active Insulation Materials (AIMs) that dynamically vary the thermal conductivity of the insulation system. Several researchers have evaluated the impact of AIS on building thermal and energy performance by using simulation tools. Up to 70% savings in annual heating and cooling energy and significant reductions in peak demand have been predicted for some climates with wall systems employing AIS. However, materials and assembly development still need a cost-effective product that achieves the required performance. Here, in this study, we present the process of developing an AIS that we will install in a test hut for its performance evaluation. Minimum performance criteria of the AIS system are developed based on R-low/R-high ratio, required time and efficiency to switch states, and cost estimates. The following steps during this study are creating the concept to meet the requirements, predicting the performance via simulations, developing the experimental setup for bench-scale testing, and finally, constructing a full-scale wall assembly and monitoring the performance when exposed to environmental chamber tests. The selected approach uses off-the-shelf products to create an AIS that can switch R-value between 0.98 ft 2 ·°F·h/BTU (0.173 m 2 ·K/W) and 5.81 ft 2 ·°F·h/BTU (1.02 m 2 ·K/W) and have a switching time of less than one minute between R-high and R-low.
Performance of applications in production environments can he sensitive to network congestion. Cray Aries supports adaptively routing each network packet independently based on the load or congestion encountered as a packet traverses the network. Software can dictate different routing policies, adjusting between minimal and non-minimal bias, for each posted message. We have extensively evaluated the sensitivity of the routing bias selection on application performance as well as whole system performance in both production and controlled conditions. We show that the default routing bias used in Aries-based systems is often sub-optimal and that using a higher bias towards minimal routes will not only reduce the congestion effects on the application but also will decrease the overall congestion on the network. This routing scheme results in not only improved mean performance (by up to 12%) of most production applications hut also reduced run-to-run variability. Our study prompted the two supercomputing facilities (ALCF and NERSC) to change the default routing mode on their Aries-based systems. We present the substantial improvement measured in the overall congestion management and interconnect performance in production after making this change.
This research involved construction of a conditioned test hut in a cold climate (Climate Zone 5A) with multiple side-by-side instrumented roof rafter bays. This work examined seven experimental unvented roofs and one code-compliant control hybrid ccSPF-cellulose roof over three winters and following summers. Examined variables included insulation material (fiberglass and cellulose), the presence or absence of a ridge diffusion vent (vapor-open material at the roof ridge to promote drying), the effect of various interior vapor control membranes (fixed and variable permeance), the effect of interior relative humidity, and the effect of interstitial airflow (from the interior into the cavity). This experiment was run over three winters, changing variables of interior conditions, roof configurations/materials, and the addition of intentional air leakage.
TREAT core was upgraded at the end of the 1980s. The tests performed since about 1970 are summarized in considerable detail. Earlier tests are noted by their designated series and by some parameters that help to identify and distinguish each series from the others. The detailed summary descriptions are intended to help inform future researchers regarding the large, historical, empirical data base generated from that 35-year span during which hundreds of TREAT experiments were performed to investigate and demonstrate the transient behavior of a wide variety of nuclear fuels during severe off-normal and accident conditions -- using direct nuclear heating of the test samples. That empirical basis is foundational and valuable for guiding future qualification and safety evaluation of improved fuel designs and for future transient test planning and performance in TREAT. The second edition of this report added descriptions of the following test series: D, E, EOS, F, H, J, R, RX, and S. This third edition includes descriptions of an additional four test series: the HUT, HOP (& HUC), ORNL-TR, and PNL.
This dataset was created to model the anticipated heating load of a geothermal project in development for the historical site of Pilgrim Hot Springs, and adds to the history of geothermal studies at the site. Models include an historical building (Nun's Quarters), existing modern buildings (Caretaker's Cabin, Igloo, Visitor's Cabin, Staff Shower Hut), and planned building projects (Changing Room, Greenhouse). Modeling results were used to determine feasible geothermal system typologies. The previous study linked below ("Village of Solomon Development of Energy Efficiency Building Standards for New Construction") feeds in to this project. The dataset includes DWG drawings and AKwarm energy models (.hm2) of a subset of existing buildings at the site of Pilgrim Hot Springs. All buildings were modeled in their current state, and some were additionally modeled with improvements to the building envelope. Energy modeling results exported from AKwarm include .htm and .png images.
PCMs are attractive for the future generation of buildings, where energy efficiency targets and thermal comfort expectations are increasingly prioritized. Experimental analysis of local thermal processes in these dynamic components and whole-building energy consumption predictions are essential for the proper implementation of PCMs in buildings. This paper discusses the experimental analysis of the thermophysical characteristics of both a latent heat storage material (PCM) and a product containing this PCM. The prototype product under investigation is a panelized PCM technology containing inorganic, salt-hydrate-based PCM. The thermal analysis includes studies of melting and freezing temperatures, enthalpy changes during phase change processes, nucleation intensity, sub-cooling effects, and PCM stability. The PCM’s stability is also investigated, as is the ability of PCM products to control local temperatures and peak load transmission times. Two inorganic PCM formulations based on calcium chloride hexahydrate (CaCl 2 .6H 2 O) were prepared and tested in laboratory conditions. Material-scale testing results were compared with outcomes from the system-scale analysis, using both laboratory test methods as well as field exposure in test huts. This work demonstrates that PCM technologies used in buildings can effectively control both the magnitude of thermal storage capacity as well as the time of the peak thermal load. It was found that commonly used material-scale testing methods may not always be beneficial in assessing the dynamic thermal performance characteristics of building technologies containing PCMs.
Traditional building envelopes have passive insulation systems that cannot respond to dynamic changes in the environment. An Active Insulation System (AIS) consists of Active Insulation Materials (AIMs), which dynamically vary the thermal conductivity of the insulation system. Several researchers have evaluated the impact of AIS on building thermal and energy performance by using simulation tools. Up to 70% savings in annual heating and cooling energy and significant reductions in peak demand have been predicted for some climates with wall systems employing AIS. Sensitivity studies have provided requirements for the AIS properties and control schemes that can lead to those savings. However, materials and assembly development have not yet achieved a cost-effective product that achieves the required performance. In this study, we present the process to develop an AIS that we will install in a test hut for their performance evaluation. Minimum performance criteria of the AIS system are developed based on Rmin/Rmax ratio, required time and efficiency to switch states and cost estimate. The next step carried out during this study is creating the concept to meet the requirements, predicting the performance by simulations, developing the experimental setup for bench-scale testing, and finally, constructing a full-scale wall assembly and monitoring the performance when exposed to natural weather conditions. The selected approach uses off-the-shelf products to create a materials system that can switch R-value between R~=1 ft2·°F·h/BTU (0.18 m2·K/W) and R~=7 ft2·°F·h/BTU (1.23 m2·K/W and have a switching time of less than one minute between R-high and R-low.