Department Of Energy Laboratories Research Articles

The United States Department of Energy and National Institutes of Health Collaboration: Medical Care Advances via Discovery in Physical Sciences.

Over several months, representatives from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science and National Institutes of Health (NIH) had a number of meetings that lead to the conclusion that innovations in the Nation's health care could be realized by more directed interactions between NIH and DOE. It became clear that the expertise amassed and instrumentation advances developed at the DOE physical science laboratories to enable cutting-edge research in particle physics could also feed innovation in medical healthcare. To meet their scientific mission, the DOE laboratories created advances in such technologies as particle beam generation, radioisotope production, high-energy particle detection and imaging, superconducting particle accelerators, superconducting magnets, cryogenics, high-speed electronics, artificial intelligence, and big data. To move forward, NIH and DOE initiated the process of convening a joint workshop which occurred on July 12th and 13th, 2021. This Special Report presents a summary of the findings of the collaborative workshop and introduces the goals of the next one.

Quantifying Uncertainty in the Residence Time of the Drug and Carrier Particles in a Dry Powder Inhaler

Abstract Dry powder inhalers (DPI), used as a means for pulmonary drug delivery, typically contain a combination of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) and significantly larger carrier particles. The microsized drug particles—which have a strong propensity to aggregate and poor aerosolization performance—are mixed with significantly large carrier particles that cannot penetrate the mouth-throat region to deagglomerate and entrain the smaller API particles in the inhaled airflow. Therefore, a DPI's performance depends on the carrier-API combination particles' entrainment and the time and thoroughness of the individual API particles' deagglomeration from the carrier particles. Since DPI particle transport is significantly affected by particle-particle interactions, particle sizes and shapes present significant challenges to computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modelers to model regional lung deposition from a DPI. We employed the Particle-In-Cell method for studying the transport/deposition and the agglomeration and deagglomeration for DPI carrier and API particles in the present work. The proposed development will leverage CFD-PIC and sensitivity analysis capabilities from the Department of Energy laboratories: Multiphase Flow Interface Flow Exchange and Dakota UQ software. A data-driven framework is used to obtain the reliable low order statics of the particle's residence time in the inhaler. The framework is further used to study the effect of drug particle density, carrier particle density and size, fluidizing agent density and velocity, and some numerical parameters on the particles' residence time in the inhaler.

Special Section: Memorial Festschrift for the Late Professor Frank Kreith Sunrise Delayed but the Sun Shines Brightly: The Energy-Sustainability Quandary and Legacy of Professor Frank Kreith

Special Section: Memorial Festschrift for the Late Professor Frank Kreith Sunrise Delayed but the Sun Shines Brightly: The Energy-Sustainability Quandary and Legacy of Professor Frank Kreith

In Situ X-Ray Scattering Characterization of PEMFC Catalyst Ink Microstructure during Ink Processing

Catalyst layers for proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) are typically prepared by first dispersing a catalyst powder, comprised of platinum or platinum alloy nanoparticles supported on carbon blacks, with ionomer in solvent followed by extensive mixing using a variety of methods. The purpose of the ink mixing and processing procedure it to break up large agglomerates of the catalyzed carbon powder (>10 µm) and form a uniform dispersion, However, care must be taken to limit damage to the catalyst particles. Following the dispersing process, the catalyst ink is applied to the surface of the substrate (membrane, diffusion media, or transfer liner) through a variety of coating processes (painting, spraying, screen printing, etc.) [1]. In addition to creating coating defects, large agglomerates resulting from inadequate ink processing can limit catalyst utilization, inhibit mass transport in the catalyst layer, and damage the membrane and possibly also the gas diffusion layer. This can lower beginning-of-life performance by creating transport barriers for oxygen, hydrogen, and protons, and can increase membrane pinhole formation and electrical shorts, thus limiting the cell lifetime. This presentation will describe ink compositions and processing techniques for efficient coating of catalyst layers while optimizing cell performance and lifetime and minimizing ink processing time and cost [2, 3]. Ultra-small angle X-ray scattering (USAXS) was used to measure the agglomerate size distribution during ink mixing/processing. The experimental setup for the USAXS evaluation of inks during sonication is shown in Figure 1. A flask containing catalyst ink was immersed in an ice bath and sonicated using a water bath and/or a horn sonicator and pumped through a thin-walled capillary tube situated in the X-ray beam using a peristaltic pump. The effects of catalyst ink composition and processing variables on catalyst agglomerate size and ink properties were evaluated using different solvents, ionomer-carbon ratios, support types, and sonication time. The proper ink composition and sonication method that facilitate the break-up of carbon agglomerates with the minimum amount of time were determined. The electrochemically-active surface areas of the catalyst after the ink processing were determined using aqueous electrochemical methods to determine the extent of damage to the catalyst after processing (e.g., dislodging of catalyst particles from the support). The correlation of ink processing conditions and agglomerate structure with fuel cell performance will also be described. Acknowledgements This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Energy Efficiency&Renewable Energy, Advanced Manufacturing Office, Roll-to-Roll Advanced Materials Manufacturing DOE Laboratory Consortium. This research used the resources of the Advanced Photon Source (APS), a U.S. DOE Office of Science User Facility operated for the DOE Office of Science by Argonne National Laboratory under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357.

The Fiftieth Anniversary of Brookhaven National Laboratory: A Turbulent Time

The fiftieth anniversary year of Brookhaven National Laboratory was momentous, but for reasons other than celebrating its scientific accomplishments. Legacy environmental contamination, community unrest, politics, and internal Department of Energy issues dominated the year. It was the early days of perhaps the most turbulent time in the lab’s history. The consequences resulted in significant changes at the lab, but in addition they brought a change to contracts to manage the Department of Energy laboratories.

Como se dá a inovação dentro do Estado Desenvolvimentista em Rede? Novos dados sobre acordos público-privados em um laboratório do Departamento de Energia dos Estados Unidos.

Abstract The value of the Department of Energy (DOE)-owned national laboratories to the U.S. national innovation system has long been a subject of debate. Advocates have drawn attention to the central role of the labs in the development of technologies including advanced batteries, solar energy breakthroughs, imaging technologies, and various IT endeavors, among others. Critics have recurrently suggested that the labs’ innovative capacities have been undermined by a lack of engagement with commercial firms and managerial tactics. Perhaps surprisingly, what has often been missing from the debate is a thorough review of data on the public-private partnerships in which the labs engage with private firms. This paper draws on heretofore non-public data on one type of contractual arrangement - Work-For-Others (WFO) agreements - in which the labs perform contract work for private firms. We review 10 years of WFO data for a single DOE laboratory. Our analysis provides an initial picture of the surprisingly diverse geography and array of firms that employed the labs as contract R&D providers, as well as of key characteristics of these agreements. Although our data capture only a single laboratory’s agreements, the findings reinforce the importance of looking at the complex, overlapping network of programs within the U.S. federal system that support private sector innovation.

Product Innovation Through Computational Prototypes and Supercomputing

Changing from physical prototype-based product design to computational (virtual) prototype-based product design requires more than leading edge computational engineering codes, joint R&D efforts with a Department of Energy Laboratory, brilliant and dedicated researchers, and meticulous verification, validation, and uncertainty quantification. For the most difficult engineering design problems, most of these are necessary but not sufficient. In every case, the designers, engineers, scientists, and their management must also believe that the benefits in time savings and more creative new products justify the cost and risk of conversion. In the extreme case, an impending crisis may force conversion even in the face of strong resistance. The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company's experience illustrates a successful, crisis-driven transition to virtual prototype-based product design.

US energy agency asked scientists to scrub references to climate change

Researchers were told to censor descriptions of projects funded by a Department of Energy laboratory.

Towards Increased Waste Loading in High Level Waste Glasses: Developing a Better Understanding of Crystallization Behavior

A number of waste components in US defense high level radioactive wastes (HLW) have proven challenging for current Joule heated ceramic melter (JCHM) operations and have limited the ability to increase waste loadings beyond already realized levels. Many of these “troublesome” waste species cause crystallization in the glass melt that can negatively impact product quality or have a deleterious effect on melter processing. Recent efforts at US Department of Energy laboratories have focused on understanding crystallization behavior within HLW glass melts and investigating approaches to mitigate the impacts of crystallization so that increases in waste loading can be realized. Advanced glass formulations have been developed to highlight the unique benefits of next-generation melter technologies such as the Cold Crucible Induction Melter (CCIM). Crystal-tolerant HLW glasses have been investigated to allow sparingly soluble components such as chromium to crystallize in the melter but pass out of the melter before accumulating. The Hanford site AZ-101 tank waste composition represents a waste group that is waste loading limited primarily due to high concentrations of Fe2O3 (with higher Al2O3). Systematic glass formulation development utilizing slightly higher process temperatures and higher tolerance to spinel crystals demonstrated that an increase in waste loading of more than 20% could be achieved for this waste composition, and by extension higher loadings for wastes in the same group.

Information Transfer in a TEM Corrected for Spherical and Chromatic Aberration

For the transmission electron aberration-corrected microscope (TEAM) initiative of five U.S. Department of Energy laboratories in the United States, a correction system for the simultaneous compensation of the primary axial aberrations, the spherical aberration Cs, and the chromatic aberration Cc has been developed and successfully installed. The performance of the resulting Cc /Cs-corrected TEAM instrument has been investigated thoroughly. A significant improvement of the linear contrast transfer can be demonstrated. The information about the instrument one obtains using Young's fringe method is compared for uncorrected, Cs-corrected, and Cc /Cs-corrected instruments. The experimental results agree well with simulations. The conclusions might be useful to others in understanding the process of image formation in a Cc /Cs-corrected transmission electron microscope.

Multiagency Initiative to Provide Greenhouse Gas Information: Global Greenhouse Gas Information System Workshop; Albuquerque, New Mexico, 20–22 May 2009

The second Greenhouse Gas Information System (GHGIS) workshop brought together 74 representatives from 28 organizations including U.S. government agencies, national laboratories, and members of the academic community to address issues related to the understanding, operational monitoring, and tracking of greenhouse gas emissions and carbon offsets. The workshop was held at Sandia National Laboratories and organized by an interagency collaboration among NASA centers, Department of Energy laboratories, and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It was motivated by the perceived need for an integrated interagency, community‐wide initiative to provide information about greenhouse gas sources and sinks at policy‐relevant temporal and spatial scales. Such an initiative could significantly enhance the ability of national and regional governments, industry, and private citizens to implement and evaluate effective climate change mitigation policies.

DOE Picks Michigan State Lab for Rare-Isotope Accelerator

NUCLEAR PHYSICS A relatively small university lab has beat out a much larger national lab in the competition to host a $550 million accelerator facility for nuclear physics. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced last week that it would build the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL) at Michigan State University (MSU) in East Lansing instead of at its own Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois. Many had expected Argonne's superior infrastructure and $530 million budget to give it a decisive edge. The MSU proposal “started out as a long shot,” admits C. Konrad Gelbke, director of NSCL, whose $20-million-a-year budget is provided by the U.S. National Science Foundation. “But I always felt very optimistic that if you presented the case in a very open and honest way, it would all level out in the end.” Argonne officials said in a statement that they were “disappointed” and noted that “much of the science for FRIB was developed here at the laboratory.” FRIB will serve as a source of exotic and fleeting radioactive nuclei. The heart of the machine will consist of a 400-meter-long high-intensity linear accelerator that can accelerate a nucleus of any weight from hydrogen to uranium. Those nuclei will smash into and through targets to make beams of exotic isotopes, which will then be used to refine existing theories of nuclear structure, probe fundamental symmetries of nature, and help unravel the processes in stellar explosions that presumably produce half the elements heavier than iron. FRIB would pump out beams at least 1000 times more intense than those currently produced at NSCL. The site selection “was not the easiest of decisions,” says Eugene Henry, DOE's acting associate director for nuclear physics. Henry declined to discuss the details of the two proposals but noted that MSU had offered to pay some of the construction costs. The university has committed to chipping in $94 million, says MSU spokesperson Terry Denbow. He did not say how the money would be raised. ![Figure][1] New foundation. Housed in a tunnel (gray), the new accelerator would feed experiments in the existing lab. CREDIT: MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY DOE also had more confidence in MSU's spending plan, says Donald Levy, vice president for research and for national laboratories at the University of Chicago in Illinois, which contracts with DOE to run Argonne. “The budget part of their proposal was deemed to be more reliable than ours,” Levy says, in part because MSU's budget included more “contingency” money to cover possible cost overruns. Some observers have misgivings about building a large facility at such a small lab. “[T]he scale of the project was more appropriate for one of the existing DOE laboratories,” says Burton Richter, a particle physicist and former director of DOE's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park, California. But Richard Casten, a nuclear physicist at Yale University, says he's sure that NSCL is up to the task: “I have no worries about that at all.” Many scientists are just glad that the project, originally proposed in the late 1990s, is making progress. “We are happy that the decision has been made and that the excellent team at Michigan State has been chosen,” says Witold Nazarewicz, a nuclear theorist at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Researchers hope to start detailed design work next year and to have the machine built and running in about a decade. [1]: pending:yes

The Spallation Neutron Source in Oak Ridge: A powerful tool for materials research

When completed in 2006, the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) will use an accelerator to produce the most intense beams of pulsed neutrons in the world. This unique facility is being built by a collaboration of six US Department of Energy laboratories and will serve a diverse community of users drawn from academia, industry, and government labs. The project continues on schedule and within budget, with commissioning and installation of all systems going well. Installation of 14 state-of-the-art instruments is under way, and design work is being completed for several others. These new instruments will enable inelastic and elastic-scattering measurements across a broad range of science such as condensed-matter physics, chemistry, engineering materials, biology, and beyond. Neutron Science at SNS will be complemented by research opportunities at several other facilities under way at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Radiochemistry at the University of Missouri-Columbia: A joint venture with chemistry, nuclear engineering, molecular biology, biochemistry, and the Missouri University Research Reactor (MURR)

The United States, the Department of Energy (DOE) and its National Laboratories, including the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), are facing a serious attrition of nuclear scientists and engineers and their capabilities through the effects of aging staff. Within the DOE laboratories, 75p of nuclear personnel will be eligible to retire by 2010. It is expected that there will be a significant loss of senior nuclear science and technology staff at PNNL within five years. PNNL's nuclear legacy is firmly rooted in the DOE Hanford site, the World War II Manhattan Project, and subsequent programs. Historically, PNNL was a laboratory where 70p of its activities were nuclear/radiological, and now just under 50p of its current business science and technology are nuclear and radiologically oriented. Programs in the areas of nuclear legacies, global security, nonproliferation, homeland security and national defense, radiobiology and nuclear energy still involve more than 1,000 of the 3,800 current laboratory staff, and these include more than 420 staff who are certified as nuclear/radiological scientists and engineers. This paper presents the current challenges faced by PNNL that require an emerging strategy to solve the nuclear staffing issues through the maintenance and replenishment of the human nuclear capital needed to support PNNL nuclear science and technology programs.

Numerical modeling of geophysical granular flows: 2. Computer simulations of plinian clouds and pyroclastic flows and surges

Geophysical granular flows display complex nonlinear, nonuniform, and unsteady rheologies, depending on the volumetric grain concentration within the flow: kinetic, kinetic‐collisional, and frictional. To account for the whole spectrum of granular rheologies (and hence concentrations), we have used and further developed for geophysical‐atmospheric applications a multiphase computer model initially developed by U.S. Department of Energy laboratories: (Geophysical) Multiphase Flow with Interphase Exchange. As demonstrated in this manuscript, (G)MFIX can successfully simulate a large span of pyroclastic phenomena and related processes: plinian clouds, pyroclastic flows and surges, flow transformations, and depositional processes. Plinian cloud simulations agree well with the classical plume theory and historical eruptions in the upper altitude of the cloud (HT) versus mass flux diagram. At high mass flux (>107 kg/s), plinian clouds pulsate periodically with time because of the vertical propagations of acoustic‐gravity waves within the clouds. The lowest undercooled temperature anomalies measured within the upper part of the column can be as low as −18 K, which agrees well with El Chichón and Mt. St. Helens eruptions. Vertical and horizontal speed profiles within the plinian cloud compare well with those inferred from simple plume models and from umbrella experiments. Pyroclastic flow and surge simulations show that both end‐members are closely tight together; e.g., an initially diluted flow may generate a denser basal underflow, which will eventually outrun the expanded head of the flow. We further illustrate evidence of vertical and lateral flow transformation processes between diluted and concentrated flows, particularly laterally from a turbulent “maintained over time fluidized zone” near source. Our comprehensive granular rheological model and our simulations demonstrate that the main depositional process is mainly a progressive vertical aggradation.

Assessing and improving the effectiveness of national research laboratories

This paper presents initial work at two U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratories to develop a process for assessing and improving the effectiveness of research organizations. The approach to assessment reflects the complexity of the research environment and provides information that allows the research organization to define a few key actions for improvement. The work described here focuses on identifying attributes of DOE laboratory research environments that are most important for fostering excellent research. Thirty-six attributes in four areas were identified by scientists and engineers at these institutions and are presented using the Competing Values model for discussing organizational effectiveness. These attributes served as the basis for the development of a self-assessment survey and improvement process designed specifically for research environments. Assessments involving more than 1000 scientists and engineers in four organizations have shown that this approach provides a good basis for understanding and improvement.

The spallation neutron source is taking shape

The spallation neutron source (SNS) is rapidly taking shape at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the SNS is being designed and built by six DOE laboratories: Argonne (instruments), Brookhaven (accumulator ring), Lawrence Berkeley (ion source), Los Alamos (warm linac and radio-frequency systems), Thomas Jefferson (cold linac), and Oak Ridge (target). Concrete foundations are being poured, and steel beams are piercing the sky above the ridge where the facility is being built. Instrument approval and development is progressing well, with prototypes undergoing testing and procurements beginning for approved instruments. The SNS and High Flux Isotope Reactor User Group Executive Committee are working to ensure consistent policies between the two Oak Ridge facilities. The project has sponsored and is continuing to sponsor several neutron-science-related workshops. In addition, project staff are participating in educational programs to encourage student interest in neutron science.

National Technology Policy in Global Markets: Developing Next-Generation Lithography in the Semiconductor Industry

Since the late 1980s, the Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) has been a prominent vehicle used to support collaboration between US federal laboratories and private firms. This paper examines the structure and goals of one of the most ambitious CRADAs conducted to date, the EUV CRADA, which involves three Department of Energy laboratories and leading US firms in the semiconductor industry and is aimed at the development of next-generation lithographic technologies. This large project is an important case study in ‘post-Cold-War’ technology policy and government-industry collaboration. Although the EUV project represents significant improvements in the design and management of CRADAs, it also illustrates the inherent difficulties of balancing political and economic goals in complex technology development programs.

The Department of Energy’s Center of Excellence for the Synthesis and Processing of Advanced Materials

AbstractThe Department ofEnergy (DOE) Center ofExcellence for the Synthesis and Processing ofAdvanced Materials (CSP) represents a new kind ofresearch partnership among twelve DOE laboratories. It includes appropriate university grant research funded by DOE’s Division ofMaterials Sciences as well as in-kind industrial collaborations. An overview of this distributed Center and its seven current focused projects is presented. Guidelines for industrial participation in Center projects are defined.

Behavior of a steel liner-and-bolts system under very high thermal and mechanical loading

This paper describes the execution of the CONVEX Liner Add-On to the DIAMOND FORTUNE low-yield cavity test of the Defense Nuclear Agency (DNA). CONVEX stands for COntained Nuclear Vessel EXperiment. It is a joint concept to three Department of Energy Laboratories (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratories) and the DNA. It concerns the design of underground chambers where repeated low-yield nuclear explosions could be conducted. The approach proposed by the first author in the early 1980s was to engineer a steel-lined rock cavern where the steel liner would be pre-stressed against the rock by tendons and/or bolts. These would daylight in tunnels surrounding the main cavity. From there, they could be initially tensioned, and retensioned if needed, after each test. The CONVEX Liner Add-On to DIAMOND FORTUNE consisted of anchoring a 1.4m square, 2.5 cm thick steel plate to the wall of the cavity, using a 5.08 cm dia center bolt and four 2.54 cm dia corner bolts. The bolts daylighted in a “run-around” drift surrounding the cavity, and separated from it by a 9 m thick rock pillar. The liner plate, the bolts and the rock pillar were equipped with 23 gages to describe the thermal and mechanical response of the system during pretensioning, during the dynamic loading phase, and post-test. Particular emphasis was given to obtaining the response both upon loading and during the rebound of the system, in order to determine whether the plate ever separated from the rock. So, the main operational objectives of this project were to acquire response data of the system under nuclear loading and to ascertain the status of contact between the steel plate and the rock, as shown by plate-rock contact pressure data and bolt tension data. The instrumentation and data acquisition system performed extremely well. Data were recorded during the dynamic phase; plate temperature was monitored for several hours after the test; and the remaining tension was obtained run-around drift. The test data indicated that the operational objectives had been met and that the concept of a steel-lined rock cavity could provide for reusable test beds for repeated low yield nuclear events. The results of this experiment can be used to guide the design of liner systems subjected to very high mechanical and thermal loads.