Department Of Energy National Laboratories Research Articles

Methods to Track Effective Doses from Airborne Radioactive Emissions for Compliance with 40 CFR 61, SUBPART H.

US Department of Energy national laboratories can play an integral role in not only the advancement of science but also in the treatment of various medical conditions through research and development activities conducted at radioisotope production facilities. A project has been underway at Oak Ridge National Laboratory since 2016 whose mission is to produce and supply the radioisotope 227Ac, which is used in a radiopharmaceutical developed to treat certain types of prostate cancer and bone metastases. Production activities result in the environmental release of airborne radioactive emissions, which are governed by Clean Air Act regulations described in 40 CFR Part 61, Subpart H. Stack 3039, the source that emits radioactive effluents from 227Ac production, is subject to additional requirements outlined in American National Standards Institute (ANSI) N13.1-1969 due to its grandfathered status. Radioactive emissions are limited to levels below those that would cause annual compliance dose standards for members of the public to be exceeded and stack 3039 to lose its grandfathered status. To allow for maximum production of 227Ac without exceeding relevant dose limits, monthly tracking of project emissions and resulting CAP88-PC modeled effective doses to a maximally exposed individual have been implemented. Four years of tracking data were compiled and analyzed to identify additional methods that could be used to estimate project doses more frequently, potentially further optimizing 227Ac production while maintaining compliance with applicable regulations.

Deploying Machine Learning Based Segmentation for Scientific Imaging Analysis at Synchrotron Facilities.

Scientific user facilities present a unique set of challenges for image processing due to the large volume of data generated from experiments and simulations. Furthermore, developing and implementing algorithms for real-time processing and analysis while correcting for any artifacts or distortions in images remains a complex task, given the computational requirements of the processing algorithms. In a collaborative effort across multiple Department of Energy national laboratories, the "MLExchange" project is focused on addressing these challenges. MLExchange is a Machine Learning framework deploying interactive web interfaces to enhance and accelerate data analysis. The platform allows users to easily upload, visualize, label, and train networks. The resulting models can be deployed on real data while both results and models could be shared with the scientists. The MLExchange web-based application for image segmentation allows for training, testing, and evaluating multiple machine learning models on hand-labeled tomography data. This environment provides users with an intuitive interface for segmenting images using a variety of machine learning algorithms and deep-learning neural networks. Additionally, these tools have the potential to overcome limitations in traditional image segmentation techniques, particularly for complex and low-contrast images.

Development of integrated screening, cultivar optimization, and verification research (DISCOVR): A coordinated research-driven approach to improve microalgal productivity, composition, and culture stability for commercially viable biofuels production

To address major knowledge gaps and barriers to the commercial development of algal biomass for biofuels and co-products, a collaborative consortium, Development of Integrated Screening, Cultivar Optimization, and Verification Research (DISCOVR), was established in 2016. Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO), this consortium constitutes a partnership between four DOE national laboratories - Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), and Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) - and the Arizona Center for Algae Technology and Innovation (AzCATI) at Arizona State University.To address the barriers of strain selection for achieving high seasonal productivities with a suitable composition and culture resilience, a tiered strain down-selection pipeline is implemented. At Tier I, the temperature and salinity tolerance of strains is determined in flask cultures; at Tier II, the areal biomass productivity and composition is determined in climate-simulation photobioreactors; at Tier III, the productivity and culture stability are determined in outdoor raceways. The top performing strains move forward to long-term testing at the algae testbed site at AzCATI to generate annual biomass productivity data.Concurrent to the strain down-selection in the DISCOVR pipeline, hypotheses for increasing biomass productivity, shifting biomass composition to enhance intrinsic value, and improving culture stability and resistance to pests are also tested. Techno-economic analyses are carried out to determine whether promising findings from laboratory studies or proposed modifications in outdoor pond cultivation conditions translate into reductions in the minimum biomass selling price (MBSP). In the three years following the launch of DISCOVR, annual biomass productivity has increased from 11.7 to 17.6 g m−2 day−1, resulting in an MBSP decrease from 824 to 611 $ ton−1.

Predictive Radiation Oncology – A New NCI–DOE Scientific Space and Community

With a widely attended virtual kickoff event on January 29, 2021, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the Department of Energy (DOE) launched a series of 4 interactive, interdisciplinary workshops-and a final concluding "World Café" on March 29, 2021-focused on advancing computational approaches for predictive oncology in the clinical and research domains of radiation oncology. These events reflect 3,870 human hours of virtual engagement with representation from 8 DOE national laboratories and the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research (FNL), 4 research institutes, 5 cancer centers, 17 medical schools and teaching hospitals, 5 companies, 5 federal agencies, 3 research centers, and 27 universities. Here we summarize the workshops by first describing the background for the workshops. Participants identified twelve key questions-and collaborative parallel ideas-as the focus of work going forward to advance the field. These were then used to define short-term and longer-term "Blue Sky" goals. In addition, the group determined key success factors for predictive oncology in the context of radiation oncology, if not the future of all of medicine. These are: cross-discipline collaboration, targeted talent development, development of mechanistic mathematical and computational models and tools, and access to high-quality multiscale data that bridges mechanisms to phenotype. The workshop participants reported feeling energized and highly motivated to pursue next steps together to address the unmet needs in radiation oncology specifically and in cancer research generally and that NCI and DOE project goals align at the convergence of radiation therapy and advanced computing.

Enabling modern data discovery for atmospheric measurements

The Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility is a US Department of Energy Office of Science user facility that is managed and operated through a collaborative effort led by nine US Department of Energy national laboratories. The ARM Data Center, located at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, is responsible for the timely collection, processing, and delivery of data products to the scientific community. The ARM Data Center holds more than 11,000 data products, including metadata collected from field campaigns, instruments, value-added products, and principal investigator–contributed data. These data sets are checked for successful transfer (for most data, this transfer is carried out automatically via the network; however, some of the largest data sets and some of the most remote sites require manual shipping of hard disks) and both the data and metadata are processed to a standard format, which is an ARM-standardized structure, via the Network Common Data Form. The Network Common Data Form is a self-describing binary format with many compatible software tools. Once processed, the data are cataloged, stored in the ARM Data Archive, and made discoverable through association with an array of metadata-characterizing information, such as location and measurement classification. These metadata enable powerful search capabilities through the ARM Data Center Data Discovery interface. This paper discusses the workflow of how the new discovery system has been redesigned from user requirements and how the data are distributed to the scientific community.

The PCOR Partnership Initiative: The State of the Region

The PCOR Initiative, a 5-year project beginning in early 2020, is one of four newly selected regional initiative awards funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The PCOR Initiative will accelerate the deployment of carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) in the central and northwestern region of North America, comprising ten U.S. states and four Canadian provinces. With extensive fossil fuel resources, large-scale anthropogenic CO2 sources, and geologic storage options, this region provides all of the essential elements necessary for infrastructure development and widespread CCUS deployment. The project builds on 16 years of applied research undertaken by the Plains CO2 Reduction (PCOR) Partnership throughout the northern Great Plains, including the successful assessment and monitoring of over 6 million metric tons of associated CO2 storage, incidental to enhanced oil recovery (EOR) operations at the Bell Creek oil field in southeastrn Montana. Managed by the Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) in Grand Forks, North Dakota, the PCOR Initiative is supported by the North Dakota Industrial Commission, through the Oil and Gas and Lignite Research Programs, and by research partners at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks and the University of Wyoming. Many of the 120+ previous PCOR Partnership member organizations are supporting this new initiative, with additional members also expected. Our team also includes the partners associated with Project Tundra, which constitutes the largest planned capture of CO2 in the world from a power generation facility. With many partners actively engaged in commercial projects, the PCOR Initiative draws together a powerful team to advance and accelerate CCUS deployment in the region and satisfy the objectives put forth by DOE. The PCOR Initiative will identify and address onshore regional storage and transport challenges facing commercial deployment of CCUS within its region. To achieve this, the PCOR Initiative will 1) address key technical challenges by advancing critical knowledge and capabilities; 2) facilitate data collection, sharing, analysis, and collaboration; 3) evaluate regional infrastructure challenges and needs; and 4) promote regional technology transfer. The PCOR Initiative will engage federal and state regulators in the region to support the continued development and knowledge transfer of regulatory policies to accelerate the deployment of CCUS. The regulatory efforts will focus on understanding the federal and state permitting processes and timing and address major regulatory topics, including pore space ownership, practical approaches to defining the area of review, and management of the long-term liability associated with a closed storage site. The PCOR Initiative will facilitate dialogue regarding the status of CCUS projects and regulatory challenges, with an emphasis on knowledge transfer between states with active CCUS projects and Class VI primacy and states with less CCUS development and no CCUS regulations established. North Dakota is the only state currently with Class VI primacy, and Wyoming has a pending Class VI primacy application. These states can provide valuable insight to other states by sharing their learnings from the Class VI primacy application process and Class VI regulatory program implementation at the state level. The expected outcomes of the PCOR Initiative include: • Solving technical challenges through collaboration, and addressing issues including stacked storage; storage optimization; effective monitoring, verification, and accounting strategies; and risk assessment resulting in increased regulator and industry confidence. • Advancing knowledge transfer and data sharing to develop key technologies, including National Risk Assessment Partnership tools and machine-learning applications, through collaboration with the DOE National Laboratory Network complex. • Accelerating CCUS through the evaluation and promotion of infrastructure requirements, building stakeholder support through techno- and socioeconomic assessments. • Promoting regional technology transfer to accelerate infrastructure development and deployment of CCUS, and building regulatory confidence and supporting business case developments that support the CCUS goals of the DOE Fossil Energy Program.

The U.S. High-Performance Computing Consortium in the Fight Against COVID-19

U.S. computing leaders, including Department of Energy National Laboratories, have partnered with universities, government agencies, and the private sector to research responses to COVID-19, providing an unprecedented collection of resources that include some of the fastest computers in the world. For HPC users, these leadership machines will drive the AI to accelerate the discovery of promising treatments, enable at-scale simulations to understand the virus's protein structure and attack mechanisms, and help inform policymakers to deploy resources effectively.

(Invited) Connecting the Hydrogen Datahub to Scientists and the World

The Energy Materials Network (EMN) is a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) initiative bringing together consortia of national laboratories, industry, and academia towards a common goal of accelerating energy materials development. HydroGEN is an EMN consortium of six DOE national laboratories that is focused on advanced water-splitting materials challenges. In coordination with the other consortia in the EMN, HydroGEN has created a data portal, or DataHUB, based on the free/open source Comprehensive Knowledge Archive Network (CKAN). Core capabilities include storage, discovery, and access of data generated by experimental and simulation studies. From our experience developing user-facing data portals such as the Materials Project and the Hydrogen Effects Database, we know that the usage and utility of data portals can be increased with dedicated development of end-user software tools focused on making data upload, processing, and visualization more powerful and easier to use in scientists’ existing working environments. In addition, we are working to introduce robust dataset revision control, data and metadata value entry validation, and linking of datasets and resources across a project. We hope that these capabilities will enhance the scientific value of the datasets in the HydroGEN DataHUB, and provide a basis for the broader vision of data sharing processes with other EMN and repositories (Citrine, Granta, Materials Project, etc.). This talk will provide an overview of our progress and vision in building these capabilities for the HydroGEN DataHUB.

Social and economic impact of the commercialization of the Argus II artificial retina in the United States

Each year, the United States invests about $45 billion in research conducted by federal researchers within federal laboratories. These efforts generate extensive social benefits when results are transferred to the private sector. It is important that we effectively quantify the economic and societal impact of federal technology transfer activities to inform taxpayers and policymakers about the value of public investments in this form of research. The Argus II device, an artificial retina commercialized in the United States by Second Sight in 2013, provides a rich example of how private sector innovation can be enhanced by research collaborations with federal labs and academia. Over the 25-year journey from idea to product, Second Sight carried out research and development collaborations with six Department of Energy national laboratories and seven universities. The case of Argus II also offers valuable insight into (1) how private industry, academia, and government can work together to bring socially beneficial innovations to fruition and (2) the tradeoffs inherent in these public–private collaborations. In this paper, we use a Markov model to estimate the realized and potential future social benefits associated with Argus II. We provide an interactive tool that can be used to replicate our findings and modify assumptions using updated patient information as it becomes available. We also provide insight into the aspects of federal involvement surrounding the development of Argus II that contributed to its successful commercialization and discuss other spillover benefits from these public–private collaborations.

Mapping community innovation: Using social network analysis to map the interactional field, identify facilitators, and foster community development

Can community networks be mapped to facilitate innovation? This study focuses on social structure and network interactions that can be used to identify key individuals and relationships with the potential to facilitate community innovation and development. Viewed through the lenses of social network analysis (SNA), interactional community theory, and social capital (trust), this study examines the dynamics of network interactions and the community field in a developing research park. Operated by two US Department of Energy national laboratories in California, the interactional environment of this research park is similar to the social structures and processes of small, place-based communities. SNA is used to identify critical community actors and map the core of a community field shared by two national laboratories. Findings suggest that SNA can be productively applied to community field mapping with the potential to strengthen collaboration, overcome innovation barriers, and identify facilitating actors who can foster community development.

The Road to Yucca Mountain—Evolution of Nuclear Waste Disposal in the United States

The generation of electricity by nuclear power and the manufacturing of atomic weapons have created a large amount of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. There is a world-wide consensus that the best way to protect mankind and the environment is to dispose of this waste in a deep geologic repository. Initial efforts focused on salt as the best medium for disposal, but the heat generated by the radioactive waste led many earth scientists to examine other rock types. In 1976, the director of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) wrote to the U.S. Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA), predecessor agency of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), suggesting that there were several favorable environments at the Nevada Test Site (NTS), and that the USGS already had extensive background information on the NTS. Later, in a series of communications and one publication, the USGS espoused the favorability of the thick unsaturated zone. After the passage of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (1982), the DOE compiled a list of nine favorable sites and settled on three to be characterized. In 1987, as the costs of characterizing three sites ballooned, Congress amended the Nuclear Waste Policy Act directing the DOE to focus only on Yucca Mountain in Nevada, with the proviso that if anything unfavorable was discovered, work would stop immediately. The U.S. DOE, the U.S. DOE national laboratories, and the USGS developed more than 100 detailed plans to study various earth-science aspects of Yucca Mountain and the surrounding area, as well as materials studies and engineering projects needed for a mined geologic repository. The work, which cost more than 10 billion dollars and required hundreds of man-years of work, culminated in a license application submitted to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in 2008.

The Wind Forecast Improvement Project (WFIP): A Public–Private Partnership Addressing Wind Energy Forecast Needs

Abstract The Wind Forecast Improvement Project (WFIP) is a public–private research program, the goal of which is to improve the accuracy of short-term (0–6 h) wind power forecasts for the wind energy industry. WFIP was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), with partners that included the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), private forecasting companies (WindLogics and AWS Truepower), DOE national laboratories, grid operators, and universities. WFIP employed two avenues for improving wind power forecasts: first, through the collection of special observations to be assimilated into forecast models and, second, by upgrading NWP forecast models and ensembles. The new observations were collected during concurrent year-long field campaigns in two high wind energy resource areas of the United States (the upper Great Plains and Texas) and included 12 wind profiling radars, 12 sodars, several lidars and surface flux stations, 184 instrumented tall towers, and over 400 nacelle anemometers. Results demonstrate that a substantial reduction (12%–5% for forecast hours 1–12) in power RMSE was achieved from the combination of improved numerical weather prediction models and assimilation of new observations, equivalent to the previous decade’s worth of improvements found for low-level winds in NOAA/National Weather Service (NWS) operational weather forecast models. Data-denial experiments run over select periods of time demonstrate that up to a 6% improvement came from the new observations. Ensemble forecasts developed by the private sector partners also produced significant improvements in power production and ramp prediction. Based on the success of WFIP, DOE is planning follow-on field programs.

A Systems Engineering Framework for R&D Organizations

AbstractResearch and development (R&D) organizations such as the U.S. Department of Energy national laboratories span the spectrum of R&D from basic science to operational support. They must address a wide range of project types (e.g., projects that produce knowledge as their primary product or that develop a first‐of‐a‐kind system), technology readiness levels, and client demands. Application of formal systems engineering processes (such as those supporting U.S. Department of Defense acquisitions) is often not warranted or affordable, particularly where it is uncertain whether a technology can meet key performance goals. To address these challenges, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has developed and is implementing a systems engineering framework that is highly tailorable and adaptable for the wide range of R&D that the laboratory executes. The framework applies the concepts of systems development‐related risk and technology maturity levels to tailor the systems engineering effort. This paper describes the framework and its implementation.

U.S. Department of Energy Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Tech-to-Market Activities and National Laboratory Impact Initiatives

Hydrogen and fuel-cell technologies offer the potential to reduce emissions and petroleum dependency dramatically across transportation, stationary, and portable power sectors of the economy. Global revenues for fuel cells surpassed $1.3 billion in 2013, with market estimates of more than $100 billion within two decades. Thousands are already being adopted for material handling equipment by household names such as WalMart, Coca-Cola, BMW, FedEx, Sysco among many others and for mission-critical applications such as telecom towers by leading global entities including Sprint. Increased emphasis on hydrogen and fuel cells is anticipated as major automakers roll out fuel-cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) with Toyota releasing their first (named Mirai − which means ‘future’ in Japanese) for commercial sale, Hyundai already leasing theirs, and Honda, GM and others close behind. With recent increased activity in hydrogen and fuel-cell technologies, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is amplifying its efforts to engage the U.S. DOE national laboratory enterprise in accelerating progress. In this talk, we will discuss FCTO’s strategy and implementation opportunities for increasing the engagement and effectiveness of national labs with U.S. industry, including increasing and enhancing lab-private sector relationships, streamlining access to national-lab capabilities, and demonstrating the value of lab-developed science and technology. This presentation will also provide an overview of progress to date and additional needs, with a focus on stakeholder feedback to continue to improve DOE FCTO programs. FCTO funding has already led to over 500 patents, forty commercial hydrogen and fuel-cell technologies in the market and sixty-five emerging technologies anticipated to be commercial in the next 3 to 5 years. National labs have received more than 200 patents related to hydrogen and fuel cells and are working closely with companies and universities to continue addressing key challenges.Finally, this presentation will provide an overview of technical capabilities at various national labs, examples of mechanisms to engage with national labs and examples that ‘demystify’ the process of working with national labs. Both fundamental electrochemistry related capabilities as well as modeling, analysis, and testing capabilities will be summarized. In addition, mechanisms such as FCTO’s successful use of the Technology Transfer Opportunity (TTO) through the Small Business Innovation and Research (SBIR) program will be discussed as well as the emerging Small-Business Voucher (SBV) program. FCTO will present its strategy of using lab-led consortia in key areas and including universities and industry as project partners. Future plans including engagement of the investor community and accelerating technology to market in key areas across hydrogen production, delivery, storage and fuel cells will be covered.

The Spallation Neutron Source accelerator system design

The Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) was designed and constructed by a collaboration of six U.S. Department of Energy national laboratories. The SNS accelerator system consists of a 1GeV linear accelerator and an accumulator ring providing 1.4MW of proton beam power in microsecond-long beam pulses to a liquid mercury target for neutron production. The accelerator complex consists of a front-end negative hydrogen-ion injector system, an 87MeV drift tube linear accelerator, a 186MeV side-coupled linear accelerator, a 1GeV superconducting linear accelerator, a 248-m circumference accumulator ring and associated beam transport lines. The accelerator complex is supported by ~100 high-power RF power systems, a 2K cryogenic plant, ~400 DC and pulsed power supply systems, ~400 beam diagnostic devices and a distributed control system handling ~100,000 I/O signals. The beam dynamics design of the SNS accelerator is presented, as is the engineering design of the major accelerator subsystems.

Nuclear safeguards considerations for pebble bed reactors (PBRs)

Recent reports by the Department of Energy National Laboratories have discussed safeguards considerations for low enriched uranium (LEU)-fueled pebble bed reactors (PBRs) and the need for bulk accountancy of the plutonium in “used fuel.” These reports fail to account for the degree of plutonium dilution in the graphitized-carbon pebbles that is sufficient to meet the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) “provisional” guidelines for termination of safeguards on “measured discards.” The thrust of this finding is not to terminate safeguards but to limit the need for specific accountancy of plutonium in stored used fuel. While the residual uranium in the used fuel is not sufficiently diluted to meet the IAEA provisional guidelines for termination of safeguards, the estimated quantities of the uranium minor isotopes 232U and 236U in the used fuel at the target burnup of ∼90 Gigawatt-days per metric ton (GWD/MT) exceed standard specification limits for reprocessed uranium and will require extensive blending with either natural uranium or uranium enrichment tails to dilute the 236U content to fall within specification. Hence, the PBR used fuel is less desirable for commercial reprocessing and reuse than that from light water reactors. Also the PBR specific activity of a reprocessed uranium isotopic mixture and its A2 values for effective dose limits if released in a dispersible form during a transportation accident are more limiting than the equivalent values for light-water-reactor used fuel at 55GWD/MT without accounting for the presence of the principal carry-over fission product (technetium, 99Tc) and plutonium contamination. Thus, the potentially recoverable uranium from PBR used fuel carries reactivity penalties and radiological penalties likely greater than those for reprocessed uranium from light water reactors. These factors impact the economics of reprocessing, but a more significant consideration is that reprocessing technologies for coated particle fuels encased in graphitized carbon have not progressed beyond laboratory-scale demonstrations. However, key equipment that has been tested in the past (such as graphite burners and electrolytic disintegration/dissolution devices) is not listed on either the “Trigger List” or the “Dual Use List” for mandatory export controls. If gross burnup determined from fission-product gamma-ray inspection of a discharged pebble cannot be correlated acceptably with predicted plutonium content of the pebble, development and testing may be required on detector concepts for more directly measuring the plutonium content in a discharged pebble to ensure that its placement in the spent fuel storage tanks is for an acceptable measured discard of diluted plutonium.

Planning the Next Generation of Arctic Ecosystem Experiments

Climate Change Experiments in High‐Latitude Ecosystems; Fairbanks, Alaska, 13–14 October 2010; A 2‐day climate change workshop was held at the International Arctic Research Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks. The workshop, sponsored by Biological and Environmental Research, Office of Science, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), was attended by 45 subject matter experts from universities, DOE national laboratories, and other federal and nongovernmental organizations. The workshop sought to engage the Arctic science community in planning for a proposed Next‐Generation Ecosystem Experiments (NGEE‐Arctic) project in Alaska (http://ngee.ornl.gov/). The goal of this activity is to provide data, theory, and models to improve representations of high‐latitude terrestrial processes in Earth system models. In particular, there is a need to better understand the processes by which warming may drive increased plant productivity and atmospheric carbon uptake and storage in biomass and soils, as well as those processes that may drive an increase in the release of methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) through microbial decomposition of soil carbon stored in thawing permafrost. This understanding is required to quantify the important feedback mechanisms that define the role of terrestrial processes in regional and global climate.

Demonstration (DEMO) of radiofrequency identification (RFID) system for tracking and monitoring of nuclear materials

The US Department of Energy (DOE) [Environmental Management (EM), Office of Packaging and Transportation (EM-45)] Packaging Certification Program (PCP) has developed a radiofrequency identification (RFID) tracking and monitoring system for the management of nuclear materials packages during storage and transportation. The system, developed by the PCP team at Argonne National Laboratory, involves hardware modification, application software development, secured database and web server development, and irradiation experiments. In April 2008, Argonne tested key features of the RFID tracking and monitoring system in a weeklong, 1700 mile (2736 km) demonstration employing 14 empty type B fissile material drums of three designs (models 9975, 9977 and ES-3100) that have been certified for shipment by the DOE and the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The demonstration successfully integrated global positioning system (GPS) technology for vehicle tracking, satellite/cellular (general packet radio service, or GPRS) technologies for wireless communication, and active RFID tags with multiple sensors (seal integrity, shock, temperature, humidity and battery status) on drums. In addition, the demonstration integrated geographic information system (GIS) technology with automatic alarm notifications of incidents and generated buffer zone reports for emergency response and management of staged incidents. The demonstration was sponsored by EM and the US National Nuclear Securitymore » Administration, with the participation of Argonne, Savannah River and Oak Ridge National Laboratories. Over 50 authorised stakeholders across the country observed the demonstration via secured Internet access. The DOE PCP and national laboratories are working on several RFID system implementation projects at selected DOE sites, as well as continuing device and systems development and widening applications beyond DOE sites and possibly beyond nuclear materials to include other radioactive materials.« less

Hypervelocity impact penetration mechanics

Abstract Inert dense metal penetrators having a mass and geometry capable of missile delivery offer significant potential for countering underground facilities at depths of tens of meters in hard rock. The proliferation of such facilities among countries whose support for terrorism and potential possession of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) constitutes threats to world peace and U.S. Security. The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), in cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Department of Energy National Laboratories and private sector R&D firms have pursued an aggressive research effort to explore the attributes of high velocity impact penetrators for countering such facilities. The penetration of crustal rocks with metal rods (such as tungsten or steel alloys) at high velocities involves complex wave propagation phenomena within the rod and inelastic response of both the penetrator and target material. In this paper we examine the sensitivity of penetration depth (for a fixed tungsten alloy mass impacting a limestone target) to impactor velocity, strength and geometry. Analyses are based upon a matrix of first principle finite difference calculations using the Sandia CTH (release 7.1) Shock Physics Code. Results indicate that impact velocity, penetrator yield strength and target yield strength strongly influence the penetration depth. Maximum penetration depth is achieved by a delicate trade off between penetrator kinetic energy and penetrator inelastic deformation (erosion). Numerical analyses for the parameter variations exercised in this study (impact velocities 1–3.5 km/s and penetrator yield strengths of 1–4 GPa) produced penetration depths of a tungsten alloy rod (length 200 cm, diameter 20 cm) which varied from 5.1 m to 28 m in a homogeneous limestone target.

Recent assessments in USA of spent fuel packages exposed to severe thermal environments different from regulatory standards

AbstractThe regulatory driven design of radioactive material transportation packages leads package vendors to perform analyses that demonstrate the ability of packages to meet the regulatory requirements. For risk assessment and communication, the analysis of package response to thermal environments that are more severe than those described in the regulations is required. In general, experimental and analytical assessments of casks exposed to thermal insults other than the regulatory environment are performed in the USA by the Department of Energy national laboratories. This paper provides a brief summary of some recent thermal analyses of spent fuel transportation packages exposed to thermal environments different from regulatory standards. The analyses were performed by Sandia National Laboratories under several different projects for multiple customers. These analyses examined the response of spent fuel packages exposed to severe thermal environments different from the regulatory hypothetical accident ...