DOE Labs Research Articles

Federated Access from DOE Labs to Distributed Storage in the EIC Era of Computing

The Electron Ion Collider (EIC) collaboration and future experiment is a unique scientific ecosystem within Nuclear Physics as the experiment starts right off as a crosscollaboration between Brookhaven National Lab (BNL) & Jefferson Lab (JLab). As a result, this muti-lab computing model tries at best to provide services accessible from anywhere by anyone who is part of the collaboration. While the computing model for the EIC is not finalized, it is anticipated that the computational and storage resources will be made accessible to a wide range of collaborators across the world. The use of federated ID seems to be a critical element to the strategy of providing such services, allowing seamless access to each lab site computing resources. However, providing Federated access to a Federated storage is not a trivial matter and has its share of technical challenges. In this contribution, we focus on the steps we took towards the deployment of a distributed object storage system that integrates with Amazon S3 and Federated ID. We will first cover for and explain the first stage storage solutions provided to the EIC during the detector design phase. Our initial test deployment consisted of Lustre storage using MinIO, hence providing an S3 interface. High Availability load balancers were added later to provide the initial scalability it lacked. Performance of that system will be shown. While this embryonic solution worked well, it had many limitations. Looking ahead, the Ceph object storage is considered a top-of-the-line solution in the storage community - since the Ceph Object Gateway is compatible with the Amazon S3 API out of the box, our next phase will use a native S3 storage. Our Ceph deployment will consist of erasure coded storage nodes to maximize storage potential along with multiple Ceph Object Gateways for redundant access. We will compare performance of our next stage implementations. Finally, we will present how to leverage OpenID Connect with the Ceph Object Gateway’s to enable Federated ID access. We hope this contribution will serve the community needs as we move forward with cross-lab collaborations and the need for Federated ID access to distributed compute facilities.

DOE labs pitch major AI R&D initiative to Congress

DOE labs pitch major AI R&D initiative to Congress

A Simplified Model for Reversible Solid Oxide Fuel Cells

: Butler-Volmer Equations based on a first order approximation of global redox reaction kinetics have been used in the past successfully for design analysis of solid oxide fuel cells. Such a model forms the backbone of the widely used multidimensional code, DREAM-SOFC originally developed at West Virginia University and currently being used by the fuel cell research team at the US DOE lab, National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL). Recent interest in using solid oxide cells (SOCs) for hydrogen production has prompted the question as to whether the Butler-Vomer Model (BVM) empirically calibrated and used in DREAM-SOFC would be appropriate for simulation of reversible fuel cells as well. To this end we have simulated anode supported Ni/YSZ/LSCF button cells in reversible mode and found that the BVM is not capable of reproducing the trends observed in experiments performed at various applied steam, hydrogen and oxygen concentrations, even if some key parameters such as effective bulk diffusivity and exchange current density are treated as calibration parameters and adjusted freely. To bridge this gap, we modified the oxygen electrode model using a simplified version of the single pathway oxygen reduction reaction equations originally put forth by Svensson et al. [1]. In the simplified model, it is assumed that the adsorbed oxygen concentration remains close to its equilibrium value in most of the oxygen electrode active layer. This assumption eliminates the need to solve the more difficult, stiff surface coverage transport equation leaving only the oxygen ion vacancy concentration to be solved for, thus simplifying the model greatly. This paper presents the mathematical model, and an in-depth analysis of the results from this model applied to button cells with LSCF and LSM electrodes. Figure 1 shows the comparison between the simulated and experimental polarization curves. As shown, good agreement is achieved between simulations and experiments for fuel cell and electrolysis modes. We conclude that by extending the BVM only by adding the vacancy concentration transport equation, leads to a simple yet sufficient model with which one can perform very fast calibration and design analysis of reversible SOCs with minimal computation time.Reference:[1] A.M. Svensson, et al., J. Electrochem. Soc., 145(4), 1390 (1998) doi: 10.1149/1.1838471 Figure 1

Independent report: DOE labs need to create local connections

Independent report: DOE labs need to create local connections

Independent commission to evaluate DOE labs

Independent commission to evaluate DOE labs

As Budgets Tighten, Washington Talks of Shaking Up DOE Labs

There's talk in Washington of a new effort to shake up how the Department of Energy manages its sprawling network of 17 national laboratories.

Fostering a research “ecosystem”

Universities and DOE labs are in solidarity about support for research.

DOE labs offer new, business-friendly option for partnering with industry

The new program will enable labs to negotiate more flexible terms with businesses when it comes to intellectual property rights, payment arrangements, and indemnification. </xhtml:...

Application Performance on the Tri-Lab Linux Capacity Cluster - TLCC

In a recent acquisition by DOE/NNSA several large capacity computing clusters called TLCC have been installed at the DOE labs: SNL, LANL and LLNL. TLCC architecture with ccNUMA, multi-socket, multi-core nodes, and InfiniBand interconnect, is representative of the trend in HPC architectures. This paper examines application performance on TLCC contrasting them with Red Storm/Cray XT4. TLCC and Red Storm share similar AMD processors and memory DIMMs. Red Storm however has single socket nodes and custom interconnect. Micro-benchmarks and performance analysis tools help understand the causes for the observed performance differences. Control of processor and memory affinity on TLCC with the numactl utility is shown to result in significant performance gains and is essential to attenuate the detrimental impact of OS interference and cache-coherency overhead. While previous studies have investigated impact of affinity control mostly in the context of small SMP systems, the focus of this paper is on highly parallel MPI applications.

As weapons work slows, DOE labs keep busy with research

The laboratory-directed R&amp;D program is a bright spot in a bleak outlook for nuclear weapons R&amp;D.

Physicist Steven Koonin takes on a new role as DOE’s ‘technical conscience’

Physicist Steven Koonin takes on a new role as DOE’s ‘technical conscience’

LBNL director Chu to head DOE

Physicists reacted with elation to President-elect Barack Obama’s selection of Steven Chu to be secretary of the Department of Energy. If confirmed by the Senate, Chu, a Nobel laureate physicist and director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory since 2004, will become the first working research scientist to head DOE since the agency’s inception in 1977.Chu, a staunch supporter of renewable energy and a forceful advocate of urgent actions to curb global warming, shared the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics for developing methods that use lasers to cool and trap atoms. At LBNL, he has built up the lab’s portfolio of R&D in carbon-neutral alternative-energy and energy-saving technologies. With other national laboratories and universities in the San Francisco Bay area, Chu, 60, organized the Joint BioEnergy Institute, one of three DOE-funded centers that are conducting basic research to lower the cost of producing ethanol and other renewable fuels from a variety of biomass. He also was instrumental in bringing together the University of California, Berkeley; LBNL; and the University of Illinois into a BP-funded collaboration known as the Energy Biosciences Institute.Speaking at a 15 December press conference at which Obama announced his nomination, Chu said he believes “the US and the world can and will prevail over our economic, energy security, and climate change challenges.” Obama said Chu has been “working at the cutting edge of our nation’s effort to develop new forms of energy,” noting that “the scientists at our national labs will have a distinguished peer at the helm.” Obama added that his selection of Chu “should send a signal that my administration will value science, we will make decisions based on the facts, and we understand that the facts demand bold action.”“My reaction is hooray,” said Nobelist Burton Richter, retired director of SLAC. “He’s a great scientist and a very good administrator,” he said, adding that from Chu’s interactions with Silicon Valley businesses, he also has a good understanding of how industry works.“It’s the finest appointment to that position that has ever been made,” said Richard Muller, a physics professor at UCB and author of Physics for Future Presidents: The Science Behind the Headlines (Norton, 2008). “He has the management experience, the political finesse, and solid scientific credentials.” Under Chu, said Muller, LBNL has developed “the most diverse set of energy and environmental research projects in the US.”“He’s a wonderful scientist and is passionate about energy,” said Mildred Dresselhaus, institute professor at MIT and a former director of DOE’s Office of Science. “We will need some national and world leadership on energy. A few individuals can make a big difference there.”All three applauded Obama’s selection of a scientist for a post that has typically gone to individuals with little or no background in physical sciences. Previous secretaries have included an economist, lawyers, former members of Congress, a retired admiral, and a dentist. An exception is the outgoing secretary, Samuel Bodman, who holds a doctorate in chemical engineering. Chu will vault from managing a lab with a budget of around $600 million and 4000 staff to an agency with annual expenditures of more than $23 billion and more than 100 000 federal and contractor employees. About two-thirds of the department’s budget goes for nuclear weapons maintenance, environmental cleanup of cold war–era weapons production, and disposing of spent nuclear fuel from the nation’s commercial nuclear industry.“I hope he will have some time left over for science,” cautioned Richter, who said DOE lab managers are hopeful that Chu may “rein in the bureaucracy overload” at the department and restore a partnering relationship that Richter said once existed between the agency and the labs. Today’s relationship is more arms-length; DOE treats the labs as it might if it was making a purchase from a supplier. “That’s not healthy,” he said.The selection of Chu is in line with Obama’s campaign promises to spend $150 billion over 10 years on clean energy R&D and to increase the amount of energy from renewable sources to 10% of total US energy supplies by 2012 and 25% by 2025. As a member of the National Research Council committee that wrote the 2006 Gathering Storm report, Chu has emphasized the report’s call for the creation of an “advanced research projects agency-energy” office within DOE. ARPA-E would fund high-risk projects that could lead to new clean energy technologies and big gains in energy efficiency (see Physics Today, June 2006, page 27).Obama also named former Environmental Protection Agency administrator Carol Browner to a new White House post that will coordinate energy and climate change policy throughout the federal government.ChuPPT|High resolution© 2009 American Institute of Physics.

Experiments, jobs cut at DOE labs

Experiments, jobs cut at DOE labs

With Domenici’s departure, DOE labs to lose their top Hill advocate

No successor is apparent for “St. Pete,” who showered funding and new programs on the labs.

CAPTURING CARBON AND SAVING COAL

Electric utilities face a tangle of choices when figuring how to pull CO{sub 2} from coal-fired plants. The article explains the three basic approaches to capturing CO{sub 2} - post-combustion, oxyfuel combustion and pre-combustion. Researchers at US DOE labs and utilities are investigating new solvents that capture CO{sub 2} more efficiently than amines and take less energy. Ammonium carbonate has been identified by EPRI as one suitable solvent. Field research projects on this are underway in the USA. Oxyfuel combustion trials are also being planned. Pre-combustion, or gasification is a completely different way of pulling energy from coal and, for electricity generation, this means IGCC systems. AEP, Southern Cinergy and Xcel are considering IGCC plants but none will capture CO{sub 2}. Rio Tinto and BP are planning a 500 MW facility to gasify coke waste from petroleum refining and collect and sequester CO{sub 2}. However, TECO recently dropped a project to build a 789 MW IGCC coal fired plant even though it was to receive a tax credit to encourage advanced coal technologies. The plant would not have captured CO{sub 2}. The company said that 'with uncertainty of carbon capture and sequestration regulations being discussed at the federal and statemore » levels, the timing was not right'. 4 figs.« less

DOE labs compete over plans for new nuclear warheads

DOE labs compete over plans for new nuclear warheads

Mixed Results for Women, Minorities at DOE Labs

Mixed Results for Women, Minorities at DOE Labs

Los Alamos Workers Debate the Lab’s Safety, Morale, and Leadership

Holian replies: Spokespeople from Los Alamos National Laboratory argue that in shutting down the lab, G. Peter Nanos showed that he really cares about the individuals who are injured or nearly killed, and their families, rather than only the statistics. But LANL scientists care far more—arguably more than management—about the human costs, because we are the troops in the trenches. Obviously, it is in our self-interest to strive continually for a safe work environment, an essential component of good science.Do the safety data show that behavior at the laboratory is so bad that we scientists and workers deserve the public humiliation and opprobrium heaped upon us by our own director?In my Opinion piece, I made sure that the accident rates I reported placed all the labs and industries on equal footing: The rate is the number of accidents requiring medical attention, for everyone at the site—including outside contractors and maintenance and construction workers—divided by 100 person-years, so as to normalize institutions for their size and work done. Averaged over a year, the rate is a rough measure of the percent likelihood that someone would have needed medical care for an injury.I focused on the national labs that perform work similar to LANL’s, and did not discuss the average over the entire Department of Energy complex, which would have also included offices that only process paper and places that have been totally shut down, apart from guards at the gates. If Los Alamos were in that category, it too might have a very low accident rate, but that would not be a very good outcome for national security.With the ground rules outlined above, all DOE labs had comparable average total-site accident rates at the end of 2003—for the four major nuclear weapons labs (LANL, Lawrence Livermore, Sandia, and Oak Ridge), the rates were 1.9, 3.3, 3.2, and 2.3, respectively. 1 1. See the Department of Energy’s injury and illness statistics at http://www.eh.doe.gov/cairs/cairs/summary/oipds034/t3.html. Following the successful implementation of a safety program at LANL, the trend in its yearly accident rates for the years 1997–2003 was downward: 5.6, 3.5, 2.6, 1.9, 1.8, 2.0, and 1.9. During this time, LANL consistently led the other three weapons labs (apart from the first year only, when rates for Sandia and Oak Ridge were better). This level of attention to safety can hardly be characterized objectively as “stagnation.”Were the lessons learned by managers during the shutdown so critical that the laboratory’s scientific work could be suspended for three months, experimental work stopped for more than six months, customers disappointed, students discouraged from coming to LANL, and staff driven to contemplate leaving? From the taxpayers’ perspective, the annual cost of doing business at LANL is more than $2 billion. While salaries were being paid, benefits were being given out, and retirement plans were proceeding as usual, scientists’ livelihoods were put on hold. By livelihood, I mean the reason that scientists are eager to get up in the morning and go to work. The morale at Los Alamos has been thoroughly devastated by Nanos’s unprecedented, unwarranted action.Did the shutdown result in a dramatic drop in the labwide accident rate, as one might reasonably suspect? Surprisingly, the LANL rate went up dramatically in the first three months of the shutdown, from 2.0 for January–June 2004 to 2.5 for January–September 2004, although the rates for the four nuclear-weapons labs ended up closely comparable, nevertheless. 1,2 1. See the Department of Energy’s injury and illness statistics at http://www.eh.doe.gov/cairs/cairs/summary/oipds034/t3.html.2. See http://www.eh.doe.gov/cairs/cairs/summary/oipds043/t3.html. One likely contribution to the remarkable rise in the LANL rate was the intense stress from the rush to meet artificial deadlines during the early chaos of the shutdown. The director’s threat to close the lab for any future safety or security infraction put a punishing psychological burden on the staff. His decision was a classic top-down fiat. As any safety expert knows, you improve safety by getting buy-in from the workers—by valuing them and the work they do—and by listening to them.REFERENCESSection:ChooseTop of pageREFERENCES <<1. See the Department of Energy’s injury and illness statistics at http://www.eh.doe.gov/cairs/cairs/summary/oipds034/t3.html. Google Scholar2. See http://www.eh.doe.gov/cairs/cairs/summary/oipds043/t3.html. Google Scholar© 2005 American Institute of Physics.

McTague Takes Reins at UC’s DOE Labs

McTague Takes Reins at UC’s DOE Labs

Law enforcement tools available at the Savannah River Site

A number of nuclear technologies developed and applied at the Savannah River Site in support of nuclear weapons material production and environmental remediation can be applied to problems in law enforcement. Techniques and equipment for high-sensitivity analyses of samples are available to identify and quantify trace elements and establish origins and histories of forensic evidence removed from crime scenes. While some of these capabilities are available at local crime laboratories, state-of-the-art equipment and breakthroughs in analytical techniques are continually being developed at DOE laboratories. Extensive experience with the handling of radioactive samples at the DOE labs minimizes the chances of cross-contamination of evidence received from law enforcement. In addition to high-sensitivity analyses, many of the field techniques developed for use in a nuclear facility can assist law enforcement personnel in detecting illicit materials and operations, in retrieving of pertinent evidence and in surveying crime scenes. Some of these tools include chemical sniffers, hand-held detectors, thermal imaging, etc. In addition, mobile laboratories can be deployed to a crime scene to provide field screening of potential evidence. A variety of portable sensors can be deployed on vehicle, aerial, surface or submersible platforms to assist in the location of pertinent evidence or illicit operations. Several specific nuclear technologies available to law enforcement and their potential uses are discussed.