Federal Installations Research Articles

Locational Variance in Nuclear Microreactor Performance Under Net Zero Microgrid Conditions

Microreactors are expected to be deployed in locations or situations where standard macrogrid electricity is not readily or reliably available. Locations such as remote mining communities, military installations, and other similar communities may seek to decarbonize their electricity with a microreactor. Traditional remote communities typically pay much higher energy prices than nonremote communities, so there may be a higher degree of support for microreactors despite higher expected (per unit capacity) capital costs. There is also interest in deploying microreactors on sites that utilize their own microgrids, for example, federal installations or universities, in different locations across the United States. To model the deployment prospects of microreactors on microgrids, HOMER Pro was utilized to generate optimized microgrid configurations under an assumption of net zero, i.e. with no fossil fuels permitted. The economic performance of microreactors on microgrids was analyzed in a variety of locations throughout the United States. It was found that the minimal capital cost required for entry of a microreactor into the system was significantly higher in locations with both low solar resource (less than ~4.5kW∙h/m2∙day−1) and (in particular) low wind (<5 m/s average wind velocity at 80-m hub height), roughly corresponding to locations somewhat inland in both the eastern and the western United States. Under the financial assumptions made in this study, depending on location, the capital cost at which microreactors could enter the system varied from around $24 000/kW(electric) in areas of high wind and/or solar resource to over $90 000/kW(electric) in Alaska, with a range of intermediate results. It was found that the minimum allowed power level of the microreactor did not have a substantial impact on results. A utility presence was found to have a major impact on the financial performance of a microreactor, especially in locations that have strong renewable resources.

3D-2D coupling multi-dimension simulation for the heat pipe micro-reactor by MOOSE&SAM

In recent years, micro-reactor concepts have attracted increasing attention in the nuclear industry due to the market demand for flexible, reliable, and sustainable power and heat on-site for industrial or federal installations or remote communities. To help demonstrate and validate these innovative reactor concepts, the Micro-reactor AGile Non-nuclear Experimental Test-bed (MAGNET) is being constructed at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) with an initial focus on the thermal and structural performance of heat pipe cooled micro-reactors. At this time, the preliminary design parameters of the MAGNET facility have been specified. In this work, a simulation using the System Analysis Module (SAM) code is performed for the prototypical 37-heat-pipes test article to predict its experimental facility performance and associated uncertainties. We first carry out a benchmark demonstration of our modeling method with an example provided by Argonne National Laboratory (ANL). Then, we predict the thermal performance of the MAGNET facility under steady-state operation. Moreover, several sensitivity parameters are analyzed to investigate their impact on facility thermal performance. This MAGNET experiment simulation provides valuable information for researchers to validate the facility's initial design and steady-state operation.

New life for old naval reactors

The news item “Small Nuclear Reactors Raise Big Hopes” (PHYSICS TODAY, August 2010, page 25) brings to mind the dozens of small nuclear reactors that the US Navy is taking out of service as it decommissions older submarines and surface warships. They are compact, safe, proven power plants that could just as easily turn a generator as a propeller. Currently, the navy cuts the reactors out of the ships and stores them in an open pit at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington State after removing the fuel for reprocessing in Idaho.Instead, the naval reactors could be converted to serve as electrical power plants. Generators in hull-like assemblies could be attached to the power plant sections and the “vessels” towed to their new homes and dry docked. Refueling of a vessel could be accomplished by towing it back to one of the secure navy yards where refueling is already performed.The best customers for such converted reactors would be large federal installations where controlled access would protect their cold-war construction secrets. For example, Redstone Arsenal, on the Tennessee River in Alabama, is home to a large NASA center and a major US Army command. Cape Canaveral, on the Florida coast, is home to NASA and US Air Force launch centers. The large number of former navy reactor operators could be recruited to run their old charges but with the advantage that they could go home at the end of each shift.Such small plants would reduce the demands on local utilities that must also serve growing populations outside the installations. They could be made operational on much shorter schedules than new reactors could be constructed. At Cape Canaveral, they could also power an electrolysis facility to produce liquid hydrogen fuel that must now be trucked in from distant facilities that process petroleum to get hydrogen.Old naval reactors are a national resource that should be studied as a potential power source and as the wise reuse of existing equipment, rather than being discarded.© 2011 American Institute of Physics.

New Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure (SPCC) Plan regulations

AbstractThe Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure (SPCC) program regulates oil storage vessels at federal and industrial installations throughout the United States. After proposing revisions in 1991, 1993, and 1997, the EPA finally promulgated, on July 17, 2002, new regulations for the SPCC program. As written, the new regulations may impose substantial new expense and implementation requirements upon installations. This article provides a detailed review of the primary requirements of the SPCC program and identifies which issues federal installations may need to address as they work to meet the August 17, 2004, deadline to review their plan and complete necessary amendments, and the February 18, 2005, deadline to implement those amendments. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Soil Texture, Land-Use Intensity, and Vegetation of Fort Benning Upland Forest Sites

intervals) and differ in soil texture (from sandy to clayey) and intensity of military training (lighter dismounted infantry vs. heavier mechanized training). We characterized surface soil texture and land-use disturbance of 32 sites, each 400 m X 400 m, and asked if canopy and ground layer community measures (species composition and richness, basal area, abundance) differed among sites on the basis of soil texture or land-use. There was significant interaction between land-use and soil texture, with a gradient of soil texture (% clay) from clayey sites within light training areas, to sandy sites in heavier training areas. Road-like features, including active and remnant trails, roads, and vehicle tracks or trails were the most frequent and abundant disturbance feature. Number of disturbance features per site did not differ among land-use/surface soil texture categories. Differences in ground layer and canopy composition among sites reflected disturbance intensity; differences in canopy composition also reflected the proportion of pine. Species richness of ground layer vegetation differed among surface soil texture/land-use categories. There was a richness gradient from heavily disturbed sites with clayey soil, through lightly disturbed sites, to heavily disturbed sites with sandy soil. Our results suggest upland pineoak-hickory forests at Fort Benning range from sandhills scrub oak-pine to pine-hardwood to oak-hickory dominated forests, with greater species diversity in the ground layer of clayey sites. Forestry practices and disturbances associated with mechanized military training favor pine dominance, and maintain open-site, successional or fire-tolerant species in the ground layer. Although intense management toward pine monocultures can reduce within-stand diversity, federal installations such as Fort Benning may help conserve pine-oak-hickory forests in the rapidly developing Sandhills region.

School Security Solutions: Bringing Corporate Safety to Schools and Colleges with EasyLobbyTM Software

This paper describes software for Electronic Visitor Management (EVM), EasyLobbyTM, currently in use in thousands of federal and corporate installations throughout the world and its application for school and campus environments. Protecting the physical safety as well as providing security safeguards regarding internet access of students, faculty, and teachers—K–12 or at the college level—has, unfortunately, become a necessity, especially in the United States at day care centers, schools, hospitals, and campus facilities. This paper describes the technology and its features which allow schools and campuses to use EasyLobbyTM software to (1) replace the visitor log; (2) capture and store visitor data electronically, including the purpose of their visit; and (3) provide badges that quickly allow anyone in the school to recognize authorized strangers. EasyLobbyTM, defined Electronic Visitor Management, has won major awards for innovation and achievement from the security industry and is quite inexpensive. Its web address is www.EasyLobby.com. Documented benefits to the corporate and government world can provide security for educational institutions as well.

Responding to economic change in remote, rural regions: federal installations in Idaho and Washington

The federal government's massive spending on nuclear weapons materials and research generated tens of thousands of jobs and pumped billions of dollars into a small number of regions during the 1940s and 1950s. This concentration of financial and physical resources caused the almost overnight formation of small urban centers in what formerly had been remote, rural areas, and made the economies of the regions that surround the two physically largest sites at Hanford and INEEL heavily dependent on nuclear-related government funding. With the end of the Cold War and global agreement to reduce nuclear arsenals, most of these facilities have been made obsolete. More than 10,000 jobs have been recently eliminated and thousands more were lost at private companies providing support services to these facilities and the displaced workers and their families. Further reductions will likely occur within the next 7–10 years. Our research looked at how local leaders in the still largely rural regions surrounding these two Department of Energy (DOE) sites responded to these economic changes, how have the communities reacted to the likelihood that these facilities would never again be a significant economic engine for the region, and what actions are being taken to reduce the impact of significant DOE cutbacks expected in the future? The results raise critical questions regarding the long-term economic future of the two regions and whether a more aggressive multi-faceted effort is required to stave off a long-term decline.

Field Deployment of Automated External Defibrillators to a Federal Fire Service Unit under Medical Direction of a Military

Automated external defibrillators (AEDs) have been proven in numerous studies to decrease the time interval from cardiac arrest to defibrillation, thus improving the survival rate for victims of ventricular fibrillation and pulseless ventricular tachycardia, the most common causes of reversible sudden cardiac death. Recent Department of Defense initiatives have mandated increased participation of Federal Fire Service units in the conduct of prehospital emergency medical care on military and other federal installations. This report describes the development and deployment of an AED program for a fire department serving a U.S. military installation under the medical direction of that installation's medical treatment facility. This "first step" in the integration of Federal Fire Services into emergency medical care, as well as potential future military applications for AEDs, are discussed.

Economies of scale and implementation efficiencies of fully integrated environmental programs in view of fiscal uncertainties: A case for consolidation of environmental services at federal installations

AbstractIn spite of an extraordinary administrative burden, most environmental support services at military and other federal installations tend to be split among various contractors along functional lines. This portioning of services introduces many inefficiencies and fails to take advantage of potential economies of scale. Inefficiencies can be worsened dramatically when funding uncertainties are introduced. Consolidation of all environmental services at a federal facility, including environmental operations and maintenance, under a single contract facilitates a phenomenon of organizational integration. With management attention, integration can be nurtured and maximized, substantially reducing program costs while dramatically improving quality and responsiveness.The natural world is replete with examples from which we may learn to be better managers. Uncertainties in program funding create essentially the same challenges to business managers as uncertainties in the supply of food and nutrients present to natural populations. By viewing temporal trends in programfunding in the same way that nature views trends in resource supply we may better understand how the introduction of funding uncertainties impacts the evolution of the optimal team size and skill mix. And we may also evaluate how a fully integrated environmental program can work to offset the deleterious effects of unpredictable program funding.

Federal Investments and Economic Stimulus at the End of the Cold War: The Influence of Federal Installations on Employment Growth, 1970–1990

A growing body of evidence points toward the distinctiveness of the state's political and military policies and of the impact of these policies on economic processes. Regional scientists have been stressing the importance of new industrial districts, with an emphasis on interfirm relationships and the regional economy in which firms are embedded. In this paper, we document the state's role in regional growth and offer a reminder of the external and political actors which have influenced growth of industrial districts. We have acquired information from the US General Services Administration on each piece of property owned by the United States, including data on the agency controlling the installation and the functions performed at this location. Our examination of employment growth from 1970 to 1990 provides evidence that federal installations did stimulate growth in the regions in which they were located. More specifically, we find that NASA installations and the military's industrial facilities exerted a positive influence on employment growth over the period. However, despite the large budgets commanded by Department of Energy installations and their highly educated labor force, we found that the Department of Energy installations inhibited employment growth.

Toward Smoke-Free VA Hospitals

To the Editor.— We congratulate the staff and patients of the Minneapolis Veterans Administration (VA) Medical Center for making their hospital a smoke-free, healthy environment.1Their effort certainly will pay back benefits in improved health and will save medical care dollars for the system and the nation. Our station, too, is following VA Central Office Circular 10-86-90, which implements Public Law 98-160 and mandates preventive health care in all VA health care programs. Smoking control is one of nine agendas for health maintenance included at this time. For at least ten years, the VA Pulmonary Phyicians Association has spearheaded efforts to obtain cessation of the sale of cigarettes in all federal installations. Twenty-three of 172 VA medical centers have stopped the sale of tobacco products, and 11 stations were smoke free by July 4,1988. Tax-supported institutions must constantly try to improve efficiency or do more with less funding. Cessation

Union Membership and Attitudes Toward Participation in Determining Conditions of Work in the Federal Government

Data from five federal installations are examined in order to determine the relationship between union membership and (1) perceived influence over the determination of working conditions, and (2) satisfaction with participation in determining work conditions in this sector. Union members, compared with nonmember bargaining unit employees, show lowerperceivedparticipation in determining their annual performance standards and less satisfaction with their influence in creating these standards. Lower satisfaction with influence persists even when perceived amount of influence is controlled, supporting the argument that union members in the federal government seek more influence in determining their conditions of work than nonmembers. These results are not indicative of job dissatisfaction or of distrust between labor and management. Rather, they appear to reflect a positive desire among union members for more influence in the agency.

The role of procedural and distributive justice in organizational behavior

To investigate the relationship between fairness and organizational outcomes, the present study examined the survey responses of government employees at six Federal installations. Indices of procedural and distributive fairness were factor-analytically derived. Multiple regression analyses indicated that both the procedural measures and the distributive measures were significantly related to measures of job satisfaction, evaluation of supervisor, conflict/harmony, trust in management, and turnover intention. Procedural fairness accounted for significantly more variance than distributive fairness in each of these criterion measures, except for turnover intention. These findings are related to conceptual and methodological issues concerning procedural fairness and organizational behavior.

The German Konrad repository project

In the Federal Republic of Germany, it is planned to dispose of radioactive waste with negligible heat generation in the abandoned Konrad iron ore mine. Under the law, the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) is the authorized applicant and thus responsible for the construction and operation of federal installations for the long-term storage and disposal of radioactive waste. On the basis of site-specific safety assessments covering the overall geological and hydrogeological situation, the technical concept of this facility including its scheduled mode of operation and the waste packages to be disposed of, the PTB has demonstrated the safety of the planned Konrad repository in the operational and post-operational phase.

The Effects of Union Membership of Felt Influence Over Working Conditions in the Federal Government.

Data from five federal installations are examined in order to determine some of the effects of union membership in the public sector. Union members, compared with non-member bargaining unit employe...

Municipal Employee Assistance Programs: Managing Troubled Employees

It is almost commonplace today to read front-page stories of damage done by substance abuse to professional careers of athletes, entertainers, and public officials. It is estimated that 10 percent of the nation's work force struggles with alcoholism, 2 percent with drug addiction, and another 6 percent with emotional problems. ' Many public managers may be aware of employees whose personal problems adversely affect job performance. It is debatable, however, whether many are knowledgeable about their organization's policy toward troubled employees, aware of what can be done for them, or are informed about employees' legal rights. A 1978 U.S. General Accounting Office survey of 81 federal installations confirmed this; it also found that top management officials possessed negative feelings about their organizations' rehabilitative programs.2 Some did not believe they were in the hand-holding business, and others were concerned with the cost of social actions such as alcohol and drug counseling relative to the resources invested in the installation's primary mission. This latter feeling was articulated despite the GAO's finding that funding and office space devoted to such programs were often limited and inadequate. 3 The most common approach to managing troubled employees, that of employee assistance programs (EAPs), evolved from industrial alcoholism programs. Consequently, the EAP literature (and practice) is dominated by a concern with alcoholism and alcoholrelated issues, and, with very few exceptions, draws from private sector experience.4 Differences exist, however, between public and private sector personnel rules, employment practices, and legal obligations to employees. Differences may even exist between those who seek public sector employment and those who seek work in the private sector.5 The EAP literature provides inadequate information about the likely incidence of troubled employees in the public work force, the identification and counseling of public employees, and the problems of EAP implementation in public organizations. This article seeks to sensitize public managers to the issue of troubled employees, and discusses the employee assistance program as one approach to managing this type of employee. Although one must be cautious in extending findings reported in this article to other cities,

The Impact of Federal Sector Unions on Supervisors' Use of Personnel Policies

This study investigates whether supervisors' use of management-initiated policies--in this case, alcoholism and EEO policies--is related to the presence of a union, the power of any union present (measured, among other ways, by certain bargaining outcomes), and the supervisors' awareness of the union's position on the policies in question. An analysis of interview data from supervisors in 71 federal installations, and from both national and local union officials, indicates that the supervisors' awareness of a union's position on the policies was positively related to use of both policies, as were certain aspects of union power. The presence of a union was also associated with greater use of the alcoholism policy, but not of the EEO policy. In addition, the authors analyze the reasons for the various compromises that occur in the use of each policy. (Author's abstract.)

Energy needs versus environmental pollution: a reconciliation?

In this article I have presented, for discussion, a proposed system for energy generation by which the principal sources of environmental pollution by power plants could be eliminated. For stationary power plants the concept appears feasible technically and, according to my " horseback estimates," perhaps economically as well, depending upon the economic value of the by-products of sulfur, CO(2), water, and possibly nitrogen, and upon the price we are willing to pay for a clean environment .Thus, a more thorough engineering and economic analysis to explore these and other factors in greater depth seems warranted. In the case of turbine-driven vehicles, the technical and economic feasibility of widespread distribution and handling of the fuel constitutes a serious question, but one which deserves equally serious consideration before the possibility is discounted. The reports of the cited study panels notwithstanding, the technology required for the proposed system exists today, with one exception. This exception (which is not essential for trial of the system but will be required for its complete fruition) is the development of a nuclear reactor for the prime purpose of delivering process heat for the steam reforming of natural gas and, ultimately, for gas production from coal in a continuous process, such as those discussed by Pieroni et al. (16). Today's intermittent processes of coking and gas production are both archaic and themselves large sources of atmospheric pollution, and a development program aimed at advancing the technology of the coal industry in this regard would seem long overdue. The report of the PSAC Environmental Pollution Panel recommended "demonstration of the feasibility and economy of new developments for abating or controlling pollution through their use at Federal installations" and suggested the coalburning TVA power plants as a likely place for such demonstration. This suggestion is doubly appropriate since the TVA is in a region of subnormal " atmospheric ventilation" (8). By design these plants are adjacent to the AEC's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and such a location would seem ideal for an experiment on the wedding of nuclear and fossil sources of energy. In comments on a preliminary draft of this article, proponents of "conventional " nuclear power pointed out that such power is hard to beat on the basis of cost, and that dissipation of heat to the air by way of cooling towers can also be accomplished in conventional plants (17). These observations are individually correct but not compatible: the low power costs cited are for very large plants [of the order of 1000 mega-watts lectrical) and larger], and the costs of cooling towers and associated equipment needed to dissipate such large amounts of heat [of the order of 2000 megawatts (thermal)] to air from a closed cycle would offset the power cost advantage of the large plant. In regard to the proposed use of nuclear process heat, Weinberg (20) has expressed doubt that much advantage can be derived from this approach because the temperatures involved are too high for low-cost reactors, and heat transfer from surfaces could involve materials problems. In the case of gas production, this is indeed an anticipated problem-not a technologically insuperable one, but a problem of reducing the cost of the materials required (16). Indeed, Weinberg himself has mentioned this possible use of nuclear heat in a recent publication discussing the steam reforming of coal to liquid fuel(21). Also, an improved process for synthesizing methane from lignitec has recently been reported (22). Since the earlier studies date back a decade, a new look at the problems and costs involved relative to the benefits to be derived (not the least of which could be new vigor for the coal industry) would seem to be in order. In the case of steam reforming of natural gas, the temperature level (about 1500 degrees F) is such that the technology is available today, and a process-heat-reactor design study could be initiated without awaiting further developments.