From The DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory : “Idaho National Laboratory prepares to operate its first new reactors in 50 years”

From The DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory

3.11.24
Joel Hiller

MARVEL will be installed in INL’s Transient Reactor Test Facility.

In 1951, the desert of eastern Idaho hosted Experimental Breeder Reactor-I, the first nuclear reactor to generate a usable amount of electricity. Four years later, researchers followed that success with BORAX-III, the first reactor to power an American city.

The next two decades saw a flurry of research and development at that desert site — what is now known as Idaho National Laboratory, the nation’s nuclear energy research institution. That work led to the birth of the commercial nuclear industry and the 93 reactors currently producing carbon-free electricity around the country.

More recently, construction of new nuclear power plants has slowed, but the need for clean energy is more urgent than ever. Climate change and demand for carbon-free energy have motivated development of new nuclear reactor designs.

A MARVEL-ous Opportunity

Now, for the first time in 50 years, INL is preparing to build two new reactors and one reactor experiment at its desert site. One of these projects, the Microreactor Applications Research Validation and EvaLuation (MARVEL) microreactor will produce about 85 kilowatts of heat — which will be converted to approximately 20 kilowatts of electricity. A reactor this size would power around 10 homes.

The MARVEL team recently completed the 90% final design package, which means they are almost ready to begin fabricating components. This means the project is ready to proceed, while leaving room to make small adjustments. This is the first time a Department of Energy reactor project has achieved this milestone since the department’s creation in 1977.

Planned to be operational as soon as late 2026, MARVEL will be one of the next reactors built at INL and a key step toward a new generation of carbon-free energy sources.

Microreactors like MARVEL are small nuclear reactors built in factories and transported wherever they are needed to provide electricity and heat. Initially, these reactors could power communities like remote Alaskan towns that now rely on expensive diesel shipments, along with industrial applications that require high temperature heat and electricity.

With MARVEL, INL plays an important role in developing tomorrow’s microreactors.

Supporting a New Nuclear Industry

MARVEL will meet two important needs. First, it will help researchers understand how to build, operate and eventually decommission a new reactor design. The scientific community has made enormous advances in materials science, computer modeling, and our understanding of how people and machines interact. That’s a tremendous amount of new information to apply to advanced reactor projects, and MARVEL will help put it all together.

Second, the data generated through the testing, startup and operation of MARVEL will give private industry important insights to help them develop their own reactors and make progress toward commercialization. A variety of private companies have already expressed interest in using MARVEL for testing microreactor applications and systems.

“This is truly a precedent-setting moment for DOE and the nation,” said John Jackson, national technical director of the Microreactor Program operated by the Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy.

“This paves the way for a microreactor test platform that will answer fundamental questions of how microreactors will operate and the variety of services they can provide to help us lower carbon emissions.”

The MARVEL project is supported by a team of engineers at INL and private companies including Walsh Engineering Services, TRIGA International, Qnergy and Creative Engineers Inc. Dozens of companies around the country are developing advanced nuclear reactors, and projects like MARVEL are vital for proving the viability of microreactors and establishing valuable public-private partnerships.

See the full article here.

Comments are invited and will be appreciated, especially if the reader finds any errors which I can correct.

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Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

The DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory is one of the national laboratories of the United States Department of Energy and is managed by the Battelle Energy Alliance. While the laboratory does other research, historically it has been involved with nuclear research. Much of current knowledge about how nuclear reactors behave and misbehave was discovered at what is now Idaho National Laboratory. John Grossenbacher, former INL director, said, “The history of nuclear energy for peaceful application has principally been written in Idaho”.

Various organizations have built more than 50 reactors at what is commonly called “the Site”, including the ones that gave the world its first usable amount of electricity from nuclear power and the power plant for the world’s first nuclear submarine. Although many are now decommissioned, these facilities are the largest concentration of reactors in the world.

It is on a 890-square-mile (2,310 km^2) complex in the high desert of eastern Idaho, between Arco to the west and Idaho Falls and Blackfoot to the east. Atomic City, Idaho is just south. The laboratory employs approximately 4,000 people.

What is now the DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory in southeastern Idaho began its life as a U.S. government artillery test range in the 1940s. Shortly after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, the U.S. military needed a safe location for performing maintenance on the Navy’s most powerful turreted guns. The guns were brought in via rail to near Pocatello, Idaho, to be re-sleeved, rifled and tested. As the Navy began to focus on post-World War II and Cold War threats, the types of projects worked on in the Idaho desert changed, too. Perhaps the most well-known was the building of the prototype reactor for the world’s first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus.

In 1949, the federal research facility was established as the National Reactor Testing Station (NRTS). In 1975, the United States Atomic Energy Commission was divided into the Energy Research and Development Administration and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The Idaho site was for a short time named ERDA and then subsequently renamed the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL) in 1977 with the creation of the United States Department of Energy (DOE) under President Jimmy Carter. After two decades as INEL, the name was changed again to the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) in 1997. Throughout its lifetime, there have been more than 50 one-of-a-kind nuclear reactors built by various organizations at the facility for testing; all but three are out of service.

On February 1, 2005, Battelle Energy Alliance took over operation of the lab from Bechtel, merged with The DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory-West, and the facility name was changed to “Idaho National Laboratory”. At this time the site’s clean-up activities were moved to a separate contract, the Idaho Cleanup Project, which is currently managed by Fluor Idaho, LLC. Research activities were consolidated in the newly named Idaho National Laboratory.

According to AP news reports in April 2018, a single barrel of “radioactive sludge” ruptured while being prepared for transport to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in Southeast New Mexico for permanent storage. The 55-gallon barrel that ruptured is part of the badly-documented radioactive waste from the Rocky Flats Plant near Denver; it is unknown how many such barrels are stored at Idaho National Laboratory, nor what each barrel contains.

Research

Nuclear Energy Projects

Next Generation Nuclear Plant

One part of this program to develop improved nuclear power plants is the “Next Generation Nuclear Plant” or NGNP, which would be the demonstration of a new way to use nuclear energy for more than electricity. The heat generated from nuclear fission in the plant could provide process heat for hydrogen production and other industrial purposes, while also generating electricity. And the NGNP would use a high-temperature gas reactor, which would have redundant safety systems that rely on natural physical processes more than human or mechanical intervention.

INL worked with private industry to develop the NGNP between 2005 and 2011. It was commissioned to lead this effort by the United States Department of Energy as a result of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Since 2011, the project has languished and funding for it ceased. The design for this reactor is currently owned by Framatome.

Fuel Cycle Research & Development

The Fuel Cycle Research & Development program aims to help expand nuclear energy’s benefits by addressing some of the issues inherent to the current life cycle of nuclear reactor fuel in the United States. These efforts strive to make nuclear energy’s expansion safe, secure, economic and sustainable.

Currently, the United States, like many other countries, employs an “open-ended” nuclear fuel cycle, whereby nuclear power plant fuel is used only once and then placed in a repository for indefinite storage. One of the primary FCRD goals is to research, develop and demonstrate ways to “close” the fuel cycle so fuel is reused or recycled rather than being shelved before all of its energy has been used. INL coordinates many of the FCRD’s national research efforts, including:

Continuing critical fuel cycle research and development (R&D) activities
Pursuing the development of policy and regulatory framework to support fuel cycle closure
Developing deployable technologies
Establishing advanced modeling and simulation program elements
Implementing a science-based R&D program

Light Water Reactor Sustainability program

The Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program supports national efforts to do the research and gather the information necessary to demonstrate whether it is safe and prudent to apply for extensions beyond 60 years of operating life.

The Program aims to safely and economically extend the service lives of the more than 100 electricity-generating nuclear power plants in the United States. The program brings together technical information, performs important research and organizes data to be used in license-extension applications.

Advanced Test Reactor National Scientific User Facility

INL’s Advanced Test Reactor is a research reactor located approximately 50 miles (80 km) from Idaho Falls, Idaho.

The Department of Energy named Advanced Test Reactor a National Scientific User Facility in April 2007. This designation opened the facility to use by university-led scientific research groups and gives them free access to the ATR and other resources at INL and partner facilities. In addition to a rolling proposal solicitation with two closing dates each year, INL holds an annual “Users Week” and summer session to familiarize researchers with the user facility capabilities available to them.

Nuclear Energy University Programs

DOE’s Nuclear Energy University Programs provide funding for university research grants, fellowships, scholarships and infrastructure upgrades.

For example, in May 2010, the program awarded $38 million for 42 university-led R&D projects at 23 United States universities in 17 states. In FY 2009, the program awarded about $44 million to 71 R&D projects and more than $6 million in infrastructure grants to 30 U.S. universities and colleges in 23 states. INL’s Center for Advanced Energy Studies administers the program for DOE. CAES is a collaboration between INL and Idaho’s three public research universities: The Idaho State University, Boise State University and The University of Idaho.

Multiphysics Methods Group

The Multiphysics Methods Group (MMG) is a program at Idaho National Laboratory (under the United States Department of Energy) begun in 2004. It uses applications based on the multiphysics and modeling framework MOOSE to simulate complex physical and chemical reactions inside nuclear reactors. The ultimate goal of the program is to use these simulation tools to enable more efficient use of nuclear fuel, resulting in lower electricity costs and less waste products.

The MMG focuses on problems within nuclear reactors related to its fuel and how heat is transferred inside the reactor. “Fuel degradation” refers to how uranium pellets and the rods they are encased in (several rods bundled together is what makes a “fuel assembly”) eventually wear out over time due to high heat and irradiation inside a reactor. The group states three main objectives: “The mission of the MMG is to support the INL goal to advance the U.S. nuclear energy endeavor by:

Furthering the state of computational nuclear engineering
Developing a robust technical basis in multidimensional multiphysics analysis methods
Developing the next generation of reactor simulation codes and tools”

The work done by the group directly supports programs such as the Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program’s research into advanced nuclear fuels.

National and Homeland Security

INL’s National and Homeland Security division focuses on two main areas: protecting critical infrastructures such as electricity transmission lines, utilities and wireless communications networks, and preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Control systems cybersecurity

For nearly a decade, INL has been conducting vulnerability assessments and developing technology to increase infrastructure resilience. With a strong emphasis on industry collaboration and partnership, INL is enhancing electric grid reliability, control systems cybersecurity and physical security systems.

INL conducts advanced cyber training and oversees simulated competitive exercises for national and international customers. The lab supports cyber security and control systems programs for the departments of Homeland Security, Energy and Defense. INL staff members are frequently asked to provide guidance and leadership to standards organizations, regulatory agencies and national policy committees.

In January 2011, it was reported by The New York Times that the INL was allegedly responsible for some of the initial research behind the Stuxnet virus, which allegedly crippled Iran’s nuclear centrifuges. The INL, which teamed up with Siemens, conducted research on the P.C.S.-7 control system to identify its vulnerabilities. According to the Times, that information would later be used by the American and Israeli governments to create the Stuxnet virus.

The Times article was later disputed by other journalists, including Forbes blogger Jeffrey Carr, as being both sensational and lacking verifiable facts. In March 2011, Vanity Fair’s magazine cover story on Stuxnet carried INL’s official response, stating, “Idaho National Laboratory was not involved in the creation of the Stuxnet worm. In fact, our focus is to protect and defend control systems and critical infrastructures from cyber threats like Stuxnet and we are all well recognized for these efforts. We value the relationships that we have formed within the control systems industry and in no way would risk these partnerships by divulging confidential information.”
Nuclear nonproliferation

Building on INL’s nuclear mission and legacy in reactor design and operations, the lab’s engineers are developing technology, shaping policy and leading initiatives to secure the nuclear fuel cycle and prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Under the direction of the National Nuclear Security Administration, INL and other national laboratory scientists are leading a global initiative to secure foreign stockpiles of fresh and spent highly enriched uranium and return it to secure storage for processing. Other engineers are working to convert U.S. research reactors and build new reactor fuels that replace highly enriched uranium with a safer, low-enriched uranium fuel. To protect against threats from the dispersal of nuclear and radiological devices, INL researchers also examine radiological materials to understand their origin and potential uses. Others have applied their knowledge to the development of detection technologies that scan and monitor containers for nuclear materials.

The laboratory’s expansive desert location, nuclear facilities and wide range of source materials provide an ideal training location for military responders, law enforcement and other civilian first responders. INL routinely supports these organizations by leading classroom training, conducting field exercises and assisting in technology assessments.

Energy and environmental projects

Advanced Vehicle Testing Activity

INL’s Advanced Vehicle Testing Activity gathers information from more than 4000 plug-in-hybrid vehicles. These vehicles, operated by a wide swath of companies, local and state governments, advocacy groups, and others are located all across the United States, Canada and Finland. Together, they’ve logged a combined 1.5 million miles worth of data that are analyzed by specialists at INL.

Dozens of other types of vehicles, like hydrogen-fueled and pure electric cars, are also tested at INL. This data will help evaluate the performance and other factors that will be critical to widespread adoption of plug-in or other alternative vehicles.

Bioenergy

INL researchers are partnering with farmers, agricultural equipment manufacturers and universities to optimize the logistics of an industrial-scale biofuel economy. Agricultural waste products — such as wheat straw; corncobs, stalks or leaves; or bioenergy crops such as switchgrass or miscanthus — could be used to create cellulosic biofuels. INL researchers are working to determine the most economic and sustainable ways to get biofuel raw materials from fields to biorefineries.

Robotics

INL’s robotics program researches, builds, tests and refines robots that, among other things, clean up dangerous wastes, measure radiation, scout drug-smuggling tunnels, aid search-and-rescue operations, and help protect the environment.

These robots roll, crawl, fly, and go under water, even in swarms that communicate with each other on the go to do their jobs.

Biological Systems

The Biological Systems department is housed in 15 laboratories with a total of 12,000 square feet (1,100 m^2) at the INL Research Center in Idaho Falls. The department engages in a wide variety of biological studies, including studying bacteria and other microbes that live in extreme conditions such as the extremely high temperature pools of Yellowstone National Park. These types of organisms could boost the efficiency of biofuels production. Other studies related to uncommon microbes have potential in areas such as carbon dioxide sequestration and groundwater cleanup.

Hybrid energy systems

INL is pioneering the research and testing associated with hybrid energy systems that combine multiple energy sources for optimum carbon management and energy production. For example, a nuclear reactor could provide electricity when certain renewable resources aren’t available, while also providing a carbon-free source of heat and hydrogen that could be used, for example, to make liquid transportation fuels from coal.

Nuclear waste processing

In mid-2014, construction of a new liquid waste processing facility, the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit, was nearing completion at INTEC on the INL site. It will process approximately 900,000 gallons of liquid nuclear waste using a steam reforming process to produce a granular product suitable for disposal. The facility is the first of its kind and based on a scaled prototype. The project is a part of the Department of Energy’s Idaho Cleanup Project aimed at removing waste and demolishing old nuclear facilities at the INL site.

Safety and Tritium Applied Research

In May 2022, CNBC reported the Safety and Tritium Applied Research (STAR) program has been set up to looking into the production and safety protocols for working with tritium, the fuel that many startups are working on to commercialize fusion power.

Interdisciplinary projects

The Instrumentation, Control and Intelligent Systems (ICIS) Distinctive Signature supports mission-related research and development in key capability areas: safeguards and control system security, sensor technologies, intelligent automation, human systems integration, and robotics and intelligent systems. These five key areas support the INL mission to “ensure the nation’s energy security with safe, competitive, and sustainable energy systems and unique national and homeland security.”[citation needed] Through its grand challenge in resilient control systems, ICIS research is providing a holistic approach to aspects of design that have often been bolt-on, including human systems, security and modeling of complex interdependency.

From The DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory : “Standing guard against network invaders”

From The DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory

2.19.24
Joelyn Hansen

Sentinel. INL.

Anyone who has flown on a commercial flight, crossed an international border, visited a government building or attended a concert knows you’re not getting inside until you pass the security guards.

Placing guards outside the gates is a centuries-old defense strategy used to protect people, places and things from those who seek to do harm.

Like those guards, Idaho National Laboratory’s newest network anomaly detection technology —Sentinel — is designed to keep viruses, malware and other malicious software from invading critical communication networks.

Sentinel isn’t the first product in the market to fight against cyber threats, said INL researcher Matt Anderson. However, Sentinel is the first to fight threats at the network level by using machine learning to sequester malicious network packets — digital containers filled with data — before they reach their intended destination, such as a cell phone or laptop. The ability to capture and sequester malicious data in transit opens a new front in the cyber battlefield.

INL Researcher and Sentinel Creator Matt Anderson demonstrates how the technology’s hardware is designed to keep viruses, malware and other malicious software from invading critical communication networks.

“The conventional cybersecurity viewpoint is to just secure the end-point system rather than sequestering malicious software in the network while still in flight,” Anderson said. “Cyber criminals can send malware across networks with near impunity since the network packets aren’t being scanned, leaving the end-point systems to defend themselves. Sentinel aims to defend against malicious behavior at the network level rather than at the end-point system.”

How does Sentinel work?

Sentinel examines cyber data packets on a network in real-time, efficiently identifying and stopping anomalous or malicious packets almost instantaneously — roughly 300 microseconds — before they can move through the network. Sentinel captures these packet anomalies without disrupting network flow.

The technology works like a border crossing where thousands of vehicles pass through the border check every millisecond, Anderson said. Because of its speed, Sentinel can scan each vehicle, pulling aside suspicious cars without interrupting the flow of traffic.

Sentinel’s ability to prevent digital incursions at the network level required multiple hardware and software innovations to capture malicious behavior that would otherwise be difficult to detect.

This quick and efficient process is important to network managers because it takes only moments for malicious packets to cause harm down the road.

Sentinel’s ability to prevent digital incursions at the network level required multiple hardware and software innovations to capture malicious behavior that would otherwise be difficult to detect. The technology’s innovations include combining different genres of machine learning to best identify and reduce false alerts, and a programmable logic device that allows the hardware to run faster on very little power and at low cost.

Taking Sentinel to market

Cleveland Electric Laboratories (CEL) — a 100-plus-year-old U.S.-based company specializing in sensors — licensed Sentinel for use in broad application in network cybersecurity, according to CEL director Robert Riegle. Sentinel is outside CEL’s wheelhouse, Riegle said, but the company sees a future for the technology and plans to create a startup company to sell Sentinel to network managers and providers.

CEL will specifically market Sentinel to companies and entities that build, manage and secure telecommunication networks.

Partnerships with INL

CEL was motivated to license the technology not just because of Sentinel’s novelty, but because past collaborations with INL demonstrated the laboratory’s reputation for quality technologies and research, Riegle said.

Sentinel examines cyber data packets on a network in real-time, efficiently identifying and stopping anomalous or malicious packets before they can move through the network.

“At the end of the day what we like about INL tech is that it’s proven,” Riegle said.

INL Director of Technology Transitions Jason Stolworthy said strategic partnerships and industry engagement are key to moving the lab forward.

“There’s a long list of innovations and technologies that are making a meaningful impact in our communities,” Stolworthy said. “When we pair INL’s innovations with skilled entrepreneurs like Robert Riegle who turn them into cutting-edge commercial products, our lives are improved and America strengthens its global technological leadership.”

See the full article here.

Comments are invited and will be appreciated, especially if the reader finds any errors which I can correct. Use “Reply” near the bottom of the post.

five-ways-keep-your-child-safe-school-shootings

Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

Research

Nuclear Energy Projects

Next Generation Nuclear Plant

Fuel Cycle Research & Development

Light Water Reactor Sustainability program

Advanced Test Reactor National Scientific User Facility

INL’s Advanced Test Reactor is a research reactor located approximately 50 miles (80 km) from Idaho Falls, Idaho.

Nuclear Energy University Programs

DOE’s Nuclear Energy University Programs provide funding for university research grants, fellowships, scholarships and infrastructure upgrades.

Multiphysics Methods Group

The work done by the group directly supports programs such as the Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program’s research into advanced nuclear fuels.

National and Homeland Security

Control systems cybersecurity

Energy and environmental projects

Advanced Vehicle Testing Activity

Bioenergy

Robotics

These robots roll, crawl, fly, and go under water, even in swarms that communicate with each other on the go to do their jobs.

Biological Systems

Hybrid energy systems

Nuclear waste processing

Safety and Tritium Applied Research

Interdisciplinary projects

From The DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory : “Tracking radioactive source recovery – New Cesium Irradiator Replacement Project Dashboard”

From The DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory

2.5.24
Michelle Goff

People often think of radiation as the basis for carbon-free nuclear power. But radiation can also save lives. That’s especially true in hospitals where professionals use nuclear medicine to make diagnoses, treat medical conditions and sterilize equipment.

One such medical treatment includes radioisotopes in irradiators used to treat donated blood to prevent graft-versus-host disease. The disease is caused by complicated interactions between donor immune cells and host tissues. The condition can cause complications in patients already suffering from weakened immunity making the success of a life-saving transplant less likely.

Preventing graft-versus-host disease requires treating donated blood through blood irradiators, which expose blood to radiation to deactivate problematic cells. Cesium-137, a radioactive isotope of cesium, releases radiation at an energy that deactivates T lymphocytes, a certain white blood cell that’s a common culprit in the onset of graft-versus-host disease.

The mobile hot cell

Alternatives to cesium-137

Despite their many useful applications, inherent risk still exists with the use of radioactive materials such as cesium-137. These materials also could be used in a radiological dispersal device, or “dirty bomb”. Fortunately, technology has progressed, and alternatives now exist that can irradiate blood to achieve the same results without the need for cesium-137. As the medical community works to replace blood irradiators with non-radioactive alternatives, they need a team with a unique skill set.

The Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration’s (DOE/NNSA) Office of Radiological Security (ORS) works with national laboratories to provide assistance to owners of cesium-based blood irradiators as they make the transition to non-radioactive alternatives, such as X-ray irradiators. Through its Cesium Irradiator Replacement Project, ORS works with national laboratories such as Idaho National Laboratory (INL) to help sites make the switch away from cesium by providing an incentive for the new device and recovering the old device at no cost.

“ORS started the Cesium Irradiator Replacement Project, or CIRP, in 2016 to permanently reduce risk by replacing cesium-based irradiators with nonradioactive technology,” said Kevin Kenney, a source recovery team member. “The National Defense Authorization Act of 2019 put additional support behind CIRP and established a goal to replace all cesium blood irradiators by the end of 2027 through a voluntary program.”

Importance of safe recovery

When the radioactive material in blood irradiators is depleted beyond its useful level or the device is no longer needed, that device must be safely recovered.

INL and the DOE’s Los Alamos National Laboratory make up the Offsite Source Recovery Program (OSRP) team, with the expertise to safely recover radioactive source material. The team is funded by DOE/NNSA and collaborates closely with ORS, other national laboratories, local authorities and private businesses to safely recover disused radioactive material around the country.

OSRP is a critical part of ORS’s goal to replace all remaining cesium blood irradiators in the United States by the end of 2027. Careful planning is required between OSRP and other stakeholders working on CIRP to ensure that the old devices are removed safely and in time for replacement devices to be installed.

Improving recovery tracking

To achieve CIRP’s goals, the OSRP team, other national laboratories, and staff at ORS must adequately track progress toward removing and replacing all cesium blood irradiators. The current tracking system provides high level information that requires time intensive processing to provide the granular data and statistics users are looking for.

Recently, INL researchers developed a web-based dashboard to track CIRP progress toward recovering and removing all cesium blood irradiators in the United States.

“We’re working to develop a web-based tool that can generate real-time statistics to show our progress toward removing all cesium blood irradiators and when we’ve removed them,” said Cleve Davis, another team member. “This dashboard will plot our status toward total recovery as a percentage and showcase how many new irradiators have been recovered at any point in time.”

The dashboard will also allow users to sort the information based on different attributes, like completion of certain milestones or schedules for recovery, so they can access all data related to the source recovery efforts. This will allow all the team members to quickly and easily find the information they need to complete their part of the mission.

A work in progress

The dashboard development team has overcome many challenges to make this first iteration possible. As a developer, Davis needs subject matter expertise in several areas to ensure that all the correct data points are included. These areas include data science/statistics, computer science, cyber, Human-computer interaction, and geographic information systems. He also must build proper protections into the system for all sensitive unclassified data.

Now that the INL team has developed the first version of the dashboard, which now has a prototype test scheduled with ORS staff, it will expand and refine the tool in the months and years to come.

“This first dashboard just highlights the capabilities of these kinds of displays,” Davis said. “We will continue updating it to ensure that it reflects the needs of our customers and the CIRP program at large, fulfilling our mission of recovering all cesium blood irradiators in the nation.”

See the full article here.

Comments are invited and will be appreciated, especially if the reader finds any errors which I can correct. Use “Reply” near the bottom of the post.

five-ways-keep-your-child-safe-school-shootings

Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

Research

Nuclear Energy Projects

Next Generation Nuclear Plant

Fuel Cycle Research & Development

Light Water Reactor Sustainability program

Advanced Test Reactor National Scientific User Facility

INL’s Advanced Test Reactor is a research reactor located approximately 50 miles (80 km) from Idaho Falls, Idaho.

Nuclear Energy University Programs

DOE’s Nuclear Energy University Programs provide funding for university research grants, fellowships, scholarships and infrastructure upgrades.

Multiphysics Methods Group

The work done by the group directly supports programs such as the Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program’s research into advanced nuclear fuels.

National and Homeland Security

Control systems cybersecurity

Energy and environmental projects

Advanced Vehicle Testing Activity

Bioenergy

Robotics

These robots roll, crawl, fly, and go under water, even in swarms that communicate with each other on the go to do their jobs.

Biological Systems

Hybrid energy systems

Nuclear waste processing

Safety and Tritium Applied Research

Interdisciplinary projects

From The DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory : “Under the sea – INL supporting effort to repurpose ocean plastics as blended biofuel feedstocks”

From The DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory

1.15.24
Michelle Goff

Credit: INL.

Perhaps one of the most ubiquitous and powerful images of the ongoing pollution crisis is that of plastic floating in the ocean or littered across once-paradisiacal sandy beaches. The plastic has grown the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch”, and microplastics found in fish lead to significant health problems and earlier deaths for impacted marine life. These ocean plastics are a sobering reminder of the negative impact humans can have on the world.

Research at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) addresses some of that impact by helping convert these plastics, combined with biomass, into useful fuels and chemicals, using the Biomass Feedstock National User Facility (BFNUF). The Ocean Plastics Recovery Project (OPRP), an organization responsible for recovering and reusing ocean plastics, as well as other groups, helped INL acquire a large quantity of ocean plastics to help this effort.

The ocean plastics fractionation cycle. INL.

“One of the key benefits of engaging with the Biomass Feedstock National User Facility is the access to modular preprocessing equipment configurations and renowned material-handling experts,” said Luke Williams, a program lead for the facility. “Our partners working on ocean plastics were able to complete a user facility agreement with us to process the plastics using our state-of-the-art equipment and available biomass resources.”

The goal of these user facility agreements is to provide Department of Energy funding to help industry partners conduct feedstock quality research at scales they can’t typically afford alone. These agreements also highlight often overlooked processing research.

Three companies submitted to INL’s Biomass Feedstock National User Facility (BFNUF) to examine processing strategies that could change the fate of these materials. The plastic waste — including nets, buoys and other debris — washed up on beaches from OPRP. This also included baled Capri Sun pouches, which are 80% plastic and 20% aluminum, from the Alberta Beverage Recycling Company and mixed plastic residues from a plastics recycling facility operated by EFS Plastics.

“One thing we want to understand with these baled drink pouches is whether we’ll be able to recover and recycle that valuable aluminum at the end of the conversion process,” Williams said. BFNUF researchers will study how multilayered packaging impacts gasification processes and if the aluminum can be recovered from the plastic.

Initial pelletizing tests with ocean plastics created high-quality pellets. Later tests, however, created a melted mass that plugged the machine. The melting was probably caused by the ground fishing nets that made everything tangle and clog. The BFNUF team innovated by adding mixed biomass — in this case, roughly 20% ground pine by mass — to keep material moving and to provide a porous surface to bind with the plastics.

The ocean plastic bales as they originally came to INL.

Adding the wood chips made this new feedstock and improved pellet durability through greater binding of the mixed materials.

“One of the biggest challenges with such diverse wastes is separation of contaminants and consistency of flow after size reduction,” Williams said. “Because plastics that have washed up on beaches include items like large buoys, tarps and fishnets, they are much harder to break down into a consistently flowable material.”

While most of the material to better understand during the conversion process from biomass pellets to biofuels, which uses a variety of equipment. They also plan to explore how some of the plastics and biomass blends, which were prepared using small amounts of a chlorine-rich packaging film, would impact conversion performance.

The researchers have gained valuable insights into turning ocean plastics into a flowable feedstock. Those insights include how to break down new materials with sometimes unknown compositions and how to blend waste with biomass to solve flowability challenges. Now, they are better equipped to deal with heterogeneous materials and compounds, which will be crucial in the fight against environmental pollution. However, the BFNUF team still has a lot to learn about how these ocean plastics and other mixed wastes will respond to the conversion process to produce useful fuels and chemicals.

“While some material discarded on beaches can be sorted out and recycled, it’s important to have a place and use for the pieces that would otherwise contaminate our environment and contribute to microplastic pollution,” Williams said. “Taking these harmfully discarded plastics and turning them into fuels and chemicals is a key part of the BFNUF mission.”

See the full article here.

Comments are invited and will be appreciated, especially if the reader finds any errors which I can correct. Use “Reply” near the bottom of the post.

five-ways-keep-your-child-safe-school-shootings

Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

Research

Nuclear Energy Projects

Next Generation Nuclear Plant

Fuel Cycle Research & Development

Light Water Reactor Sustainability program

Advanced Test Reactor National Scientific User Facility

INL’s Advanced Test Reactor is a research reactor located approximately 50 miles (80 km) from Idaho Falls, Idaho.

Nuclear Energy University Programs

DOE’s Nuclear Energy University Programs provide funding for university research grants, fellowships, scholarships and infrastructure upgrades.

Multiphysics Methods Group

The work done by the group directly supports programs such as the Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program’s research into advanced nuclear fuels.

National and Homeland Security

Control systems cybersecurity

Energy and environmental projects

Advanced Vehicle Testing Activity

Bioenergy

Robotics

These robots roll, crawl, fly, and go under water, even in swarms that communicate with each other on the go to do their jobs.

Biological Systems

Hybrid energy systems

Nuclear waste processing

Safety and Tritium Applied Research

Interdisciplinary projects

From The DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory : “Going digital – Idaho students and engineers demonstrate first nuclear reactor digital twin”

From The DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory

12.18.23
Michelle Goff

The team checks out a component of the reactor’s “digital twin”.

Idaho National Laboratory researchers and Idaho State University (ISU) nuclear engineering students developed the world’s first nuclear reactor “digital twin” — a virtual replica of ISU’s AGN-201 reactor — in a campus collaboration last August.

“Digital twins” are virtual models of real-life assets, such as complex infrastructure, machines or buildings. By modeling nuclear reactors, digital twins allow researchers to understand how certain changes affect the entire system, without making an irreversible change to the physical reactor itself. Digital twins could save nuclear energy researchers time and money, especially as new, innovative reactors come online.

The AGN-201 digital twin receives real-time data from the actual reactor, then uses machine learning to anticipate its performance. With the digital twin, researchers can interact with the real-world reactor in mixed reality by monitoring data. Someday, “digital twins” of nuclear reactors could allow operators to control the reactor remotely.

The AGN-201 reactor, which began operating in 1965, produces fewer than five watts of heat and requires no active cooling. The physical reactor has a simple and safe design intended to perform research activities and teach students the practical aspects of nuclear reactor operation.

“The benefits of a nuclear reactor digital twin are enormous,” said Christopher Ritter, INL’s Digital Engineering manager. “Digital twins provide a comprehensive understanding of nuclear fuel cycle facility operations, strengthening nuclear security and nonproliferation efforts.”

Bringing the first digital twin of a nuclear reactor online required more than a dozen tests, significant tenacity and patience from INL researchers and ISU nuclear engineering students.

The project began when INL digital engineer Ryan Stewart, an ISU alum, recommended using the AGN-201 reactor for some of the team’s planned demonstrations. The reactor is an ideal test bed for this project because it is simple compared to commercial power reactors.

ISU students installed data acquisition equipment in the reactor and developed operation scenarios to test the reactor twin — gaining a unique opportunity to take part in cutting edge research. The lab provided much of the digital engineering support, including data acquisition, cloud streaming, machine learning and mixed reality.

The lab’s team presented these results to Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm in May 2023. Earlier in the year, the National Nuclear Security Administration listed the project as one of two big Idaho highlights for the coming year.

“It was an honor to have the opportunity to contribute to a project that fabricated the very first digital twin for a nuclear reactor,” said Jaden Palmer, one of the students working on the project.

The Idaho governor’s office, in a statement, congratulated the team on its milestone achievement.

“The partnership between INL and ISU will fuel the next frontier of nuclear energy research and energy independence while offering Idaho students a new, innovative approach to post-secondary education.”

See the full article here.

Comments are invited and will be appreciated, especially if the reader finds any errors which I can correct. Use “Reply” near the bottom of the post.

five-ways-keep-your-child-safe-school-shootings

Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

Research

Nuclear Energy Projects

Next Generation Nuclear Plant

Fuel Cycle Research & Development

Light Water Reactor Sustainability program

Advanced Test Reactor National Scientific User Facility

INL’s Advanced Test Reactor is a research reactor located approximately 50 miles (80 km) from Idaho Falls, Idaho.

Nuclear Energy University Programs

DOE’s Nuclear Energy University Programs provide funding for university research grants, fellowships, scholarships and infrastructure upgrades.

Multiphysics Methods Group

The work done by the group directly supports programs such as the Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program’s research into advanced nuclear fuels.

National and Homeland Security

Control systems cybersecurity

Energy and environmental projects

Advanced Vehicle Testing Activity

Bioenergy

Robotics

These robots roll, crawl, fly, and go under water, even in swarms that communicate with each other on the go to do their jobs.

Biological Systems

Hybrid energy systems

Nuclear waste processing

Safety and Tritium Applied Research

Interdisciplinary projects

From The DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory : “DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory to play a key role in Midwest hydrogen hub”

From The DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory

11.9.23
Cory Hatch

Reversible Solid Oxide Cell test facility at Idaho National Laboratory.

As the United States works to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, different energy sectors will require different solutions.

Renewables and nuclear energy will help decarbonize electricity production, and the light-duty transportation sector will reduce emissions primarily by switching to electric vehicles. Natural gas will continue to displace coal-fired power plants as carbon capture and sequestration also advances.

But other energy sectors are more difficult to decarbonize. Many industries require more than just electricity to run their processes. Some, such as steel and cement production, also need heat, while the ammonia used to make fertilizer requires hydrogen. And today’s batteries charge too slowly and are too heavy to efficiently power semitractor-trailer trucks and other heavy machines.

To solve these challenges, experts envision an economy where carbon-free hydrogen serves as a transportation fuel, a chemical precursor, an energy storage medium and a source of high temperature heat for industry.

Now, Idaho National Laboratory is poised to play a key role in forming a hydrogen economy. On Oct. 13, the Midwest Alliance for Clean Hydrogen, LLC (MachH2) announced that it was selected by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations to develop a Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub. The MachH2 hub is one of seven hydrogen hubs planned by DOE.

Credit: INL.

The hub will establish a supply chain for producing, storing, distributing and using hydrogen. The hub is expected to create thousands of jobs during construction and operation.

INL researchers will lead efforts to identify potential end users, perform technoeconomic analyses, and develop and commercialize next generation hydrogen and advanced nuclear technologies for the hub.

The high-temperature steam electrolysis testing facility at Idaho National Laboratory. Credit: INL.The efficiency of high-temperature electrolysis is 20% to 25% higher than low temperature electrolysis. Plus, the process is carbon-free if you use the high-temperature heat and electricity supplied by a clean energy source like nuclear during times of low grid demand.

To help mature these technologies for the MachH2 hub, INL has proposed a 4- to 10-megawatt (MW) hydrogen proving ground at its desert site.

“We want to get high-temperature electrolysis up to speed,” Snyder said. “Now we’re demonstrating 1 megawatt systems, and we need to get it to 10 megawatt and beyond.”

INL has also partnered with industry for low- and high-temperature hydrogen production demonstrations at three commercial nuclear power plants in the United States. Some of these systems began operation in 2023.

These demonstration projects have helped prove technologies and reduce the technical, economic and safety risk of coupling nuclear reactors with hydrogen plants.

Technoeconomic and life cycle analysis

In the near term, INL, along with the DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory, Northwestern University and the University of Michigan, will support MachH2 by providing the technoeconomic and life cycle analyses of the hydrogen hub.

INL’s technoeconomic analyses will include modeling the construction and operation of the various components of the hub and determining how the economics of those components fit within the marketplace. The life cycle analysis — performed by Argonne — will eventually determine the carbon dioxide emissions reductions, using operational data to confirm the calculations and predictions.

Inside the high-temperature steam electrolysis testing facility.

“We are going to be spending time and resources to basically determine how the infrastructure should be operated and look for ways to incorporate technologies that INL is researching,” said Dan Wendt, an INL researcher who leads the technoeconomic analysis team. “That includes how the hub could use advanced nuclear and high-temperature electrolysis to further improve impacts and economics.”

Certain aspects of the technoeconomic analysis will be investigated using HERON, a modeling tool set that determines optimal integrated energy system configurations and operating strategies to maximize economics. It’s a complicated question. Researchers will need to build a model capable of balancing the demands of the grid with the needs of hydrogen consumers while considering the overall economics for the entire system.

“We want to know how these systems are going to work together to achieve the greatest impact while still being economically competitive,” Wendt said.

The chicken or the egg?

In the end, the hydrogen hub is a complex mixture of several different hydrogen sources and many different projects including transportation networks, storage facilities and a multitude of end users.

By integrating these components into a single system, MachH2 “helps address the chicken and egg question,” Wendt said. “What comes first, the markets or the production capability? It gives you a foothold for helping the hydrogen economy take off.”

“Our team can play a major role in helping inform how the MachH2 hub components can work together to ensure reliability, competitiveness and large impacts in CO2 reductions,” he said.

The MachH2 hub represents “a transformative opportunity for the lab,” Snyder said.

Richard Boardman, INL lead for Nuclear-Hydrogen Systems Integration, agreed.

“As the lead lab for nuclear energy applications, INL will use its computational and testing capabilities to ensure the commercial success of hydrogen production and use by industry,” he said. “The express purpose of INL’s capabilities is to validate electrolysis stacks and integrated electrolysis modules that are capable of flexible operations.”

To learn more about INL’s research on hydrogen, visit https://inl.gov/integrated-energy/hydrogen/ .

See the full article here.

Comments are invited and will be appreciated, especially if the reader finds any errors which I can correct. Use “Reply” near the bottom of the post.

five-ways-keep-your-child-safe-school-shootings

Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

In 1949, the federal research facility was established as the National Reactor Testing Station (NRTS). In 1975, the United States Atomic Energy Commission was divided into the Energy Research and Development Administration and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The Idaho site was for a short time named ERDA and then subsequently renamed to the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL) in 1977 with the creation of the United States Department of Energy (DOE) under President Jimmy Carter. After two decades as INEL, the name was changed again to the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) in 1997. Throughout its lifetime, there have been more than 50 one-of-a-kind nuclear reactors built by various organizations at the facility for testing; all but three are out of service.

Research

Nuclear Energy Projects

Next Generation Nuclear Plant

Fuel Cycle Research & Development

Light Water Reactor Sustainability program

Advanced Test Reactor National Scientific User Facility

INL’s Advanced Test Reactor is a research reactor located approximately 50 miles (80 km) from Idaho Falls, Idaho.

Nuclear Energy University Programs

DOE’s Nuclear Energy University Programs provide funding for university research grants, fellowships, scholarships and infrastructure upgrades.

Multiphysics Methods Group

The work done by the group directly supports programs such as the Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program’s research into advanced nuclear fuels.

National and Homeland Security

Control systems cybersecurity

Energy and environmental projects

Advanced Vehicle Testing Activity

Bioenergy

Robotics

These robots roll, crawl, fly, and go under water, even in swarms that communicate with each other on the go to do their jobs.

Biological Systems

Hybrid energy systems

Nuclear waste processing

Safety and Tritium Applied Research

Interdisciplinary projects

From The DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory : “Future of mining is microreactors – Idaho National Laboratory sees big benefits”

From The DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory

10.2.23
Cory Hatch

Powering a remote zinc mine located roughly 600 miles northwest of Anchorage, Alaska, is a Herculean task.

Governments and industry have taken a particular interest in remote arctic mining locations, not only because of the region’s vast mineral resources, but also because of shipping routes that are opening through the ice due to climate change. Still, getting energy to those locations is extremely difficult. First, a tanker must transport diesel fuel to a port on the Arctic Ocean during the few months when the water is free of ice. An unexpected storm can delay fuels shipments, costing the mine thousands of dollars in revenue.

“You have to barge the fuel during your shipping window, store it at the fuel farm and then truck it 70 miles inland daily,” said Jennifer Leinart, president of InfoMine USA Inc., a company that provides cost estimating for the mining industry. “The mine is spending 80 cents a kilowatt-hour, at least, to self-generate electricity using diesel generators.”

That’s six to 10 times the cost of electricity in the lower 48 states, and a major expense for a mine that uses 460,000 kilowatts to extract and process 20,000 metric tons of ore each day.

As communities around the world work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, experts have identified a handful of niches that will be especially difficult to decarbonize.

The mining industry is one of these niches, along with remote communities, marine propulsion, and industries such as chemical, concrete and steel production. Some of these applications require heat as well as electricity, are too remote to connect with the electric grid or have energy requirements that make batteries impractical.

Now, researchers at Idaho National Laboratory are exploring how microreactors could help reduce costs for mining operations, which often face the dual challenges of high energy needs and remote locations.

The idea isn’t new. Several microreactors were built and deployed during the early years of nuclear energy development, including a 1-megawatt reactor that powered a radar station near Sundance, Wyoming.

Tomorrow’s microreactors — small, factory built, easy-to-move nuclear reactors — are flexible enough to provide both electricity and heat, require little space and are safe to operate. These configurable, transportable “fission batteries” present a carbon-free option for companies looking to reduce carbon emissions.

While the capital costs of a microreactor might be higher than diesel generators, they are cleaner and more reliable, and the cost for the reactor fuel, operations and maintenance would be less than the cost of diesel fuel.

MINING IS RIPE FOR MICROREACTORS

Experts estimate that mining accounts for between 4% and 7% of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions and around 3.5% of all energy consumed. And yet, the mining industry is essential to meeting climate change goals because it provides the minerals such as lithium, cobalt and rare-earth elements necessary to produce batteries, wind turbines, solar panels, nuclear reactors and other zero emissions technologies.

“We’re recognizing that mining might be a ripe area for use of these microreactors,” said David Shropshire, a nuclear energy economist at INL. “The cost of getting the fossil fuel and storing it is really expensive. Fuel shortages at the mine due to extreme weather are another concern.”

Shropshire explores the economics of nuclear mining as part of the INL-led Emerging Energy Markets Analysis initiative. The initiative is a collaboration among INL, the University of Alaska, Boise State University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Michigan, the University of Wyoming and the University of Utah. It helps states and regions transition to clean energy technologies, including nuclear energy.

Microreactors could be a good opportunity for the mining industry, said Halle Cogley, an INL intern who grew up in five different mining towns. Her mother, father and brother still work in the industry.

“A lot of mines are moving toward renewable energy to cut down on emissions, but solar and wind aren’t always reliable,” she said. “A microreactor could solve those problems.”

ELECTRIFICATION

The next generation of simple, reliable microreactors comes as the mining industry explores the benefits of replacing fossil fuel-powered equipment such as excavators and haul trucks with electric alternatives.

Electric mining equipment would not only reduce fuel costs and emissions, but also maintenance costs and the need for ventilation in tunnels. Electrifying mines would also improve noise and air quality for workers and help the mine meet environmental regulations.

“It’s a perfect storm,” Shropshire said. “In the mining industry, there’s a general move toward electrification and away from fossil fuels. And there’s a lot of interest in using microreactors to generate that electricity.”

ADDITIONAL BENEFITS

Aside from the potential cost savings and the advantages of electric mining equipment, microreactors could provide additional benefits.

For starters, a microreactor could provide heat and electricity for further processing the ore. “Microreactors, because they could provide process heat, could be used for secondary ore processing,” said Shropshire. “That means the mining company could produce products that are more refined and more valuable.”

At the Alaska zinc mine, ore goes through an extensive milling process that could benefit from a reliable source of electric power, said Leinart. “If you lose power for a grinder filled with 20 tons of crushed rock, it is extremely difficult to get started again,” she said. “The need for reliable power is huge.”

Even mines connected to the electric grid might benefit from the process heat and electricity provided by microreactors and other advanced reactors.

In Nevada, operators of one mine have opted to supply their own power due to unreliable electricity from the grid. “You’re basically operating 24 hours a day, and there’s a steady demand for electricity and heat,” said Kaitlyn Bullock, a former employee who was tasked with seeking carbon-free energy sources for the mine.

“I looked at solar and wind plus battery storage, as well as geothermal,” said Bullock, who is now earning her master’s degree in nuclear engineering from KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden. “The most recent technology I looked at was nuclear. In my mind, that was really the energy source that best met the need in that region.”

Further, because microreactors are small and capable of being transported, they could provide a good portable power source for an industry where market fluctuations sometimes cause mining operations to close and relocate.

Likewise, if a mine extends operation, a microreactor could be swapped out for a freshly fueled unit capable of operating another five to 20 years.

COST INCENTIVES AND INTERNATIONAL MARKETS

The interest in using microreactors to power mining operations coincides with the passage of federal laws, including the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, that could incentivize a company’s contribution to a clean energy future.

“Some of these new laws provide tax credits for industries that produce critical minerals for solar cells, batteries and wind turbines,” said Shropshire. “These credits could particularly benefit projects in communities with closed coal mines or retired coal-fired power plants.”

If microreactors are coupled with these industries, these credits could make their products less expensive, which, in turn, could help microreactors deploy faster.

International markets that incentivize carbon-free imports like green steel could provide an important source of revenue for U.S. companies that use microreactors.

“We’re exploring how the inclusion of low-carbon nuclear can support production of green products that increase our competitiveness on the international scale,” Shropshire said.

See the full article here.

Comments are invited and will be appreciated, especially if the reader finds any errors which I can correct. Use “Reply” near the bottom of the post.

five-ways-keep-your-child-safe-school-shootings

Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

In 1949, the federal research facility was established as the National Reactor Testing Station (NRTS). In 1975, the United States Atomic Energy Commission was divided into the Energy Research and Development Administration and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The Idaho site was for a short time named ERDA and then subsequently renamed to the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL) in 1977 with the creation of the United States Department of Energy (DOE) under President Jimmy Carter. After two decades as INEL, the name was changed again to the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) in 1997. Throughout its lifetime, there have been more than 50 one-of-a-kind nuclear reactors built by various organizations at the facility for testing; all but three are out of service.

Research

Nuclear Energy Projects

Next Generation Nuclear Plant

Fuel Cycle Research & Development

Light Water Reactor Sustainability program

Advanced Test Reactor National Scientific User Facility

INL’s Advanced Test Reactor is a research reactor located approximately 50 miles (80 km) from Idaho Falls, Idaho.

Nuclear Energy University Programs

DOE’s Nuclear Energy University Programs provide funding for university research grants, fellowships, scholarships and infrastructure upgrades.

Multiphysics Methods Group

The work done by the group directly supports programs such as the Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program’s research into advanced nuclear fuels.

National and Homeland Security

Control systems cybersecurity

Energy and environmental projects

Advanced Vehicle Testing Activity

Bioenergy

Robotics

These robots roll, crawl, fly, and go under water, even in swarms that communicate with each other on the go to do their jobs.

Biological Systems

Hybrid energy systems

Nuclear waste processing

Safety and Tritium Applied Research

Interdisciplinary projects

From The University of Pittsburgh : “In this program Pitt students are working to protect the electric power grid”

From The University of Pittsburgh

8.17.23
Kat Procyk
Photography by Aimee Obidzinski

Working to protect the electric power grid. Pitt.

Isabella Hsia, a rising sophomore in bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering, wanted to try something new.

“Maybe something a little more research heavy”, she thought. “Definitely something to diversify my skill set. But what about my talents as a future engineer?”

As her first year in engineering ended, she couldn’t find the perfect program or internship to scratch her inquisitive itch.

“I really had no real-world experience up until this point,” Hsia said. “How do you know what you want to do after leaving Pitt if you haven’t tried anything apart from your classes?”

Then, an email from Brett Say, Pitt’s Director of Honors Research Programs, landed in her inbox, proposing an interesting opportunity. It was an invitation for students to participate in a pilot interdisciplinary program, Summer Honors Undergraduate Research Experience in Electric Grid, or “SHURE-Grid”, supported by the DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory.

As a collaboration between Pitt’s Swanson School, David C. Frederick Honors College and Office of Research, SHURE-Grid provides students with experience solving real-world problems while engaging with one of the 17 national U.S. Department of Energy labs.

Hsia didn’t know anything about the electric grid, but she couldn’t pass up the opportunity to try something so unique. So, she, along with seven other Pitt students from various disciplines, signed up.

Preventing a total blackout

The program’s first objective is to define the power grid and why it’s so critical to the country.

The energy grid represents the infrastructure to generate, transmit and distribute electricity from the utility to the consumer across the U.S. The grid makes modern human life possible, but it is getting older and buffeted by the effects of climate change. New-end technologies like EVs and smart devices need more energy; at the same time, the inexorable shift from fossil fuels to renewables requires new technologies to both meet demand and ensure national security.

SHURE-Grid faculty advisors Brandon Grainger and Paul Ohodnicki, who established the Energy GRID Institute at Pitt, are well-versed in the possible weaknesses of the electric grid.

“As the grid is being transformed with more intelligence through digital means, it is becoming more vulnerable to cyberattacks,” said Grainger. “If hackers are able to get into these digital platforms, disruption to electricity flow can occur, including the worst-case scenario — a total blackout.”

Grainger, who is an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and Eaton Faculty Fellow, and Ohodnicki, an associate professor of mechanical engineering and materials science, develop new grid technologies at the Energy Innovation Center in Pittsburgh’s Lower Hill District. They bring their expertise to developing the SHURE-Grid program to train the next generation in how to prevent a coming crisis.

Bridging information technology and engineering

There’s currently a debate in government, industry and utilities on how to best — and who can best — protect the electric grid. That’s where Pitt students come in.

Daniel Cole, associate professor of mechanical engineering and materials science at the Swanson School and classroom professor with Grainger for the SHURE-Grid program, explained that students were divided into two teams and given a real-life problem rooted in cyber-informed engineering (CIE) from INL to solve.

CIE, developed by the Department of Energy in June 2022, is a framework that bridges the gap between engineers and information technicians to protect the grid from cyberattacks.

Cole said the risks of cybersecurity to critical infrastructure like the grid are causing the engineering and information technology worlds to collide. But these two fields are totally different in methodologies and solutions. That’s where CIE comes in.

“CIE is intended to get engineers to think about things more cyber-related early in the process of designing,” Cole said. “Are there ways we can engineer the system to be more safe, secure and reliable?”

The INL has been working with Pitt on CIE measures for more than a year. Ginger Wright, energy cybersecurity portfolio manager for the INL’s cybercore division, proposed asking students to investigate and solve this growing divide between engineers and information technology.

She said it’s not just a beneficial program for the students, but an important opportunity for INL.

“When I learned about the potential of the SHURE-Grid program, it became clear students were capable of creating new methods for existing work at the INL,” Wright said. “We wanted to leverage this program to teach students about CIE, but grant them the ability to interview stakeholders and make recommendations we may not have thought about.”

Two teams. One problem.

The two teams, called “Team GPT” and “Cyber Informed Engineering Enthusiasts”, are positioned to learn how companies are implementing and using CIE, whether it’s working and how to improve it.

“It’s not a class I would normally take,” said Kameren Jouhal, a rising sophomore from Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, who’s studying computer science. “It’s been really helpful for me, from networking to presenting.”

The method of solving these problems is simple: ask as many stakeholders as many questions as possible. The answers, however, aren’t quite as straightforward. Students need to continuously adapt their hypotheses and solutions to the problems at hand.

Every week, students present their findings to Cole and Grainger, who are intentionally highly critical of their presentations. This is part of the program’s learning process: The students have become more composed during these sometimes-intense moments and quicker to respond with well-researched answers.

There is occasionally well-meaning tension among students as they work through their projects, which they treat as a full-time job that requires multiple meetings and constant communication with each other. Say, the director of Honors Research Programs, was also able to secure apartments for some students in Bouquet Gardens for more convenient campus housing. Bioengineering sophomore Hsia said working with her team, made up of students from schools across campus, is one of the best learning experiences she’s had at Pitt.

“One of my teammates studies finance, so anytime I develop a solution, she has a million different questions for me that I didn’t even think of,” Hsia said. “It’s just part of the process.”

Rob Cunningham, vice chancellor for research infrastructure at Pitt, said SHURE-Grid is intentionally designed for students to interact with real industry professionals and a diverse group.

“Important results come from brilliant people with a wide range of backgrounds,” Cunningham explained. “Part of my job is working with multiple experts outside of mine and others’ realms, but all of them are working together to solve problems they find interesting and important. We wanted to have a program where Pitt undergraduates learned and experienced how true science is done, regardless of their degree and career path.”

Say also helped facilitate meetings and professional workshops between the SHURE-Grid program and the much larger Brackenridge Summer Research Fellowship Program.

Wright said although the INL may not implement the solutions the students developed, these conversations will move the laboratory forward and, hopefully, be the start of many more student-led workshops and summer camps in the future.

“These solutions will be at least in our conversations,” Wright said. “They’ve built awareness for those in our industry and put these ideas out for us to consider.”

See the full article here .

Comments are invited and will be appreciated, especially if the reader finds any errors which I can correct. Use “Reply”.

five-ways-keep-your-child-safe-school-shootings

Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

The University of Pittsburgh is a state-related research university, founded as the Pittsburgh Academy in 1787. Pitt is a member of The Association of American Universities, which comprises 71 preeminent doctorate-granting research institutions in North America, 69 in the U.S. and 2 in Canada.

The campus is situated adjacent to the flagship medical facilities of its closely affiliated University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) and its flagship hospital, UPMC Presbyterian, as well as the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, Schenley Park, and Carnegie Mellon University. The university also operates four undergraduate branch campuses in Western Pennsylvania, located in Bradford, Greensburg, Johnstown, and Titusville.

Pitt is classified among “R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity”. It is the second-largest non-government employer in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area.

From research achievements to the quality of its academic programs, the University of Pittsburgh ranks among the best in higher education.

Faculty members have expanded knowledge in the humanities and sciences, earning such prestigious honors as the National Medal of Science, the MacArthur Foundation’s “genius” grant, the Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award, and election to The National Academy of Sciences and The Institute of Medicine.

Pitt students have earned Rhodes, Goldwater, Marshall, and Truman Scholarships, among other highly competitive national and international scholarships.

Alumni have pioneered MRI and TV, won Nobels and Pulitzers, led corporations and universities, served in government and the military, conquered Hollywood and The New York Times bestsellers list, and won Super Bowls and NBA championships.

The Center for Measuring University Performance has ranked Pitt ninth in the top tier of U.S. research universities nationwide according to its 2015 annual report.

In its 2022 rankings, U.S. News & World Report ranked Pitt tied for 20th among public universities in the United States and tied for 59th among all national universities. Princeton Review placed Pitt among its Best Value Public Colleges, while Kiplinger rated Pitt the best value in Pennsylvania and thirty-sixth best nationally for out-of-state students among public universities in their 2016 rankings. The 2017 Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education college rankings of American universities ranked Pitt 75th overall, and the No. 1 public college in the Northeast.

In worldwide evaluations of universities, Newsweek ranked Pitt 37th in its The Top 100 Global Universities. Pitt ranked 43rd worldwide in the 2017 Center for World University Rankings. Pitt is also ranked 90th worldwide (and 42nd in the U.S.) in the 2018 Academic Ranking of World Universities. Pitt ranked 100th globally in the 2017/18 QS World University Rankings. Pitt ranks 25th of all universities in the world for the impact and performance of its 2016 scientific public publications according to the Performance Ranking of Scientific Papers for World Universities produced by the Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Council of Taiwan . Pitt ranks as the 42nd best higher education research institution worldwide according to SCImago Institutions Rankings‘ 2016 World Report.

In his 1985 book, Public Ivies: A Guide to America’s Best Public Undergraduate Colleges and Universities, Richard Moll included the University of Pittsburgh as one of the Public Ivy “worthy runners-up.”

In addition to its academic rankings, Pitt has also been recognized for its positive campus atmosphere, with The Princeton Review rating Pitt as having the eighth happiest student body and the 11th best quality of life in the nation in 2010.

Pitt’s law school was ranked tied for 78th in the U.S. in 2022 by U.S. News & World Report.

The University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work’s MSW program was ranked tied for 17th in the U.S. by U.S. News & World Report in 2020.

Pitt students and faculty have regularly won national and international scholarships and fellowship awards, including eight Rhodes Scholarships and ten Marshall Scholarships. In 2007, Pitt was one of only nine universities, and the only public university, to claim both Rhodes and Marshall Scholars. Since 1995, Pitt undergraduates have also won a total of five Truman Scholarships, seven Udall Scholarships, a Churchill Scholarship, a Gates Cambridge Scholarship, 43 Goldwater Scholarships, 23 Boren Scholarships, and three Mellon Humanities Fellowships.

Pitt is also a leading producer of Fulbright scholars, placing in the top 20 among all universities for total number of student Fulbright scholars.

Pitt alumni have won awards such as the Nobel Peace Prize, the Nobel Prize in medicine, the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, the Shaw Prize in medicine, the Albany Prize in medicine, the Fritz Medal in engineering, the Templeton Prize, and the Grainger Challenge Prize for sustainability.

Pitt is a member of the Association of American Universities and had $1.0 billion in research and development expenditures in 2011, ranking 14th among all universities in the United States. Pitt ranked in the top 25 of all universities in the world for the impact and performance of its scientific public publications, including in the top ten for clinical medicine, according to the Performance Ranking of Scientific Papers for World Universities produced by the Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Council of Taiwan. Pitt is also ranked 29th in the world based on Essential Science Indicators according to the Research Center for Chinese Science Evaluation of Wuhan University. Pitt places much emphasis on undergraduate research and has integrated such research experience as a key component of its undergraduate experience.

Pitt is a major center of biomedical research; in FY 2013, it ranked sixth in the nation in competitive peer-reviewed NIH funding allocations, and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center ranked tenth among hospitals nationwide by USNews in 2013.

Pitt neighbors the campus of Carnegie Mellon University, and in some cases, buildings of the two universities are intermingled. This helps to facilitate a myriad of academic and research collaborations between the two schools, including such projects as the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse, the Immune Modeling Center, the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, as well as the National Science Foundation-supported Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center. Further, the universities also offer multiple dual and joint degree programs such as the Medical Scientist Training Program, the Molecular Biophysics and Structural Biology Graduate Program, and the Law and Business Administration program. Some professors hold joint professorships between the two schools, and students at each university may take classes at the other (with appropriate approvals). Pitt students and faculty also have access to the CMU library system, as well as the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, through the Oakland Library Consortium. The two universities also co-host academic conferences, such as the 2012 Second Language Research Forum.

Student media

WPTS-FM is a non-commercial radio station owned by the University of Pittsburgh, and offers a mix of student-run programming. The station operates at 92.1 MHz with an ERP of 16 watts, and is licensed to Pittsburgh.
JURIST is the world’s only law-school-based, comprehensive, legal news and research service staffed by a mostly volunteer team of part-time law student reporters, editors and Web developers. It is led by law professor Bernard Hibbitts at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.
The Pitt News is an independent, student-written, and student-managed newspaper for the university’s Oakland (main) campus. Founded in 1908, it is now published Monday through Friday during the school year and Wednesdays during the summer. It circulates 14,000 copies for each issue published.
The Pittiful News is an independent, student-founded, student-written, student-managed, and student-produced satirical and humor newspaper. It comes out on during the school year in print and throughout the entire calendar year online.
UPTV (University of Pittsburgh Television) is a student-managed, student-produced, closed-circuit television station. Students living in campus residence halls or university operated-housing can view programming on Channel 21.
Three Rivers Review and Collision are undergraduate, bi-annual, literary journals publishing both poetry and prose.
The Pittsburgh Undergraduate Review is a multidisciplinary journal showcasing undergraduate research.
Pitt Political Review is a student-created, student-written publication of the University Honors College. PPR, as it is called, provides a venue for serious discussion of politics and policy issues in a nonpartisan way.
Blackline is a student-created, student-written publication of the Black Action Society. Blackline features both news articles and creative pieces such as poetry to call attention to problems, programs, and activities that affect Black students at Pitt.
The Original Magazine is a nonprofit, semiannual arts and culture publication based at, and partially funded by, the University of Pittsburgh, that aims to both bring and publicize accessible art and creative writing to Pittsburgh.
The Pitt Maverick is an independent paper founded by conservative students.
Pitt Tonight is an American college late-night talk show on the University of Pittsburgh campus. The show premiered on December 14, 2015, and is produced entirely by students. It is the first large-scale late night production on the school’s campus – consisting of more than 70 staff members – with its creator Jesse Irwin serving as the first host. The program is taped once per month in front of a live studio audience. The show has been nominated for two Mid-Atlantic Emmy Awards, and won one College Broadcasters Inc. award for Best General Entertainment Program.

From The DOE’s NREL- The National Renewable Energy Laboratories: “Combined ‘SuperLab’ Demonstrates Unique Hybrid Power Plant”

From The DOE’s NREL- The National Renewable Energy Laboratories

3.30.23

Two National Laboratories Connected by High-Speed Network Bring Renewables and Nuclear Together

ESnet, NREL, and INL. Photo from iStock

For a 60-minute period in January 2023, a power plant like no other existed in the U.S. Mountain West. It contained a solar array, lithium-ion battery, hydrogen electrolyzers, and a nuclear reactor, all coordinating with each other to provide reliable power. Even more unusual, the plant combined real and simulated technologies hundreds of miles apart.

This unique power plant was part of a national research and development project to remotely connect energy assets in real time using the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Energy Sciences Network (ESnet). By linking capabilities at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the Idaho National Laboratory (INL), the researchers created a collaborative “SuperLab,” which allowed them to study energy systems currently not in existence. In this case, they demonstrated that renewable and nuclear energy, combined within a hybrid system, can complement each other well to support the grid.

“Integrating nuclear assets deployed at INL and connecting them with renewable energy assets at NREL showcases the power of energy hybridization technology and underscores the importance of connectivity in achieving sustainable energy solutions,” said Rob Hovsapian, ARIES research lead in hybrid energy systems at NREL. “Innovation without implementation is merely an idea, but at-scale validation is the bridge that makes ideas a reality. The Advanced Research on Integrated Energy Systems (ARIES) platform at NREL is the engine that powers this evolution, connecting multiple assets and de-risking complex energy systems for faster adoption of novel clean energy technologies.”

A Virtual Hybrid Plant

The SuperLab demonstration successfully linked energy grid and power production simulations from two laboratories:

At NREL (Golden, Colorado), the ARIES platform provided a solar array, battery storage system, hydrogen fuel electrolyzer, and a controllable grid interface. Digital real-time simulators enabled the researchers to connect the models and responses on both NREL and INL sides.
At INL (Idaho Falls, Idaho), researchers readied simulations of a small modular nuclear reactor and high-temperature electrolysis in the Human Systems Simulation Laboratory (HSSL).

INL’s Human Systems Simulation Laboratory. Photo from INL.

NREL’s ARIES platform. Photo by NREL.

ESnet-operated fiber-optic cabling provided high-speed, low-latency, and low-jitter data connections between the two laboratories. This connection synchronized simulations and control signals, providing “virtual proximity” of the assets.

This SuperLab demonstration followed months of preparation by several dozen researchers at INL, NREL, and ESnet. The demonstration was attended by over 60 energy experts, including representatives from other national laboratories and DOE representatives from the Office of Science, the Office of Nuclear Energy, and the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

From Theory to Practice: An NREL/INL Demo.

Renewable-Nuclear Hybrid: A Complementary Pairing

The SuperLab demonstration showed that nuclear power and renewables could be used in combination for the electric grid. Nuclear reactors operate best in a steady state as a source of baseload power but cannot respond quickly to changes in demand. Wind and solar power can provide intermittent power but are not always dispatchable. Together, they provide stable power during abrupt changes in demand or weather conditions. And for an extra-functional design, the researchers added hydrogen electrolyzers and thermal batteries to store excess power.

“A hybrid plant that incorporates both nuclear and renewable assets allows us to leverage the unique benefits offered by each of these clean energy technologies,” said Shannon Bragg-Sitton, Integrated Energy & Storage Systems Division director at INL. “It ensures that grid demands are met reliably and affordably at all times while taking advantage of the heat provided by a nuclear thermal generator to produce clean hydrogen and support the decarbonization of industry.”

Different forms of renewable energy. Photo from iStock.

During the demonstration, the researchers found that their hybrid plant performed as desired. First, they simulated a sudden loss in solar power from a passing cloud, and the nuclear reactor stepped in to support grid demand. Then, when they simulated a storm knocking out neighborhood power lines, the nuclear reactor ramped down its power to the grid and redirected it to increasing hydrogen production and storage. These scenarios provide developers a baseline and high-quality operational data for how hybrid renewables-nuclear designs might operate together for a reliable power grid.

“Demonstrating integrated use of diverse generation assets in a controlled experimental facility allows us to better understand how these systems can mutually support a varying energy demand before major investments are decided,” Bragg-Sitton said. “These demonstrations can emulate performance under both expected and off-nominal conditions to gain confidence in their operations. Through this SuperLab, each laboratory in the DOE complex brings unique expertise to the challenge of clean energy systems of the future.”

Not the First SuperLab

The January demonstration was not just an achievement for hybrid power plants, as it also made strides for the network backbone supporting SuperLab: ESnet. This demonstration was one of several, with more ahead, to connect megawatts of power hardware using ESnet. In 2017, eight laboratories connected for the first demo using virtual private network connections, shown in the video below. It was a successful proof of concept, but varying latency made it difficult to cosimulate power signals requiring millisecond sensitivity.

Where We Started: Global Real-Time Superlab (2023 version)

The ESnet team reduced latency variance, bringing it down from 11.5 milliseconds to 0.02 milliseconds, which was useful in 2021 when another SuperLab was assembled to support a remote Alaskan city with its microgrid controls, shown in the video below.

The Latency Fix: ESnet’s OSCARS service (2023 version)

During the January demonstration, the researchers were treated to another improvement when ESnet6 was unveiled, which features higher data capacity, real-time data visualization, and new automation and cybersecurity tools. It is the latest improvement to an extraordinary scientific platform that has steadily grown since 1986.

“ESnet is proud to support the ARIES project,” said Eli Dart, Science Engagement Group lead at ESnet. “These demonstrations effectively use the OSCARS virtual circuit capabilities of ESnet6. ARIES requires low jitter and deterministic behavior, which OSCARS can provide over dedicated point-to-point connections. Together, ESnet and the ARIES team worked on both demonstrations, and we look forward to continuing this collaboration in the future.”

A map of ESnet6’s network connections in the U.S. and Europe. Image from ESnet.

From its headquarters at the DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, ESnet branches and converges at laboratories around the nation, reaching many powerful research nodes that include several in Europe. It is really a continental laboratory, with NREL and INL’s experiment as one small (but no less super) link; meanwhile, other researchers using ESnet are synchronizing genetic data and simulating quantum materials. ESnet brings their physical capabilities closer together so that laboratories can share their supercomputers, particle reactors, and wind turbines, regardless of their geographic location.

“As ARIES scales up to thousands of devices and many more laboratories, we are excited to be a part of this team,” Dart said. “The goal is to ensure that the U.S. has a power grid capable of reliably integrating the modern energy technologies we need for the 21st century. Codesign with the SuperLab program allows ESnet to ensure our advanced network supports the success of power grid research. Bringing together the complementary expertise of the national labs is what we do best—everyone brings their best game, and we all work together.”

The renewable-nuclear hybrid demo also provided something in return to ESnet: a blueprint for how to build similar experiments. The next experiment is already in the works since NREL, INL, and other laboratories have already validated and established their SuperLab connections.

More Power, More Devices, and a Major Outage

In the spirit of resilience and with an interest in pushing the limits, the next SuperLab demonstration will simulate a national-scale disaster across eight national laboratories. The researchers plan to study how a major outage from a hurricane or cyberattack would play out on a distributed energy system. The scale of this experiment will be much greater than anything before; while the 2017 demo ran 80 devices, the upcoming demo, scheduled for late 2023, will aim for 10,000 devices.

Once the demonstration is complete, it will be a milestone for the SuperLab concept: The research community will have the capability to emulate national-scale scenarios on real power hardware, helping to reduce risk for future energy transition strategies. And that is just the start of what can be achieved when all U.S. research capabilities are combined.

“By connecting multiple labs through ESnet by 2024, we’ll unlock the full potential of our national laboratories, their research assets, cutting-edge technologies, and talented scientists,” Hovsapian said. “This SuperLab 2.0 infrastructure will prepare us to address large-scale emergent challenges to meet the nation’s clean energy goals and to reinforce the energy security needs of every community.”

SuperLab 2.0: The Future of Energy Experimentation at NREL (2023 version)

Learn more about NREL’s ARIES platform for power system emulation.

See the full article here.

Comments are invited and will be appreciated, especially if the reader finds any errors which I can correct. Use “Reply”.

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Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

The DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratories [NREL] , located in Golden, Colorado, specializes in renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. NREL is a government-owned, contractor-operated facility, and is funded through the United States Department of Energy. This arrangement allows a private entity to operate the lab on behalf of the federal government. NREL receives funding from Congress to be applied toward research and development projects. NREL also performs research on photovoltaics (PV) under the National Center for Photovoltaics. NREL has a number of PV research capabilities including research and development, testing, and deployment. NREL’s campus houses several facilities dedicated to PV research.

NREL is the U.S. Department of Energy’s primary national laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development.
NREL is operated for the Energy Department by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC.

NREL’s areas of research and development are renewable electricity, energy productivity, energy storage, systems integration, and sustainable transportation.

From The DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory : “New laboratory to explore the quantum mysteries of nuclear materials”

From The DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory

10.18.22
Cory Hatch

INL researchers have built a laboratory around molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), a process that creates ultra-thin layers of materials with a high degree of purity and control. Credit: Idaho National Laboratory.

Replete with tunneling particles, electron wells, charmed quarks and zombie cats, quantum mechanics takes everything Sir Isaac Newton taught about physics and throws it out the window.

Every day, researchers discover new details about the laws that govern the tiniest building blocks of the universe. These details not only increase scientific understanding of quantum physics, but they also hold the potential to unlock a host of technologies, from quantum computers to lasers to next-generation solar cells.

But there’s one area that remains a mystery even in this most mysterious of sciences: the quantum mechanics of nuclear fuels.

Exploring the frontiers of quantum mechanics

Until now, most fundamental scientific research of quantum mechanics has focused on elements such as silicon because these materials are relatively inexpensive, easy to obtain and easy to work with.

Now, Idaho National Laboratory researchers are planning to explore the frontiers of quantum mechanics with a new synthesis laboratory that can work with radioactive elements such as uranium and thorium.

An announcement about the new laboratory appears online in the journal Nature Communications [below].

Uranium and thorium, which are part of a larger group of elements called actinides, are used as fuels in nuclear power reactors because they can undergo nuclear fission under certain conditions.

However, the unique properties of these elements, especially the arrangement of their electrons, also means they could exhibit interesting quantum mechanical properties.

In particular, the behavior of particles in special, extremely thin materials made from actinides could increase our understanding of phenomena such as quantum wells and quantum tunneling (see sidebar).

To study these properties, a team of researchers has built a laboratory around molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), a process that creates ultra-thin layers of materials with a high degree of purity and control.

“The MBE technique itself is not new,” said Krzysztof Gofryk, a scientist at INL. “It’s widely used. What’s new is that we’re applying this method to actinide materials — uranium and thorium. Right now, this capability doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world that we know of.”

The INL team is conducting fundamental research — science for the sake of knowledge — but the practical applications of these materials could make for some important technological breakthroughs.

“At this point, we are not interested in building a new qubit [the basis of quantum computing], but we are thinking about which materials might be useful for that,” Gofryk said. “Some of these materials could be potentially interesting for new memory banks and spin-based transistors, for instance.”

Memory banks and transistors are both important components of computers.

Molecular beam epitaxy

To understand how researchers make these very thin materials, imagine an empty ball pit at a fast-food restaurant. Blue and red balls are thrown in the pit one at a time until they make a single layer on the floor. But that layer isn’t a random assortment of balls. Instead, they arrange themselves into a pattern.

During the MBE process, the empty ball pit is a vacuum chamber, and the balls are highly pure elements, such as nitrogen and uranium, that are heated until individual atoms can escape into the chamber.

The floor of our imaginary ball pit is, in reality, a charged substrate that attracts the individual atoms. On the substrate, atoms order themselves to create a wafer of very thin material — in this case, uranium nitride.

Thin sandwiches of material make heterostructures

Back in the ball pit, we’ve created layer of blue and red balls arranged in a pattern. Now we make another layer of green and orange balls on top of the first layer.

To study the quantum properties of these materials, Gofryk and his team will join two dissimilar wafers of material into a sandwich called a heterostructure. For instance, the thin layer of uranium nitride might be joined to a thin layer of another material such as gallium arsenide, a semiconductor. At the junction between the two different materials, interesting quantum mechanical properties can be observed.

“We can make sandwiches of these materials from a variety of elements,” Gofryk said. “We have lots of flexibility. We are trying to think about the novel structures we can create with maybe some predicted quantum properties.”

“We want to look at electronic properties, structural properties, thermal properties and how electrons are transported through the layers,” he continued. “What will happen if you lower the temperature and apply a magnetic field? Will it cause electrons to behave in certain way?

INL uniquely suited for actinide research

INL is one of the few places where researchers can work with uranium and thorium for this type of science. The amounts of the radioactive materials — and the consequent safety concerns — will be comparable to the radioactivity found in an everyday smoke alarm.

“INL is the perfect place for this research because we’re interested in this kind of physics and chemistry,” Gofryk said.

In the end, Gofryk hopes the laboratory will result in breakthroughs that help attract attention from potential collaborators as well as recruit new employees to the laboratory.

“These actinides have such special properties,” he said. “We’re hoping we can discover some new phenomena or new physics that hasn’t been found before.”

Why uranium and thorium are different

Uranium, thorium and the other actinides have something in common that makes them interesting for quantum mechanics: the arrangement of their electrons.

Electrons do not orbit around the nucleus the way the earth orbits the sun. Rather, they zip around somewhat randomly. But we can define areas where there is a high probability of finding electrons. These clouds of probability are called “orbitals.”

For the smallest atoms, these orbitals are simple spheres surrounding the nucleus. However, as the atoms get larger and contain more electrons, orbitals begin to take on strange and complex shapes.

In very large atoms like uranium and thorium (92 and 90 electrons respectively), the outermost orbitals are a complex assortment of party balloon, jelly bean, dumbbell and hula hoop shapes. The electrons in these orbitals are high energy. While scientists can guess at their quantum properties, nobody knows for sure how they will behave in the real world.

Quantum tunneling: When the impossible becomes improbable

Quantum tunneling is a key part of any number of phenomena, including nuclear fusion in stars, mutations in DNA and diodes in electronic devices.

To understand quantum tunneling, imagine a toddler rolling a ball at a mountain. In this analogy, the ball is a particle. The mountain is a barrier, most likely a semiconductor material. In classical physics, there’s no chance the ball has enough energy to pass over the mountain.

But in the quantum realm, subatomic particles have properties of both particles and waves. The wave’s peak represents the highest probability of finding the particle. Thanks to a quirk of quantum mechanics, while most of the wave bounces off the barrier, a small part of that wave travels through if the barrier is thin enough.

For a single particle, the small amplitude of this wave means there is a very small chance of the particle making it to the other side of the barrier.

However, when large numbers of waves are travelling at a barrier, the probability increases, and sometimes a particle makes it through. This is quantum tunneling.

Quantum wells: Where electrons get stuck

Quantum wells are also important, especially for devices such as light emitting diodes (LEDs) and lasers.

Like quantum tunneling, to build quantum wells, you need alternating layers of very thin (10 nanometers) material where one layer is a barrier.

While electrons normally travel in three dimensions, quantum wells trap electrons in two dimensions within a barrier that is, for practical purposes, impossible to overcome. These electrons exist at specific energies — say the precise energies needed to generate specific wavelengths of light.

Science paper:
Nature Communications
See the science paper for detailed material .

See the full article here.

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Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

In 1949, the federal research facility was established as the National Reactor Testing Station (NRTS). In 1975, the United States Atomic Energy Commission was divided into the Energy Research and Development Administration and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The Idaho site was for a short time named ERDA and then subsequently renamed to the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL) in 1977 with the creation of the United States Department of Energy (DOE) under President Jimmy Carter. After two decades as INEL, the name was changed again to the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) in 1997. Throughout its lifetime, there have been more than 50 one-of-a-kind nuclear reactors built by various organizations at the facility for testing; all but three are out of service.

Research

Nuclear Energy Projects

Next Generation Nuclear Plant

Fuel Cycle Research & Development

Light Water Reactor Sustainability program

Advanced Test Reactor National Scientific User Facility

INL’s Advanced Test Reactor is a research reactor located approximately 50 miles (80 km) from Idaho Falls, Idaho.

Nuclear Energy University Programs

DOE’s Nuclear Energy University Programs provide funding for university research grants, fellowships, scholarships and infrastructure upgrades.

Multiphysics Methods Group

The Multiphysics Methods Group (MMG) is a program at Idaho National Laboratory (under the United States Department of Energy) begun in 2004. It uses applications based on the multiphysics and modeling framework MOOSE to simulate complex physical and chemical reactions inside nuclear reactors . The ultimate goal of the program is to use these simulation tools to enable more efficient use of nuclear fuel, resulting in lower electricity costs and less waste products.

The work done by the group directly supports programs such as the Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program’s research into advanced nuclear fuels.

National and Homeland Security

Control systems cybersecurity

Energy and environmental projects

Advanced Vehicle Testing Activity

Bioenergy

Robotics

These robots roll, crawl, fly, and go under water, even in swarms that communicate with each other on the go to do their jobs.

Biological Systems

Hybrid energy systems

Nuclear waste processing

Safety and Tritium Applied Research

Interdisciplinary projects