This research investigates the economic penetration and system-wide effects of large-scale intermittent technologies in an electric generation system. The research extends the standard screening curve analysis to optimize the penetration and system structure with intermittent technologies. The analysis is based on hour-by-hour electric demands and intermittent generation. A theoretical framework is developed to find an expression for the marginal value of an intermittent technology as a function of the average system marginal cost, the capacity factor of the generator, and the covariance between the generator's hourly production and the hourly system marginal cost. A series of model runs are made examining the penetration of wind and photovoltaic in a simple electric generation system. These illustrate the conclusions in the theoretical analysis and illustrate the effects that large-scale intermittent penetration has on the structure of the generation system. In the long-term, adding intermittent generation to a system allows us to restructure the dispatchable generation capacity to a mix with lower capital cost. It is found that large scale intermittent generation tends to reduce the optimal capacity and production of baseload generators and increase the capacity and production of intermediate generators, although the extent to which this occurs depends strongly on the …

A liquid metal (LM) consisting of 1/3 weight fraction each of Pb, Sn, and Bi has been proposed as the bonding substance in the pellet-cladding gap in place of He. The LM bond eliminates the large AT over the pre-closure gap which is characteristic of helium-bonded fuel elements. Because the LM does not wet either UO2 or Zircaloy, simply loading fuel pellets into a cladding tube containing LM at atmospheric pressure leaves unfilled regions (voids) in the bond. The HEATING 7.3 heat transfer code indicates that these void spaces lead to local fuel hot spots.

Each summer, an area of low dissolved oxygen (the hypoxic zone) forms in the shallow nearshore Gulf of Mexico waters from the Mississippi River Delta westward to near the Texas/Louisiana border. Most scientists believe that the leading contributor to the hypoxic zone is input of nutrients (primarily nitrogen and phosphorus compounds) from the Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers. The nutrients stimulate growth of phytoplankton. As the phytoplankton subsequently die, they fall to the bottom waters where they are decomposed by microorganisms. The decomposition process consumes oxygen in the bottom waters to create hypoxic conditions. Sources other than the two rivers mentioned above may also contribute significant quantities of oxygen-demanding pollutants. One very visible potential source is the hundreds of offshore oil and gas platforms located within or near the hypoxic zone. Many of these platforms discharge varying volumes of produced water. However, only limited data characterizing oxygen demand and nutrient concentration and loading from offshore produced water discharges have been collected. No comprehensive and coordinated oxygen demand data exist for produced water discharges in the Gulf of Mexico. This report describes the results of a program to sample 50 offshore oil and gas platforms located within the Gulf of Mexico hypoxic …

This report documents the development and validation of the mountain-scale thermal-hydrologic (TH), thermal-hydrologic-chemical (THC), and thermal-hydrologic-mechanical (THM) models. These models provide technical support for screening of features, events, and processes (FEPs) related to the effects of coupled TH/THC/THM processes on mountain-scale unsaturated zone (UZ) and saturated zone (SZ) flow at Yucca Mountain, Nevada (BSC 2005 [DIRS 174842], Section 2.1.1.1). The purpose and validation criteria for these models are specified in ''Technical Work Plan for: Near-Field Environment and Transport: Coupled Processes (Mountain-Scale TH/THC/THM, Drift-Scale THC Seepage, and Drift-Scale Abstraction) Model Report Integration'' (BSC 2005 [DIRS 174842]). Model results are used to support exclusion of certain FEPs from the total system performance assessment for the license application (TSPA-LA) model on the basis of low consequence, consistent with the requirements of 10 CFR 63.342 [DIRS 173273]. Outputs from this report are not direct feeds to the TSPA-LA. All the FEPs related to the effects of coupled TH/THC/THM processes on mountain-scale UZ and SZ flow are discussed in Sections 6 and 7 of this report. The mountain-scale coupled TH/THC/THM processes models numerically simulate the impact of nuclear waste heat release on the natural hydrogeological system, including a representation of heat-driven processes occurring in the …