The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in accordance with the RE-Powering America's Land initiative, selected the Tronox Facility site in Savannah, Georgia, for a feasibility study of renewable energy production. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) provided technical assistance for this project. The purpose of this report is to assess the site for a possible photovoltaic (PV) system installation and estimate the cost, performance, and site impacts of different PV options. In addition, the report recommends financing options that could assist in the implementation of a PV system at the site.

This newsletter describes key activities of the DOE Office of Indian Energy Policy and Programs for Spring 2013.

The goal of this technical memorandum is to suppor

A test wall built with phase change material (PCM)-enhanced loose-fill cavity insulation was monitored for a period of about a year in the warm-humid climate of Charleston, South Carolina. The test wall was divided into various sections, one of which contained only loose-fill insulation and served as a control for comparing and evaluating the wall sections with the PCM-enhanced insulation. This report summarizes the findings of the field test.

A cooperative international project was conducted by the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and the United Kingdom’s National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL) to integrate a capture coating with a high performance atomizing process. The initial results were promising, and lead to further trials. The somewhat longer testing and optimization process has resulted in a product that could be demonstrated in the field to reduce airborne radiological dust and contamination.

In this paper, we present a modular framework for constructing a secure and efficient program obfuscation scheme. Our approach, inspired by the obfuscation with respect to oracle machines model of [4], retains an interactive online protocol with an oracle, but relaxes the original computational and storage restrictions. We argue this is reasonable given the computational resources of modern personal devices. Furthermore, we relax the information-theoretic security requirement for computational security to utilize established cryptographic primitives. With this additional flexibility we are free to explore different cryptographic buildingblocks. Our approach combines authenticated encryption with private information retrieval to construct a secure program obfuscation framework. We give a formal specification of our framework, based on desired functionality and security properties, and provide an example instantiation. In particular, we implement AES in Galois/Counter Mode for authenticated encryption and the Gentry-Ramzan [13]constant communication-rate private information retrieval scheme. We present our implementation results and show that non-trivial sized programs can be realized, but scalability is quickly limited by computational overhead. Finally, we include a discussion on security considerations when instantiating specific modules.

The neutron radiography (NRAD) reactor is a 250 kW TRIGA® (Training, Research, Isotopes, General Atomics) Mark II , tank-type research reactor currently located in the basement, below the main hot cell, of the Hot Fuel Examination Facility (HFEF) at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). It is equipped with two beam tubes with separate radiography stations for the performance of neutron radiography irradiation on small test components. The initial critical configuration developed during the fuel loading process, which contains only 56 fuel elements, has been evaluated as an acceptable benchmark experiment. The 60-fuel-element operational core configuration of the NRAD LEU TRIGA reactor has also been evaluated as an acceptable benchmark experiment. Calculated eigenvalues differ significantly (~±1%) from the benchmark eigenvalue and have demonstrated sensitivity to the thermal scattering treatment of hydrogen in the U-Er-Zr-H fuel.

The parking garage fact sheet highlights the many features of NREL's garage, including energy efficiency, renewable energy, water conservation, building materials, and waste minimization.

The Hood River Passive Project was developed by Root Design Build of Hood River Oregon using the Passive House Planning Package (PHPP) to meet all of the requirements for certification under the European Passive House standards. The Passive House design approach has been gaining momentum among residential designers for custom homes and BEopt modeling indicates that these designs may actually exceed the goal of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Building America program to reduce home energy use by 30%-50% (compared to 2009 energy codes for new homes). This report documents the short term test results of the Shift House and compares the results of PHPP and BEopt modeling of the project.

In its deployment as a pebble bed reactor (PBR) critical facility from 1992 to 1996, the PROTEUS facility was designated as HTR-PROTEUS. This experimental program was performed as part of an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Coordinated Research Project (CRP) on the Validation of Safety Related Physics Calculations for Low Enriched HTGRs. Within this project, critical experiments were conducted for graphite moderated LEU systems to determine core reactivity, flux and power profiles, reaction-rate ratios, the worth of control rods, both in-core and reflector based, the worth of burnable poisons, kinetic parameters, and the effects of moisture ingress on these parameters. One benchmark experiment was evaluated in this report: Core 4. Core 4 represents the only configuration with random pebble packing in the HTR-PROTEUS series of experiments, and has a moderator-to-fuel pebble ratio of 1:1. Three random configurations were performed. The initial configuration, Core 4.1, was rejected because the method for pebble loading, separate delivery tubes for the moderator and fuel pebbles, may not have been completely random; this core loading was rejected by the experimenters. Cores 4.2 and 4.3 were loaded using a single delivery tube, eliminating the possibility for systematic ordering effects. The second and third cores differed slightly …

In its deployment as a pebble bed reactor (PBR) critical facility from 1992 to 1996, the PROTEUS facility was designated as HTR-PROTEUS. This experimental program was performed as part of an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Coordinated Research Project (CRP) on the Validation of Safety Related Physics Calculations for Low Enriched HTGRs. Within this project, critical experiments were conducted for graphite moderated LEU systems to determine core reactivity, flux and power profiles, reaction-rate ratios, the worth of control rods, both in-core and reflector based, the worth of burnable poisons, kinetic parameters, and the effects of moisture ingress on these parameters. Four benchmark experiments were evaluated in this report: Cores 1, 1A, 2, and 3. These core configurations represent the hexagonal close packing (HCP) configurations of the HTR-PROTEUS experiment with a moderator-to-fuel pebble ratio of 1:2. Core 1 represents the only configuration utilizing ZEBRA control rods. Cores 1A, 2, and 3 use withdrawable, hollow, stainless steel control rods. Cores 1 and 1A are similar except for the use of different control rods; Core 1A also has one less layer of pebbles (21 layers instead of 22). Core 2 retains the first 16 layers of pebbles from Cores 1 and 1A and …

PROTEUS is a zero-power research reactor based on a cylindrical graphite annulus with a central cylindrical cavity. The graphite annulus remains basically the same for all experimental programs, but the contents of the central cavity are changed according to the type of reactor being investigated. Through most of its service history, PROTEUS has represented light-water reactors, but from 1992 to 1996 PROTEUS was configured as a pebble-bed reactor (PBR) critical facility and designated as HTR-PROTEUS. The nomenclature was used to indicate that this series consisted of High Temperature Reactor experiments performed in the PROTEUS assembly. During this period, seventeen critical configurations were assembled and various reactor physics experiments were conducted. These experiments included measurements of criticality, differential and integral control rod and safety rod worths, kinetics, reaction rates, water ingress effects, and small sample reactivity effects (Ref. 3). HTR-PROTEUS was constructed, and the experimental program was conducted, for the purpose of providing experimental benchmark data for assessment of reactor physics computer codes. Considerable effort was devoted to benchmark calculations as a part of the HTR-PROTEUS program. References 1 and 2 provide detailed data for use in constructing models for codes to be assessed. Reference 3 is a comprehensive summary of …

PROTEUS is a zero-power research reactor based on a cylindrical graphite annulus with a central cylindrical cavity. The graphite annulus remains basically the same for all experimental programs, but the contents of the central cavity are changed according to the type of reactor being investigated. Through most of its service history, PROTEUS has represented light-water reactors, but from 1992 to 1996 PROTEUS was configured as a pebble-bed reactor (PBR) critical facility and designated as HTR-PROTEUS. The nomenclature was used to indicate that this series consisted of High Temperature Reactor experiments performed in the PROTEUS assembly. During this period, seventeen critical configurations were assembled and various reactor physics experiments were conducted. These experiments included measurements of criticality, differential and integral control rod and safety rod worths, kinetics, reaction rates, water ingress effects, and small sample reactivity effects (Ref. 3). HTR-PROTEUS was constructed, and the experimental program was conducted, for the purpose of providing experimental benchmark data for assessment of reactor physics computer codes. Considerable effort was devoted to benchmark calculations as a part of the HTR-PROTEUS program. References 1 and 2 provide detailed data for use in constructing models for codes to be assessed. Reference 3 is a comprehensive summary of …

The focus of this report is on the comparison of n

This report describes a life-cycle assessment conducted by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) of 10 hydrogen production, delivery, dispensing, and use pathways that were evaluated for cost, energy use, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This evaluation updates and expands on a previous assessment of seven pathways conducted in 2009. This study summarizes key results, parameters, and sensitivities to those parameters for the 10 hydrogen pathways, reporting on the levelized cost of hydrogen in 2007 U.S. dollars as well as life-cycle well-to-wheels energy use and GHG emissions associated with the pathways.

Annual Report for FY 2012 LDRD Program prepared as the LDRD Program Overview titled LDRDSNAPSHOT.

A greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory is a systematic approach to account for the production and release of certain gases generated by an institution from various emission sources. The gases of interest are those that climate science has identified as related to anthropogenic global climate change. This document presents an inventory of GHGs generated during Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 by Idaho National Laboratory (INL), a Department of Energy (DOE) sponsored entity, located in southeastern Idaho.

This report provides a glimpse into our diverse research and development portfolio, wwhich encompasses both advanced nuclear science and technology and underlying technologies. IN keeping with the mission, INL's LDRD program fosters technical capabilities necessary to support current and future DOE-Office of Nuclear Energy research and development needs.

This technology pathway case investigates converting woody biomass using in-situ catalytic fast pyrolysis followed by upgrading to gasoline-, diesel-, and jet-range hydrocarbon blendstocks. Technical barriers and key research needs that should be pursued for this pathway to be competitive with petroleum-derived blendstocks have been identified.

Sandia National Laboratories and Siemens Energy, Inc., examined 14 different subcritical and supercritical steam cycles to determine if it is feasible to configure a molten-salt supercritical steam plant that has a capacity in the range of 150 to 200 MWe. The effects of main steam pressure and temperature, final feedwater temperature, and hot salt and cold salt return temperatures were determined on gross and half-net efficiencies. The main steam pressures ranged from 120 bar-a (subcritical) to 260 bar-a (supercritical). Hot salt temperatures of 566 and 600%C2%B0C were evaluated, which resulted in main steam temperatures of 553 and 580%C2%B0C, respectively. Also, the effects of final feedwater temperature (between 260 and 320%C2%B0C) were evaluated, which impacted the cold salt return temperature. The annual energy production and levelized cost of energy (LCOE) were calculated using the System Advisory Model on 165 MWe subcritical plants (baseline and advanced) and the most promising supercritical plants. It was concluded that the supercritical steam plants produced more annual energy than the baseline subcritical steam plant for the same-size heliostat field, receiver, and thermal storage system. Two supercritical steam plants had the highest annual performance and had nearly the same LCOE. Both operated at 230 bar-a main steam …

This document highlights the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy's investments and impacts in the state of Indiana.

The status of the International Criticality Safety

The Integrated Recycling Test is a collaborative irradiation test that will electrochemically recycle used light water reactor fuel into metallic fuel feedstock. The feedstock will be fabricated into a metallic fast reactor type fuel that will be irradiation tested in a drop in capsule test in the Advanced Test Reactor on the Idaho National Laboratory site. This paper will summarize the fuel fabrication activities and design efforts. Casting development will include developing a casting process and system. The closure welding system will be based on the gas tungsten arc burst welding process. The settler/bonder system has been designed to be a simple system which provides heating and controllable impact energy to ensure wetting between the fuel and cladding. The final major pieces of equipment to be designed are the weld and sodium bond inspection system. Both x-radiography and ultrasonic inspection techniques have been examine experimentally and found to be feasible, however the final remote system has not been designed. Conceptual designs for radiography and an ultrasonic system have been made.

Safety is central to the design, licensing, operation, and economics of nuclear power plants (NPPs). As the current light water reactor (LWR) NPPs age beyond 60 years, there are possibilities for increased frequency of systems, structures, and components (SSC) degradations or failures that initiate safety significant events, reduce existing accident mitigation capabilities, or create new failure modes. Plant designers commonly “over-design” portions of NPPs and provide robustness in the form of redundant and diverse engineered safety features to ensure that, even in the case of well-beyond design basis scenarios, public health and safety will be protected with a very high degree of assurance. This form of defense-in-depth is a reasoned response to uncertainties and is often referred to generically as “safety margin.” Historically, specific safety margin provisions have been formulated primarily based on engineering judgment backed by a set of conservative engineering calculations. The ability to better characterize and quantify safety margin is important to improved decision making about LWR design, operation, and plant life extension. A systematic approach to characterization of safety margins and the subsequent margin management options represents a vital input to the licensee and regulatory analysis and decision making that will be involved. In addition, as …