: Russian public sector buildings tend to be very inefficient, which creates vast opportunities for savings. This report overviews the latest developments in the Russian legislation related to energy efficiency in the public sector, describes the major challenges the regulations pose, and proposes ways to overcome these challenges. Given Russia’s limited experience with energy performance contracts (EPCs), a pilot project can help test an implementation mechanism. This paper discusses how EPCs and other mechanisms can help harness energy savings opportunities in Russia in general, and thus, can be applicable to any Russian region.

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NREL evaluates energy savings potential of heat pump water heaters in homes throughout all U.S. climate zones.

This document contains the calculation of the TPBAR tritium release from the Mark 9.2 design TPBARs irradiated in WBN cycle 10. The calculation utilizes the generalized cycle analysis methodology given in TTP-1-3045 Rev. 0.

Report to DOE on an analysis to determine the effects of a potential impact to an endangered whale from tidal turbines proposed for deployment in Puget Sound.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Pacific Northwest Site Office (PNSO) oversees and manages the DOE contract for the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), a DOE Office of Science multi-program laboratory located in Richland, Washington. PNSO is responsible for ensuring that all activities conducted on the PNNL site comply with applicable laws, policies, and DOE Orders. The DOE Pacific Northwest Site Office Cultural and Biological Resources Management Plan (DOE/PNSO 2008) addresses the requirement for annual surveys and monitoring for species of concern and to identify and map invasive species. In addition to the requirement for an annual survey, proposed project activities must be reviewed to assess any potential environmental consequences of conducting the project. The assessment process requires a thorough understanding of the resources present, the potential impacts of a proposed action to those resources, and the ultimate consequences of those actions. The PNNL site is situated on the southeastern corner of the DOE Hanford Site, located at the north end of the city of Richland in south-central Washington. The site is bordered on the east by the Columbia River, on the west by Stevens Drive, and on the north by the Hanford Site 300 Area (Figure 1). The environmental …

Characterization summary report outlining the findings of the fresh fuel examinations of the plates received from CNEA.

This document is one of a series of reports estimating the benefits of deploying technologies similar to those implemented on the Smart Grid Investment Grant (SGIG) projects. Four technical reports cover the various types of technologies deployed in the SGIG projects, distribution automation, demand response, energy storage, and renewables integration. A fifth report in the series examines the benefits of deploying these technologies on a national level. This technical report examines the impacts of energy storage technologies deployed in the SGIG projects.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Nevada Site Office (NSO), Environmental Restoration Soils Activity has authorized the Desert Research Institute (DRI) to conduct field assessments of potential sediment transport of contaminated soil from Corrective Action Unit (CAU) 550, Area 8 Smoky Contamination Area (CA), during precipitation runoff events. CAU 550 includes Corrective Action Sites (CASs) 08-23-03, 08-23-04, 08-23-06, and 08-23-07; these CASs are associated with tests designated Ceres, Smoky, Oberon, and Titania, respectively.

This document updates the Eh-pH transitions from grout aging simulations and the plutonium waste release model of Denham (2007, Rev. 1) based on new data. New thermodynamic data for cementitious minerals are used for the grout simulations. Newer thermodynamic data, recommended by plutonium experts (Plutonium Solubility Peer Review Report, LA-UR-12-00079), are used to estimate solubilities of plutonium at various pore water compositions expected during grout aging. In addition, a new grout formula is used in the grout aging simulations and apparent solubilities of coprecipitated plutonium are estimated using data from analysis of Tank 18 residual waste. The conceptual model of waste release and the grout aging simulations are done in a manner similar to that of Denham (2007, Rev. 1). It is assumed that the pore fluid composition passing from the tank grout into the residual waste layer controls the solubility, and hence the waste release concentration of plutonium. Pore volumes of infiltrating fluid of an assumed composition are reacted with a hypothetical grout block using The Geochemist's Workbench{reg_sign} and changes in pore fluid chemistry correspond to the number of pore fluid volumes reacted. As in the earlier document, this results in three states of grout pore fluid composition throughout …

With the strong commitment of the US to the success of the ITER burning plasma mission, and the project overall, it is prudent to consider how to take the most advantage of this investment. The production of energy from fusion has been a long sought goal, and the subject of several programmatic investigations and time line proposals [1]. The nuclear aspects of fusion research have largely been avoided experimentally for practical reasons, resulting in a strong emphasis on plasma science. Meanwhile, ITER has brought into focus how the interface between the plasma and engineering/technology, presents the most challenging problems for design. In fact, this situation is becoming the rule and no longer the exception. ITER will demonstrate the deposition of 0.5 GW of neutron heating to the blanket, deliver a heat load of 10-20 MW/m2 or more on the divertor, inject 50-100 MW of heating power to the plasma, all at the expected size scale of a power plant. However, in spite of this, and a number of other technologies relevant power plant, ITER will provide a low neutron exposure compared to the levels expected to a fusion power plant, and will purchase its tritium entirely from world reserves accumulated …

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Prototype lighting panels and luminaires were fabricated using DuPont Displays’ solution-processed small-molecule OLED technology. These lighting panels were based on a spatially-patterned, 3-color design, similar in concept to an OLED display panel, with materials chosen to maximize device efficacy. The majority of the processing steps take place in air (rather than high vacuum). Optimization of device architecture, processing and construction was undertaken, with a final prototype design of 50 cm{sup 2} being fabricated and tested. Performance of these panels reached 35 lm/W at illuminant-A. A unique feature of this technology is the ability to color tune the emission, and color temperatures ranging from 2700 to > 6,500K were attained in the final build. Significant attention was paid to low-cost fabrication techniques.

New code will help accelerate design improvements by providing a high-fidelity simulation tool to study power performance, structural loading, and the interactions between devices in arrays.

The aim of the program is to transfer our successes in single cell high gradient R&D to multi-cell cavities of advanced shapes. We have also developed a new technique for electropolishing (EP) which is much less expensive than the standard EP technique used at other labs. Our aim is to apply this technique to multi-cell cavities of advanced shapes. The scientific program of this grant was concluded in 2010. An extension of this grant al-lowed us to receive ARRA funding, which we used to improve the helium-liquefier system in Cornell’s SRF laboratory. Part of this system had been purchased and installed by another grant. The extension to grant DE-FG02-04ER41354 was proposed to extend this system to sufficient power so that helium can be recovered from SRF-cavity test and simultaneously can be liquefied. This significantly increased the number of cavities we can test per week. This upgrade project was finished in the spring of 2010 and has been in regular use ever since.

We studied the effectiveness of sodium silicate-activated Class F fly ash in improving the thermal shock resistance and in extending the onset of hydration of Secar #80 refractory cement. When the dry mix cement, consisting of Secar #80, Class F fly ash, and sodium silicate, came in contact with water, NaOH derived from the dissolution of sodium silicate preferentially reacted with Class F fly ash, rather than the #80, to dissociate silicate anions from Class F fly ash. Then, these dissociated silicate ions delayed significantly the hydration of #80 possessing a rapid setting behavior. We undertook a multiple heating -water cooling quenching-cycle test to evaluate the cement’s resistance to thermal shock. In one cycle, we heated the 200 and #61616;C-autoclaved cement at 500 and #61616;C for 24 hours, and then the heated cement was rapidly immersed in water at 25 and #61616;C. This cycle was repeated five times. The phase composition of the autoclaved #80/Class F fly ash blend cements comprised four crystalline hydration products, boehmite, katoite, hydrogrossular, and hydroxysodalite, responsible for strengthening cement. After a test of 5-cycle heat-water quenching, we observed three crystalline phase-transformations in this autoclaved cement: boehmite and #61614; and #61543;-Al2O3, katoite and #61614; calcite, and …

Project final report and summary.

There is strong agreement among policymakers, practitioners, and academic researchers that the concept of resilience must play a major role in assessing the extent to which various entities - critical infrastructure owners and operators, communities, regions, and the Nation - are prepared to respond to and recover from the full range of threats they face. Despite this agreement, consensus regarding important issues, such as how resilience should be defined, assessed, and measured, is lacking. The analysis presented here is part of a broader research effort to develop and implement assessments of resilience at the asset/facility and community/regional levels. The literature contains various definitions of resilience. Some studies have defined resilience as the ability of an entity to recover, or 'bounce back,' from the adverse effects of a natural or manmade threat. Such a definition assumes that actions taken prior to the occurrence of an adverse event - actions typically associated with resistance and anticipation - are not properly included as determinants of resilience. Other analyses, in contrast, include one or more of these actions in their definitions. To accommodate these different definitions, we recognize a subset of resistance- and anticipation-related actions that are taken based on the assumption that an …

The goal of this program is to understand in a fundamental way the impact of strain, defects, polarization, and Stokes loss in relation to unique device structures upon the internal quantum efficiency (IQE) and efficiency droop (ED) of III-nitride (III-N) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and to employ this understanding in the design and growth of high-efficiency LEDs capable of highly-reliable, high-current, high-power operation. This knowledge will be the basis for our advanced device epitaxial designs that lead to improved device performance. The primary approach we will employ is to exploit new scientific and engineering knowledge generated through the application of a set of unique advanced growth and characterization tools to develop new concepts in strain-, polarization-, and carrier dynamics-engineered and low-defect materials and device designs having reduced dislocations and improved carrier collection followed by efficient photon generation. We studied the effects of crystalline defect, polarizations, hole transport, electron-spillover, electron blocking layer, underlying layer below the multiplequantum- well active region, and developed high-efficiency and efficiency-droop-mitigated blue LEDs with a new LED epitaxial structures. We believe new LEDs developed in this program will make a breakthrough in the development of high-efficiency high-power visible III-N LEDs from violet to green spectral region.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) jointly hosted a workshop on “CO{sub 2} Geologic Sequestration and Water Resources” in Berkeley, June 1–2, 2011. The focus of the workshop was to evaluate R&D needs related to geological storage of CO{sub 2} and potential impacts on water resources. The objectives were to assess the current status of R&D, to identify key knowledge gaps, and to define specific research areas with relevance to EPA’s mission. About 70 experts from EPA, the DOE National Laboratories, industry, and academia came to Berkeley for two days of intensive discussions. Participants were split into four breakout session groups organized around the following themes: Water Quality and Impact Assessment/Risk Prediction; Modeling and Mapping of Area of Potential Impact; Monitoring and Mitigation; Wells as Leakage Pathways. In each breakout group, participants identified and addressed several key science issues. All groups developed lists of specific research needs; some groups prioritized them, others developed short-term vs. long-term recommendations for research directions. Several crosscutting issues came up. Most participants agreed that the risk of CO{sub 2} leakage from sequestration sites that are properly selected and monitored is expected to be low. However, it also became …

An electrical vehicle environment was established to promote research and technology development in the area of high power energy management. The project incorporates a topology that permits parallel development of an alternative energy delivery system and an energy storage system. The objective of the project is to develop technologies, specifically power electronics, energy storage electronics and controls that provide efficient and effective energy management between electrically powered devices in alternative energy vehicles – plugin electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles, range extended vehicles, and hydrogen-based fuel cell vehicles. In order to meet the project objectives, the Vehicle Energy Management System (VEMS) was defined and subsystem requirements were obtained. Afterwards, power electronics, energy storage electronics and controls were designed. Finally, these subsystems were built, tested individually, and integrated into an electric vehicle system to evaluate and optimize the subsystems’ performance. Phase 1 of the program established the fundamental test bed to support development of an electrical environment ideal for fuel cell application and the mitigation of many shortcomings of current fuel cell technology. Phase 2, continued development from Phase 1, focusing on implementing subsystem requirements, design and construction of the energy management subsystem, and the integration of this subsystem into the surrogate electric …

This document describes the capabilities of the U.S. Department of Energy and National Renewable Energy Laboratory's System Advisor Model (SAM), Version 2011.12.2, released on December 2, 2011. SAM is software that models the cost and performance of renewable energy systems. Project developers, policy makers, equipment manufacturers, and researchers use graphs and tables of SAM results in the process of evaluating financial, technology, and incentive options for renewable energy projects. SAM simulates the performance of solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, and conventional power systems. The financial model can represent financing structures for projects that either buy and sell electricity at retail rates (residential and commercial) or sell electricity at a price determined in a power purchase agreement (utility). Advanced analysis options facilitate parametric, sensitivity, and statistical analyses, and allow for interfacing SAM with Microsoft Excel or with other computer programs. SAM is available as a free download at http://sam.nrel.gov. Technical support and more information about the software are available on the website.

Decision and Risk Analysis capabilities will be developed for industry consideration and possible adoption within Year 1. These tools will provide a methodology for merging qualitative ranking of technology maturity and acknowledged risk contributors with quantitative metrics that drive investment decision processes. Methods and tools will be initially introduced as applications to the A650.1 case study, but modular spreadsheets and analysis routines will be offered to industry collaborators as soon as possible to stimulate user feedback and co-development opportunities.