Award Data

High performance lithium-ion batteries are needed for advanced transportation technologies. To satisfy the rapidly increasing performance demands for these applications, currently available lithium-ion batteries need to be improved. The limitations of state-of-the art Li-ion batteries include limited energy and power densities, potential fire hazard, and short cycle life. All of these character ...

The designs of many existing Pressurized Water Reactors (PWRs) incorporate a Digital Rod Position Indication (DRPI) system to monitor the positions of the control and shutdown rods within the reactor. These DRPI systems have been in service for over 30 years in nuclear power stations worldwide, and are currently being used as the basis for the rod position indication systems in new designs. In re ...

Research reactors in the United States use numerous motors, compressors, fans, turbines, and other rotating equipment that need systematic maintenance. These devices could benefit from advanced predictive maintenance techniques that have become available in recent years. Although some reactor facilities currently incorporate some of these techniques, many lack an adequate complement of test sens ...

The Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) has a long history of service to the nation and is expected to continue to operate for many more years. Recently, ATR was designated as a user facility, making it accessible to a wider spectrum of researchers, engineers, and scientists from around the globe. In order to preserve this valuable asset, this project will establis ...

Almost all of America¿s energy needs are supplied by the combustion of fossil fuels, and a great amount of anthropogenic CO2 is a byproduct of this process. The DOE has expressed a need for the development of CO2 instrumentation that can be deployed on small balloons and other robotic platforms and can achieve 1 ppm accuracy for a temporal resolution less than 30 seconds. This project will desi ...

The role of clouds in climate and weather is known to be very important, but is still not fully understood. Making accurate and comprehensive observations is the first step towards fuller discovery and understanding. This project will develop an innovative passive microwave remote sensor that will be able to observe cloud parameters such as extinction, total water content, liquid plus ice, liqui ...

The DOE is interested in the development of efficient tidal turbine systems to help meet the future energy needs of the United States. State-of-the-art tidal turbine systems feature composite tidal turbine blades. Unfortunately, composite materials possess questionable durability characteristics relevant to the marine environment (e.g., poor cavitation-erosion and impact-damage-resistance), whic ...

Geothermal energy has the potential to provide a significant source of clean, renewable energy for the United States. However, for geothermal energy to be economically viable, advanced technologies are needed to enable the transport of geothermal fluids to the surface from depths on the order of 3 to 10 km. One of the essential components is a motor-lead extension that is capable of delivering h ...

Existing and planned neutron facilities, such as the Spallation Neutron source, generate bursts of cold neutrons for materials research. The efficiency of the beam line components, which convert the fast neutrons to a cold neutron beam, determines the usefulness of the facility. Existing solid methane moderators have a high efficiency, but can¿t be scaled to work on high power facilities. A cold ...

Utility-scale solar systems are being developed around the world, many in the Southwest United States, and most of these projects will require parabolic reflectors. To date, all of the world¿s utility-scale solar energy systems use glass mirrors that have been provided by a single supplier (Flabeg, Germany). However, these glass mirrors are expensive and heavy, and they routinely fracture and b ...