Award Data

Materials for modern nuclear reactors should meet multiple requirements- They have to be strong enough to reliably provide temperature oxidation, and be compatible with other nuclear reactor materials- Only the steels and alloys listed in Section III Division 5 of the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code are permitted for usage in nuclear reactors, but they may not be resistive enough against chem ...

An automated, real-time monitoring system for the determination of redox and microbial activity in unsaturated zone and/or the rhizosphere environments- This would allow for improved characterization of the subsurface environments- The sensor system is based on microbial fuel cell technology- The sensor system is composed of an anode, cathode and measurement circuitry- Neither the anode or cathode ...

This SBIR Phase I project will develop the manufacturing capability for the production of ultra-low-background copper for use in electronic interconnects and support architecture- Copper is an attractive electronic and support material because of its favorable conductivity and mechanical properties- Fortuitously, the material can also be electroplated with high radiopurity, particularly if the ele ...

One of the most promising concepts of advanced high temperature nuclear reactor systems utilizes liquid metal coolants to optimize heat transfer, neutronics, safety, and compactness- Molten lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE) is one of the primary candidates for such coolants due to its unique thermo-mechanical and neutronics properties- The structural components of advanced reactors must be corrosion res ...

This project will develop a flexible longitudinal electron optical system based on high-precision radio-frequency cavities for short and intense electron bunch compressions, both in the energy and time domains. The proposed system is designed to be insertable into an existing transmission electron microscope column to upgrade its temporal resolution. Active phase-space control enables broad ranges ...

Roughly 40% of USAF maintenance records have poorly coded work unit codes. This degrades aircraft pre-induction analysis and fleet-wide analysis of top drivers. Manual methods to scrub the data take years to develop for each air platform. Cybernet designed a machine learning algorithm to automatically correct coding errors without expert input. The Smart Data Cleanser (SDC) performed 4 years of wo ...

The Phase II SAI prototype will be developed using COTS GaN switches and CMOS drivers. During Phase II Alphacore will design and fabricate a rad-hard CMOS driver ASIC to provide electrical and on-chip algorithmic control of the GaN switches. The SAI and its components will be tested and measured under varying environmental conditions, including across temperature and radiation extremes. The GaN de ...

The aircraft Nondestructive Inspection Section, 76 AMXG/MXDEN needs a more efficient and effective means to track surface inspections, specifically Ultrasonic (UT) thickness measurements.UT thickness inspections are part of a daily workload for 76 AMXG/MXDEN and can occur on each aircraft that is inspected.Close-range, hand-held UT thickness measurement are currently recorded manually using pencil ...

An automated, real-time monitoring system for determining microbial activity in aqueous and subsurface environments (soils, aquifers and wastewater treatment facilities) will allow for improved characterization (fate and transport) of organic carbon in natural and industrial environments.General statement of how this problem is being addressedDeveloping an automated, field-deployable monitoring sy ...

Environmental sensor networks capable of taking data quickly enough to capture minute-scale fluctuations and durable enough to capture these data for entire seasons provide essential information for studying the seasonal and annual effects of environmental activity across complete ecosystems. The models informed by this data are useful for predicting both short- and long-term changes to economical ...