Award Data

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 ...

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 ...

Several hundred beam lines are used around the world at today¿s third-generation synchrotron facilities. These facilities must deal with monochromator-based performance problems due to high heat load. Many have resorted to the use of costly, complicated, high maintenance cryogenic cooling of silicon crystals. Single crystal diamond monochromators present an advantage over the silicon crystals ...

Higher gas transport membranes would enhance membrane separations, especially those associated with energy savings (e.g., oxygen or nitrogen enriched air). In these systems, gas transport is inversely proportional to the thickness of the membrane¿s active layer. This project will explore a novel route for preparing ultrathin (100-1000 angstroms) membranes with very high selectivity. First, memb ...

Biomass fast pyrolysis fuel (BioOil) is a liquid fuel made from wood chips and the low-grade wood byproducts of timber harvesting. However, when BioOil is stored, its chemicals polymerize, aided by the oxygen present in the BioOil. As a consequence, the viscosity of the BioOil increases over time, and, under extreme conditions, it can become a solid. In addition, the presence of water results i ...

Natural gas offers cost and environmental benefits over other conventional energy sources and decreases our dependence on oil imports. However, many sources of natural gas also contain large amounts of non-hydrocarbon gases, which make them uneconomical to market. Removal of these non-hydrocarbon impurities, in order to raise low quality raw gas to pipeline quality, could have significant econom ...

There continues to be a need to produce fuel-grade ethanol from renewable sources. However, the cost of agricultural-based ethanol is quite severe, despite the fact that existing and new legislation provides significant incentives for its use. This project addresses novel routes to enhance the low-cost production of high-quality dry-fuel-grade ethanol by means of a novel water-ethanol separation ...

URANIUM HEXAFLUORIDE IS THE WORKING FLUID IN THE GAS CENTRIFUGE. A NEED EXISTS FOR UF6 ASSAY DETERMINATION IN A FULLY AUTOMATED SYSTEM IN REAL-TIME. THIS PROJECT ADDRESSES THE CONCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW ION TRAP TIME-OF-FLIGHT METHOD FOR MONITORING THE RELATIVE PROPORTIONS OF CLOSELY SPACED ION MASSES. IT IS DIRECTLY APPLICABLE TO THE ASSAY OF U235/U238 RATIOS IN THE UF6 GAS STREAM IN REAL-TI ...

The most common method for utility energy storage in the US is pumped hydro, which has very low energy density (~ 1.1 kWh/m3) and long response times (1 to 5 min). Another method is the use of rechargeable batteries such as lead acid batteries (40 kWh/m3), which require high maintenance and have a low cycle life. Therefore, the DOE is interested in finding novel battery chemistries that have the ...

It is becoming increasingly apparent that we, as a nation, need to quickly develop an alternative and sustainable energy supply. This is due to a host of factors, including uncontrollable fluctuation in oil prices, large oil supplies being controlled by foreign regimes, global shrinking oil supplies, increased global energy demands from emerging economies such as China and India, and unhealthy ri ...