Award Data

SINCE THEIR DISCOVERY NEUTRONS HAVE REMAINED ONE OF THE MOST DIFFICULT FORMS OF RADIATION TO DETECT. THE MOST EFFECTIVE NEUTRON DETECTORS IN CURRENT USE ARE GAS FILLED DETECTORS EMPLOYING EITHER 3HE OR BF3 AS THE DETECTION MEDIUM. UNFORTUNATELY, GAS FILLED DETECTORS SUFFER FROM A NUMBER OF DEFICIENCIES INCLUDING LARGE SIZE (GASES HAVE LOW VOLUMETRIC EFFICIENCY FOR STOPPING NEUTRONS), MECHANICAL FR ...

As the fusion science research advances towards the demonstration of practical reactors for commercial adoption there is a growing need to develop diagnostic systems for monitoring various plasma parameters in real time for control and shaping of the plasma density and profile. Recent, experiments have demonstrated the potential of a High-k Scattering system for studying turbulence physics studies ...

Bioproduction is typically reliant on host-organisms to express the enzymes needed for a synthetic pathway, which suffers from drawbacks like wasted metabolic resources, feedstock toxicity, and purification. Cell-free bioproduction is the logical alternative, but one major drawback is stability of the enzymes in the absence of a cell. For cell-free bioproduction to be feasible, enzymes will need t ...

Cementing is an integral part of well construction, providing the seal, protection, and support for the casing to maintain barriers that isolate the well.Wells can experience integrity failure due to structural instability in cemented regions due to subsidence and compaction caused by reservoir depletion over the lifetime of the well.Increased knowledge of cement placement, integrity, and conditio ...

Metallic 3D printing of nuclear fuel assembly components has the potential to remove unwanted cost, waste, and time from the fabrication process.In addition to the direct manufacturing benefits, design engineers can create fuel assembly components that increase the performance of nuclear fuel assemblies with features that were not manufacturable a few years ago.Because of the reduced build time, e ...

This Small Business Innovation Research project will develop new additive strategies to improve the cost and cell reliability of Li-ion batteries for electric vehicle applications. Xilectric’s technology seeks to dramatically improve Li-ion abuse tolerance to high temperatures and voltages by better maintaining the Li-ion electrolyte. Our additives improve the capacity retention and rate capabil ...

Current-generation heavy-duty diesel engines typically exhibit an engine efficiency of about 45%, the remaining energy used for running auxiliary systems or lost as heat or friction. Heavy-duty vehicles lose on average about 20% of the fuel energy inside the combustion chamber as heat to the coolant and 30% as heat to the exhaust. Increasing the efficiency of diesel engines while simultaneously im ...

Commercial-scale geothermal reservoirs are thousands of feet below the Earth’s surface, so scientists rely on indirect measurements to reconstruct 3D subsurface reservoir maps from seismic vibrations, electromagnetic waves, or gravity measurements. Geothermal operators typically use electromagnetic or gravity surveys, but seismic surveys are preferable because they enable higher-resolution 3D su ...

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In this Phase I SBIR proposal, SandBox Semiconductor™ proposes to develop an Advanced Manufacturing and Material Measurements software tool called Weave ™ for accelerating and automating SEM image analysis for the semiconductor industry. During the development of a new manufacturing process line for a semiconductor device, tens of thousands of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images are take ...