Award Data

THE BAYESIAN DIAGNOSTIC SYSTEM (BDS) IS PROPOSED AS THE CENTRAL INFERENCE ENGINE OF AN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE SYSTEM (EXPERT SYSTEM) FOR REACTOR PLANT CONTROL AND MAINTENANCE. THE EXPERT SYSTEM, COPILOT, IS ALREADY UNDER DEVELOPMENT AT PLG UNDER LIMITED IN-HOUSE FUNDING. THE EXISTING WORK INVOLVES DEVELOPMENT OF THE "DOMAIN KNOWLEDGE BASE" OF POWER PLANT SYSTEMS, PROCEDURES, AND ANALYSIS RESULTS ...

Liquid-metal coolants are one of the most promising solutions for the challenges of advanced high temperature nuclear reactor systems.They optimize heat transfer, neutronics, safety, and compactness of the reactor systems.Molten lead and lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE) are the primary coolant candidates due to their unique thermo-mechanical and neutronics properties.However, they are highly corrosive ...

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 ...

A STEAMFLOODING/STEAM GENERATION SYSTEM IS PROPOSED FOR DEEP, HEAVY OIL RESERVOIRS. THIS CONCEPT MINIMIZES THE DOWNHOLE HEAT LOSSES, IMPROVES RELIABILITY AND REDUCES THE COST OF STEAM GENERATION. ITS FEATURES WILL MAKE STEAMING OF VERY DEEP WELLS (BELOW 7500 FEET) TECHNICALLY AND ECONOMICALLY FEASIBLE, AND WILL IMPROVE THE ECONOMICS OF SHALLOWER WELL STEAMFLOODING. THIS NOVEL CONCEPT SUPPLIES HEAT ...

To address the scarcity of effective treatments for volumetric muscle loss injuries, we propose a novel aligned multilumen nanofibrillar collagen scaffold loaded with Hepatocyte Growth Factor (HGF) modified messenger RNA (mmRNA) to direct functional muscl

THE ALPHA PARTICLES IN A FUSION REACTOR ARE THE SOURCE OF FREE ENERGY WHICH SUSTAINS THE "BURNING" D-T PLASMA. THE ABILITY OF A MAGNETIC CONFINEMENT DEVICE TO CONTAIN THE ALPHA PARTICLES IN THE PLASMA DETERMINES CONDITIONS FOR IGNITION. MEASUREMENTS OF THE TIME HISTORY OF THE SPATIAL AND ENERGY DISTRIBUTIONS OF THE ALPHA PARTICLES IN THE PLASMA ARE REQUIRED FOR COMPARING THE THEORETICAL PREDICTION ...

THERE IS A NEED FOR CHEMICALS WITH A HIGH METAL BINDING CAPACITY WHICH ALSO ALLOWS FOR RECOVERY OF THE METALS IN A CONCENTRATED FORM. THIS CHEMICAL SHOULD PERMIT REPEATED RECYCLING, FUNCTION AT LOW METAL CONCENTRATIONS, AND BE COSTCOMPETITIVE WITH EXISTING RESINS. IDEALLY, THIS AGENT WOULDBE PRODUCED IN VOLUME BY INDUSTRIALLY CONTROLLED PROCESSES FROM INEXPENSIVE AND READILY AVAILABLE RAW MATERIAL ...

Access to clean, reliable water supplies is critical to our quality of life and our economy, yet across the country thousands of hazardous waste sites are so heavily contaminated that the underlying groundwater doesn’t meet drinking water standards. Measuring contamination in the environment is critical to human health and to the DOE Biological and Environmental Research (BER) program’s goal t ...

Cost-effective and power-efficient radiation tolerant semiconductors are needed in various harsh environments, such as particle detectors, communication satellites, high-altitude avionics and medical imagining equipment. These include amplifiers, voltage regulators, analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) and digital logic circuitry. However, radiation-tolerant high-speed ADCs currently cost more than ...