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Sandia National Laboratories results for the 2010 criticality accident dosimetry exercise, at the CALIBAN reactor, CEA Valduc France

Ward, Dann C.

This document describes the personal nuclear accident dosimeter (PNAD) used by Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) and presents PNAD dosimetry results obtained during the Nuclear Accident Dosimeter Intercomparison Study held 20-23 September, 2010, at CEA Valduc, France. SNL PNADs were exposed in two separate irradiations from the CALIBAN reactor. Biases for reported neutron doses ranged from -15% to +0.4% with an average bias of -7.7%. PNADs were also exposed on the back side of phantoms to assess orientation effects.

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TYPE SAND Report YEAR 2011
DOIOSTI

Detection of embedded radiation sources using temporal variation of gamma spectral data

Shokair, Isaac R.

Conventional full spectrum gamma spectroscopic analysis has the objective of quantitative identification of all the isotopes present in a measurement. For low energy resolution detectors, when photopeaks alone are not sufficient for complete isotopic identification, such analysis requires template spectra for all the isotopes present in the measurement. When many isotopes are present it is difficult to make the correct identification and this process often requires many trial solutions by highly skilled spectroscopists. This report investigates the potential of a new analysis method which uses spatial/temporal information from multiple low energy resolution measurements to test the hypothesis of the presence of a target spectrum of interest in these measurements without the need to identify all the other isotopes present. This method is referred to as targeted principal component analysis (TPCA). For radiation portal monitor applications, multiple measurements of gamma spectra are taken at equally spaced time increments as a vehicle passes through the portal and the TPCA method is directly applicable to this type of measurement. In this report we describe the method and investigate its application to the problem of detection of a radioactive localized source that is embedded in a distributed source in the presence of an ambient background. Examples using simulated spectral measurements indicate that this method works very well and has the potential for automated analysis for RPM applications. This method is also expected to work well for isotopic detection in the presence of spectrally and spatially varying backgrounds as a result of vehicle-induced background suppression. Further work is needed to include effects of shielding, to understand detection limits, setting of thresholds, and to estimate false positive probability.

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TYPE SAND Report YEAR 2011
DOIOSTI

Statistical surrogate models for prediction of high-consequence climate change

Field, Richard V.; Constantine, Paul G.; Boslough, Mark

In safety engineering, performance metrics are defined using probabilistic risk assessments focused on the low-probability, high-consequence tail of the distribution of possible events, as opposed to best estimates based on central tendencies. We frame the climate change problem and its associated risks in a similar manner. To properly explore the tails of the distribution requires extensive sampling, which is not possible with existing coupled atmospheric models due to the high computational cost of each simulation. We therefore propose the use of specialized statistical surrogate models (SSMs) for the purpose of exploring the probability law of various climate variables of interest. A SSM is different than a deterministic surrogate model in that it represents each climate variable of interest as a space/time random field. The SSM can be calibrated to available spatial and temporal data from existing climate databases, e.g., the Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison (PCMDI), or to a collection of outputs from a General Circulation Model (GCM), e.g., the Community Earth System Model (CESM) and its predecessors. Because of its reduced size and complexity, the realization of a large number of independent model outputs from a SSM becomes computationally straightforward, so that quantifying the risk associated with low-probability, high-consequence climate events becomes feasible. A Bayesian framework is developed to provide quantitative measures of confidence, via Bayesian credible intervals, in the use of the proposed approach to assess these risks.

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TYPE SAND Report YEAR 2011
DOIOSTI

Experimental investigation of the Richtmyer-Meshkov instability

Weber, Christopher R.

The Richtmyer-Meshkov instability (RMI) is experimentally investigated using several different initial conditions and with a range of diagnostics. First, a broadband initial condition is created using a shear layer between helium+acetone and argon. The post-shocked turbulent mixing is investigated using planar laser induced fluorescence (PLIF). The signature of turbulent mixing is present in the appearance of an inertial range in the mole fraction energy spectrum and the isotropy of the late-time dissipation structures. The distribution of the mole fraction values does not appear to transition to a homogeneous mixture, and it is possible that this effect may be slow to develop for the RMI. Second, the influence of the RMI on the kinetic energy spectrum is investigated using particle image velocimetry (PIV). The influence of the perturbation is visible relatively far from the interface when compared to the energy spectrum of an initially flat interface. Closer to the perturbation, an increase in the energy spectrum with time is observed and is possibly due to a cascade of energy from the large length scales of the perturbation. Finally, the single mode perturbation growth rate is measured after reshock using a new high speed imaging technique. This technique produced highly time-resolved interface position measurements. Simultaneous measurements at the spike and bubble location are used to compute a perturbation growth rate history. The growth rates from several experiments are compared to a new reshock growth rate model.

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TYPE SAND Report YEAR 2011
DOIOSTI

DOE/SNL-TTU scaled wind farm technology facility :

Barone, Matthew F.; White, Jonathan R.

The proposed DOE/Sandia Scaled Wind Farm Technology Facility (SWiFT) hosted by Texas Tech University at Reese Technology Center in Lubbock, TX, will provide a facility for experimental study of turbine-turbine interaction and complex wind farm aerodynamics. This document surveys the current status of wind turbine wake and turbine-turbine interaction research, identifying knowledge and data gaps that the proposed test site can potentially fill. A number of turbine layouts is proposed, allowing for up to ten turbines at the site.

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TYPE SAND Report YEAR 2011
DOIOSTI
Results 67101–67200 of 99,299
Results 67101–67200 of 99,299