Summary Report of the INL-JISEA Workshop on Nuclear Hybrid Energy Systems

The Institute for Nuclear Energy Science and Technology (INEST) and the Joint Institute for Strategic Energy Analysis (JISEA) co-sponsored an international workshop to identify research topics important in advancing the potential use of hybrid systems with a specific focus on nuclear-renewable hybrid systems. The workshop included presentations ranging from energy challenges and research and development directions being pursued by nations to multiple options for hybrid systems. Those options include one that is being commercialized to other opportunities and analysis results quantifying them. The workshop also involved two breakout sessions--one focused on thermal energy management issues especially at unit-operation scale and the second focused on system operations issues including system controls, regulatory issues, technical and economic analysis, and market challenges. A discussion involving the full group focused on more general issues such as societal involvement and participation. Key criteria for selecting hybrid energy system projects and metrics for comparing them were also identified by the full group

HYTEST Phase I Facility Commissioning and Modeling

The purpose of this document is to report the first year accomplishments of two coordinated Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) projects that utilize a hybrid energy testing laboratory that couples various reactors to investigate system reactance behavior. This work is the first phase of a series of hybrid energy research and testing stations - referred to hereafter as HYTEST facilities – that are planned for construction and operation at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). A HYTEST Phase I facility was set up and commissioned in Bay 9 of the Bonneville County Technology Center (BCTC). The purpose of this facility is to utilize the hydrogen and oxygen that is produced by the High Temperature Steam Electrolysis test reactors operating in Bay 9 to support the investigation of kinetic phenomena and transient response of integrated reactor components. This facility provides a convenient scale for conducting scoping tests of new reaction concepts, materials performance, new instruments, and real-time data collection and manipulation for advance process controls. An enclosed reactor module was assembled and connected to a new ventilation system equipped with a variable-speed exhaust blower to mitigate hazardous gas exposures, as well as contract with hot surfaces. The module was equipped with a hydrogen gas pump and receiver tank to supply high quality hydrogen to chemical reactors located in the hood

Concept of operations for data fusion visualization

Situational awareness in the operations and supervision of a industrial system means that decision making entity, whether machine or human, have the important data presented in a timely manner. An optimal presentation of information such that the operator has the best opportunity accurately interpret and react to anomalies due to system degradation, failures or adversaries. Anticipated problems are a matter for system design; however, the paper will focus on concepts for situational awareness enhancement for a human operator when the unanticipated or unaddressed event types occur. Methodology for human machine interface development and refinement strategy is described for a synthetic fuels plant model. A novel concept for adaptively highlighting the most interesting information in the system and a plan for testing the methodology is described

Biodiversity in a complex world: consolidation and progress in functional biodiversity research

The global decline of biodiversity caused by human domination of ecosystems worldwide is supposed to alter important process rates and state variables in these ecosystems. However, there is considerable debate on the prevalence and importance of biodiversity effects on ecosystem function (BDEF). Here, we argue that much of the debate stems from two major shortcomings. First, most studies do not directly link the traits leading to increased or decreased function to the traits needed for species coexistence and dominance. We argue that implementing a trait-based approach and broadening the perception of diversity to include trait dissimilarity or trait divergence will result in more realistic predictions on the consequences of altered biodiversity. Second, the empirical and theoretical studies do not reflect the complexity of natural ecosystems, which makes it difficult to transfer the results to natural situations of species loss. We review how different aspects of complexity (trophic structure, multifunctionality, spatial or temporal heterogeneity, and spatial population dynamics) alter our perception of BDEF. We propose future research avenues concisely testing whether acknowledging this complexity will strengthen the observed biodiversity effects. Finally, we propose that a major future task is to disentangle biodiversity effects on ecosystem function from direct changes in function due to human alterations of abiotic constraints