Knowledge-Based Information Resource Management System for Materials of Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactor

In the development of advanced fast reactors, materials and coolant/ material interactions pose a critical barrier for higher temperature and longer core life designs. For sodium-cooled fast reactors (SFRs) such as the Experimental Breeder Reactors in Idaho and the Fast Flux Test Facility in Hanford, experience has shown that qualified structural materials and fuel cladding severely limits their economic performance. Liquid sodium has been selected as the primary coolant candidate for the Advanced Burner Reactor (ABR) of the Global Nuclear Partnership (GNEP). Materials improvement has been identified as a major thrust to improve fast reactor economics. Researchers from universities, national laboratories, and related industrial participants have been continuously generating data and knowledge about materials and their interactions with coolants for the past few decades. Considering cost and time, the paradigm of designing and implementing a successful advanced nuclear system can be shifted and updated via the integration of information and internet technologies. Such efforts can be better visualized by implementing collective (centralized or distributed) data storage to serve the community with organized material data sets. This project proposes to create a modularized web-based information system with models to systematically catalog and analyze existing data, and guide the new development and testing to acquire new data. Technically speaking, information retrieval and knowledge discovery tools will be implemented for researchers with both information look-up options from material databases and technology/development gap analysis from intelligent agent and reporting components. The goal of the system is not only to provide another database, but to also create a distributable and expandable, platform-free, location-free online system for research institutes and industrial partners. Such knowledge discovery and data mining processes generally include data integration, preparation and transformation, data mining and evaluation, and data visualization. Parallel to the development of these front-end analysis tools, web-based data updating and portal administration interfaces will also be designed and developed. Data collection will start during the early stage of the project due to its time consuming nature

Development of a Systems Engineering Model of the Chemical Separations Process: Final Report

The whole chemical separation process is complex to the point that definitely requires certain level of systematic coordination. To perform smoothly and meet the target extraction rates among those processes, this research proposed a general-purpose systems engineering model. A general purposed systems engineering model, Transmutation Research Program System Engineering Model Project (TRPSEMPro), was developed based on the above design concept. The system model includes four main parts: System Manager, Model Integration, Study Plan, and Solution Viewer. TRPSEMPro can apply not only to chemical separation process, but also a general system model. Software engineering and Object Oriented Analysis and Design (OOA&D) play a critical role during our software development. Through the application of OOA&D, the user can define objects and concepts from our problem domain that is quantitatively described by Unified Modeling Language (UML). The logical software objects were created from the previous definition. Meanwhile, different design patterns were also applied during the detailed design phase. Finally, those designed components were implemented by using MicrosoftTM.Net, the most up-to-date object-oriented programming language framework from Microsoft. Currently, only the UREX process module is available and ready to be implemented. Since extraction modules can be developed from various agencies with different development concepts and programming conventions, an intermediate bridge or interpreter is generally required. The system connects the only available process, UREX and with the TRPSEMPro system model from the AMUSESimulator interface. The AMUSESimulator communicates with the calculation engine AMUSE macros designed for the UREX process. A user-friendly GUI in AMUSESimulator allows the user to efficiently define the UREX process – flowsheet, input streams, sections, and stages

Development of Integrated Process Simulation System Model for Spent Fuel Treatment Facility (SFTF) Design: Quarterly Report October 1-December 31, 2004

The Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative (AFCI) and Transmutation Research Program- University Participation Program (TRP-UPP) supported by Department of Energy of the United States have been developing many important technologies for the transmutation of nuclear waste to address long-term disposal issues. While successfully embedding AMUSE module into a dedicated System Engineering Model (TRPSEMPro), developed by the Nevada Center for Advanced Computational Methods (NCACM) at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas collaborating with Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), ANL is interested in further simulating the Light Water Reactor (LWR) Spent Fuel Treatment Facility (SFTF) combining commercial process simulation and analysis packages and core calculation of the AMUSE that derived for using with the UREX+ process. The designed SFTF will receive, temporarily store, and prepare spent nuclear fuel for leaching. The major objectives of this research proposal are to develop a framework for simulating the Spent Fuel Treatment Facility (SFTF) process using AMUSE code, commercial process package such as ASPEN-PLUS, HYSYS and PRO/II and system engineering model such as TRPSEMPro’s flexible parameter optimization modules, to develop a middleware package that can communicate between the AMUSE code and any selected commercial packages, to extend the existing system engineering model for optimization process that includes process simulation results, and to include a scenario based database system that efficiently reports required information as chart output using web-based programming, and Microsoft Visual Basic (MS VB)

Development of Integrated Process Simulation System Model for Spent Fuel Treatment Facility (SFTF) Design: Quarterly Progress Report January 1-March 31, 2006

The UNLV developed TRPSEMPro software package can access engineering modeling software, ASPEN Plus through its own interface. The new interface eliminates the user interaction with the complex ASPEN Plus package and also provides input and output results for analysis purpose. The current interface will keep improving on collecting multiple scenario runs and database population. Two separation processes, acid and plutonium separations, are near completion. The unit operations were finished while some sensitive chemical data for certain species are unknown. Graduate student, Matthew Hodges, continues on finishing those processes using dummy values for those restricted variables. Once the processes complete, researchers from the Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) can plug in the actual values for further evaluation

Development of a Systems Engineering Model of the Chemical Separations Process

The chemical processing of used nuclear fuel is an integral component of any strategy for the transmutation of nuclear waste. Due to the large volume of material that must be handled in this first step of the transmutation process, the efficiency of the separations process is a key factor in the potential economic viability of the transmutation strategies. The ability to optimize the chemical separation systems is vital to ensure the feasibility of the transmutation program. Systems analysis, or total systems modeling, is one of the strongest tools available to researchers for understanding and optimizing complex systems such as chemical separations processes. Systems analyses permit researchers to present decision- makers concise evaluations of system options and their characteristic features. The primary goal of this project is to develop a systems model that can be used to parameterize and optimize chemical separations processes

Eye Glance Analysis of the Surrogate Tests for Driver Distraction

The purpose of this study was to examine the eye glance patterns of Detection Response Tasks (DRTs) for assessment of driver distraction during simulated driving. Several types of DRTs across visual, tactile and haptic modalities were used to investigate driver distraction by the ISO Driving Distraction working group. As part of the working group, we conducted a simulated driving study examining driver performance while engaging the primary driving task with visual-manual or auditory-verbal secondary tasks. Results of eye glance analysis showed that the visual DRTs increased visual load in driving more than the tactile DRT. Subsequently, the visual DRTs marginally increased the total glance time for forward view by 6.27 seconds and significantly increased the detection response time by 135.79 ms than the tactile DRT. As for the secondary tasks, the visual-manual secondary task yielded significantly longer total eye-offthe-road time (effect size = 50.75 ms), as well as DRT response times than the auditory-verbal ones time (effect size = 55.85 ms). This study allowed us to examine the relationships between rated situational awareness, DRT performance, and glance patterns, yielding insights into the relationship between objective task performance measures and subjective ratings

Development of a Systems Engineering Model of the Chemical Separations Process

The AFCI program is developing technology for the transmutation of nuclear waste to address many of the long-term disposal issues. An integral part of this program is the proposed chemical separations scheme. Nearly all issues related to risks to future generations arising from long-term disposal of such spent nuclear fuel is attributable to about 2% of its content. Such 2% is made up primarily of plutonium, neptunium, americium, and curium (the transuranic elements) and long-lived isotopes of iodine and technetium created as products from the fission process in power reactors. When transuranics are removed from discharged fuel destined for disposal, the toxic nature of the spent fuel drops below that of natural uranium ore (that was originally mined for nuclear fuel) within a period of several hundred years. Removal of plutonium and other transuranics from material destined for geologic disposal also eliminates long-term (centuries) heat management issues within such environments. The removal of neptunium, technetium, and iodine render negligible the possibility of radioactive material penetration into the biosphere in the future. Finally, removal of plutonium negates any incentive for intrusion into repositories driven by intentional recovery of material for nuclear proliferation. The complete process considers existing LWR spent fuel, separation processes, fuel fabrication, transmutation, low-level waste disposal (LLWD), and the reprocessing of fuel after transmutation. In a nuclear growth scenario, the introduction of advanced thermal reactor designs will almost certainly result in changes in separations system requirements that must be met with optimized systems. Developing a systems engineering model of the overall process would be beneficial to analyzing complex interactions between proposed process changes. The model will evolve to incorporate all process steps and to improve process modules as more knowledge is gained. The improvements will be based on empirical data or from numerical models as appropriate. An integral part of the overall chemical process is a UREX (Uranium Extraction) process. This portion of the process is currently modeled by AMUSE code, developed by ANL

Extracting Business Value from IT: A Sensemaking Perspective of Post-Adoptive Use

How can firms extract value from already-implemented information technologies (IT) that support the work processes of employees? One approach is to stimulate employees to engage in post-adoptive extended use, i.e.,to learn and apply more of the available functions of the implemented technologies to support their work. Such learning behavior of extending functions in use is ingrained in a process by which users make sense of the technologies in the context of their work system.This study draws on sensemaking theory to develop a model to understand the antecedents, contingencies, and consequences of customer service employees’ extended use of customer relationship management (CRM)technologies. The model is tested using multi-source longitudinal data collected through a field study of one of the world’s largest telecommunications service providers. Our results suggest that employees engage in post-adoptive sensemaking at two levels: technology and work system. We found that sensemaking at both of these levels impacts the extended use of CRM technologies. Employees’ sensemaking at the technology level is influenced by employees’ assessment of technology quality,while employees’ sensemaking at the work system level is influenced by customers’ assessment of servicequality. Moreover, in the case of low technology quality and low service quality, specific mechanisms for employee feedback should be conceptualized and aligned at two levels: through employee participation at the technology level and through work system coordination at the work system level. Such alignment can mitigate the undesirable effect of low technology quality and low service quality,thereby facilitating extended use. Importantly, we found that extended use amplifies employees’ service capacity, leading to better objective performance. Put together, our findings highlight the critical role of employees’ sensemaking about the implemented technologies in promoting their extended use of IT and improving their work performance