Mars 2020 Rover instrument selection. NASA issued a record of decision (ROD) to use a nuclear battery (a multi-mission radioisotope thermoelectric generator) on the next rover to go to Mars, in 2020. Sandia performed the Nuclear Risk Assessment that was the keystone analysis in the Environmental Impact Statement leading up to this ROD. [...]
The DOE released a report by an independent technical assessment team (TAT) that evaluated the mechanisms and chemical reactions contributing to the failure of a waste drum at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in Carlsbad, NM. The TAT concluded that one drum, Drum 68660, was the source of radioactive contamination released during the February [...]
Sandia physicist Jim Bailey observes a wire array that will heat foam to roughly 4 million degrees until it emits a burst of X-rays that heats a foil target to the interior conditions of the sun. Working at temperatures matching the interior of the sun, researchers at Sandia National Laboratories’ Z machine have [...]
The Department of Energy approved the Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light-Water Reactors’ (CASL’s) “Phase 2” renewal to develop advanced computing capabilities that serve as a virtual version of existing, operating nuclear reactors—to enable nuclear energy to continue to provide dependable, affordable energy to America while advancing innovative research in an energy source central to [...]
Sandia Z-Machine researchers have produced a significant fusion-neutron output, using a method fully functioning for only little more than a year. The experimental work is described in a paper “Experimental Demonstration of Fusion-Relevant Conditions in Magnetized Liner Inertial Fusion,” published in the Oct. 6 Physical Review Letters online. A theoretical PRL paper, published on the [...]
The first-ever Asian MELCOR User Group Meeting was held in Daejeon, South Korea, from October 13–17. MELCOR is a fully integrated, engineering-level computer code whose primary purpose is to model severe-accident progression in light-water-reactor (LWR) nuclear power plants. Sandia developed MELCOR for the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)—to treat a broad spectrum of phenomena in both [...]
Used fuel pools are typically 40 or more feet deep, with the bottom 14 ft equipped with storage racks designed to hold the used-fuel assemblies. The used fuel bundles’ temperature decrease significantly between 2 and 4 years, and less from 4 to 6 years. During mid November, Evaristo (Tito) Bonano (senior manager of [...]
On December 4th, the DOE's Carlsbad Field Office announced the appointment of Sandia’s Sean Dunagan (recently manager of Sandia’s Performance Assessment & Decision Analysis Dept.) to take on the role of Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) Senior Recovery Manager under an IPA (Intergovernmental Personnel Act) arrangement between the DOE and Sandia. Sean officially began his [...]
The Chinese Nuclear Power Engineering Co. (CNPE) invited Patrick Brady (in Sandia’s Geoscience Research and Applications Group) to Beijing to discuss with Chinese colleagues Sandia’s deep borehole research and the DOE Deep Borehole Demonstration Project. Bill Boyle, DOE’s Used Fuel Deposition lead, gave an overview of DOE’s nuclear-waste efforts and the goals of the Deep [...]
Simulation of a WIPP waste-storage barrel rupture due to an internal cook-off event. A multi-disciplinary team provided critical analysis as part of the Technical Assessment Team supporting the investigation of a radiation release at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in Carlsbad, New Mexico. Subsequent to a February 5, 2014, truck fire, a [...]
