INL National University Consortium – Annual Report 28 NCSU Researchers and INL Graduate Fellow Examine Energy Storage Options for Small Modular Reactors In a paper published in Nuclear Technology, researchers from INL and North Carolina State University, including NCSU alumnus and current INL postdoctoral research associate Konor Frick, examined two different thermal energy storage systems for nuclear and renewable power. These storage systems, when coupled to a small modular reactor, allow operators to match production to demand, thus increasing the efficiency of a small modular reactor.   1. Abir, Muhammad (MIT), Furqan Islam, Daniel Wachs (INL), and Dennis Keiser (INL). “Quantitative Evaluation of Thin Uranium Foils Using X-ray Radiography.” Nuclear Engineering and Design 325 (2017): 107-12. doi:10.1016/j. nucengdes.2017.10.002. 2. Aly, A., V. Petrov, A. Casagranda (INL), M. Avramova (NCSU), A. Manera, and K. Ivanov (NCSU). “Spatial Resolution Effects on the Prediction of Hydrogen Distribution and Hydride Formation in Rod Bundles.” Lecture, PHYSOR 2018. 3. Bao, H. (NCSU), N. Dinh (NCSU), J. Lane, and R. Youngblood (INL). “Study of Data-Driven Mesh- Model Optimization in System Thermal-Hydraulic Simulation.” Lecture, ANS Annual Meeting. 4. Bao, Han (NCSU), Haihua Zhao (INL), Hongbin Zhang (INL), Ling Zou (INL), Phil Sharpe (INL), and Nam Dinh (NCSU). “Safe Reactor Depressurization Windows for BWR Mark I Station Blackout Accident Management Strategy.” Annals of Nuclear Energy 114 (2018): 518-29. doi:10.1016/j. anucene.2017.12.063. 5. Cao, Lei (TOSU), Josh Jarrell (TOSU), Susan White (TOSU), Kevin Herminghuysen (TOSU), Andrew Kauffman (TOSU), Douglas E. Hardtmayer (TOSU), Jeff Sanders (INL), and Shelly Li (INL). “A Radioactive Tracer Dilution Method to Determine the Mass of Molten Salt.” Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry 314, no. 1 (2017): 387-93. doi:10.1007/s10967-017-5417-5. 6. Casperson, R. J., D. M. Asner, J. Baker (INL), R. G. Baker, J. S. Barrett (OSU), N. S. Bowden, C. Brune, J. Bundgaard, E. Burgett, D. A. Cebra, T. Classen, M. Cunningham, J. Deaven, D. L. Duke, I. Ferguson, J. Gearhart, V. Geppert-Kleinrath, U. Greife, S. Grimes, E. Guardincerri, U. Hager, C. Hagmann, M. Heffner, D. Hensle, N. Hertel, D. Higgins, T. Hill, L. D. Isenhower, J. King (OSU), J. L. Klay, N. Kornilov, R. Kudo, A. B. Laptev, W. Loveland, M. Lynch, W. S. Lynn, J. A. Magee, B. Manning, T. N. Massey, C. Mcgrath, R. Meharchand, M. P. Mendenhall, L. Montoya, N. T. Pickle, H. Qu, J. Ruz, S. Sangiorgio, K. T. Schmitt, B. Seilhan, S. Sharma, L. Snyder, S. Stave, A. C. Tate, G. Tatishvili, R. T. Thornton, F. Tovesson, D. E. Towell, R. S. Towell, N. Walsh, S. Watson, B. Wendt, L. Wood, L. Yao (OSU), and W. Younes. “Measurement of the Normalized U238(n,f)/ U235(n,f) Cross Section Ratio from Threshold to 30 MeV with the NIFFTE Fission Time Projection Chamber.” Physical Review C 97, no. 3 (2018). doi:10.1103/physrevc.97.034618. 7. Che, Yifeng (MIT), Giovanni Pastore (INL), Jason Hales (INL), and Koroush Shirvan (MIT). “Modeling of Cr2O3-doped UO2 as a Near-term Accident Tolerant Fuel for LWRs Using the BISON Code.” Nuclear Engineering and Design 337 (2018): 271-78. doi:10.1016/j.nucengdes.2018.07.015. 8. Chen, Kevin P., Mohamed Zaghloul, Mohan Wang, Sheng Huang, Ming-Jun Li, Stephen Mihailov, David Carpenter (MIT), Joshua Dow (INL), Dan Grobnic, Cyril Hnatovsky, and L.-W. Hu (MIT). “Radiation Resilient Fiber Bragg Grating Sensors for Sensing Applications in Nuclear Reactor Cores.” 2017 International Conference on Optical Instruments and Technology: Advanced Optical Sensors and Applications, 2018. doi:10.1117/12.2296458. 9. Dave, A., Y.-J. Wang, L.-W. Hu (MIT), K. Sun (MIT), J. Nielsen (INL), P. Murray, and R. Marlow. “Safety Margin Characterization for Atr High Power Fueled Experiments.” Lecture, ICAPP 2018.