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Georgia Tech receives $1.6 million for nuclear energy projects

The Department of Energy (DOE) recently awarded the Georgia Institute of Technology $1.6 million in two grants for testing materials used in producing nuclear energy.

DOE is awarding $47 million through its Nuclear Energy University Program (NEUP) to support 63 university-led nuclear energy research and development projects in 29 states. NEUP seeks to maintain U.S. leadership in nuclear research across the country by providing top science and engineering faculty and their students opportunities to develop innovative technologies and solutions for civil nuclear capabilities.

“Because nuclear energy is such a vital part of our nation’s energy portfolio, these investments are necessary to ensuring that future generations of Americans will continue to benefit from safe, clean, reliable, and resilient nuclear energy,” said Ed McGinnis, DOE’s principal deputy assistant secretary for nuclear energy. “Our commitment to providing researchers with access to the fundamental infrastructure and capabilities needed to develop advanced nuclear technologies is critical.”

The awards are dispersed under three DOE nuclear energy programs: the Nuclear Energy University Program (NEUP), the Nuclear Energy Enabling Technologies (NEET) program, and the Nuclear Science User Facilities (NSUF) program.

Georgia Tech’s projects are funded by the NEUP. The first is for corrosion testing of new alloys and accompanying on-line reduction oxidation measurements in the flow loops of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) eutectic alkaline metal fluoride salt mixture, specifically the molten salts lithium fluoride, sodium fluoride, and potassium fluoride (also called FLiNaK) as well as lithium fluoride and beryllium fluoride (or FLiBe.)

“The structural alloys in fluoride salt-cooled high-temperature reactors (FHR) will be exposed to molten fluoride salt mixtures at high temperatures, which can be very corrosive depending on the alloy composition and the presence of impurities in the molten salt. It is very important to test the candidate alloys under potential FHR conditions and understand the corrosion mechanisms in order to select the right alloys to use in building the structure of a reactor,” said Preet M. Singh, principal investigator on the project from Georgia Tech’s School of Materials Science and Engineering.

In the second project, a modeling and simulation tool will be developed to perform highly accurate and efficient transient calculations in the FHRs.

“Accurate and efficient modeling and simulation tools are needed to support design optimization, analysis, licensing, and eventual deployment of any reactor,” said Farzad Rahnema, the project’s principal investigator and Georgia Power Company Distinguished Professor of Nuclear Engineering in Georgia Tech’s George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering. “The current tools are inadequate for modeling advanced reactors such as the FHRs because of their complex geometry and high heterogeneity. The capability to perform transient calculations with high fidelity is an important component of licensing first-of-a-kind reactors, where experimental data are lacking or scarce.”

The DOE awards are for three years.

Learn more at the DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy website.

Source: http://www.news.gatech.edu/2018/07/12/georgia-tech-receives-16-million-nuclear-energy-projects

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Former contracting officer at nuclear R&D facility pleads guilty to wire fraud and money laundering

A former procurement officer employed at Sandia Corporation, the prime operator of a federally funded nuclear research and development facility, pleaded guilty Dec. 5th to charges of wire fraud and money laundering for orchestrating a scheme to obtain approximately $2.3 million in federal funds through fraudulent means and for laundering fraudulently obtained proceeds through her father’s companies.

Carla Sena, 55, of Santa Rosa, New Mexico, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering in the U.S. District Court of New Mexico.  Sentencing will be scheduled at a later date. 

According to the plea documents, Sena’s employer, Sandia Corporation, managed and operated Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), a nuclear research and development facility owned by the federal government under sponsorship of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

  • In late 2010, Sena managed the bidding process for the award of a multi-million-dollar contract for moving services at SNL.
  • Sena admitted that, in anticipation of the bidding process for this contract, she created the company, New Mexico Express Movers LLC (Movers LLC), to which she awarded the multi-million-dollar contract.
  • Sena prepared a bid on Movers LLC’s behalf containing fraudulent misrepresentations, and submitted the bid under the name of an individual who had no knowledge of Movers LLC to conceal her involvement.
  • Sena also admitted that she used her position of trust to access inside information and competing bidders’ documents that she leveraged to ensure award of the contract to Movers LLC.
  • As a direct result of Sena’s fraudulent scheme, Movers LLC received approximately $2.3 million in federal funds between May 2011 and April 2016.
  • Sena also admitted that, between October 2011 and April 2015, she transferred via negotiated checks at least $643,000 of the fraudulently obtained proceeds to legitimate businesses owned by her father with the intent to conceal the source and control of those funds and her subsequent personal gain from the proceeds.

The DOE Office of Inspector General investigated the case.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-procurement-officer-federally-funded-nuclear-research-and-development-facility-pleads

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Former procurement officer indicted on wire fraud and money laundering charges

A federal grand jury sitting in the District of New Mexico returned an 11-count indictment against a former procurement officer employed at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), a nuclear research and development facility of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), for orchestrating a scheme to obtain a $2.3 million contract through fraudulent means.

Carla Sena, 55, of Albuquerque, New Mexico was charged with three counts of wire fraud, one count of major fraud against the United States and seven counts of money laundering.

According to the indictment, SNL was managed and operated by Sandia Corporation (Sandia) during the relevant time period.  In late 2010, Sena was assigned by Sandia to manage the bidding process for the award of a contract for moving services at SNL.  In anticipation thereof, Sena created New Mexico Express Movers LLC (Movers LLC), prepared a bid on Movers LLC’s behalf, and submitted the bid to Sandia under someone else’s name to conceal her involvement.  Sena made several material and fraudulent misrepresentations in Movers LLC’s bid that would have resulted in disqualification, but she used her position at SNL to ensure that these misrepresentations went undetected.  Sena also used her position to access other bidders’ documents and information that she in turn leveraged to ensure award of the contract to Movers LLC.  As a direct result of Sena’s scheme to defraud, Movers LLC received approximately $2.3 million in DOE funds.  The indictment further alleges that, between December 2011 and April 2015, Sena transferred via negotiated checks at least $643,000 of these fraudulently obtained proceeds to legitimate businesses owned by her father with the intent to conceal her subsequent use of the proceeds for personal gain.

The indictment is the result of an ongoing investigation by the DOE Office of Inspector General and is being prosecuted by the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section.

The fact that a defendant has been charged with a crime is merely an accusation, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-procurement-officer-federally-funded-nuclear-research-and-development-facility

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Energy Department thinking green when tackling federal real property improvements

Federal real property is getting greener, one lighting fixture, window treatment and HVAC system at a time.

The Department of Energy’s Federal Energy Management Program [FEMP] recently awarded 21 indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contracts to energy service companies [ESCOs] to help the government increase energy savings and lower operating costs.

“The core scope of work that these contracts cover are energy efficiency improvements, the types of things that we can do in these contracts are quite wide and varied,” said Timothy Unruh, deputy assistant secretary of renewable power within the department’s energy efficiency office. “They can include efficiency improvements that may be a boiler plant improvement, a chiller plant improvement. It can include equipment to the air-moving equipment within the building, it can have changes in lighting, the building’s electronic control system can also be updated. The building envelope: windows, doors, installations and so forth, can also be included in these contacts.”

The contracts also include renewable energy sources for combined heat and power, such as solar panel installations, or wind-farm installations.

Federal real property is getting greener, one lighting fixture, window treatment and HVAC system at a time. The Department of Energy’s Federal Energy Management Program [FEMP] recently awarded 21 indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contracts to energy service companies [ESCOs] to help the government increase energy savings and lower operating costs. “The core scope of work that these contracts cover are energy efficiency improvements, the types of things that we can do in these contracts are quite wide and varied,” said Timothy Unruh, deputy assistant secretary of renewable power within the department’s energy efficiency office. “They can include efficiency improvements that may be a boiler plant improvement, a chiller plant improvement. It can include equipment to the air-moving equipment within the building, it can have changes in lighting, the building’s electronic control system can also be updated. The building envelope: windows, doors, installations and so forth, can also be included in these contacts.” The contracts also include renewable energy sources for combined heat and power, such as solar panel installations, or wind-farm installations.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsradio.com/green-buildings/2017/07/energy-department-thinking-green-when-tackling-federal-real-property-improvements/

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Watchdog: Energy Dept. mismanaged some small business R&D investments

The Energy Department’s research investment programs aren’t effectively managed, occasionally leading to overspending, a federal watchdog found.

The department’s Office of Science distributes Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) awards, given to companies working on specific energy-themed technology projects. The Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy also builds cooperative agreements with small businesses developing new technology.

Those programs need to do a better job guaranteeing awardees meet their development goals and ensuring funding is allocated efficiently, among other steps, according to an inspector general’s audit.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.nextgov.com/cio-briefing/2017/04/watchdog-energy-department-mismanaged-some-rd-investments/137164/

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