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Title: Advanced simulation capability for environmental management - current status and future applications

Abstract

The U.S. Department of Energy (US DOE) Office of Environmental Management (EM), Office of Soil and Groundwater (EM-12), is supporting development of the Advanced Simulation Capability for Environmental Management (ASCEM). ASCEM is a state-of-the-art scientific tool and approach that is currently aimed at understanding and predicting contaminant fate and transport in natural and engineered systems. ASCEM is a modular and open source high-performance computing tool. It will be used to facilitate integrated approaches to modeling and site characterization, and provide robust and standardized assessments of performance and risk for EM cleanup and closure activities. The ASCEM project continues to make significant progress in development of capabilities, with current emphasis on integration of capabilities in FY12. Capability development is occurring for both the Platform and Integrated Tool-sets and High-Performance Computing (HPC) multi-process simulator. The Platform capabilities provide the user interface and tools for end-to-end model development, starting with definition of the conceptual model, management of data for model input, model calibration and uncertainty analysis, and processing of model output, including visualization. The HPC capabilities target increased functionality of process model representations, tool-sets for interaction with Platform, and verification and model confidence testing. The integration of the Platform and HPC capabilities weremore » tested and evaluated for EM applications in a set of demonstrations as part of Site Applications Thrust Area activities in 2012. The current maturity of the ASCEM computational and analysis capabilities has afforded the opportunity for collaborative efforts to develop decision analysis tools to support and optimize radioactive waste disposal. Recent advances in computerized decision analysis frameworks provide the perfect opportunity to bring this capability into ASCEM. This will allow radioactive waste disposal to be evaluated based on decision needs, such as disposal, closure, and maintenance. Decision models will be used in ASCEM to identify information/data needs, and model refinements that might be necessary to effectively reduce uncertainty in waste disposal decisions. Decision analysis models start with tools for framing the problem, and continue with modeling both the science side of the problem (for example, inventories, source terms, fate and transport, receptors, risk, etc.), and the cost side of the problem, which could include costs of implementation of any action that is chosen (e.g., for disposal or closure), and the values associated with those actions. The cost side of the decision problem covers economic, environmental and societal costs, which correspond to the three pillars of sustainability (economic, social, and environmental). These tools will facilitate stakeholder driven decision analysis to support optimal sustainable solutions in ASCEM. In this paper the current state of ASCEM is first described, followed by a description of the approach that will be taken to augment ASCEM for simulating fate and transport with tools that facilitate a top-down or systems level view of finding optimal, sustainable solutions to difficult environmental (including radioactive waste) problems. (authors)« less

Authors:
;  [1]; ; ;  [2]; ;  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6]
  1. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington (United States)
  2. Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico (United States)
  3. U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Environmental Management, Washington DC (United States)
  4. Neptune and Company, Inc, Los Alamos, New Mexico (United States)
  5. Savannah River National Laboratory, Aiken, South Carolina (United States)
  6. Neptune and Company, Inc, Lakewood, Colorado (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
American Society of Mechanical Engineers - ASME, Nuclear Engineering Division, Environmental Engineering Division, Two Park Avenue, New York, NY 10016-5990 (United States)
OSTI Identifier:
22535210
Resource Type:
Conference
Resource Relation:
Conference: ICEM2013 - ASME 2013: 15. International Conference on Environmental Remediation and Radioactive Waste Management, Brussels (Belgium), 8-12 Sep 2013; Other Information: Country of input: France; 12 refs
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE WASTES, AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES; 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; 97 MATHEMATICAL METHODS AND COMPUTING; ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS; RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL; RADIOACTIVE WASTES; SIMULATION; SIMULATORS; SITE CHARACTERIZATION; US DOE

Citation Formats

Freshley, Mark, Scheibe, Timothy, Robinson, Bruce, Moulton, J. David, Dixon, Paul, Marble, Justin, Gerdes, Kurt, Stockton, Tom, Seitz, Roger, and Black, Paul. Advanced simulation capability for environmental management - current status and future applications. United States: N. p., 2013. Web. doi:10.1115/ICEM2013-96152.
Freshley, Mark, Scheibe, Timothy, Robinson, Bruce, Moulton, J. David, Dixon, Paul, Marble, Justin, Gerdes, Kurt, Stockton, Tom, Seitz, Roger, & Black, Paul. Advanced simulation capability for environmental management - current status and future applications. United States. https://doi.org/10.1115/ICEM2013-96152
Freshley, Mark, Scheibe, Timothy, Robinson, Bruce, Moulton, J. David, Dixon, Paul, Marble, Justin, Gerdes, Kurt, Stockton, Tom, Seitz, Roger, and Black, Paul. 2013. "Advanced simulation capability for environmental management - current status and future applications". United States. https://doi.org/10.1115/ICEM2013-96152.
@article{osti_22535210,
title = {Advanced simulation capability for environmental management - current status and future applications},
author = {Freshley, Mark and Scheibe, Timothy and Robinson, Bruce and Moulton, J. David and Dixon, Paul and Marble, Justin and Gerdes, Kurt and Stockton, Tom and Seitz, Roger and Black, Paul},
abstractNote = {The U.S. Department of Energy (US DOE) Office of Environmental Management (EM), Office of Soil and Groundwater (EM-12), is supporting development of the Advanced Simulation Capability for Environmental Management (ASCEM). ASCEM is a state-of-the-art scientific tool and approach that is currently aimed at understanding and predicting contaminant fate and transport in natural and engineered systems. ASCEM is a modular and open source high-performance computing tool. It will be used to facilitate integrated approaches to modeling and site characterization, and provide robust and standardized assessments of performance and risk for EM cleanup and closure activities. The ASCEM project continues to make significant progress in development of capabilities, with current emphasis on integration of capabilities in FY12. Capability development is occurring for both the Platform and Integrated Tool-sets and High-Performance Computing (HPC) multi-process simulator. The Platform capabilities provide the user interface and tools for end-to-end model development, starting with definition of the conceptual model, management of data for model input, model calibration and uncertainty analysis, and processing of model output, including visualization. The HPC capabilities target increased functionality of process model representations, tool-sets for interaction with Platform, and verification and model confidence testing. The integration of the Platform and HPC capabilities were tested and evaluated for EM applications in a set of demonstrations as part of Site Applications Thrust Area activities in 2012. The current maturity of the ASCEM computational and analysis capabilities has afforded the opportunity for collaborative efforts to develop decision analysis tools to support and optimize radioactive waste disposal. Recent advances in computerized decision analysis frameworks provide the perfect opportunity to bring this capability into ASCEM. This will allow radioactive waste disposal to be evaluated based on decision needs, such as disposal, closure, and maintenance. Decision models will be used in ASCEM to identify information/data needs, and model refinements that might be necessary to effectively reduce uncertainty in waste disposal decisions. Decision analysis models start with tools for framing the problem, and continue with modeling both the science side of the problem (for example, inventories, source terms, fate and transport, receptors, risk, etc.), and the cost side of the problem, which could include costs of implementation of any action that is chosen (e.g., for disposal or closure), and the values associated with those actions. The cost side of the decision problem covers economic, environmental and societal costs, which correspond to the three pillars of sustainability (economic, social, and environmental). These tools will facilitate stakeholder driven decision analysis to support optimal sustainable solutions in ASCEM. In this paper the current state of ASCEM is first described, followed by a description of the approach that will be taken to augment ASCEM for simulating fate and transport with tools that facilitate a top-down or systems level view of finding optimal, sustainable solutions to difficult environmental (including radioactive waste) problems. (authors)},
doi = {10.1115/ICEM2013-96152},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/22535210}, journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 2013},
month = {Mon Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 2013}
}

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