February 2010 - Neams-pmt - mailman3.cels.anl.gov

FW: NEAMS & LWRS Modeling and Simulation
by Larzelere, Alex 18 Feb '10

18 Feb '10

Everyone, Sorry for the delay - here is the email chain I promised between myself and Rolando concerning the growing collaboration between the NEAMS and LWRS activities. Alex ________________________________ From: Ronaldo.Szilard(a)inl.gov [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, February 11, 2010 2:26 PM To: Larzelere, Alex; Nam.Dinh(a)inl.gov; George.Griffith(a)inl.gov; Richard.Martineau(a)inl.gov Cc: Carroll, Wade; Phillip.Finck(a)inl.gov; Versluis, Rob; 'ksbradley(a)llnl.gov'; 'hkhalil(a)anl.gov'; Reister, Richard Subject: Re: NEAMS & LWRS Modeling and Simulation Alex, Thank you for your clarification. I think we share the same vision, I am equally eager to establish a broader view of two very important areas for LWR operations: safety analysis and fuels performance. There is potential for significant collaboration on these two areas between NEAMS and LWRS. I am not concerned with one taking over the other, as the goals of the 2 programs are fairly distinct. LWRS has a focus on solving long term operation problems with a definite timing goal to be helpful to the current industry for life extension (60 to 80 years). NEAMS has a longer term view as it focuses on advanced models based on fundamental principles. Nevertheless, interfaces between the two programs ought to be explored. I would certainly like to participate in your PMT meetings (I won't be able to participate this Tuesday, as I will be at an NRC meeting at the same time), so please send me your regular call numbers and dates. I will certainly accept your invitation to attend NEAMS Spring PI meeting at ANL, and similarly, I would like to invite you and Hussein to attend the LWRS semi-annual meeting, March 9-10 in DC at the INL/ANL offices. Please understand that meeting space is limited, so one person from your office and Hussein would be the ideal number of additional support I am looking for. Bottom line, I am looking forward for a fruitful collaboration and understanding of the two programs. I will continue to look for opportunities to continue our dialogs as we started last December. The bi-weekly calls, the March LWRS meeting and the ANL PI meeting are a good start. Beyond those dates we will still continue to look for opportunities to have joint NEAMS-LWRS meetings. Sincerely Ronaldo ________________________________ From: "Larzelere, Alex" [alex.larzelere(a)nuclear.energy.gov] Sent: 02/10/2010 02:39 PM EST To: Ronaldo Szilard; Nam Dinh; George Griffith; Richard Martineau Cc: "Carroll, Wade" <WADE.CARROLL(a)nuclear.energy.gov>; Phillip Finck; "Versluis, Rob" <ROB.VERSLUIS(a)nuclear.energy.gov>; "'ksbradley(a)llnl.gov'" <ksbradley(a)llnl.gov>; "'hkhalil(a)anl.gov'" <hkhalil(a)anl.gov> Subject: NEAMS & LWRS Modeling and Simulation Ronaldo, et al, Just a quick note about NEAMS and its relationship to other NE R&D modeling and simulation initaitives. Yesterday I say Phillip Finck in my Forrestal office (yes we both braved the snow) and he mentioned that there is a concern out there about the new role larger role of NEAMS and the new HQ Office. I just want to assure you that my intention is not to "take over" any of the other existing modeling and simulation activities. What I would like to see is that we enhance to cooporation between the activities and provide additional support where appropriate. I was very happy to hear from Jim Steward of Sandia the other day that he and Ralph Nelson were alreay talking with the RELAP7 folks about the NEAMS V&V, UQ work and how it could provide some support. I think that is a great example of the conversations that need to occur over the next few week. I really do not know how this is all going to work, but I know that Hussein Khahil, Keith Bradley, Rob Versluis and I are looking forward to making sure the relationship between NEAMS and the LWRS activities is well coordinated. Along those lines -- there are two upcoming events I would like to invite LWRS representatives to attend. The first is the bi-weekly Program Management Team (PMT) conference call that will occur this Tuesday at 1pm EST (we normally have the call on Monday, but need to make the shift due to the holiday). As noted this call occurs on a bi-weekly basis with quarterly face-to-face meeting. The second "big" upcoming event is the NEAMS Spring PI meeting that will occur at Argonne on April 13, 14, & 15. This meeting will kickoff our FY-11 planning and will provide an opportunity for the members of the NEAMS community coordinate activities. Attached is the latest draft agenda and Hussein Khalil will be in touch with additional information about the call and the PI meeting. Finally, I would like to apologize for the delay in understanding how NEAMS and LWRS modeling and simulation will be coordinated. As you will recall we tried to make a visit to INL in December and had to settle for a video. We have also been trying to reschedule the visit, but something always seems to come up. So -- I am looking foward to understanding how everyone is going to work with each other and once again assure you that our intent is to make sure we provide the best modeling and simulation capabilities need to impement the Miller and Lyons Imperative. Please let me know if you have any comments or questions. Regards, Alex

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PMT Bi-Weekly Conference Call -- Tuesday, 2/16, 1:00pm EST
by Larzelere, Alex 16 Feb '10

16 Feb '10

Here is the number for the conference call: Domestic dial number: 888-790-9159 Passcode: 48676 Talk with most of you at 1pm EST. Alex Everyone, Since today (Monday 2/15)is a holiday -- we are shifting our bi-weekly PMT conference call to Tuesday (same time 1pm EST). I realize that this conflicts with other calls/meetings so I will understand if some people cannot make the call. I think it is important that we hold this call can cover a few topics sooner rather than later. Here are the following topics for our discussion: * Review and modification of agenda (if necessary) * Introduction of the new LWRS and Adv Reactors Modeling and Simulation Members of the PMT * NEAMS Community Web Site * Update on the NEAMS Crosscut Implementation Plan * Spring PI Meeting agenda discussion (it looks like we are on for April 13 to 15 at Argonne) As you can see, we will make changes to the agenda before we start the meeting, so please be ready with any suggestions. Let me know if you have any comments or questions and I look forward to talking with everyone on Tuesday. I do not currently have the number for the call, but as soon as I get it I will pass it along. Regards, Alex ________________________________________________ Alex R. Larzelere Director, Advanced Modeling and Simulation Office of Nuclear Energy U.S. Department of Energy 202-586-1906 Alex.Larzelere(a)nuclear.energy.gov

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PMT Bi-Weekly Conference Call -- Tuesday, 2/16, 1:00pm EST
by Larzelere, Alex 15 Feb '10

15 Feb '10

Everyone, Since today (Monday 2/15) is a holiday -- we are shifting our bi-weekly PMT conference call to Tuesday (same time 1pm EST). I realize that this conflicts with other calls/meetings so I will understand if some people cannot make the call. I think it is important that we hold this call can cover a few topics sooner rather than later. Here are the following topics for our discussion: * Review and modification of agenda (if necessary) * Introduction of the new LWRS and Adv Reactors Modeling and Simulation Members of the PMT * NEAMS Community Web Site * Update on the NEAMS Crosscut Implementation Plan * Spring PI Meeting agenda discussion (it looks like we are on for April 13 to 15 at Argonne) As you can see, we will make changes to the agenda before we start the meeting, so please be ready with any suggestions. Let me know if you have any comments or questions and I look forward to talking with everyone on Tuesday. I do not currently have the number for the call, but as soon as I get it I will pass it along. Regards, Alex ________________________________________________ Alex R. Larzelere Director, Advanced Modeling and Simulation Office of Nuclear Energy U.S. Department of Energy 202-586-1906 Alex.Larzelere(a)nuclear.energy.gov

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Re: [Neams-pmt] FW: Looking for collaborators for CS research project
by bernholdtde＠ornl.gov 11 Feb '10

11 Feb '10

Thanks to the WF folks for the quick response. To clarify one possible misunderstanding for everyone, let me note that although the word "design" is used in "design by contract", contracts are indeed something that can easily be retrofit into existing code -- you really do _not_ have to be working from scratch to make use of contracts. They are also perfectly amenable to incremental adoption, so you can do it one method at a time, if you like. With our current tools, they may be more intrusive than you'd like due to the reliance on Babel. As part of our new research, we anticipate being able to provide rather sophisticated contract capability much less intrusively. The plan is that they will even be expressible as simple annotations (structured comments) within your exisitng source code. There are other simpler (but less flexible and capable) ways to implement contracts which we could use for some limited initial work, if desired, or just wait for the improved version. Thanks again for everyone's consideration. -- David E. Bernholdt | Email: bernholdtde(a)ornl.gov Oak Ridge National Laboratory | Phone: +1 (865) 574 3147 http://www.csm.ornl.gov/~bernhold/ | Fax: +1 (865) 576 5491

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NEAMS Spring 2010 -- Get the Word Out
by Larzelere, Alex 10 Feb '10

10 Feb '10

Everyone, Things are starting to firm up for the Spring 2010 PI Meeting. It is going to be held on April 13, 14, and 15 in Argonne. Please start getting the word out for people to mark their calendars. So who should attend? Basically we need the people who will be planning and leading the various work packages for FY-11. I expect this will be a pretty good size group that is similar to the people who attended last fall's PI meeting. Attached is the draft agenda and that might help determine who you think should be invited. We will be having our regular PMT conference call this coming Tuesday (yes we usually do it on Monday, but that is a holiday). I will be putting together the agenda and provide the call-in information later in the week. Planning for the PI meeting will definitely be on the agenda. Please look over the draft and be ready to provide you comments and question and please spread the word about the dates. Thanks, Alex

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Re: [Neams-pmt] FW: Looking for collaborators for CS research project
by bernholdtde＠ornl.gov 04 Feb '10

04 Feb '10

Hi Ross, I agree with your perspective, but you're just the second developer I've found that uses contracts in a more formal sense. So unfortunately, I _do_ think it needs to be sold to the computational science & engineering community. Technically it is not that hard to do, but the languages we (as a community) use don't natively support contracts, so those who are aware enough to want it need to find or create the functionality before they can use it. Our research is aimed at providing a cohesive "turnkey" approach with a lot of nice features to make it an easier sale. (We're also interested in contracts for purposes other than code correctness, but that's more speculative and more "internal" at present.) Much good software development practice is just good common sense and not hard to implement, but nevertheless it is often ignored. At least that is my observation in the "Office of Science" part of the world that I've historically spent most of my time. I think perhaps ASCI has done somewhat better in this, but I suspect there is still much room for improvement. db -- David E. Bernholdt | Email: bernholdtde(a)ornl.gov Oak Ridge National Laboratory | Phone: +1 (865) 574 3147 http://www.csm.ornl.gov/~bernhold/ | Fax: +1 (865) 576 5491

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Looking for collaborators for CS research project
by bernholdtde＠ornl.gov 04 Feb '10

04 Feb '10

Another project I'm involved in is interested in the use of "design by contract" methods for software development. We're looking for a couple of application teams that would be willing work with us to demonstrate the value of contracts in science & engineering code. In this context, contracts are assertions about the behavior of a piece of code that can be expressed and verified independently of the code. In our case, pre- and post-conditions, invariants, and assertions associated with a method call. A simple example would be that a square root routine might require a non-negative input and ensure a non-negative output. In the "real world", of course, contracts might be significantly more complex, but even simple ones can be quite important. These kinds of things can obviously be implemented as tests within the routine body, but casting them as contracts essentially makes them part of the interface rather than the implementation, and clearly exposes behavioral (semantic) information to users (and to developers who might want to replace the implementation with another) -- I sometimes describe them as "executable documentation". The "executable" part comes in verifying that the contracts are satisfied as the code runs. This obviously helps give confidence that the code is being used as intended and the implementation is providing the intended results, which is fundamental to V&V. Because contracts are potentially computationally intensive to evaluate, they can be turned off and on selectively, and we also have sampling strategies which attempt to maximize coverage while limiting overhead. Currently, contracts are implemented in a language interoperability tool called Babel, and are available in C, C++, Fortran, Java, and Python. Going forward, we're planning to refactor our tools so that contracts can be provided separately from the language interoperability, extending the types of contract clauses we support, and some more exploratory ideas. As I said, we'd like to find a couple of application partners to help guide the work and demonstrate its practical value in terms of facilitating V&V. I thought the NEAMS program might find this idea particularly interesting. If you or members of your team are interested, please contact me. Thanks! -- David E. Bernholdt | Email: bernholdtde(a)ornl.gov Oak Ridge National Laboratory | Phone: +1 (865) 574 3147 http://www.csm.ornl.gov/~bernhold/ | Fax: +1 (865) 576 5491

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FW: Fuels Challenge problems and 5yr implementation plan
by Larzelere, Alex 01 Feb '10

01 Feb '10

-----Original Message----- From: Unal, Cetin [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Sunday, January 31, 2010 4:21 PM To: Larzelere, Alex; Bradley, Keith S.; Hussein Khalil; Scott, Sara C; kemal.pasamehmetoglu(a)inl.gov; Unal, Cetin Cc: Funk, Dan; Versluis, Rob; Carroll, Wade; Peltz, James Subject: RE: Fuels Challenge problems and 5yr implementation plan Rob/Brsdley/Khalil Eventually we will have to develop a program and implementation plan. My earlier extended version serves for several purpose. First- to prepare the background for the program and implementation plan. Secondly and more importantly is to give a perspective on what needs to be done in the fuel M&S area. There are new NEAMS staff who may or may not be aware of the details of required fuel work that satisfy the program needs. The document is giving you the summary of 3 years of thinking and preparation by a lots of people in the program and fuels campaign. I hope the document was informative . Third, I need to put something in writing for the technical staff for discussion and further development of the program plan. Enclosed is a short version . Please review and let me know this is what we need .I will check monday this version is consistent with Alex's template. I dont see his email from my home. If anybody else have suggestions and questions please call. ________________________________________ From: Larzelere, Alex [alex.larzelere(a)nuclear.energy.gov] Sent: Friday, January 29, 2010 2:28 PM To: Unal, Cetin; Bradley, Keith S.; Hussein Khalil; Scott, Sara C Cc: Funk, Dan; Versluis, Rob; Carroll, Wade; Peltz, James Subject: RE: Fuels Challenge problems and 5yr implementation plan Cetin, Sorry for the delay -- I just got to opening this. Thanks for being the first one to submit your draft of the Fuels IPSC challenge problem. Unfortunately I am a bit concerned that your challenge problem description is a bit too long at 23 pages. We were looking for just a few (2-4) challenge problems for your code area and only one page per problem (i.e. no more that 4 pages total). We also need to boil the problem down to something that people in Congress will readily understand. Please work with Rob Versluis, Keith Bradley, and Hussein Khalil to whittle your submission down to its essential parts as per the template I provided. Thanks, Alex -----Original Message----- From: Unal, Cetin [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, January 28, 2010 7:22 PM To: Larzelere, Alex; Bradley, Keith S.; Hussein Khalil; Scott, Sara C; Unal, Cetin Cc: Funk, Dan; Versluis, Rob; Carroll, Wade; Peltz, James Subject: Fuels Challenge problems and 5yr implementation plan To all Enclosed is fuels IPSC challenge problem definition including scope and a 5yr implementation plan. I have written this in a small program and implementation plan format. It targets all fuels related M&S tasks under one roof. I have input from FRCD indicating that this is in their vision. No input is solicited from LEP and NGNP yet since their 5yr implementation plan is not specifying details. If we push the one roof idea I will need you to help to talk to LEP and NGNP to convince them this plan will deliver what they need. Please send your comments so I can generate a final version of the document. Call me if things are not clear. Thanks My cell is 505-412-2777 Work 505-665-2539 On 1/28/10 1:26 PM, "Alex.Larzelere(a)nuclear.energy.gov" <Alex.Larzelere(a)nuclear.energy.gov> wrote: Everyone, I found it!! - for those of you who might recall - in early 2008 GNEP advanced modeling and simulation had a milestone to deliver an implementation plan. A lot of work was put into the early drafts but in the end David Nowak and I ended up diluting the document to make the delivery date. Attached is the "close to final" draft that did not make it out the door and was almost lost to history. The reason I liked this version was the thorough job it did collecting M&S requirements from the Program Elements (aka Campaigns) the description of the structure of NEAMS. The problem with it is that fact that the document is very GNEP oriented and only focuses on the Fuel Cycle R&D. In any case, this document can provide some valuable input into our latest implementation plan. And the best part about finding it, is that I know a lot of work was put into preparing this material and perhaps now some of it will actually see the "light of day." Finally, attached is an update to the IP outline. As you will see, I added a section on the Challenge Problems and how they relate to the Imperative Implementation Plans. Please let me know if you have any questions or comments. Regards, Alex ________________________________________________ Alex R. Larzelere Director, Advanced Modeling and Simulation Office of Nuclear Energy U.S. Department of Energy 202-586-1906 Alex.Larzelere(a)nuclear.energy.gov

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PMT Bi-Weekly Conference Call -- Monday, 2/1, 1:00pm EST
by Larzelere, Alex 01 Feb '10

01 Feb '10

Just a reminder. Alex Here is the call in information: * Toll Free Off-Site Participants: 866-914-3976 * Participant Security Code: 880007# Talk with everyone on Monday. Have a great weekend! Alex Everyone, The say time flies when you are having fun. I do not know about you, but these days with the way it is flying by me- I must be having a blast! Too bad I cannot remember any of it. In any case, next Monday is the time for our next PMT conference call. I do not have the call-in information right now, but will pass it along as soon as I get it. Here are the following topics for our discussion: * Review and modification of agenda (if necessary) * Discussion of challenge problems drafts (Fuels, Reactors, SafeSeps, Waste) * Update on efforts to integrate other NE M&S Activities into NEAMS * NEAMS Crosscut Implementation Plan * Spring PI Meeting agenda discussion As you can see, we will make changes to the agenda before we start the meeting, so please be ready with any suggestions. Let me know if you have any comments or questions and I look forward to talking with everyone on Monday. Regards, Alex ________________________________________________ Alex R. Larzelere Director, Advanced Modeling and Simulation Office of Nuclear Energy U.S. Department of Energy 202-586-1906 Alex.Larzelere(a)nuclear.energy.gov

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