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Southern Nevada Regional Industrial Study, Brookings Mountain West, Center For Business And Economic Research, Transportation Research Center

Policy Briefs and Reports

Recognizing the ongoing need to diversify the Southern Nevada economy, in 2023 GOED commissioned Brookings Mountain West, the UNLV Center for Business and Economic Research, and the UNLV Transportation Research Center to evaluate how Southern Nevada can leverage its geography and connectivity to neighboring states and metros at the megapolitan level to pursue industrial opportunities in the face of shifting global supply chains, diminishing developable land, the need for efficient management of the regional water supply, and the availability of unprecedented federal resources to support clean energy development, manufacturing, electrification of transportation systems, and supply-chain resiliency.

The study builds on …

Feasibility Study Of Custom Manufacturing Of Ionic Polymer-Metal Composite Sensors, Shelby E. Nelson

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The ability to create an ion exchange membrane with any shape or thickness through custom manufacturing techniques is highly desirable in ionic polymer-metal composite (IPMC) research. This is caused by the poor selection and limited availability of certain thicknesses of commercial ion exchange membranes. The objective of this study is to determine the feasibility of manufacturing custom ion exchange membranes for IPMC sensors. The manufacturing methods used in this study are extrusion, injection molding, and hot pressing. A commercial membrane from Golden Energy Fuel Cells (GEFC) is used as a comparison. After the membranes are fabricated, certain properties of the …

Virtual Design And Modeling Of Various Manufacturing Processes For Remote Fabrication Of Transmuter Fuel, Jamil Mohamad Renno

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

As currently envisioned, over 70,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste would be stored inside the planned Yucca Mountain repository. After emplacement, the site must be maintained and guarded for over 10,000 years; The reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel is a possible alternative to geological storage. Here, depleted Uranium would be separated from Plutonium and Minor Actinides. While Plutonium can be 'burned' in commercial nuclear reactors, the minor actinides would be transmuted into other elements. The large-scale deployment of remote fabrication and refabrication processes (approx. 100 tons of Minor Actinides (MA) annually) will be required. Process automation has the potential to …

Three-Dimensional Modeling And Simulation Of Manufacturing Processes For Transmuter Fuel Fabrication, Richard Arthur Silva

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

A proposed method of converting long-lived radionuclides contained within spent nuclear fuel into shorter-lived radionuclides is known as transmutation. The feasibility assessment of fuel manufacturing for transmutation is necessary for the overall success of the transmutation project. As part of that assessment, this paper reviews current methodologies for handling spent nuclear fuel and other highly radioactive material. While not exhaustive, the review encompassed facilities within the U.S. Department of Energy, international operations, as well as, work performed collegiately; The manufacturing of fuel for transmutation will certainly utilize automation and robotics. A simplified 3-D model of a fuel handling operation was …

Three Dimensional Pattern Recognition Using Feature-Based Indexing And Rule-Based Search, Jae-Kyu Lee

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

In flexible automated manufacturing, robots can perform routine operations as well as recover from atypical events, provided that process-relevant information is available to the robot controller. Real time vision is among the most versatile sensing tools, yet the reliability of machine-based scene interpretation can be questionable. The effort described here is focused on the development of machine-based vision methods to support autonomous nuclear fuel manufacturing operations in hot cells; This thesis presents a method to efficiently recognize 3D objects from 2D images based on feature-based indexing. Object recognition is the identification of correspondences between parts of a current scene and …

Internet-Based Manufacturing Database, Shashidhar Iddamsetty

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

This thesis presents the concept of using distributive databases and World Wide Web as a tool for deploying the Internet based Manufacturing database for insert selection. The rapid phase of development of Internet and its wide usage in the areas of business and Engineering has opened a wide spectrum for the areas of research. This tool is useful in the selection of the cutting inserts for the various machining processes based on the conditions, which a user provides; The Internet based System for Inserts and Parameter selection (ISIPS) has two research databases connected to the Internet, which provides the user …

Investigation Of Processing Parameters For Thermoplastic Composites Manufacturing, Craig Macarthur Squires

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

A study was performed to investigate the processing parameters of thermoplastic composites. Three configurations of compression molding dies were machined and used to produce composite specimens. Composite specimens made of AS4/Nylon-6 and AS4/Polyphenylene Sulfide (AS4/PPS) prepreg tape were manufactured under four processing conditions. The processing parameters that were studied were maximum pressure and the dwell time at maximum pressure and temperature; A total of twenty-four specimens were made. Cross sections of each were analyzed for fiber volume fraction using a microscope and image analysis software. Each specimen was then loaded in three-point benDing Maximum flexural stress and modulus were determined …