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Fusion Science and Technology
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General Kenneth Nichols and the Manhattan Project
Nichols
The Oak Ridger has published the latest in a series of articles about General Kenneth D. Nichols, the Manhattan Project, and the 1954 Atomic Energy Act. The series has been produced by Nichols’ grandniece Barbara Rogers Scollin and Oak Ridge (Tenn.) city historian David Ray Smith. Gen. Nichols (1907–2000) was the district engineer for the Manhattan Engineer District during the Manhattan Project.
As Smith and Scollin explain, Nichols “had supervision of the research and development connected with, and the design, construction, and operation of, all plants required to produce plutonium-239 and uranium-235, including the construction of the towns of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Richland, Washington. The responsibility of his position was massive as he oversaw a workforce of both military and civilian personnel of approximately 125,000; his Oak Ridge office became the center of the wartime atomic energy’s activities.”
Yasuhiro Iwamura, Takehiko Itoh, Nobuaki Gotoh, Ichiro Toyoda
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 33 | Number 4 | July 1998 | Pages 476-492
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST98-A47
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A new type of experimental apparatus is developed to induce continuous diffusion of deuterium, in which an electrochemical cell for calorimetry and a vacuum chamber for nuclear measurement are divided by a Pd sheet. Continuous X rays ranging from 10 to 100 keV and neutron and excess heat production are observed using the apparatus. Titanium atoms are detected on the surface where deuterium atoms pass through on Pd cathodes after electrolysis. Quantitative discussion shows that the detected Ti atoms cannot be explained by contamination. An electron-induced nuclear reaction (EINR) model for explaining the obtained experimental results is introduced. Experimental support of the EINR model is demonstrated by using multilayer cathodes, in which a layer containing Ca is placed at the near surface of Pd, based on the EINR model.
