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Division Spotlight
Operations & Power
Members focus on the dissemination of knowledge and information in the area of power reactors with particular application to the production of electric power and process heat. The division sponsors meetings on the coverage of applied nuclear science and engineering as related to power plants, non-power reactors, and other nuclear facilities. It encourages and assists with the dissemination of knowledge pertinent to the safe and efficient operation of nuclear facilities through professional staff development, information exchange, and supporting the generation of viable solutions to current issues.
Meeting Spotlight
ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
Standards Program
The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
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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.”
D. Rochman, A. J. Koning, D. F. Da Cruz
Nuclear Technology | Volume 179 | Number 3 | September 2012 | Pages 323-338
Technical Paper | Fission Reactors/Fuel Cycle and Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT11-61
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The effects of nuclear data uncertainties (cross sections, neutron emissions, fission yields, and decay data) on the burnup of a typical pressurized water reactor fuel element are presented in this paper. The uncertainties on reactivity swing, inventory, and radiotoxicity are obtained using a Monte Carlo method for nuclear data uncertainty propagation and the Monte Carlo transport code SERPENT. The impact of the nuclear data uncertainties for the two main actinide isotopes at the beginning of irradiation (235U and 238U) with the third and fourth most abundant actinide isotopes at the end of irradiation (236U and 239Pu) are calculated, showing the importance of fission yield data relative to transport data.
