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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.”
B. Reneaume, G. Allegre, R. Botrel, H. Bourcier, R. Bourdenet, O. Breton, R. Collier, C. Dauteuil, F. Durut, A. Faivre, E. Fleury, I. Geoffray, G. Geoffray, L. Jeannot, L. Jehanno, O. Legaie, G. Legay, S. Meux, G. Paquignon, J. P. Perin, J. Schunk, M. Theobald, C. Vasselin, F. Viargues
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 59 | Number 1 | January 2011 | Pages 148-154
Technical Paper | Nineteenth Target Fabrication Meeting | doi.org/10.13182/FST11-A11517
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The cryogenic target assemblies (CTAs) designed for Laser Mégajoule (LMJ) experiments have many functions and have to meet severe specifications imposed by implosion physics, the CTA thermal environment, and the CTA interfaces with the Mégajoule laser cryogenic target positioner. Therefore, CTA fabrication uses many challenging materials and requires several technological studies. During the last 2 years, many developments have enabled better collection of comprehensive data on target constitutive materials and improvements in the fabrication of the CTA base, hohlraum, and aluminum turret.Studies have been carried out (a) to better characterize thermal properties of materials allowing optimization of the thermal simulation of the hohlraum, (b) to improve the CTA base fabrication process in order to optimize thermal studies of the LMJ experimental filling station (EFS), and (c) to determine coatings on the polyimide membrane that may limit the 300 K thermal effect on the microshell and increase the deuterium-tritium fuel lifetime.CTAs have been produced to evaluate fabrication knowledge, to characterize CTAs, to study air tightness, and to study filling and D2 ice layering on the EFS.An overview of the results that have been obtained during the past 2 years is presented in this paper.
