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Division Spotlight
Thermal Hydraulics
The division provides a forum for focused technical dialogue on thermal hydraulic technology in the nuclear industry. Specifically, this will include heat transfer and fluid mechanics involved in the utilization of nuclear energy. It is intended to attract the highest quality of theoretical and experimental work to ANS, including research on basic phenomena and application to nuclear system design.
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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Latest News
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.”
Yasuji Kozaki
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 49 | Number 3 | April 2006 | Pages 542-552
Technical Paper | Fast Ignition | doi.org/10.13182/FST06-A1166
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
We have analyzed the design windows for laser fusion power plants based on direct-drive fast ignition concepts and have examined the issues of chamber technologies and the feasibility of a small laser fusion experimental reactor suitable for developing their power plants. Target gain curves are assessed for power plants having 90- to 200-MJ fusion yields with 600-kJ to 1-MJ lasers, and for an experimental reactor [the laser fusion experimental reactor (LFER)], having a 10-MJ fusion yield with a 200-kJ laser, i.e., 100 kJ for implosion and 100 kJ for heating. The fast ignition LFER can produce its fusion output approximately one order of magnitude smaller than that of the central ignition design, so that we can use a rather small solid-wall chamber for the first stage of the LFER operation. We can also expect to decrease laser cost drastically, although for the heating laser we must develop a long-life final optics system. Using fast ignition direct-drive targets, we could design a smaller ~300-MW(electric) reactor, with 200-MJ fusion pulse energy and 4-Hz repetition rates. The smaller pulse energies mitigate pulse loads on the chamber walls and the final optics; then, we can flexibly design large 1200-MW(electric) modular plants by using multiple reactor modules. We identified the issues of liquid-wall and solid-wall chambers and proposed basic reactor concepts for a power plant (KOYO-Fast) and an experimental reactor using fast ignition direct-drive cone targets.