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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.”
K. Tresemer, T. Stevenson, C. Priniski, J. Winkelman, L. Bryant, R. Wood
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 60 | Number 1 | July 2011 | Pages 303-307
In-Vessel Components - FW, Blanket, Shield & VV | Proceedings of the Nineteenth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (TOFE) (Part 1) | doi.org/10.13182/FST11-A12370
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX) is a low aspect ratio, spherical torus (ST) configuration device which is located at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL). This device is presently being upgraded to enhance its operations by adding a second Neutral Beamline (NBL). This change will nearly double the power available to the plasma but necessitate improvements to other design aspects of NSTX. Included in these upgrades are the relocation and upgrade of the NSTX Neutral Beam Armor to capture both sets of beamline source profiles while maintaining the same level of vacuum vessel wall protection.In order to minimize the space required to accomplish this, it has been proposed to relocate and reuse the existing armor array, improving the design so that two overlapping sets of beam profiles both fit completely. This beamline overlap could possibly cause the armor tiles to experience higher heat fluxes which translate into higher internal mechanical stresses. This would be mitigated by changing the isotropic graphite (ATJ) tiles in the overlap areas to a rugged 3D carbon-fiber composite (CFC) material, capable of handling thermally-induced stresses. Additional benefits to this recycling design proposal include opportunities to reduce project cost, increase diagnostic port access, and improve an awkward and difficult mounting scheme.