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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.”
Ryan Hunt, Hongjie Zhang, Alice Ying, Michael Ulrickson
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 60 | Number 1 | July 2011 | Pages 354-358
Materials Development & Plasma-Material Interactions | Proceedings of the Nineteenth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (TOFE) (Part 1) | doi.org/10.13182/FST11-A12379
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This research reveals the results of a thermo-mechanical stress analysis of the beryllium and CuCrZr components of the Enhanced Heat Flux (EHF) First Wall (FW). Under the EHF thermal load, differential thermal expansion at the Be/CuCrZr interface can potentially lead to failure of the beryllium tiles. We have shown that the stress profile in both beryllium and CuCrZr can be improved by reducing the dimensions of the beryllium tiles covering the FW panels.In addition, our research investigated a failure condition for the FW finger's design. Specifically, we assessed the temperature profile at the CuCrZr/water interface of the EHF FW finger in the event of a single failed tile. This was done in order to determine whether or not the critical heat flux condition occurs in the coolant channel after a single tile failure. Assuming the failure of a single tile between 11.75mm and 50mm in size, temperature profiles were generated assuming flat, rectangular water cooling channels. It was found that tile failure from the edges of the finger resulted in considerably higher temperatures than tile failures at the middle of the finger. Failure of a tile along the edge of the finger may cause catastrophic failure, as the critical heat flux condition occurred at the CuCrZr/water interface even for tiles as small as 11.75mm in size.